Safety, Safety, Safety!!!!!

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Rickster

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Scuba Instructor
Divemaster
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Location
Oxnard Shores, SoCal
Hello Everyone,
I decided to write this “Commentary”, after thinking long and hard about a few situations I have seen in the last few months, diving, scheduling events, and talking with The Beach Crabs.

And remember, this is only meant as a guideline and a reminder, of how dangerous our sport is. On the forums, it is fun, informative, and everyone has a great time. This is great for the Surface Interval. We must not loose sight of some serious and dangerous situations that we face every time we gear up, go through the surf, and drop down into the ocean.

We, The Beach Crabs, are doing something wonderful for the dive community. We schedule a variety of dives, picnics, and events. We welcome new divers, as well as seasoned divers, with open arms, to our scheduled functions. Lately we have seen an increase in divers, new inexperienced, semi experienced, and well experienced.
As we grow, we need to do a couple things, to assure we maintain a safe, informative, and welcoming environment, surrounding our activities.
This is very important! Our events are open to anyone that shows up, and wants to dive. So, I thought it would be good to bring to your attention a few factors that need to be considered.
Here are a couple guidelines for attending dives anywhere:

For New Divers
Discuss the particular diving procedures with the more experienced divers, before going. (Gear, buddy checks, signals, emergency procedures, etc.) Be sure you let the other divers know your experience level. Find an experienced buddy to help take you in, and guide you on the dive. (Someone well trained and with experiences enough, to help you. Preferably a Divemaster or Instructor, if this is your first time.) Please announce you plan to attend dives, before hand, because there are not always Divemasters or Instructors attending every dive. If you feel uncertain, at anytime, feel free to call the dive off. We will understand, and it is OK to do so.
Night Dives- Please get enough experience during the daylight hours, as well as, the proper training and advice, before attempting a night dive. Night dives are a whole different level of diving. There are numerous consideration to take into account. Some are lighting, signaling, entry and exits, emergency procedures, navigation, the buddy system, just to name a few of a long list.

For Divers that attend the events regularly
Ask questions! If you are unfamiliar with someone’s diving skills, ask. Get to know the person you are buddied up with. If you feel you are unqualified to lead them, let them know, and find someone more qualified. If conditions look like they are above your experience level (i.e.-navigation, rescue, conditioning, experience, etc.) call the dive. This is a big part of diving in SoCal. You have to be able to say yes or no, to diving a certain dive site, at the given time.

The #1 rule in our sport, should be:

Don't get too confident! You can never have enough experience! Remember the ocean is strong, unpredictable, and uncaring! We add curves to this, by using gear, and going down where we are the visitor. Think about this!

There is so much more to this subject. I could write for days. I hope this is useful, and that it contributes to our safe practices, having great times, and enjoyment in this beautiful thing we call Diving!

Here is to many more happy, adventurous, and memorable dives and events in the future.
And as always, if anyone has any questions, comments, or complaints, feel free at anytime, to contact me. I will always be here for you.

Thanks,
Rick
 
Well Said!
 
I agree with you, Rick! That is why I felt safe when I dove with the Beach Crabs on Saturday! Thank you to whom I dove with and to others who went to the event!
 
Hey Rick, thank you for caring enough to put this out here for ALL of us divers.Hopefully we are all smart enough to know and acknowledge that we can all continue to learn, no matter what our cert level,number of dives,experience,etc.Sharing what we know with other divers,learning from other divers and being aware of our environment while diving will help us all out.I know that I am comfortable in the water/diving, but I have to remind myself to not become too complacent.Diving is and should be fun,relaxing,exciting or whatever it is that makes it enjoyable for you.We just need to be aware,as Rick said,"we are visitors".Let's all be smart and safe so that we can continue to be fortunate and enjoy the natural beauty of the sea.
 
On that note, I have a goal of obtaining my Rescue Diver cert by the end of the year. If anyone wants to join me on this endeavor, let me know.
 
Thank you Rick, timely reminder...

After our dives on Saturday I was talking to Jamie about basically the same thing. I have started to notice myself get way too comfortable and told him how I need to start to make some changes in my own diving. I have started to trust things too much and think "ahh Jamies OK, he knows what he's doing." And he told me the same thing, that he doesn't worry either because he trusts that I'm okay and knows I like to poke around in holes looking at the pretties :wink:

They problem here is complacency. I realized on my last dive Saturday what I was doing and caught myself not worrying about Jamie so long as he was within view, but as we were discussing later, that's a potentially dangerous thing. Fine we're within 20' but I'm not close enough to see or likely hear if he starts having a massive problem, and likewise him for me. We may be real comfortable with each other and trust each other, but the question is: Are we being good buddies to each other?

