Bent in Belize--Blue Hole Incident

[ScubaSteve]

Yeah sadly the dollar is put before safety all around the world. There are good and bad ops everywhere. The issues in this thread are not unique to Belize I am sure.

Although this dive site does not attract safe operators it seems


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[flots am]

I'll just add that in our several-hour chat many things were discussed that have not been revealed by either the diver or myself. Nor will I reveal them. My views, and that's all they are, are based on a lot more than is printed in this thread.

What do you think the response would be if a diver brought a sidemount rig for example, and wanted to use two AL80s on a Blue Hole dive?

Would the dive op make fun of it, or accommodate the request? I'd like to do the BH some time, but there's no way in hell I'd do it with a single 80.

flots.

 

[shoredivr]

If somebody chips in for cost, I'll gladly sidemount the Blue Hole.

 

[scubadada]

What do you think the response would be if a diver brought a sidemount rig for example, and wanted to use two AL80s on a Blue Hole dive?

Would the dive op make fun of it, or accommodate the request? I'd like to do the BH some time, but there's no way in hell I'd do it with a single 80.

flots.

Why wouldn't this be perfectly acceptable? There may be a requirement that this diver surface at the same time as the rest of the group, i.e. no or minimal decompression diving.

Go for it, Craig

 

[boulderjohn]

What do you think the response would be if a diver brought a sidemount rig for example, and wanted to use two AL80s on a Blue Hole dive?

Would the dive op make fun of it, or accommodate the request? I'd like to do the BH some time, but there's no way in hell I'd do it with a single 80.

flots.

Why wouldn't this be perfectly acceptable? There may be a requirement that this diver surface at the same time as the rest of the group, i.e. no or minimal decompression diving.

Go for it, Craig

I would bet you would be charged for both tanks. If you are fine with that, I bet they would be, too.

 

[peterbj7]

I've dived it side-mount with two tanks, and I wasn't charged for the second tank. I've also dived it with a CCR with an Al 80 side slung, and I wasn't charged for that either. When I dive it I generally have a totally redundant air supply with me, not for me but for others.

 

[CarlosCabanas]

Here are some of my suggestions for a diver wanting to dive the blue hole:

do get some warm up dives in prior to the blue hole or/and take a refresher
don't dive the day before
choose a reputable operator
check your equipment
dive with a buddy (I usually tell couples to hold hands)
be the last down to depth, the first to start on the way up, and the last to leave the safety stop
watch your air consumption and neutral buoyancy
ascend slowly
do not dive if you have any medical history that has not been cleared by a doctor (preferably a Dr. that knows something about diving!)
if any of these suggestions don't make sense to you learn more about diving before diving the blue hole!

You can read the rest of the blog post here:
Is Diving the Blue Hole in Belize Safe? « Tranquility Bay Resort
It would be nice if the dive industry in Belize would see that this is an opportunity to sell extra training instead of cramming boats with inexperienced divers. I definitely have heard of a few other cases of accidents that went "unreported". I generally try to encourage inexperienced divers to skip the blue hole.
Carlos

 

[Ayisha]

One part of this I don't understand,
A lot of Americans are condemning the actions of the dive shop for allowing the guy to dive and all the other points...and how Belize has a poor standard for diver safety.
On the other hand, I see posts in other threads how dive ops in the US don't send a DM in the water and everyone is pretty much on their own. Many divers seem to resent a "babysitting" dm in the water.
How would this diver have faired in the US on a dive boat?
I'm not trolling. I have never dived in the US. Except to test a new reg once in my sister's pool...

I'm Canadian and we also don't have Dive Guides in the water. There is a captain and possibly a first mate, and their role is to get the divers to and from the dive site, and assist the divers if necessary into and out of the water. The captain of course has the final say on whether a diver will do a particular dive based on what the captain has seen leading up to the dives and the competence the diver has shown.

This independence in planning and execution produces self-reliant divers and cohesive dive teams that tend to not sign up for dives they are not qualified for or experienced to do since there is no guardian watching over them.

Those that want a DM can hire one individually or join a training dive or club/shop-led dive, which may also have qualifying measures.

When I did the Blue Hole 6 years ago, the planned depth by the shop was 130 feet. They said they would go to 130 feet, that no one should go beyond that and if anyone went deeper than 130 feet, they would not be going after them. The DM did go to 137 feet with me right beside him, and my buddy went to 150 feet briefly. My buddy told me he wanted to go to 150 feet and I said I did not want to, so the DM would become my buddy.

I did the dive on an AL 63, as I normally do, and ended with close to half a tank of air. After seeing me use about half of an AL 63 per dive all week while others ran low/out of air half way through the dives, they approved the AL 63 for me. The dive was not planned as a deco dive and we never went into or close to deco. The dive was conducted as a multi-level dive with what was essentially a long drifting safety stop at the end. The Blue Hole does not need to be a deco dive.

A brand new o/w diver who was certified a day or two before also joined our group with a personal instructor, and we overheard the arguments between instructors about letting him do the Blue Hole, but the customer got what he wanted. We were surprised about that, but have since heard of that several times.

Our Blue Hole dive was followed by two mid-range dives interspersed with long safety intervals, food and plenty of water. Again, no deco dives and multi-level dives with extended safety stops.

There are dives and dive ops/Dive Guides that are a little risky, then there are the dive ops that are way out there for what they will allow/plan for their single tank guests to do.

 

[flots am]

On the other hand, I see posts in other threads how dive ops in the US don't send a DM in the water and everyone is pretty much on their own. Many divers seem to resent a "babysitting" dm in the water.
How would this diver have faired in the US on a dive boat?

The difference is that in the US in a location with no DM, the boat would have arrived at the divesite and the captain or DM would have said "We're here. This is a hole with cool stuff in it. The cool stuff starts around 130' and the bottom is at 200'+. Have a nice dive."

At this point, the people who have never been deeper than 60' would say "Holy ****! I'm not doing a 150' dive and I'm sure not doing it solo!" and that would have been the end of it.

flots.

 

[peterbj7]

The Blue Hole does not need to be a deco dive

But it usually - almost invariably - becomes one. Just work out the profile to see why. As normally performed it is NOT a recreational dive, but is described as such by most operators, and very inexperienced divers are taken on it. In my dive shop I used to offer progressive deep training over three days, with an additional assessment day preceding them, which would both give people experience of diving to c.150ft and would weed out those clearly unsuitable. But that training wasn't free and very few people ever took advantage of it, not even with me just charging for the dives and giving my time free. You can't offer quality if people won't pay for it.