What's expected of DMs in Coz?

[weaponeer]

This past week while diving in Coz I witnessed something done by an "in-water" DM that I consider a questionable practice, but that's completely my opinion. To help me better understand my observations, I'm asking other Coz divers to give me their take on the things I saw.

I was on a boat of 8 divers. Two of the divers were fairly new to the sport with about 25 dives each. The rest of us had more experience. One DM was in the water with us. My profile for the dive was 83 feet for 43 minutes. All divers stayed together following the DM. After reaching max depth and about 30 minutes into the dive, the 2 newbies signaled low on air (700 psi) to the DM. The DM signaled back to them to begin their ascent together. The rest of us remained at depth with the DM and completed our dives.

At the time the newbies began their ascent, the DM did nothing to assist them, such as deploying his SMB. He watched them ascend periodically while leading the rest of us through swim-throughs and around the tall pillars. When the rest of us had reached a low air status, we all began our ascents in pairs. I deployed my own SMB as my wife and I ascended for our safety stops. The DM never touched his the entire dive. We completed the dive with no difficulties.

My question is, shouldn't the DM have deployed his SMB for the newbies to use in their ascent and to mark our position for our boat to see where we were and for other boats to avoid that location as divers were ascending?

Also, should such new divers be grouped with more experienced divers doing a deeper dive like that? They obviously needed to practice more in order to reduce their "air hog" syndrome. It was obvious that they had not mastered buoyancy yet, which added to their using more air than the rest of us.

Thanks for the help.

 

[robint]

DMs in Cozumel are nothing more than a dive guide. I find nothing sounds amiss with what he did. Was this their first day of diving? They may have been diving with him all week and he was comfident in their being able to do a safety stop alone. The water is very clear there, most likely the boat was right there watching them do the safety stop so no need for a safety sausage. As certified divers, you are responsible for knowing when to go up, how to do it safely, and how to signal a boat for pickup.

Should they have been on a boat with more experienced divers? Well, did that dive op only have 1 boat?? Maybe that was the right boat for them that day as other boats, if they had them, may have been used for newer divers or OW class students or going to even deeper sites inappropriate for them.

Just my 2 cents.

robin

 

[cicopo]

In my mind he should have sent up a marker. He should have done it again when the group surfaced too. I've been on boats with air hogs, and been one of them too, and when I was I had made prior arrangements with the DM about what I'd do when I was low so that others wouldn't have to surface with me. I still burn a bit more air for a multitude of reasons including the big one, which if I have a camera I end up covering extra ground compared to when I dive without it. It's hard to set a standard policy on low milage divers since most ops don't demand that all divers meet certain standards to dive with them, plus having been a rookie who burdened seasoned divers way back when I'm still willing to pay back for those days.
If new divers were always expected to dive with other new divers a lot of them would suffer by missing out on the pointers seasoned divers tend to pass on. That's my thinking. Larry

 

[CZMDM]

Absolutely the DM should have sent the buoy to the surface. The making of the safety stop....single most important time to have the buoy afloat as the divers are very shallow and sometime pop to the surface. When they surface, this is THE most critical time to have the float. Lot of boat traffic and hard to see 1 or 2 divers sometimes. He/she can always partially inflate it and then reel it back to him/her and release the air.

 

[idocsteve]

In my mind he should have sent up a marker.

Yes it would be reasonable for the DM to send up a marker if he had accepted responsibility for leading the group, however it's all about what was discussed in the predive briefing.

 

[Christi]

My question is, shouldn't the DM have deployed his SMB for the newbies to use in their ascent and to mark our position for our boat to see where we were and for other boats to avoid that location as divers were ascending?

Absolutely - the DM is only a guide - but he is responsible for taking prudent safety precautions and one of those precautions is to deploy his/her SMB for the first divers (and subsequent divers) sent to the surface. This is SOP in Cozumel for ALL guides to deploy a marker when divers are surfacing.

Also, should such new divers be grouped with more experienced divers doing a deeper dive like that? They obviously needed to practice more in order to reduce their "air hog" syndrome. It was obvious that they had not mastered buoyancy yet, which added to their using more air than the rest of us.

Thanks for the help.

Too many unknowns to answer this accurately - Robin provided some of those variable questions that we don't know the answer to. However, generally speaking - I think all of us operations with more than one boat do our best to group divers as closely as possible based on what mix of divers we have diving on any given day/week). It's not a perfect science and some people are actually much netter divers than they give themselves credit for on their paperwork while others have an overly inflated perception of their skill level - so, we all do the best we can in that regard.

BTW - being an "air hog" doesn't really make someone a bad diver - I know some EXCELLENT divers that simply go through more air than others.

 

[Becca_007]

I think it would have been a courtesy for the guise to shoot up a marker but why didn't the ascending divers have one themselves?

 

[idocsteve]

I think it would have been a courtesy for the guise to shoot up a marker but why didn't the ascending divers have one themselves?

Here's some possible reasons

The two divers in question were

-unprepared for drift diving
-untrained for drift diving
-not knowledgeable enough about drift diving to know they oughta have a marker and reel
-not trained in the use of a reel and smb

That's for starters

My first experience with drift diving was 3 years or so ago with a local dive shop; got my SSI drift dive certification in Cozumel, nothing was said during the training about having our own smb's and reels. Prior to the trip were were advised to bring safety sausages and consider having an audible surface signaling device.

On a trip to Coz last month nothing was said about smbs, sausages, reels or anything else.

Just "follow me" and then a splash as the DM hit the water.

 

[weaponeer]

Absolutely the DM should have sent the buoy to the surface. The making of the safety stop....single most important time to have the buoy afloat as the divers are very shallow and sometime pop to the surface. When they surface, this is THE most critical time to have the float. Lot of boat traffic and hard to see 1 or 2 divers sometimes. He/she can always partially inflate it and then reel it back to him/her and release the air.

Absolutely - the DM is only a guide - but he is responsible for taking prudent safety precautions and one of those precautions is to deploy his/her SMB for the first divers (and subsequent divers) sent to the surface. This is SOP in Cozumel for ALL guides to deploy a marker when divers are surfacing.

Thanks for the local take on use of SMBs. Being a firm believer in them myself, I feel they are just as important to have with me as the rest of my dive kit. The only time I don't deploy it is if my DM does, or I'm ascending a line from a wreck to the dive boat.

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Granted, every diver is responsible for their own safety and diving within their level of experience and training. I except the fact that dive ops can't match divers in a boat based on that experience and training. I look forward to learning from more experienced divers, and I try to pass on what I have learned to newer divers every day I dive. The ride and SI would be boring without discussion between divers, comparing gear and experiences and training.

But I feel the DM and dive op should always exhibit the highest level of safety practices that meet the needs of every diver on a given dive. Do I care if the DM doesn't deploy his SMB for me? No, that's why I carry one with a 100 ft finger spool. I carry a whistle and mirror as well.

I've been diving in Cozumel for 6 years, mostly with a single dive op, but I have been with other ops and many different DMs. This was the first DM that didn't shoot his SMB to the surface, at all, on both dives.

 

[Mike]

Interesting. I consider the sausage I carry as an emergency item to be used only in case of a situation out of the routine where I would need to signal, no different then the signal mirror and the whistle I have with me.