Unknowing divers endangering kids

[mikswi]

"I have made the INFORMED decision to dive this site without a buddy many times previously, and will continue to do so."

So, you made the "informed" decision to dive without a buddy.........yet you are positive and are looking to get a following on why this individual should not be letting a youth breath off his reg. Seems to me that you appear to feel that only you can relate.

"My lack of a buddy has no bearing on the situation I have described." Are you taking exception to someone challenging your position?



"but such a situation makes me question just how informed the child was."
THIS is the most important statement you have made so far.......do you "know" exactly how much training this person has had? Yet you feel qualified to make a blanket statement declaring that the person had no business doing this.

"I decided not to intervene at that point, as I thought that that might precipitate the uncontrolled ascent that so worried me. Instead, I got rather close to them, hoping that if the kid happened to slip out of the man's arm, I would be able to grab him before he lost the reg and paniced"

So, you observed a situation and WAITED for something bad to happen?Were you trying to be a hero?

 

[scubafool]

DIR? Actually, PADI, SSI, NAUI and YMCA teach to dive with a buddy. But I'm not critizing solo diving - do some myself. Just thinking that it would be funny if these guys saw you diving near them and thought, "Good thing this guy is hanging close in case he needs help, since he's all alone."

Well, I DID have two regs available to me. These folks had just exactly one each. That is, until I got close to them. Then I still had only two, while they now had two.

 

[GreenDiverDown]

Give the fool a break. If I'd seen what he described I would have had the same concern. I believe that one could easily make an argument that he had a moral duty to approach the adult just as he did.

 

[String]

Did you miss the part about being able to embolixe in 5 feet of water?

Not if qualified

Or the part concerning how the only source of air that this kid had was this diver's octo? Once he became seperated from that, a natural reflex would be to hold his breath and swim for the surface.

Not if qualified

Quite simply, any wetsuit has some amount of positive bouyancy, and to offset this, we wear negatively bouyant items, such as tanks, regulators, and weightbelts. This young "diver" had no such items on his person, and was dependant on th diver who DID have such things to hold him down.

Again, not an issue to a qualified diver. Stay a short amount of time and shallow (ie freediving depth). No problem with DCS, trained not to breath hold. No issue.

Hopefully, a person who is certified to dive knows enough to breath out in such a situation, but then again, shouldn't and wouldn't they also know enough to not do such a thing in the first place?

Why NOT do it? If they are aware of how to handle the situation then theres no reason not to. This isnt an inherently dangerous situation.

And explain to me just what the heck difference how LONG they stayed down would affect the outcome of a bouyant ascent while he held his breath on this kid's life expectancy.

Who said anything about breath holding? As i said originally, if the kid was certified then he'd know not to. Then "long" becomes an issue due to rapid ascent.


If the kid was qualified i say you massively overreacted to a benign situation.

 

[scubafool]

So, you observed a situation and WAITED for something bad to happen?Were you trying to be a hero?

Reread what I posted. I made a snap decision. I was worried that if I tried to intervene that such intervention might actuallly be the trigger to the accident that I felt might happen. So I put myself in what I felt was a position to have a chance to be able to stop a tragedy from occuring. I have absolutely no wish to be a hero. Just isn't in me.

 

[scubafool]

If the kid was qualified i say you massively overreacted to a benign situation.

A qualified diver would have had his own tank & regulator.

 

[String]

A qualified diver would have had his own tank & regulator.

and if a qualified diver decided just to snorkel and then decided he wanted to stay down a minute or so ?

Qualified divers arent welded into their kit 24/7. Sometimes they do actually just snorkel or even swim.

I spent a SI last week snorkelling with seals. I had no BC or regs on. Doesnt mean i lost my qualified diver status.

Ive seen the share a reg to a snorkeller (who is a diver) done many times before, ive even done it myself when i want to hang around for a minute or so under water shallow. Ive even done about 20 mins with no kit on at all except wetsuit buddy breathing with another diver in shallow water. I fail to see the issue if the person is qualified.

 

[scubafool]

I did hundreds of snorkel swims & freedives before I ever took a SCUBA class. Before I did this particular dive today, I did ~ 3 freedives. So I have been on both sides of the coin.

Plain and simple, this was a dangerous situation. We can go back and forth, but that makes no difference. If I freedive with a wetsuit, I use a weightbelt BECAUSE WITHOUT ONE I HAVE A LOT OF PROBLEMS GETTING AND STAYING DOWN. And I am rather experienced with freediving this particular site.

I don't see where there is a lot of gray area here.

 

[String]

How on earth is it a dangerous situation for a qualified diver to breathe air at a very shallow depth from a regulator ?! It defies belief that anyone can think so.

A qualified diver would (i) not breath hold and (ii) know not to overstay due to the ascent. In addition to that a thin wetsuit although positive certainly wont rocket you up.

As you blatently never bothered to find out if the other person was qualified its useless to speculate here although i do find it rather ironic that you broke almost every agencies rules about solo diving (thereby accepting the risk) yet arent happy to see someone else take an acceptable and calculated risk when theres a fair chance both parties involved understood it.

 

[GreenDiverDown]

So...what would you have done?