Scary story to relay...

[D_B]

Unsafe is unsafe, no matter who is in charge, or where you are .. very glad that they were not seriously hurt by those irresponsible actions

I guess I am one of the lucky ones that got good, safe, instruction in a Discover Scuba Diving course on a cruse.
I don't know about others , but my DSD was the most amazing experience of my life, and is why as soon as I got back I started my training .. even in cold, poor viz at times, So Cal

 

[cgilyeat]

From reading this, I guess that my PADI Discover SCUBA was the exception, rather than the norm. I got my intro to SCUBA on Maui, with Maui Dreams SCUBA shop in Aug 2005 and was fortunate that it was just me and the instructor. Before we even entered the water, we talked about hand signals, mask clearing and equalization as well as not ascending any faster that my bubbles. The max depth was only 30 feet, but he made sure that i understood the issues associated with pressure equalization.

I seriously doubt that I would have come back home and completed my OW and AOW without such a positive experience. As has been said more than once, it is the instructor, not the agency, and that initial instructor made me want to continue my SCUBA education.

 

[LittleBug]

Yikes.

After reading that I wonder if those divers saved the diving for the last day of the vacation and then went and jumped on a plane the next morning b/c they didn't know better.

*shudder*

 

[boulderjohn]

I took a Discover Scuba class in Cozumel quite a few years ago, and it was done completely by the book, including a thorough discussion of equalization. I had some relatives do the same thing a few years ago, and it was also done by the book. Yes, we all did the dive on the same boat as certified divers, but we did totally different dives from the rest, with an instuctor attached to the hip.

Here where I work now, we do mini-discover scubas, since we don't have the ability to provide the OW experience. We just do the classroom and the pool.

There is a required classroom session that includes equalization. I don't know what others do in the rest of the world, but we make a big deal about it here. When we are done with the shallow water skills and about to go down to the deep end of the pool, I review it all again and stress that they must never allow themselves to feel pain. I sometimes have people who never get down to the bottom of the deep end in that session because they cannot equalize, and I make sure they know that is the right thing to do.

What the OP described is, as everyone else has noted, exceptionally irresponsible.

 

[shadragon]

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.

Getting qualified means you have a better chance at survival if something goes wrong. There may not be a DM around to save you, especially if they are helping someone else. I assume you have the basic OW course which does limit you to 60 feet. If you want to go deeper then take the proper courses, learn the techniques and get the experience under a qualified instructor's supervision.

After that, dive safely within your qualifications, personal limits and comfort level.

People who don't become a statistic.

 

[Steve_Dives]

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.

From your other posts I know you as a thoughtful and intelligent person. I also know that you have had fun on the dives up to 69.5 feet, so I read your post with a sense that it is somewhat sarcastic. If not, don't worry what other people are doing. Be safe, build experience. Rushing leads accidents.

 

[boulderjohn]

From your other posts I know you as a thoughtful and intelligent person. I also know that you have had fun on the dives up to 69.5 feet, so I read your post with a sense that it is somewhat sarcastic. If not, don't worry what other people are doing. Be safe, build experience. Rushing leads accidents.

My reading of his post scored the sarcasm in the 96% (+ or - 5%) range. I don't believe he was remotely serious in saying he should not have been certified and should have stayed with resort courses in order to get he more serious dives.

 

[steeliejim]

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.

Nearly 100% experience ear problems? Sorry not buying it. Even without lawsuits, no decent instructor wants to face an angry diver or parent about ear pain. And if it was as common as you say, you bet, someone or many would be going after PADI legally.

Equalizing to prevent squeeze is started, and taught, when first going under, certainly within 3 feet of the surface. Even an 8-foot deep pool is plenty deep enough for people to understand the consequences of not being able to equalize.

Sounds like you have an axe to grind with PADI, and I am surprised noone else has called you on it yet.

Oh, and curious as to where the laxness about kids going too depth for a discover course occurred. Hard to imagine it was in Cozumel. Lots of dive ops, sure, but it is a very closeknit community, and if this stuff was commonly going on, I expect others would put a stop to it. Jamaica, on the other hand... "No worries, mon."

 

[Digger54]

On my third ocean dive and only about my 10th as an adult Certified OW diver the divemaster lead a group of us (all OW certified adults) right down to 80 ft.

The remarkable thing is that though he did check that we had cert. cards, he never once inquired about our range of experience, how many dives, or ask to see a log book. For all he knew, the ink still could have been wet on EVERYONE's card.

I noticed the depth right away because I had set my wrist computer to alarm at 60 feet to help me stay within my beginner recreational limits.

I had an "insta-buddy" and stuck close to him, but I stuck even closer to the divemaster. This was a wall dive and we did not stay at that depth for any length of time, but worked our way back up to shallower water.

All went well, everyone did fine ( though my insta-buddy had probems maintaining depth for a safety stop, he bobbed on up to the surface. )

My two previous ocean dives were with a different dive shop and they adhered to the 60 ft max depth, checked c-cards AND logbooks.

Is this generally regarded as o.k. since we were with a divemaster or did he stretch the rules of proper dive leadership?

 

[duskdiver]

Sure can tell they don't have Lawyers in the Carribean...If you go to Germany I believe they will let you drive 200mph on the autobahn... Safe No! Do I agee No! Personal responsibility. Dad should have asked a few more questions.... I am assuming they are ok! Hope they get proper training if they liked diving.

Sorry mate!! I am not german to start with, but German highways are concidered very safe, to be honest probably safer (statiscally) then the US.
I should not write this but.. ..I have to, it is not personal...but did you know that in a country like Holland, where cannabis is legal (yes I am dutch, and No I am not a user), people tend to smoke (cannabis) less and there are not as many drug related problems?