Tourist dies in New Caledonia during a "Discovery Scuba" dive

[vshearer]

Every time I read threads like this the first thing that comes to mind is someone out of their comfort zone.

Are you comfortable in the water? Can you swim 300 yds. easily? It is a different environment. Add in 40-60 lbs. of equipment and for those who don't even swim often that is an accident waiting to happen.

It's water guys. You have to know how to swim. It seems today that people are doing scuba using BCD's like 2 year olds use the little arm floaties.

 

[DandyDon]

Every time I read threads like this the first thing that comes to mind is someone out of their comfort zone.

Are you comfortable in the water? Can you swim 300 yds. easily? It is a different environment. Add in 40-60 lbs. of equipment and for those who don't even swim often that is an accident waiting to happen.

It's water guys. You have to know how to swim. It seems today that people are doing scuba using BCD's like 2 year olds use the little arm floaties.

Then there is the other extreme. I taught myself enough to snorkel, free dive, doing okay in spite of a total lack of knowledge about Shallow Water Blackout. I'd been snorkeling on that cruise, then did the 3 scuba dives - one to 100 ft - with great comfort.

I came home thinking I knew diving, a comfortable feeling that plagued me through several courses and many dives, nearly hurting myself on a couple. Too comfortable, too ignorant.

 

[AggieDad]

I did a DSD off a cruise ship a few years ago. No class room but we talked about not holding your breath (instructor said this over and over) and we were taken out to a catamaran that had a platform built about 4 feet under water. We kneeled down and did masking clearing, reg clearing and if remember correctly a reg recovery. We went down very slowly after clearing our ears at the surface and was told and shown the signs for ear discomfort. I was over weighted but the instructor helped me correct this by BC inflation. We were under about 20 minutes and went down to 25 feet. This was about 4 years ago and I just finished up my PADI Assistant Instructor. I do feel that this operation was very professional as was the instructor ( a KIWI ) and feel that DSD's in a controlled environment as a good introduction to diving but it does need to be operated in a professional manner as well as it needs to be done as a stand alone operation. i.e. no mixing of DSD with tours etc. The "student" should have the undivided attention of the instructor.

 

[sunapeebob]

I am a product of DSD on St. Thomas last year. I had snorkeled for years and my son was now diving - doing AOW and Rescue. I was curious and did the program. It was in a pool with a complete intro to equipment, sweeping the reg, mask and clearing, equalization to about 6 feet deep. It got me more interested and I signed up for the open water portion. We went to the Cartanza (nice dive, wreckchick!). There were three of us with an instructor and two divemasters behind "hovering". I had issues with equalizing at first (not doing it enough). I went back up, and after several tries was fine. We cruised around and enjoyed the dive. I managed my BC, air, etc. The DM or instructor was about 1 arm length away. We did the safety stop at the anchor line and ascended. The second dive I was constantly equalizing on the way down - no problem and another nice dive. It was fun to see my son doing one of his classes.

Don't hammer the DSD idea. IMHO it is mostly operator dependent. They might be trying to get more paying customers for dives so loosen the "requirements".

Bob

 

[wreckchick]

We love the Cartanza for DSD dives! A nice little wreck with 40' of sand all around it and moorings in as shallow as 18'. It's a great introduction to diving.

All diving is dangerous, but a properly conducted DSD dive is no more so than any other dive that a new diver can do or a not so new but out of the comfort zone diver can do.

I'll say it again... I've done a lot and during that time I've learned to recognize all sorts of issues that probably don't even occur to most of you. Do you know what it looks like when someone is having trouble equalizing even if they don't tell you? Do you know what it looks like if someone forgets to equalize their mask? What are the signs that someone is getting uncomfortable about the dive? All of those are fixable issues that don't result in anything bad happening but it takes a sharp eye.

On the flip side, I also know what it looks like when someone is having a great first dive and is totally comfortable and relaxed, they come up (just like a lot of you) with huge smiles and having had a fantastic experience.

Once I became an active instructor and working with new divers day in and day out I realized how much I can see about what is going on with the group of divers I'm dealing with. Most casual divers don't know half of what we do about themselves much less the rest of the group. I'm not trying to be cocky or condescending but we do see a lot more than you think even though it looks like we're trying to find that elusive octopus in a hole instead of having our eyes boring holes in our divers.

R

 

[don Francisco]

It's dangerous to bring assumptions into accident analysis. There's no mention of panic underwater, or rapid ascent, so this may not in the strictest sense, even be a diving accident. An equally likely cause is simply cardiac arrest at the surface, which is fairly common, among both swimmers and divers.

It's too soon to speculate, especially since we're not privy to any details. Let's wait for the local folks to prepare the accident report before we jump to conclusions, and blame dive practices which may have absolutely nothing to do with this accident.

 

[Tollie]

I think the varied perspectives of the DSD comes from the wide of range of practices which are within standards. These range from:

...full morning sessions complete with video presentation, gear orientation and an extended practice session in the pool... followed by a shallow water (20 feet) dive on a calm reef to

a brief chalk talk on the boat, skills done on a line with no bottom in 40 feet of water.

I have completed many hundreds of DSD's in both conditions. When I have worked with students in shallow water and plenty of time the number of problems of any kind that followed in the dive portion of the class can be counted on the fingers of one hand perhaps less... For students doing DSD's in deep water with much less preparation probably 20% failed to complete the experience. They either took themselves out prior to getting of the boat, or during skills. I'll say that some of my most terrifying moments as an instructor have come when a DSD attempts to bolt. Thankfully no student has ever been injured... but a few moments of inattention might have lead to very bad days. Students who are pressured into doing DSD's by well meaning parents, partners or friends who are certified divers do very badly without considerable time to become used to the gear and the evnironment.

That the standards allow for such a wide range of preparations prior to the experience in a problem in my opinion.

 

[wreckchick]

Hiya Tollie!

I love the line option for people who are repeat DSDers. They've been through the drill, they've seen the video (up to 10 times in one case) so they know that they've got it, they just aren't certified. In those cases being able to do the abbreviated version is fantastic since it makes getting to the diving more efficient and enjoyable for everyone. Barring that small group, there are very few people who can do it AND enjoy the dive.

There is a local operation that can crank through 16 DSDs PER INSTRUCTOR PER DAY doing line options and we absolutely cringe watching the mill operate. They have WAY more problems than we do and although there is the factor of just more people doing it, it doesn't make up for what we see on an almost daily basis.

I can't change what they do, but I can choose to work where I'm not forced into that type of training environment.

R

P.S. All of my previous posts refer to a traditional DSD with a true confined water session followed by open water, not line option DSDs which I really really don't like to do except as noted above.

 

[MasterGoa]

Could very easily have paniced, bolted and embolized. It's very sad.

Is it possible to embolise from 15ft?

 

[SparticleBrane]

Is it possible to embolise from 15ft?

Well let's see...
15/33 + 1 = ~1.5

So yes, holding your breath from 15ft, your lungs would attempt to expand to 1.5x their normal size.

You can embolize in 4ft of water...