Too Many Issues to List

[Kicker1866]

Was diving in Cozumel this weekend. I am usually down there several times a year and very familiar with how drifting in fast currents can reek havoc on inexperienced divers....and Cozumel's beauty attracts MANY inexperienced divers.

One one of the trips this weekend I observed a threesome on the boat...man, wife and 13 yr old son. Husband was showing wife and child everything about setting up gear and seemed kinda "excited" to share his "new found knowledge". Wife and son seemed nervous....so I decided to strike up a conversation.

Husband had only been diving a shirt while (20 splashes) ...he was anxious to share his new found sport with the family. Wife and son had just gotten certified in quarry somewhere near Chicago.

So they're in the water and wife is moving like an octopus that had fallen out a tree. Interestingly, the son had decent skills for such a new diver....meaning he was not crashing into the reef. The wife on the other hand was having trouble....panicky...uncomfortable.....husband practically dragging her through the water.

The DM was not giving this the attention needed. About 15 min into the dive she starts flooding her mask and cannot clear it. Husband is trying to calm her down and she is thumbing up hard. I know what is about to happen and start heading thatt way.....unfortunately, I do not get there in time and she makes a break for the surface. We are about 65' down. She must've gained some type of wit about her because she slowed her ascent but was still heading up.

Husband is now panicky....son has now drifted a good distance passed him....he is torn between wife and son....and DM still doesn't know what is up. Husband finally get''s DM's attention and I am simultaneously trying to deploy my Surface marker to make sure wife doesn't get hit by a boat and go after the son. DM signals for me not to deploy my marker (wth???) I continue after kid.....by the time DM deploys she has hit the surface and drifted away from his marker .....seeing son is safe husband starts to go up after wife. DM grabs his fin and tells him no....boat will get her. Husband stays down and pairs back up with son.

Just so many problems with this scenario. Husband should not have dumped his family into drift diving so soon. DM was asleep. Husband not skilled enough to manage two new divers. Wife not ready for open water. I felt bad for not reacting sooner and doing more, but I was with my wife who was on her 10th dive. And even though I have had her in Cozumel before, I have slowly introduced her to drift diving and have made certain her training was very thorough.

 

[Chugwhump]

You can't fix stupid.
Pretty amazing how many otherwise intelligent people do some very stupid things.
Chug
Not an immortal, just a diver.

 

[AfterDark]

Was diving in Cozumel this weekend. I am usually down there several times a year and very familiar with how drifting in fast currents can reek havoc on inexperienced divers....and Cozumel's beauty attracts MANY inexperienced divers.

One one of the trips this weekend I observed a threesome on the boat...man, wife and 13 yr old son. Husband was showing wife and child everything about setting up gear and seemed kinda "excited" to share his "new found knowledge". Wife and son seemed nervous....so I decided to strike up a conversation.

Husband had only been diving a shirt while (20 splashes) ...he was anxious to share his new found sport with the family. Wife and son had just gotten certified in quarry somewhere near Chicago.

So they're in the water and wife is moving like an octopus that had fallen out a tree. Interestingly, the son had decent skills for such a new diver....meaning he was not crashing into the reef. The wife on the other hand was having trouble....panicky...uncomfortable.....husband practically dragging her through the water.

The DM was not giving this the attention needed. About 15 min into the dive she starts flooding her mask and cannot clear it. Husband is trying to calm her down and she is thumbing up hard. I know what is about to happen and start heading thatt way.....unfortunately, I do not get there in time and she makes a break for the surface. We are about 65' down. She must've gained some type of wit about her because she slowed her ascent but was still heading up.

Husband is now panicky....son has now drifted a good distance passed him....he is torn between wife and son....and DM still doesn't know what is up. Husband finally get''s DM's attention and I am simultaneously trying to deploy my Surface marker to make sure wife doesn't get hit by a boat and go after the son. DM signals for me not to deploy my marker (wth???) I continue after kid.....by the time DM deploys she has hit the surface and drifted away from his marker .....seeing son is safe husband starts to go up after wife. DM grabs his fin and tells him no....boat will get her. Husband stays down and pairs back up with son.

