Scary Wreck Tale - Ghastly 'Trust Me' diving...

[lv2dive]

The ironic thing is that in a previous blog post he reports upon the Cavern Diver course he undertook at Sipidan. He can't see the parallel risks and demands between cavern and wreck penetration??

He finished that article by describing the 15 minutes of deco he did whilst solo on a sheer wall. It's in bold... he's proud of it. Obviously it was well planned... "Im float in about 5 meters".

Who certified this Epic Fail as a dive pro??

I HAD to read this post after seeing this thread... what bothered me more than the deco was the apparent major restriction his instructor took him through as part of his CAVERN CLASS...
"At one point, on the 2nd dive, we reached a passing that was only a meter high. My gear barely fit through the tiny space. It wasn’t enough to experience a claustrophobic person’s worst nightmare, so Jerry simulated a situation where silt caused total blindness. I had to turn my full body around and find my way out of the tight space. Awesome experience!"

 

[DevonDiver]

what bothered me more than the deco was the apparent major restriction his instructor took him through as part of his CAVERN CLASS...
"At one point, on the 2nd dive, we reached a passing that was only a meter high. My gear barely fit through the tiny space. It wasn’t enough to experience a claustrophobic person’s worst nightmare, so Jerry simulated a situation where silt caused total blindness. I had to turn my full body around and find my way out of the tight space. Awesome experience!"

Yes, it sounds like they passed through the 'big' cavern and actually into the cave section itself. That's well beyond cavern limits.

Philosophical question: Dive muppets... nature or nurture?

 

[lv2dive]

...
Philosophical question: Dive muppets... nature or nurture?

Yes


(Can't be nurtured without the underlying nature. And... strong underlying nature seeks nuture. MHO, at any rate.)

 

[DevonDiver]

I suspect there's a significant amount of 'like seeks out like'.

An instructor's attitude is often reflected in their marketing. That particular marketing attracts a specific demographic of students. Responsible instructors tend to advertise advanced (tech/overhead) courses based on quality of training - they stress the need for student performance ("pay for course, earn the qualification"). Other, less responsible, instructors glorify the risks, promote the 'gung-ho' and make promises of vast capability. No gold star for guessing which appeals to who...

The mindset perpetuates from generation to generation.... whether good or bad.

I pride myself that my wreck students graduate from training with a profound respect for wreck penetration... a high level of conservatism...and an awareness of their own capabilities/limitations. If I can only teach them one meaningful lesson, it is that one. It seems like the blogger DM didn't get that from his cavern training... which indicates a major flaw in the training. Worse still... the training seems to have encouraged him towards a state of gross over-confidence and negligence.

Scary thought... they guy could sign up for an IDC next week... would undoubtably pass... and could be teaching wreck courses via self-certification of his 'experience'. (shudders)

 

[Griffo]

I'm not sure why? If it directly contradicts everything you've just been taught on your OW course...and directly contradicts all of the Safe Diving Practices on the form you signed and agreed to abide to... then why?

The day after my OW course I did Deep Air, Deco, Penetration dives. Although I had just come out of a course which said not to, I justified it to myself as there were literally thousands of other people doing the same thing on the same wreck every year. I guess at the time I didn't actually understand the risks. I'd been told no, but not really had the risks hammered into me. That's different now of course, but for people who don't actively go and read accident reports, the true horrors of what can go wrong is probably treated much like people think about car wrecks when they are speeding. People simply compartmentalize the bad thoughts away.

 

[dbulmer]

Andy,

"Towards the end of the dive, we practiced a rescue scenario. Jerry turned his tank off while I lead him out in near darkness. The way you say your out of air inside the confined space of a cavern is you rip the regulator out of your dive buddies mouth, without warning! Next the person with the air leads the two out of the cave, hopefully successfully!"

From reading the Cavern training post, I am not convinced the instructor is that hot eiither. I'm not Cavern trained but I did not know that Cavern OOA would involve one diver switching off his gas supply and getting the other to rip out the reg.

I would have assumed the OOA diver leads out the other divers and that prevention of issues would have been a recurring theme within the course.

"8 minutes of near panic without a mask " - at this level of training, mask off should not be an issue whatsoever surely?

My point here is that I would have expected the instructor to have performed a skills assessment prior to starting training. Maybe the instructor did but the trainee sounds a right muppet.

 

[buddhasummer]

Wow... An accident waiting to happen. Having read some of his other blogs I'm surprised he hasn't found himself in more strife seems to be lacking the most basic level of common sense and not just diving related. Assuming he's telling the truth the seemingly cavalier attitude is more than a little scary, either way he's a tool.

 

[clownfishsydney]

Does not seem to have any brains at all considering he attempted to enter Australia and work when virtually every country in the world has very limited access to visitors and working. There is no way that I could enter the US and work, why would he think he could come to our country and work. He seems to be a few sandwiches short of a picnic (as we Aussies would say).

 

[rongoodman]

This whole thing reminds me of the woman a few months back who thought it was OK, and posted about it on her familty blog, to not only enter the cave zone in some Florida caves with no training and open water gear, but to attempt unverfied traverses, downstream as I recall. She never did understand why people were jumping on her and the "instructor".

 

[chillyinCanada]

While I've not yet stumbled upon the post regarding leading into a ship wreck (and so qualify the balance of my post in that regard),
I've read some of his other posts and have determined a few things. He seems a bit of a prat but really one of his worst failings is that he doesn't express himself well. For a young man trying to use his blog as a passive money maker, he's on the wrong path.

It occurs to me that his cavern instructor "Jerry", did not turn off his own air, merely simulated same. However, our blogger did not explain that properly. Another example of his failure to communicate actualities is found within his use of the word "rope" instead of "line". Does anyone here really believe that "Jerry" no matter how poor an instructor he my or may not be refers to his reel of line as rope? I do acknowledge that Jerry may not have adequately evaluated our blogger's skills.

And is it true that he was left in the water at 15' for 15 min. entirely on his own or is it possible that he meant he was alone with the dm?
Yes, our young blogger may be a bit of a dim prat, but there is a chance that he merely fails in expressing himself. Perhaps our best course of action is to quit reposting his blog and thereby spreading any potential for other dim prats to think he's on the right track.