Now Jamie knows I dont mean this as anything against him 'cause we had this discussion so please don't anyone take it as I'm saying he's a bad buddy :) He's one of my fav's !

I just think its a timely reminder to ALL of us, not to get to complacent and comfortable because as Rick said , we're just visitors. I have caught myself getting complacent and am making a point to correct it. Just wanted to share my thoughts on this matter hoping maybe it will help someone else.

My goals:
Stay closer and pay more attention to my buddies, as they are as dependent on me as I am of them should disaster occur.

Start reinforcing and practicing emergency procedures (Good call on that one Rick 'cause I don't think I for one have been doing enough to make sure those are clear before a dive)

Become more familiar with the layout of buddies' gear, cause I should at least know that If I am to be a good buddy :)
 
On that note, I have a goal of obtaining my Rescue Diver cert by the end of the year. If anyone wants to join me on this endeavor, let me know.

I am pretty much down for that. I am in the process of getting AOW cert by the end of this fall. We will see how I do and then maybe I can end up taking the Rescue Diver course with ya.
 
the question is: Are we being good buddies to each other?

I tend to ask that myself as I dive. It's basically like offering good hospitality. As I become more experienced diver, I will try to keep that on mind! Learning from the elders are the best!

I just think its a timely reminder to ALL of us, not to get to complacent and comfortable because as Rick said , we're just visitors. I have caught myself getting complacent and am making a point to correct it. Just wanted to share my thoughts on this matter hoping maybe it will help someone else.

That is one of my biggest issue as well. I feel confident with my skills that I feel I can do about anything. Dive down to 200 feet, dive through a cave and so on. But is it safe for me since I do not know anything in those areas? No! That's when I do my best to stop myself from going too far. Sometimes it is hard swallowing my tongue and accept.

My goals:
Stay closer and pay more attention to my buddies, as they are as dependent on me as I am of them should disaster occur.

So you know this, on every of my dives, I felt safe with you and other divers. I, for one, do feel safe with my own diving skills and I trust you each with yours that I did not check on you guys as much. So you are not the only one at fault.

Become more familiar with the layout of buddies' gear, cause I should at least know that If I am to be a good buddy :)

LOL!! Right before my first dive, my tank slipped out just as I was in the middle of entering the waves. I did not understand the tank strap system on my BC. I just did my best to get it to be tight and did not ask anyone for help. See what happened. So, Thank you guys for helping me strap it back in place and continued the dive.

Speaking of safety... have anyone learned SEABAG?
I will go ahead and list it here.

S- Site Assesment.
Land:
-Directions
-Restrictions
-Nearest Hospital/Chamber
-Parking
-Restroom/Showers
-Lifeguard
-Access to Boat/Beach
-Local Dive Shop
Water:
-Temperature
-Movement
-Visibility
-Entry/Exit
-Marine Life
-Freshwater/Saltwater

E: Emergency
-Lost Buddy Plan
-Out-Of-Air Signals
-Emergency contact information
-Medicine history
-First Aid kit
-On-shore person know the dive plan

A: Activity
-Pick a leader
-Dive time
-Dive depth
-Dive course
-Air supply limit
-Pick an objective

B: Buoyancy
-Weight belt
-Buoyancy compensator
-Power Inflator
-Tank strapped tight

A: Air
-How much P.S.I
-Odorless & Tasteless
-Both Regulators functioning
-Size of tank

G: Gear & GO
-Check your gear
-Check your buddy's gear
-PLAN THE DIVE AND DIVE THE PLAN!
-Dive safely!!

Hope this helped some of you. I heard following the SEABAG procedure, it will prevent 99% scuba accidents.

(IMO, statistics are 87% made up on the spot! ....and the statement itself is made up on the spot as well!) But still the percentage is high. SEABAG helps prevent accidents. Please try and apply that to your dives. Do not feel "stupid" or try to one-up on others for trying to apply that. Safety is important. =)
 
Speaking of safety... have anyone learned SEABAG?

I thought that this was what we call our significant other when he/she gets old? :rofl3: J/K, seriously though I've never seen this and it's pretty awesome. Super thorough, who taught you this? Props to them and to you for bringing it up. BTW word got around that you kick ass underwater, :D if you ever want to dive let me know.

Billy
 
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