Scary dives in Coz last week

[coppermaus]

Sorry I missed that. I guess I meant why did you not discuss it with them while you were there?

Y'know, just didn't think of it until I saw the responses here. For me it was about what I did wrong and what I should learn from the experience, since that's what it really comes down to. But after all the replies from people with less experience who were terrified from this story, I decided it would be the right thing to tell them, not only for other divers but for the dive op and DM, as well. A safer Cozumel for everyone.

But I still think these things could easily happen anywhere if you follow the DM or anyone else blindly, so I hope that's what people get out of this.

 

[gj62]

Y'know, just didn't think of it until I saw the responses here. For me it was about what I did wrong and what I should learn from the experience, since that's what it really comes down to. But after all the replies from people with less experience who were terrified from this story, I decided it would be the right thing to tell them, not only for other divers but for the dive op and DM, as well. A safer Cozumel for everyone.

But I still think these things could easily happen anywhere if you follow the DM or anyone else blindly, so I hope that's what people get out of this.

At the risk of repeating myself, I urge you to share the name of the DM/Operator.

Numerous mistakes were made - many that could have been fatal for your buddy if you weren't there. A feather in your cap, but hopefully you will not need to collect many of that type...

There are many new / inexperienced divers that read this board and go to Cozumel. This posting has been a wakeup call for them, but in all honestly, if they spoke to your DM, would they know to avoid him?

Remember, even though you have mentioned this incident to the operator, they may not choose to take any positive action...

 

[5615mike]

At the risk of repeating myself, I urge you to share the name of the DM/Operator.

Numerous mistakes were made - many that could have been fatal for your buddy if you weren't there. A feather in your cap, but hopefully you will not need to collect many of that type...

There are many new / inexperienced divers that read this board and go to Cozumel. This posting has been a wakeup call for them, but in all honestly, if they spoke to your DM, would they know to avoid him?

Remember, even though you have mentioned this incident to the operator, they may not choose to take any positive action...

Ditto

 

[nikyyo]

If i can't know the dive operation, I actually would have preferred not even knowing the incident to a certain extent.

 

[MCL]

True, it would be nice to know, but I would think waiting for a response from the dive op is appropriate before revealing them, so she can share that as well.

 

[Walter]

I don't care which operation. There are important lessons to be learned from this incident. Those lessons are much more important than knowing which operation took them diving - especially since DM's like this are common in Cozumel.

 

[DivemasterSteve]

I don't care which operation. There are important lessons to be learned from this incident. Those lessons are much more important than knowing which operation took them diving - especially since DM's like this are common in Cozumel.

i agree with you sir plus IMHO it comes back to.... we are all divers that are responsible for ourself. you "should" know what your limits are and dive what is safe for you. if a DM or anyone else says "follow me" and i dont think i'm qualified to do that dive, i call the dive, head back to the boat and stay alive.

steve

 

[gj62]

i agree with you sir plus IMHO it comes back to.... we are all divers that are responsible for ourself. you "should" know what your limits are and dive what is safe for you. if a DM or anyone else says "follow me" and i dont think i'm qualified to do that dive, i call the dive, head back to the boat and stay alive.

steve

You're right. Unfortunately, I think most will agree that a novice diver will often overestimate their own abilities. They also tend to believe that since it says DM on the guy's sleeve, they must be right.

Read the initial post again - that's exactly what happened. Her buddy trusted the DM more than her! It would not be exaggerating to say that without her, he would have been seriously injured...

If we were all as smart as Walter, this thread wouldn't be necessary... (Just making a point, Walter - it was not a backhanded compliment...)

 

[DivemasterSteve]

gj62, you are 100% correct sir. hopefully everyone that reads this thread will really think about it and let it sink in and their next dive and all of them after that will be within their limits. i know some people dont listen and they think they can do anything that the next person does but its not always that way as most of us know.

i also agree with you about Mr. Walter, i wish i knew 1/2 as much as he does. i enjoy reading all of his post and i have learned a bunch from him. he is a very smart man.

steve

 

[coppermaus]

Several things come to mind.

Hey Walter,

Belated thanks for your suggestions. One reason it took me so long to reply to your message is that I was having a hard time with one of the suggestions. I've been trying to figure out if it's just my pride getting in the way of being safe or if this is more conservative than necessary.

1. Neither of you were ready for a dive to that depth. It's been over 3 years since you were in the ocean and he only has 20 dives total. You should have passed this one by. Do it when you are ready.

Really think so? Totally agree that my buddy wasn't. He doesn't have enough dives nor the training. But me?

Sure it had been almost 4 years since my last ocean dive before this trip, but we'd been diving in Cozumel for two days by this time, making this deep dive the 6th ocean dive I'd done that week. 80' was the max of those first 5 dives.

Also, there's an ocean vs freshwater aspect to it. True I hadn't been in the ocean in years before Coz, but I'd been keeping my skills up with countless hours in the pool and regular trips, 3x a year, to an 80' freshwater spring in NM. It's a different environment, being an enclosed space without currents, but 63* water keeps you on your toes, albeit different toes.

Anyway, considering all this, and perhaps I hadn't mentioned some of these things, do you still think I wasn't ready for a deep dive? And if so, at what point would I be?

But maybe the fact that I didn't handle it well is proof enough that I shouldn't have been there...

11. Carry a safety sausage when diving the ocean, especially when live boating.

Is this common? Do most people do this?

14. It's good that you are thinking about what went wrong and why. Evaluation makes you a better diver.

Thanks. And thanks for the thoughtful response.

One thing that no one mentioned and what I've been thinking was one of my biggest failures was this: as soon as things went wrong on the 160' dive, instead of saying to my buddy, go up to 130', I should've said, we're outta here, dive over. And I honestly can't chalk it up to narcosis either, cuz I thought of that option down there. I think it was more greedy diver syndrome. Didn't want to sacrifice precious downtime, since it takes so much time/money for me to get to this caliber of diving. I wanted to salvage it. Thinking about that makes me the most unhappy with myself of the whole deal.
:34:
So maybe the lesson there is to get to the ocean more often!

Thanks again, Walter, and everyone who replied with good advice.