Time to hang up my wetsuit after near death on NYE

[KenGordon]

Then what exactly is the purpose of the OWC or even the AOWC if they can’t dive safely without hand holding and constant supervision?

To create a product that can be sold to people on holiday that is the minimum standard where you might expect most people to survive most of the time assuming nothing much nasty happens.

You can’t very well claim that just because someone is a DM they are a “MASTER”... and then in the next breath call someone claiming to be ADVANCED a “BABY”...

They are both lies told to the paying customer. The fact is this is a baby diver, the lie is that they are advanced and a second lie is that the DM is any sort of master.

Regarding a SMB..... aren’t we not taught that in OWC? I personally was...and if it’s not standard curriculum, it 100% needs to be.

No, DSMB is optional in PADI and even in BSAC at the first level.

Now if you want to claim this is an industry problem... I tend to agree... there is a lot of emphasis on churning people out as fast as possible, and OWC is essentially “how not to drown 101”...

Absolutely. We agree.

However with 20 dives..... you should have some semblance as to what you are doing, and to say this incident is not on OP is in my opinion at least partially incorrect. Dive ops are there to guide you around and show you cool stuff, but as always with scuba, your safety is 100% your own responsibility

Some people are fish, some people are not. After 20 dives the OP has probably done 9 course dives and 11 real dives. On the course dives he will not be taking much or any responsibility for himself. The 11 real dives are his only opportunity to learn and gain experience. Some people will soak it up and some will not. It takes a good while to have the mental bandwidth to take full charge of your own dive given a novel environment and a load of stuff going on.

I teach people in a club environment where people do those dives on club trips so we are very conscious of how they are doing. It takes 30 or 40 (so 26 or more post qualification) dives to get to the stage where you’d be happy having two of them dive together unaccompanied as proper grown up divers. We have every incentive to rush that as it is much more relaxing diving when not tasked with looking after someone, but we decide on a case by case basis. That is usually before they finish the second level qualification.

So, my basic claim is that EITHER you train people to a proper standard OR you run operations assuming baby divers.

Industry practice is to pretend the first while actually doing the second. In this case they didn’t do that so well.

New divers are clearly not responsible for themselves. If they were you’d see brand new divers jumping off UK boats, shore diving and doing all those things that people eventually do without the need for some Dive ‘Master’. But they are not stupid people and realise they need looking after. So they look to book with ops which seem to offer that. That is part of their contribution to being 100% in charge of their own safety. They are ‘trust us’ dives.

 

[Kimela]

Hi everyone,
Firstly thank you for your comments. I've addressed some common questions.

1. Am I giving up diving just because of this?
No. This incident just serves as a last straw. From witnessing the death of someone in my country due to AGE, having an instructor tell to try a new breathing technique underwater that caused me a terrible headache due to poor pulmonary ventilation and witnessing a friend blow an artery in his nose during a DSD and finally this. Its all a bit too much to process.

I can understand why you're strongly considering quitting. Frankly, I wouldn't dive if I was in the same headspace as you either. You're already in fight/flight when you hit the water - that kind of anxiety will seriously impact your air consumption AND make it difficult to make good decisions throughout the dive. You need to take some time to process what you have witnessed and experienced. If, after doing so, you don't want to dive, no harm and no foul. Enjoy snorkeling - you see a lot of the same things from a different perspective. Rather have you snorkeling than injured or worse.

Good luck!

 

[scubafanatic]

Not everyone is cut out to be a diver, many years ago my longtime dentist had what she characterized as a near-death/almost drowned experience (I think she went too deep, got narked and her brother had to bring her up) and it was enough to permamently scare her away from scuba forever and ever. No amount or counceling/persuading will ever get her back into the water for scuba, although she's happy to talk about my dive trips/adventures.

 

[divinh]

Not everyone is cut out to be a diver, many years ago my longtime dentist had what she characterized as a near-death/almost drowned experience (I think she went too deep, got narked and her brother had to bring her up) and it was enough to permamently scare her away from scuba forever and ever. No amount or counceling/persuading will ever get her back into the water for scuba, although she's happy to talk about my dive trips/adventures.

On the scale of things, this diver's experience isn't on the same scale as what you described. Low air before being able to share air isn't an out-of-air situation. Apprehension with strong currents with only 20 dives under one's belt isn't uncommon. Overloaded DM guiding a group of 20(!) happens in certain places, so best avoided, but not completely uncommon.

 

[CaveSloth]

My most difficult dive was during my open water training. Ocean reef dive about 40 feet deep. Lots of wave action. I was vomiting through my reg from the motion sickness performing the drills. I basically passed out during the safety stop. I have never dived in the ocean since.

 

[divinh]

My most difficult dive was during my open water training. Ocean reef dive about 40 feet deep. Lots of wave action. I was vomiting through my reg from the motion sickness performing the drills. I basically passed out during the safety stop. I have never dived in the ocean since.

Thanks for confirming what instructors have told us, that you can vomit into regs...

I've not had that experience, but have gotten motion sick on a boat and vomited. I was told to remove my gear, jump into the water to clean up, then put on the gear on the surface, which I had not done before. (The BC was inflated and the whole gear set was put into the water. I was told to sit/mount on the tank and don the BC, which worked pretty easily.) New skill unlocked.

 

[wgw04024]

Where did this happen generally speaking? I'd guess asia...

 

[CaveSloth]

Mine was off the shore of Tulum.

 

[Norrm]

Diving isn't for everyone and it's definitely not for anxiety prone individuals who react unpredictably under pressure.

 

[Manneca]

OP, you live so close to some of the most amazing dive sites in the world. I fly 30 hours or more to dive there. Yes, it can be scary. I hope you give it another try. If you do, look for dive operations that limit the number of divers with a DM. There are very good operators throughout Indonesia and Malaysia. (I've never dived in Thailand and from what I've heard about the ops there, I have no desire to). I dive with operators who limit to 4 divers of fewer. You can hire a private guide. Learn the signal for the current is too strong to swim against. On my last trip, I used that signal over and over again. I think you made the right choices. If you're in an area with heavy boat traffic it can be much more dangerous to surface than to stay the course. Frankly, unless there were good reasons not to, if the currents are different from the dive plan, the dive plan gets changed to drift with the current. Sometimes there are reasons to swim against the current, but not to the extent you did. The more you dive, the more comfortable you will become. Others have said stick to your comfort level. There are lots of places in SE Asia that have awful currents. Do some research and go to places that are relatively calm. Ask on ScubaBoard. There is a US publication, Undercurrent, that is subscription only that has a lot of reader reviews of locations. I find that much more useful than TA. On Undercurrent, the reviewers are all divers; the review lists the number of divers the reviewer has.