Time to hang up my wetsuit after near death on NYE

[WS007]

I'm a newly certified AOW with 20 dives under my belt. On the eve of new year I decided to go for a fun dive with a dive center that had pretty good reviews on TripAdvisor.
I'm out with a DM who is new to the divesite.
On the first dive everything goes well, we dive at 18m the currents are pretty strong but we pass the strong currents just once.

On the second dive, the DM takes us through multiple sections of high current zones where we're swimming against the currents. This is honestly new to me as I've never dived against such strong current and my air consumption is higher than normal.
At around 20mins into the dive I'm reaching the reserve levels in my tank instead of reaching the reserve at 45 mins as is my usual air consumption.
I signal the DM that I'm low on air and she doesn't take notice. I look around for my dive buddy in case I need to swim to him to share air.
After a while I've reached my reserve and I indicate to my DM again that I'm low on air and she just asks me to swim in another section of high current.
Now a sense of panic sets in, I decide to swim into the current straight towards her and show her a low air directly on her face. Now I have 20 bar air left but I'm a bit relieved because she's got the message. We share air but because my tank is so light it drags us both up.
In my sense panic and the rapid ascent I forget to control my buoyancy and we both surface without a safety stop.

So there we go, that was a traumatic ending to 2019 and in all honesty I've decided that scuba in general is too risky for me to pursue. I love swimming and snorkeling is a better alternative for me.
The DM had her version of the story but I was in a state of shock and I didn't argue with her. I was the customer after all.

Dear Edwon1,

You had a lousy DM that does not deserve to be DM and is a risk for herself and the customers...

Only you for yourself can know whether it is time to continue this great hobby or give up. It was, however, nothing like a "near death experience", but just a bad experience. Luckily, as so often (but NOT ALWAYS!), nothing happened. Many of us had similar experiences, beeing our fault or the fault of dive partners (in many cases both contribute), especially as beginners. Important is to learn from such experiences...

What can you learn from this dive?
#1.: Have a careful look with whom you dive (Hopefully there are better dive bases around. Maybe you can even find an experienced dive buddy whom you can trust).
#2.: When indicating a problem and the buddy/DM does not react properly, insist. It does not matter that you are the beginner and she is the DM. What matters it is your live...

All the best, Wolfgang

 

[Belzelbub]

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.

2. Why didn't I go up on my own?
I wasn't carrying a DSMB with me and at that moment my biggest worry was being lost in the middle of the sea if I surfaced on my own.

First, thanks for coming back and explaining things a bit more. If it’s not fun for you, then hanging things up is probably the right decision. No point in diving if you aren’t enjoying it.

For number 1. That is certainly quite a list of incidents. It sounds like some poorly run operations were involved. I’m curious about the breathing technique that the instructor told you. Not that I want to try it on my own, just curious as to whether this is an accepted technique or one that is considered dangerous. I’ve been diving off and on since 1990 and only once witnessed a diving emergency. During an AOW class, another student panicked, and attempted to shoot to the surface from 108’. She was brought under control by the instructor, and we completed a safety stop and surfaced. When at the surface, she was gurgling at the surface. Another instructor from the same shop had arrived with her OW student. The student was a bit shaken, so a few of us attempted to put him at ease a bit. He calmed down and completed his dives.

For number 2. This is something you could correct for the future. I’ve made some changes to my kit over the years, and carry gear that can help effect my own rescue if ever needed. I carry a flashlight with SOS function, a Dive Alert horn, a DSMB, and a VHF radio. I’ll leave the VHF out for an onshore dive, but that’s about it.

 

[Storker]

I carry a flashlight with SOS function, a Dive Alert horn, a DSMB, and a VHF radio.

I always carry a light and a dSMB, and I have a whistle zip-tied to my wing inflator.

The light is used on more or less every dive, and the dSMB is regularly used to signal to the boat tender that we're on our way up. Often appreciated. Haven't bothered with a VHF, but might consider a PLB if I were diving places where carrying one would be reasonably prudent.

 

[StefinSB]

But really...

In these circumstances a new diver is not going to actually thumb the dive. They will just put up with it for as long as they can. They are unlikely to have the confidence to actually overcome the perceived authority of the DM, instructor, skipper or whoever.

^This. One has to look at the situation from the eyes of a brand new driver. It is very clear that an experienced driver would have probably given the finger to the DM in this case.

 

[divinh]

First, thanks for coming back and explaining things a bit more. If it’s not fun for you, then hanging things up is probably the right decision. No point in diving if you aren’t enjoying it.

For number 1. That is certainly quite a list of incidents. It sounds like some poorly run operations were involved. I’m curious about the breathing technique that the instructor told you. Not that I want to try it on my own, just curious as to whether this is an accepted technique or one that is considered dangerous. I’ve been diving off and on since 1990 and only once witnessed a diving emergency. During an AOW class, another student panicked, and attempted to shoot to the surface from 108’. She was brought under control by the instructor, and we completed a safety stop and surfaced. When at the surface, she was gurgling at the surface. Another instructor from the same shop had arrived with her OW student. The student was a bit shaken, so a few of us attempted to put him at ease a bit. He calmed down and completed his dives.

For number 2. This is something you could correct for the future. I’ve made some changes to my kit over the years, and carry gear that can help effect my own rescue if ever needed. I carry a flashlight with SOS function, a Dive Alert horn, a DSMB, and a VHF radio. I’ll leave the VHF out for an onshore dive, but that’s about it.

My experience with the Dive Alert horn is that it isn't any more effective than a whistle and it will eventually leak.

 

[tridacna]

Deleted..

 

[tursiops]

I would say, never dive with a Dive Master.

nonsense

 

[tursiops]

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.



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.



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



Absolutely. We agree.



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.

You keep saying a lot of nonsense over and over. That doesn't make it true. It's too bad, because some of what you say is very sensible and helpful. But your dead horses keep getting in the way....

 

[tursiops]

New skill unlocked.

Good. The bad news is you should have learned that in your OW pool sessions.

 

[InTheDrink]

Right. Shoot me now. Didn’t read all 11 pages.

To the OP. It’s obviously your choice whether to continue.

However from your post your DM should never have let you to get that low on gas. Any half decent DM will check people’s gas either by asking or sneakily checking.

If someone is new-ish they should be able to spot that straight away. If they can’t then they are not a good DM or guide.

The DM let a simple situation get out of control. Maybe they had 70 dives or so and weren’t up to it. But as a DM you recognise all signs and signals of a diver that may have problems and always check their gas every 5 mins max.

I think if you dived with a normal DM that paid attention you would have no problem.

I wouldn’t give up if I were you but as a said it’s your choice.

I’ve called people’s dives before we even descended because I knew what was going to happen in advance. A good guide will generally know that. And I’m not a particularly good guide.