my boyfriend and I had a really awful experience this weekend
First a bit about us: I'm 23 and have done about 10-15 dives, but unfortunately haven't been able to get certified!
My bf, on the other hand, has absolutely zero diving experience.
We had decided this past weekend (oct 31st - nov 3rd) to do the PADI OWD course, and were both quite excited about this, but encountered a series of problems which culminated in and extremely dangerous situation.
Firstly, the instructor failed to send us the manuals on time, and they arrived the day before we flew out to the coast to do the course, so we didn't have much time to study them.
Secondly, the instructor failed to show us the video or do any classroom/pool teaching
Thirdly, and I think this is the worst thing, we didn't fill in any medical forms or disclaimers, which I know you're meant to do before you dive.
So this is what happened: the guy has a dive school inland and a small house on an island where we were going to stay for the 3 nights, 4 days in which he said we could easily complete the course. We arrived in the city where the dive school is on thursday night, and the instructor informed us we would leave for the island on Friday at 8am.
On Friday morning we arrived to find his boat filled with other tourists he would drop off on the way, as well as another couple, one of whom was certified and had hired this guy for the day to lead 2 dives for him while his gf stayed on the surface. I thought it was a bit odd to take a complete beginner on his first dive with someone who was experienced, but I didn't say anything.
We arrived on the island , dropped our things off and got straight back on the boat with all the gear ready to do our first dive. I asked the instructor if we weren't going to do any classes or shallow dives first so my bf could familiarize himself with all the gear, but the guy said he wanted us to relax and enjoy the first dive, and we would do all the training exercises the next day. After him explaining to my bf to breathe slowly and not hold his breath, and also how to equalize (?apologies if this is the wrong word) the pressure in his ears and sinuses, we did the first dive. It was around between 10-15mt, for around 30 minutes.
I have to emphasize the fact that no buoyancy training was given to my bf, and the weight was not properly checked, resulting in his floating dangerously fast up to the surface during the dive due to inadecuate weighting. He wasn't taught how to use his BCD at all.
Right after the dive, my bf told the instructor he felt really uncomfortable and scared because he didn't know how to use the equipment properly. The instructor told him not to worry, that he would learn buoyancy by instinct during the next dive, and after a short interval, we did the following dive. The bf was slightly more relaxed during this dive, which lasted about 45 min at slightly less depth.
That afternoon, the instructor told us he was going back to the mainland, and left us to spend the night on the island alone. No training was given that afternoon.
The following day (Saturday) it rained heavily all day, and there were very high winds and strong waves. Obviously we could not dive, and even though the instructor arrived back at the island in the morning, he barely spoke to us all day and didn't use the opportunity to teach us some of the 8-10 hours of theory that were supposedly included in the course. We spent the day reading the OWD manual.
On Sunday it was raining when we woke up. There was also an extremely high tide and strong winds, again causing huge waves. Despite this, the instuctor told us that it would be calmer on the other side of the island, and began to get the equipment ready when it stopped raining. He helped us on to the boat with all the equipment, and waited until the boat had started to leave the dock to inform us that he would not be coming with us, and the boat driver would be in charge of the dive that day. He didn't even give us a chance to protest as we had already left by that time!
I've checked the school's website and this person is not trained or authorized to lead expeditions or teach diving.
This guy decided to take us to a place I had been diving before, which is well known because anyone who remains on the boat normally gets very sick due to the big waves in this area. There are also some fairly strong currents so it's not an ideal situation for a beginner, even on a nice day. As the weather was pretty awful, it took us all about 3 minutes to start feeling very sick.
The guy explained very briefly the depth and duration of the dive (I have to admit I got a really bad feeling when I asked the guy how many metres 30ft was, and he said he wasn't sure but he thought it was around 40m!),
