Taking New Divers through Tunnel?

[Scott from LongIsland]

I just returned from a trip to Belize and during one of the dives the dive master lead the group through a swim through tunnel (Cypress Tunnel). The tunnel was about 20 feet long. ALL of the divers in this group had under 20 dives except myself. The tunnel was pitch black after the immediate entry and when I exited my depth gauge showed a depth of 75 feet. Personally, I don't think this should have been part of the dive and people should have been informed of this prior to getting in the water. When combining the overhead environment, complete blackout with no lights in hand and the depth this could be very dangerous.

Just a rant I guess, but am I alone in thinking that this was a potentially bad situation?

When we were on the dive, one of the people in our group shot up almost to the surface from 60ft. When we got back on the boat the person said...and I quote, "I hit the wrong button, that is why I shot up." The next dive this same guy said that, "his air thing was going up and down" while on the surface. After that dive the guy passed out on the boatride back because he was out drinking the night before.

This same person was going to dive the Blue Hole the next day...130-140ft. I just don't understand how these places get away with taking people on such dives. None of the divers had Advanced OW cert. and all dives were below 60ft and the Blue Hole is 130-140ft. Does PADI/NAUI/SSI care about such calculated risks taken by there divemasters?

 

[Thalassamania]

I imagine that the DM has taken one to two groups of divers per day through that tunnel and hasn't lost one yet.

 

[Scott from LongIsland]

well, that is quite obvious and you are clearly missing the point. All divers react differently to situations and there were many inherent dangers with this dive. When surfacing two people expressed concern about when they went through that tunnel and how unexpected it was.

I see that you are an instructor. Are you saying that it is just fine to disregard the "rules" as long as nobody gets hurt?

 

[Scuba Ken]

It only takes one lost diver though. Sounds a bit risky in a group especially if they didn't know what was coming up.

 

[Scott M]

I have been there and been through the tunnel. You have the option of swimming over the top of the reef if you chose, thats what one of our group did and met on the other side. We were told about this in the pre-dive meeting. If there was no pre-dive chat then I could see where this could be an issue for some.

 

[diver 85]

Taking new divers in those situations is done daily and has been done daily for a Loooong time.......IMO, no problem........

 

[diver1102]

I'm new to diving, but I thought that the tunnel thing should have been discussed during pre-dive planning, Isn't that the whole point to planning a dive is to make your group or buddy aware of what is going to happen on the dive?

 

[Doc]

Scott- was there really no pre dive briefing (as the others have asked) ?

 

[Scott from LongIsland]

there was indeed a pre-dive briefing, but no mention of the tunnel.

 

[TSandM]

The general teaching is that divers without specific training should not enter overhead environments, but I'd say that teaching is honored far more often in the breach than in the observance. Swimming through "prepared" wrecks is common, as is swimming through coral tunnels (Devil's Throat in Cozumel) or lava caves (the Cathedrals off Lanai).

What's important is to look at the risks involved. A reasonable steady swimming speed in still water is about 50 fpm, so swimming a 20 foot tunnel will take about 30 seconds. I'm assuming that this particular tunnel is not silty (ocean swim-throughs rarely are). But in the middle, you are in complete darkness, and completely out of contact with anybody else (except touch contact, which no one is trained to do or interpret). The likelihood of a major equipment failure in the middle of the passage is low -- I'd think what's more likely is someone getting frightened and freezing, or having a simple failure like losing a fin that would result in them stopping and jamming the whole group up behind them. The problem there is that there is no way to find the lost fin without a light, and no way to communicate the reason for the stop to anyone else. If the passage is too small to turn around in (single file) then anyone behind is stuck until the problem is resolved, and anxiety may build rapidly in that circumstance.

As with the Devil's Throat dive, many people no doubt do this one without incident, which is why the practice continues. But I have read a story of a woman panicking in Devil's Throat and ending up requiring CPR (she survived), and in my view, that right there is enough to say that untrained people shouldn't be in that passage.

Dive operators and their DMs are in the business of pleasing customers, and most people like the kind of spooky fun of swimming through a short distance of dark passage. When you do it without incident day after day, I think it's quite easy to lose sight of just how awful it's going to be when somebody ends up panicking in the middle of a dark passage with no lights.

Scott, you're a pretty new diver, and this is only going to be the first of probably many times when you are going to see people ignore what you have been taught for safety. In my first few months of diving, I saw almost no one do dive plans or buddy checks, I followed an instructor to 130 feet on my 10th dive on an Al80, I followed a DM-led tour into the Cathedrals (wondering the whole time how this didn't qualify as an overhead environment . . . ) Diving, especially in the tropics, seems so simple that it's awfully easy to get complacent, and forget that, at base, this is an inimical environment where people can get hurt or killed, and what allows us to visit it safely again and again is meticulous care and prudence.