Scary dives in Coz last week

[docmartin]

there are many interesting and educating aspects to this story and there is lots of blame to go around. however, for me the fundamental screw-up remains to even consider going on a deep dive with someone who is not only a novice but also a confirmed air hog. personally, i lay the blame for this poor judgement with the buddy team and not with the operator. ultimately, you have to take responsibility for your own actions and you knew all the facts that made this a really bad choice. if someone has problems with gas consumption on "normal" dives what could you expect on a deep dive with the same gas supply? even with a great dive guide you were placing yourself in a very dangerous situation. just the kind of scary experience that will make you a much better dive master.

 

[DandyDon]

there are many interesting and educating aspects to this story and there is lots of blame to go around. however, for me the fundamental screw-up remains to even consider going on a deep dive with someone who is not only a novice but also a confirmed air hog. personally, i lay the blame for this poor judgement with the buddy team and not with the operator. ultimately, you have to take responsibility for your own actions and you knew all the facts that made this a really bad choice. if someone has problems with gas consumption on "normal" dives what could you expect on a deep dive with the same gas supply? even with a great dive guide you were placing yourself in a very dangerous situation. just the kind of scary experience that will make you a much better dive master.

I certainly disagree about the underlined part!! The Professional Guide knew that the lady was new to ocean diving and her buddy was new period, and did a poor job leading. I've dived with that Guide (I'm sure), and he is certainly a macho jerk who does not maintain his equipment nor the safety rails on his boat. And even if his depth guage was misleading - he dives that wall a hundred times a year and wouldn't need a guage to know how deep he was.

Whatever his motivations may have been, she did an excellent job of saving herself and her buddy. If either had drowned because if his unprofessional leadership, he would have had a good story, and the victim wouldn't have been there to tell the other story.

Yes, striving to learn from the incident is a good goal, and I'm sure she will, but I feel you wronged her with your insults. That's my opinion, anyway - unrequested, but appropriate I think.

don

 

[ggunn]

We certainly disagree about the underlined part!! The Professional Guide knew that the lady was new to ocean diving and her buddy was new period, and did a poor job leading. ...
Yes, striving to learn from the incident is a good goal, and I'm sure she will, but I feel you wronged her with your insults. That's my opinion, anyway - unrequested, but appropriate I think.
[/B]

Um, from what I gather from reading her posts, I don't think she will feel insulted. The ultimate responsibility for any diver's safety is his or her own, and I think that she realizes now that it was ill-advised for her and her buddy to be on that boat to that destination on that day, regardless of how well or badly the DM guided the dive.

 

[Walter]

Yes, she made some mistakes, but I think she's learned from them and is a much better diver as a result. I agree with Gordon. OTOH, the operator should not have allowed this team in the water either. That part was a bad call on everyone's part.

 

[Charlie99]

there are many interesting and educating aspects to this story and there is lots of blame to go around. however, for me the fundamental screw-up remains to even consider going on a deep dive with someone who is not only a novice but also a confirmed air hog. personally, i lay the blame for this poor judgement with the buddy team and not with the operator.

The really, really poor judgement that caught my attention was the decision to go to Devil's Throat with that operator, and with the airhog buddy, even after the fiasco of the previous day.

 

[crispos]

OK, I gotta know.

Dee, are you the tough looking hombre on your web-site, or his Mother?

P.S. I am a deep blue fan too...

:laugh:

 

[docmartin]

We certainly disagree about the underlined part!! The Professional Guide knew that the lady was new to ocean diving and her buddy was new period, and did a poor job leading.don

well, was not meant as a criticism not an insult and from her previous posts i am quite confident she took it that way. as far as the disagreement, the operator and dive guide obviously screwed-up and should not have taken them on this dive. however, as an adult you are ultimately responsible for your own actions. the buddy team knew everything they needed to know about their own experience level, air consumption, depth of planned dive etc. to call the dive. it's not like they did not know that this would be a deep dive in an overhead environment. to make the right call was not beyond their expertise. hiding behind the operator - who undoubtedly failed badly - would be pretty lame and i don't see that she has been trying to do that.

 

[coppermaus]

Hey y'all,

No worries. I'm not upset about any of the feedback anyone has given. My ego is swimming on solid ground (how's that for a metaphor cocktail?). Seriously, however, I'm not going to say that what happened is anyone's fault - mine, my buddy's, the DM's, dive op's, or the depth gauge's - since a lot of mistakes and malfunctions culminated in a possibly deadly situation. The part of it I can control in the future, I will. The parts I can't, if they come up again, I'll deal with, having this experience to draw upon. One thing I'm going to try out is diving with true believers rather than semi-converted friends. Can I get an Amen?

Cheers

 

[DandyDon]

Hey y'all,

No worries. I'm not upset about any of the feedback anyone has given. My ego is swimming on solid ground (how's that for a metaphor cocktail?). Seriously, however, I'm not going to say that what happened is anyone's fault - mine, my buddy's, the DM's, dive op's, or the depth gauge's - since a lot of mistakes and malfunctions culminated in a possibly deadly situation. The part of it I can control in the future, I will. The parts I can't, if they come up again, I'll deal with, having this experience to draw upon. One thing I'm going to try out is diving with true believers rather than semi-converted friends. Can I get an Amen?

Cheers

Amen!!

:sun_smile

 

[ronrosa]

This thread has gotten pretty long and a little off topic.

7 pages long and counting.

Has the name of the dive op been released ?

The DM has been identified as Gabriel. Don't know how common the name is in Cozumel. I do know that Deep Blue and Papa Hogs have DM's named Gabriel. Living Underwater used to have a DM with that name.