"Worst Diver I have ever Seen!"

[Zeeman]

OK, managed to read all the posts, and did it for several reasons...

- there is humour in other peoples misery, and I needed a good laugh on a Monday morning.
- it serves as a bit of a "reality certification" for myself, I've only done 60 odd dives, and whilst I'm very comfortable in the water, and am the last person to ever panic, I know I have a lot to learn, and I am very happy to take good advice from all sources
- finally, I know a diver like this, said diver is very happy at being a bad diver. Said diver rockets all over the place,does not have any clue about keeping "within proper awareness range" of their buddy, and has horrible air consumption (due to treating the dive as a race to see how much can be seen in the given time). Said persons solution to the air usage problem is to use other peoples air after running low
I'm currently in "nice" mode... tough love mode is VERY close...

Z...

 

[Diver Dennis]

If there is nothing you can do to make her listen, don't dive with her anymore and tell her why. Sometimes all you can do is save yourself...

 

[Zeeman]

If there is nothing you can do to make her listen, don't dive with her anymore and tell her why. Sometimes all you can do is save yourself...

I have to agree with this one...

Z..

 

[Jcsgt]

I'm no dive professional, and compared to the majority of you, I'm a relative newbie. However, I might be inclined to refuse to dive with her. She sounds like an accident waiting to happen. Hopefully, she won't get anyone else hurt in the process.

I was on a boat in Ft. Lauderdale, a couple years ago, preparing to do a wreck dive at 80' plus. There was this guy, probably in his late 40's, who repeatedly bragged to us that he was an instructor. His wife, sitting meekly by him, was going to make her first saltwater dive on that wreck. Mind you, there was a pretty decent current running and quite a bit of surface chop.

I started really watching this guy as he was talking, and noticed his hands were shaking badly. He seemed to have trouble getting his gear set up and ready to go. The whole time, he's trying to tell his wife to relax, etc., etc. He comes over to me and asks if they could hang out with us on the bottom. I had a bad feeling about this, so I lied and said we were already teaming up with a couple other divers. Ordinarily, I would have jumped at the chance to dive with an instructor, considering my low level of experience.

We all started giant striding off the back of the boat where we were to grab the line, pull ourselves to the buoy then head down the line to the wreck. The guys wife jumps in, goes over to the buoy and waits for her husband. He jumps in and immediately panics. Since I was next in line, I stopped a few feet from him (so he didn't try to climb over me) and got him to calm down. Once he was calm, he exited the water. His wife completed the dive, without incident, after being paired with an insta-buddy.

 

[SparticleBrane]

Perhaps instead of trying to teach her diving skills, someone try to teach her a bit of humility?

 

[Sideband]

Ouch! LOL....
Just to point out one more time, she is with a inst doing rescue but they are doing confined water skills. Everyone understands how bad she sucks, and yes, she is told every dive.

The instructor needs to back that up by failing her.

J

 

[justleesa]

WC, you mean to say that she wants to become a DM?

 

[Penopolypants]

We had a student like that in my OW class. Her skills weren't that bad, but she refused to pay attention when the instructor was explaining what skill we were going to do next, and refused to take any criticism to heart. She also refused to stick next to her assigned buddy and would take off, or, worse, she had her octo floating loose and was not even looking in her buddies direction during the OOA drill drill in the pool (I was her buddy at the time - now I know what it's like to dive for an octo ). Our instructor took her to the corner of the pool and talked to her away from the class several times, but it just didn't stick.

By the third pool session, she was out of the class. I am glad that she didn't get certified, but I fear that she eventually found somebody to certify her. Maybe she did, and then moved to Hawaii?

 

[alcina]

That instructor needs a slap if she is doing Rescue.

At no point in any of the posts from those who have dived with her do I see any indication that she is ready for Rescue. She must go back and master the basics.

Again, no one is doing her any favors by not "making" her become a better diver.

 

[ItsBruce]

Its interesting how thoughts coalesce and change. Initially I was going to say I’m with Seadoggirl. If she is dangerous, you’ve got to let her know she is not cut out for diving. There is a big difference between bad skills and bad decisions. Bad skills are just bad skills and are unlikely to lead to serious injury unless they lead to panic. But, bad judgment leads to serious injury. Then I thought to say I’m also with Divedoggie’s suggestion of saying “You are no longer welcome on our boat.” (Gosh knows how many times I’ve thrown people off my boat.) If you can’t do THAT, then go with DD: “If there is nothing you can do to make her listen, don't dive with her anymore and tell her why. Sometimes all you can do is save yourself...”