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

[PvtStash]

because it nearly happened to me maybe 35 dives ago...


I'm diving Whitestar and completing a dive with a swimming safety back at my entrance point... inhale to achieve slight positive buoyancy and surfaced...

and immediately spit out my reg and moved my mask up to ask my buddy if he'd seen that Huge black bass hanging off the wall...

and then I sank back beneath the surface... see momentum had gotten me To the surface an beyond , but as I'd not added any air to my BC I wasnt buoyant enough to Stay there.

water in the nose/mouth & eye all at once (I Had been tryin' to speak at the time), disorientating/panic inducing... my legs started pumping and I broke the surface embarrassed and sputtering while adding air to my BC ... 8' of water...

I felt I learned something that day...

 

[String]

ID drill on oral inflation and *correct weighting* but would be very hypocritical of me to drill on ditchable weights given i don't believe in them.

 

[DandyDon]

I'm always negative in case I hand off my pony, besides - I like to be able to dodge boats and jet skies with quick re-descents, another reason to keep my reg in mouth. Talk on the boat.

PvtStash, keep the reg in your mouth pleasssee...!!

 

[Brian Sharpe]

Keep the reg in, even if chocking, even if free flowing, even if a OOA CESA as air comes as comes as pressure decreases, even if no air comes as it prevents water in. Drill on oral inflates and weight drops. When I started drilling on that, I was surprised at how I fumbled to find those releases I've worn in water hundreds of times. When in doubt, DROP! Yeah weight pouches are pricey but upper level DAN insurance even pays for lost gear in accidents - a good thot when you don't have time to consider if it's really a life or death choice.

Sage advice!

 

[tfsails]

I didn't read the whole six pages of this post, but I read enough to see it's about doing resort dives in open water. Pardon me if I'm rehashing old entries.

My shop NEVER does resort courses in open water. We only do it in the pool. No exceptions. We also make them go through about an hour's worth of classroom emphasizing proper airway management.

I think this is a good idea. It's supposed to be a taste of what scuba is all about. It's not designed to get someone certified. We all know what can happen in open water, so why risk it? At least in the pool if something happens you don't have too far to go to hit the surface.

 

[DandyDon]

I didn't read the whole six pages of this post, but I read enough to see it's about doing resort dives in open water. Pardon me if I'm rehashing old entries.

My shop NEVER does resort courses in open water. We only do it in the pool. No exceptions. We also make them go through about an hour's worth of classroom emphasizing proper airway management.

I think this is a good idea. It's supposed to be a taste of what scuba is all about. It's not designed to get someone certified. We all know what can happen in open water, so why risk it? At least in the pool if something happens you don't have too far to go to hit the surface.

Easy to say in VA and in Texas. They are done in tourist dive locations and will be done even if the agencies pulled approval - which they would never do, since they get a lot of new divers from the ones who survive.

 

[stefo2]

I didn't read the whole six pages of this post, but I read enough to see it's about doing resort dives in open water. Pardon me if I'm rehashing old entries.

My shop NEVER does resort courses in open water. We only do it in the pool. No exceptions. We also make them go through about an hour's worth of classroom emphasizing proper airway management.

I think this is a good idea. It's supposed to be a taste of what scuba is all about. It's not designed to get someone certified. We all know what can happen in open water, so why risk it? At least in the pool if something happens you don't have too far to go to hit the surface.

There is "Discover Scuba" which is essentially what you describe, and there is "Discover Scuba Diving", which is what others have described as being the first theory module, the first confined water training and the first open water dive of the PADI OWD course.

 

[String]

You also get a far higher conversion rate of DSDs > open water if they get 1 or 2 nice shallow dives over a pretty coral reef than looking at plasters and pubic hair stuck in the bottom of a pool.

Im struggling to see the problem here, done properly a PADI dsd is the same as CW1,theory 1, OW1. Just the same as an open water course. I dont see anyone arguing that OW1 should only be done in a pool so why is the DSD any different when its exactly the same thing?

 

[Ayisha]

Keep the reg in, even if chocking, even if free flowing, even if a OOA CESA as air comes as comes as pressure decreases, even if no air comes as it prevents water in.

And don't forget to keep the reg in even if vomitting. Due to the involuntary inhale caused by vomitting, removing the reg to vomit can cause drowning. The vomit will apparently exhaust from the reg.

 

[Ayisha]

ID drill on oral inflation and *correct weighting* but would be very hypocritical of me to drill on ditchable weights given i don't believe in them.

Please explain. I understand you should only wear as much weight as you need to maintain a safety stop with a possibly nearly empty tank and make a controlled ascent to the surface, but can't you have some of that weight in pockets? If you are weighted correctly, there should be no need to ditch weights anywhere. If you need to ditch weights at the surface to stay buoyant, then you are over-weighted. Do you mean the practice of ditching weights or using ditchable weights? Sorry for the confusion...