Just so many problems with this scenario. Husband should not have dumped his family into drift diving so soon. DM was asleep. Husband not skilled enough to manage two new divers. Wife not ready for open water. I felt bad for not reacting sooner and doing more, but I was with my wife who was on her 10th dive. And even though I have had her in Cozumel before, I have slowly introduced her to drift diving and have made certain her training was very thorough.

Right calls on your part, do what you can without endangering yourself or your wife.

Sounds a lot like my wife’s 1^st attempt at OW except it was 8 feet of water, without a kid in the mix.

I normally only dive with the people I dive with, my only trip is to NC with the group of people I dive with here. Most of the other divers on these NC charters seem pretty squared away too, so I don’t get to see such spectacles as you describe. Thankfully.

 

[vincent54]

Somewhere in the forum, it was mentioned the three person buddy team is one of the most difficult to be a part of. This seems to fall under this category. Even without the complication of current, the team would have a difficult time handling an emergency.


Good effort trying to keep things together. I was a bit surprised the DM didn't want the SMB deployed. My understanding is that the dive is over when your buddy wants up. How was the boat to know she was at the surface? It's a judgement call going to the son or the bolting mom. I would have stuck with the son. Most parents want their kids taken care of before they get assistance.

Only on the forum is it understood the DM isn't responsible for the dive once underway. I think the new diver is under the impression, when on a dive boat, an experienced DM in the water will take care of you. I've learned you are on your own on every dive. The bad thing about the incident was the stress on your dive, the wife will never dive again, and the husband will be blamed for everything. Thanks for the report.

 

[Doubler]

This is called attempted murder by the husband in Oz and Alabama.

 

[Akimbo]

Panic and inexperience trumps ignorant way too often. I didn't see any indication that anyone involved was stupid, which would actually be a more acceptable excuse.

Just finished an article in the latest Diver magazine(volume 38 number 8) titled "Dive training Today A Perspective" by Bret Gilliam. I encourage both students and instructors to read this article and think long and hard about what the author has to say. It might save a life.

Hopefully this article will be online in a few months.

 

[SanDiegoSidemount]

Is Cozumel more prone to boat dives from hell than other areas? I sure read a lot more negative reports on SB about the boats and DMs in Coz than other places.

To be fair, there do seem to be some reliably good operators there, but they seem to be vastly outnumbered by the bad ones.

What's causing this? Some combination of local regulations, lax operations, and the sheer number of inexperienced divers who travel there? Or just a bias here on SB?

Makes me kinda uninterested to go there, despite some spectacular photos I've seen.

I'm used to SoCal boat diving, which is very "libertarian" by tropical standards. Go where you want, dive with a buddy or don't, be back on the boat by a certain time, don't kill yourself. We have our share of idiots here, too, but because of the way the trips are structured, you're not at their mercy like you can be in other places.

 

[iamrushman]

thanks for sharing ...point noted.

 

[Dirty-Dog]

Is Cozumel more prone to boat dives from hell than other areas? I sure read a lot more negative reports on SB about the boats and DMs in Coz than other places.

To be fair, there do seem to be some reliably good operators there, but they seem to be vastly outnumbered by the bad ones.

What's causing this? Some combination of local regulations, lax operations, and the sheer number of inexperienced divers who travel there? Or just a bias here on SB?

Cozumel is one of the best, and best known, dive destinations. It's also cheap and easy to get to from pretty much anywhere. As a result, there are literally thousands of divers on the island on any given day. Many of whom are very new to the sport. Cozumel is not, in my opinion, a great destination for most new divers. The hard bottom on many of the dives is well beyond sane limits, the currents can be quite...interesting... and the number of divers in a given area can increase the chances of buddy separation (I have seen one group pass through another, and one diver from group A mistakenly start to follow group B).

I would say that the number of bad operators on Cozumel is very small. Tiny, even. Events such as the one described here are not the fault of the operator. They are the fault of the divers involved.

Personally, I think that Cancun is a better Mexican destination for new divers. The conditions, dives and logistics are very much the same as Cozumel, but with hard bottom about 60' and much less (if any...) current.

 

[Chilly_Dipper]

Somewhere in the forum, it was mentioned the three person buddy team is one of the most difficult to be a part of. This seems to fall under this category. Even without the complication of current, the team would have a difficult time handling an emergency.

Only time there should be more then 2 buddies in a group is if N is not divisible by 2. If you have to make a group of 3 it's best if they are the more experienced divers in the group.