MikeFerrara:
The idea of taking someone on an OW dive after one pool session absolutely terrifies me. Diving is buoyancy control, buoyancy control and more buoyancy control. Without buoyancy control you go up and down with little control and timely equalization gets to be a problem. so...we take people diving before they have learned buoyancy control and we certify them before they learn buoyancy control...and we're going to be surprised when ears get hurt? I mean...come on...a discover scuba diving program consists of confined water dive 1 (no buoyancy control taught there) and OW dive 1. Like I said, lets go diving without learning buoyancy control...to prove what exactly?
Evidently I have been confused. Below is copied from my PADI Digital Instructor Manual, Open Water Diver, Confined Water dive #1:
7. Swim underwater with scuba equipment while maintaining control of both
direction and depth, properly equalizing the ears and mask to accommodate
depth changes.
On the DSD Flip Chart, right after the Alternate Breathing pictures is a picture of a diver swimming horizontally with fins only. As I understood it, I have been teaching all my students neutral bouyancy in CW #1 / DSD pool, as well as ear equalization and trim.
I have also required additional dive/expense of a couple mountain climbers who could only take
completely full breaths; no breath control, no bouyancy control, no certification. After I hurt them in the pocketbook they were finally motivated enough to listen and learn.
I just recently had a NAUI Universal Referal student from NJ who had a problem equalizing his ears. He was all signed off by his pool/book instructor, but after consecutive single dive days resulting in bloody snot, I refused to do any more dives until after he saw a doctor. I do not believe he knew what ear equalization is. He told me the next day he would return to NJ and consider the quarry.
The people I see who suffer ear trauma are the ones who want to do it so bad they lie on the medical release form &/or they lie about getting their ears equalized. After flying hours with a bunch of sick people to a place with millions of flowers, nobody will admit to any congestion. I warn everyone, everyday, that congestion can cause the expanding air to be trapped in the ear during ascent and that we don't want anyone to perforate the eardrum.
If people, parents, kids, lie to me about ear equalization they run the risk of hurting their ears. If they can't control their bouyancy swimming around at 6-7 feet deep in our pool (not easy for everybody), they don't get to go on the ocean dive. My average certified refreshers who have never done a shore dive are way worse divers than my average DSD's. I guess I should look out for the dive police, evidently I am not allowed to require diving skills in order to dive.
With regard to the ear problem of this and the other thread, as stated it's a pretty sorry affair, but it's just a bad apple, not the whole bushel.