Thank you all so very much for your support and encouragement. I spent some serious time considering giving up diving because of lost trust.
WreckWriter has taught me to be cautious of who and where I place my trust.
But the rest of you have taught me that there are wonderful people out there who I can trust and who I can turn to when in need. To all of you... thank you again for encouraging me to continue my training.
:band2:
Now... please excuse me while I tie up a loose end....
Originally posted by WreckWriter
Heh, I considered that Pug. I just can't do it though because I still think I'm right and there's an untold piece of this story.
You are right, WreckWriter. Here's the rest of the story. This post's for you...
I just got back from returning my rental tank to LDS-2. Spent quite a bit of time talking with two of the DMs who were very interested in learning exactly what had happened. I also took my snorkel with me. Before I could even show them the snorkel, they told me exactly what make and model it was.
The snorkel is a Dacor Integra II model. The shop had experienced problems with this snorkel and had pulled them all from their shelves and returned them to the manufacturer. They also replaced the snorkels for customers who had purchased them and notified all of their Instructors and DMs of the problem. They were very concerned that my OW instructor had not recognize the problem immediately.
Here's my understanding of the problem: There is a batch of these snorkels that have a defective seam on the bottom panel that covers the purge valve. In some models, this seam is glued and there is a batch in which this glued seam is the point of failure. Dacor has since eliminated this seam and now manufactures this snorkel with the bottom as one solid piece.
LDS-2's DM took my snorkel and tested it in water and their description of the test results is "It's leaking like a sieve!" They gave me a new snorkel, spent an hour and a half with me discussing what happened and what was and was not up to their standards. They went to great lengths to alleiviate my fears about diving and to sincerely regain my trust in them.
They patiently and honestly addressed any and every concern I had and I now feel confident about diving again. We schedule my OW for later this month because I didn't want to go back out right away. When I asked if I could talk to the instructor beforehand, they called him on the spot and let me talk to him privately in the office until I felt completely comfortable about diving with this instructor. This instructor even dives with the same BC that I have and is willing to help me with the transistion.
The DMs handled everything wonderfully themselves, even though management was not on site. And when everything was said and done, they strongly suggested that I contact management and inform them about what happened at the OW because they said that was definitely not up to the standards of the dive shop and that management would definitely want to know.
LDS-2 -- YOU ROCK!!!
So, I feel much better now. I now have proof that there was a problem with the snorkel. I know that I really was overweighted. (The DMs said the same thing as Uncle Pug: I should be floating at eye level with no air in the BC and 1/2 lung full.) And the DMs agreed with my decision to abort the dive.
Now I believe again that there are sincere, trustworthy Instructors and DMs out there and that not all LDS's are in it only for the money. Some really do care about diving and safely training new divers.
And now, I'm ready to continue learning to dive again!
