Scary story to relay...

[Jarrett]

Thanks for the confirmation Jarrett. As I said before I wasn't trying to insult your kids.
Happy Holidays
Kelly

Yeah, none taken. I know how kids can be too

 

[neil]

Not PC, never mind.

 

[mrjimboalaska]

well,
bash me but I was in Jamaica 12 years ago, before getting certifed, I was on my "maybe" 10th to 12th" discover scuba (work at the time was 60-70 hours a week for years...)
my second dive with the DM at the "all inclusive resort" was to 85ft, it was a wreck of a DC3, what a blast.....
2 years after that I was able to get certifed, the instructor asked if I was sure I just didn't nned a refresher course after the first pool session.

OH......warm water diving and cold water diving are not inherently different risk wise, except maybe you off gas a little slower in cold water......

 

[RayJayJr]

well,
OH......warm water diving and cold water diving are not inherently different risk wise, except maybe you off gas a little slower in cold water......

I'd have to agree in theory and disagree in practice and principle.


It would seem to me (and you dont need to be a DM to spot this) that a discover scuba "diver" would be at significantly less risk diving with a group of family or friends, with a friendly DM, on a cruise ship, in 78F water with the surface in clear view, and pretty fish all around.

It would seem to me that a discover scuba "diver" would be at significantly more risk jumping into an ice cold lake, at altitude, donning a a hood, crab gloves, and a 2 piece wetsuit, swimming out to a bouy in the chop, and decending on a rustly weed encrusted line down to 35 feet only to get a facefull of mud and duck feces, and then discover you're a bit chilly.


In theory I suppose you could say they both pose an equal amount of potential hazzard, but really, it's simply not the case in reality.

 

[tkoinfla]

all the good stories are great but it only takes one serious problem and a young kids life could be very negitivly changed. its up to certified divers and instructers to put a stop to this kind of abuse. safe diving is great enjoyment and builds the sport unsafe diving is just plain stupid. you hear stories all the time about car accidents that people survived not wearing seat belts but does that make it right? i don't think so. a dm that would do that is in my opion guilty of child abuse.

 

[MikeFerrara]

Guess since this is not a rare thing or a new thing that warm water diving must be a lot safer than we give it credit for. Otherwise the accident rate and subsequent lawsuits would have shut it down.

you might think so but...in the four years that I owned a dive shop I had MANY people come in for classes who were first exposed to diving through one resort course or another. The most common was the PADI Discover Scuba Diving.

Nearly 100% of those people described an ear injury, some having recieved medical attention once they got home and others not. Almost none of them really understood what had happened or why and as far as I know, none of them ever resulted in a law suit. Besides, is it even possible to take legal action in some of the countries where these programs are conducted?

Of course, the reason for the ear injuries is simply that they are being taken diving without having learned to control a descent. In the PADI program, they essentially do CW dive 1 prior to doing OW dive 1 and that's the DSD program. However, descents aren't taught untill CW dive 2 which is still backwards because buoyancy control isn't taught until CW dive 3.

How can these programs be conducted without sqeeze injuries? The answer is that they aren't and they can't. Why are they still conducted? MONEY. Why doesn't someone stop it? By what mechanism could anyone stop it?

After wrestling with the logic of these programs and standards for a long time, the only answer that I could come up with for myself was to stop teaching for those agencies. I couldn't in good concience ever send them another dime.

 

[shotthebreeze]

the kid with the regulator getting kicked out of his mouth is a scary thing, man. if the dm didn't see him...he would have been toast...and surely a law suit. i won't go diving until i'm certified for that reason. having no clue what to do minus a reg isn't my cup of tea...

 

[captain]

I know of some parents that bought their 13 year old son scuba gear. With no training he would dive in a relative's pool by himself.

 

[JahJahwarrior]

This is nothing new. I learned that my son, who was 12 at the time, took a "resort course" on Peters Island. The max. depth was supposed to be 40'...no deeper! I found out that the DM/Instructor took him to almost 80' while diving the RMS Rhone. Needless to say I was pissed. All the DM was looking for was a big tip and never took into account that he took a 12 year old to 80' on his first real dive.

Still unfair! I was going to dive the Rhone (same wreck? Don't know the name of the island but a cruise I was just one stopped at one place and offered a dive on the Rhone, maybe same ship?) but decided to save the money.

I don't get it. If I were untrained, I could dive way too deep on cool shipwrecks if I offer a big tip, but if I get certified I get maligned for going deeper than the reccomended PADI depths (60 feet? nothing. Of course, my deepest is 69.5. ) or using old equipment? Screw it, I should have never gotten certified. Resort courses sound like they have all the fun.

 

[Lobbster]

i became certified a few months ago and i am working through my AOW and rescue, the Master later on. i work at my LDS helping out. sometimes i tag along with the OW courses so that the instructer can have a buddy and someone there to help out with skils demonstration. a week ago on 3 occasions a student decened to 5 meters with his snorkel, the instructer had told him just proir to decent that he needed to put his reg in. i signaled to him to during his descent. some people just dont get it, this kid bragged about how he had dived many times in the past (uncertified and solo) there the type of people who die and brind a bad name to the sport. the fact the he did not notice untill he had reached the bottem ment he was holding his breath. IDIOT i hope that my LDS failed him.