Training agency throws Instructor under the bus while misleading the court

[OMANDIVER]

I have always thought Padi's DSD course lacked common sense and was a thoroughly bad idea. Either get certified by a proper instructor or don't. Snorkelling will likely tell you if you are going to like it or not................"Diving is fun".

 

[Jim Lapenta]

I always thought DSD's in open water were nuts. First time I heard of it was a lady in my own OW class who told the instructor and I about being given a one hour pool session then taken to over 90 ft on an OW dive.
I don't do them outside of the pool.

 

[scubasaif]

I always thought DSD's in open water were nuts. First time I heard of it was a lady in my own OW class who told the instructor and I about being given a one hour pool session then taken to over 90 ft on an OW dive.
I don't do them outside of the pool.

Well... if not for the open water DSD, my wife and I would not have signed up for OW Certification. Up to that point, we thought snorkelling was enough.

 

[Wookie]

There are 2 issues here. First, DSD can be done safely, I'm living proof, as I did over 1,000 of them one year in St. Lucia back when they were an 8:1 ratio. I always did 8:2, with a DM on the surface to catch the bolters. The only time the bolters were unaccompanied was on that ride up, and we could see them and see if they were exhaling. Usually they were screaming. You cannot maintain 8:2 ratios in a mudhole in Utah.

Second, I don't understand why PADI wouldn't circle the wagons with their instructor and BSA. PADI and BSA's insurance companies have deep pockets, and PADI could have quietly changed their standards to require a certified assistant anytime. Instead, they drew themselves into the spotlight and got slapped, although gently, as Dr. Lector says, but I gotta tell you, if I paid a $2,000 dollar fine to the Coast Guard or Park Service for trying to cheat, I'd be mortified, as it looks like automatic guilt to me. Now the whole world knows that PADI (and other certification agencies) have standards that can't be met. I have always maintained that you can't teach greater than 1:1 and be assured of meeting standards for all cases, and the CESA is only one example.

I don't mind the mindset that anyone can be a diver. I know it isn't true, and I know that some certified won't be safe, but I see it as marketing, not a safet issue. I take objection to the practice that anyone with 100 dives can be an instructor. I barely had decent buoyancy control at 100 dives, and don't feel I mastered it until 1,000 dives, and I still can get screwed up in certain situations. We take kids, churn them through a CDC or dive college that are all over the world, and make instructors out of them. They don't know any different, nor do they know what they don't know.

That's why this happened. Not because PADI says anyone can learn to dive, hell, I could teach the cat to dive. It's because we throw young instructors into life or death situations, and this one choose poorly.

 

[flots am]

Can you please explain how it is possible to maintain "proper" supervision when teaching a DSD to ratio and one students bolts to the surface? Do you leave the student that bolted alone on the surface or the students that didn't underwater? Do you prevent the bolting student from reaching the surface? If yes did you commit manslaughter if he/she drowns?

I'm probably too much of a weenie, but I only do it in the shallow end of the pool with one student and never take my eyes off them.

 

[Kharon]

Makes me think of the SDI Solo diver liability waiver. Seems like these things will eventually progress to read...

I hereby acknowledge that by engaging in this activity I am attempting suicide. I do so as an adult of informed decisional capacity and of my own free will. In the event I succeed, I hereby hold everybody blameless.

Richard.

I'd sign it. lol. As long as they left me alone to do what I want afterwards.

As a solo diver I am fully aware and totally accept that it's all on me. It's why I'm equipped the way I am and why I don't want anyone, ANYONE touching my gear or "helping" me while I gear up.

 

[abnfrog]

I always thought DSD's in open water were nuts. First time I heard of it was a lady in my own OW class who told the instructor and I about being given a one hour pool session then taken to over 90 ft on an OW dive.
I don't do them outside of the pool.

i agree jim i turned down a contract at a resort in ontario , because they wanted to take the customer into open water ....dsd is done with me only in the pool ....its just my decision of course

 

[mills705]

PADI standards especially on the ratios are the maximum ratios in which you can take students.
I have never got anywhere close to the maximum ratios, teaching in the UK 2:1 is the most ive ever taken in. and usually 2:2 if possible!
I have no idea on the exact situation here but leaving two Kids on the bottom of an open water situation however bad the adult is is bad enough. Id usually brief that if one of us heads up then we all go up.

 

[cerich]

PADI standards especially on the ratios are the maximum ratios in which you can take students.
I have never got anywhere close to the maximum ratios, teaching in the UK 2:1 is the most ive ever taken in. and usually 2:2 if possible!
I have no idea on the exact situation here but leaving two Kids on the bottom of an open water situation however bad the adult is is bad enough. Id usually brief that if one of us heads up then we all go up.

It's interesting that every instr that posts has said they make the individual choice to reduce their personal ratios...that says something.

I have taught DSD to 8:1 in years past(living in caymans), I reduced it to 4:1 while there and then to 2:1 after I almost had a couple die on me because i only had two hands....

 

[flots am]

i agree jim i turned down a contract at a resort in ontario , because they wanted to take the customer into open water ....dsd is done with me only in the pool ....its just my decision of course

There's just too much random "stuff" that can happen with no warning.

I had a woman lie about her asthma, and all I can say is that I was very happy that I was just a couple of feet away in 4' of water, with nobody else to watch.

The OW classes give me a much better feel for who is in what kind of shape, after having them snorkel in the pool for a couple of hours and do some (snorkel) dives.

flots.