Spiegel Grove??

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Ayisha:
I can't even fathom why any instructor would do any of the Advanced course at a challenging site like the Spiegel Grove. Especially when you consider that some of the students, albeit unfortunately, may be brand new O/W divers with only 4 shallow dives under their belt, and may never have experienced those conditions. Why even take the chance? :06:

Makes ya wonder doesn't it?

You know (Ayisha) we had the same thing happen our way with worse results for the student unfortunately.
 
It happens way too often. I know about the lady who died on the Advanced Course in Lake Erie this summer - please PM me if you're talking about a more recent incident. Lake Erie and Lake Huron can be wicked, with huge violent waves and whitecaps. If you've been O/W trained around here, you're experienced with cold and low visibility. But adding depth, thermoclines, and current are a whole new ballgame. Now throw this all at once at a newbie doing an advanced course and you've got a whole lot of task loading in an unfamiliar environment. The Grove is in much warmer water and may not be that challenging for divers who are READY to dive her, but it appears to be for those that do not yet have the prerequisite skills/experience.

It would be interesting to know if a pre-assessment of casemanager's skills/experience was done or if the leaders had been diving with him/her before. And now, for the next dives, what the buddy plan will be (arms length, side by side, leader and follower, etc.), what emergency signal devices might be used, and what emergency plans might be set up and followed. Take care!
 
I don't understand why the SG shouldn't be used for advanced dive certification. Isn't the advanced dive cert for advanced diving? You can't do an advanced dive on Molassas reef.

I did my advanced on the SG, and I'm still alive (and had a great dive too).
 
Earlier this year I took my AOW on the SG and had no problem, we spent a lot of time in class talking about the current and other conditions on this wreck. Especially what to do in an emergency accent off the anchor line. On the way out to the SG we discussed our dive plan in depth. All of these things relaxed me before the dive as I knew what to expect. We were on Nitrox as well. We had a great dive and I have dove the Grove and the Thunderbolt on many ocasions since. I had approx 40 logged dives in the year preceding my AOW. We are going back to the SG this weekend (Wilma permitting) for my wife's AOW. One question I have for the instructors out there: Three weeks ago I took my deep dive specialty in Ft. Laud. On one of the dives (Jim Atria wreck) we planned to go to 130 for a very short time on air to see how it feels to get narced in a semi-controlled condition. Upon arrival, conditions were excellent, no current reported from the DM who hooked the wrecked. We reviewed the plan and the tasks. We decended in a small group of four students, one intructor and one DM. All students were advanced divers with many recent logged dives. This was a great learning expierence as we felt the effects of being narced and were able to perform some tasks (ascend) to help clear our heads. I understsand that ours was a controlled non panic situation and you can never predict how narcosis will effect you in a particular situation. However it was a helpful learning expierence. Should this be done in AOW instead of deep speciality? Could help students like casemanager?
 
Ayisha:
The Grove is in much warmer water and may not be that challenging for divers who are READY to dive her, but it appears to be for those that do not yet have the prerequisite skills/experience.
Maybe one of the agencies can start teaching an intermediate-advanced certification for those not quite ready for full advanced cert, so they can get the prerequisite skills/experience they need to dive a "challanging" wreck like the Spiegel.

My first choice for intermediate-advanced wreck dive would be the sugar barge off Bradenton beach...in 20 fsw.
 
May 05, 05 Doctor dies on Spiegel
Ocotber 07, 05 1 diver missing, 1 diver bent on Spiegel

Maybe it wasnt 6 in the last 6 months but Spiegel has had a number of deaths/acccidents.

Interestingly, the boat captain briefed us on the dive, our DM Instructor only stated stay at 100', What if he would of stated, when you get down stay in a group with me, so i can keep trackof all of you. He was busy checking out the wreck rather then watching his students. He didnt even realized I had surfaced until he came up. Of course, I was told after the accident that I should of had a quaker, maybe that would of been good information before the dive. Not being an advanced expert or having a rescue certification, I am not aware of the exact physiological events that can happen and what to do when they occurred. Again after the accident, I was told I should of grabbed onto something, closed my eyes and tried to slow my breathing. I wish I had learned that in the advanced NAUI class. Has anyone ever seen the NAUI true and falese test. What a joke.

One thing I learned that I did right was to get DAN a week before the dive, if I hadnt gotten that I would be out at least $20,000. I think certifcations should not be given out to anyone unless they have insurance. Same thing as a car, marriage.
 
ReefGuy:
I don't understand why the SG shouldn't be used for advanced dive certification. Isn't the advanced dive cert for advanced diving?
No. I don't believe it is. The NAUI "Advanced" class used to be called "Open Water 2" The Current Master Diver cert was the old Advanced cert.. PADI was similar and it was PADI's changes that brought about the changes to the NAUI classes. IMO the Advanced certification does not even come close to prepairing you for advanced dives. If it did there would be a lot more information given and tested and skills would have to be demonstrated with a LOT more proficiency to pass.

Joe
 
Sideband:
No. I don't believe it is. The NAUI "Advanced" class used to be called "Open Water 2" The Current Master Diver cert was the old Advanced cert.. PADI was similar and it was PADI's changes that brought about the changes to the NAUI classes. IMO the Advanced certification does not even come close to prepairing you for advanced dives. If it did there would be a lot more information given and tested and skills would have to be demonstrated with a LOT more proficiency to pass.

Joe
Wasn't the Padi name changed from Advnced to Adventures?
 
""
casemanager:
May 05, 05 Doctor dies on Spiegel
Ocotber 07, 05 1 diver missing, 1 diver bent on Spiegel

Maybe it wasnt 6 in the last 6 months but Spiegel has had a number of deaths/acccidents."" by: casemanager
casemanager:
The 10/7/05 incident that cost one diver his life and injured another was not on the SG as originally reported in the press. It was two tech diver on the Northern Lights, please see the following post for the correct info - http://www.scubaboard.com/showthread.php?t=114676&page=3
See post #23. Yes deep dives are very dangerous, but so is exageration and hysteria.
 
DandyDon:
Wasn't the Padi name changed from Advnced to Adventures?

It very well could be. What I wrote was based on a discussion I had with my instructor for Master Diver. I have been looking for some of the old certification levels on the web but haven't had much success. One thing I did find on it was an old thread from about a year ago on here. http://www.scubaboard.com/archive/index.php/t-72722.html
tbuckalew listed the old NAUI certs.
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/peregrine/

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