Strange Diving Style

[sea nmf]

I saw something quite strange on Sunday. I was at E-Beach and there were two groups of three like this:

One guy (instructor?) was holding onto the valves of two people in scuba rigs. The two "divers" were face down at the surface. The "instructors" were pulling them into deeper water. The instructors were walking, not finning, them out. The "divers" were not finning at all, just laying there being pulled out. The "divers" appeared to be visitors from an asian country.

Do you suppose this was a discover scuba type thing? I didn't ask. It just seemed all around strange.

There was some surf, but not excessive for E-Beach, or for diving in general.

 

[kidspot]

Possibly working with handicapped divers?

 

[sea nmf]

Possibly working with handicapped divers?

After the "dive" they were walking around as if they were not handicapped.

 

[Cacia]

We carted an 85 year old man around by the scruff of his bcd once.--triple bypass history too.

Also, the woman that sold me my house, from Indonesia, has been diving a few times and she swears she does not know how to swim. ??

I think it is fair to say, it DOES happen.

 

[crab lover]

If I remember correctly, at least one of the ones floating did not have fins on... don't know if this piece of info helps with the mystery?

 

[scubadrewvideo]

I have pulled my share of discover scuba's around Kahe and the cove. The height adjustment strap on the BC works great to tow them around if they lack the physical coordination to kick efficiently he he he!
I've seen 1 instructor with 5 divers in tow hanging on to the float line!!!

 

[sea nmf]

I would think that you would want someone that was comfortable enough in the water to kick while at the surface. Bizzaro, if you ask me.

Actually, I can't imagine someone that uncomfortable wanting to try scuba.

 

[Sloth]

Sounds like your typical Japanese scuba diving guided tour. Not to long ago I saw a Japanese DM dragging a young Japanese lady around the Corsair by her first stage.....scary

 

[friscuba]

I just don't understand why the Japanese won't kick. I worked for the local Japanese company doing intros off the beach and we had to basically drag them the whole way. One particularly memorable time I and a Japanese speaking instructor took 6 out (3 per instructor), with me in the lead. This spot had roughly a 75-100 yard surface kick, I had to pull all of them and the float tube both ways even though we told them to kick and made the kick signal repeatedly. I was sort of gassed by the time it was over... and they wanted to do it again. At that point I told the Japanese speaking instructor to tell them they had to kick "because Steve is really fat and gets tired". That got a good laugh, but it worked, they all kicked on the next dive.

With the Japanese groups, you can basically count on 30-50 percent of your intros not kicking, even if you brief it. I don't know what that's all about.

 

[TSandM]

I saw this exact same thing at Catalina in May. I thought it was absolutely bizarre. The divers in question were not Asian. It is apparently a way of doing Discover Scuba.