Completing my OW Cert. long post...

[Zoe83]

Well i now have my OW Cert, which is fantastic! but the dive centre & conditions...not so fantastic
I got certified on an island off Queensland, Australia, on the great barrier reef. To start with, on the first day the dive centre person forgot to pick us up, but picked 2 other people up from our resort, then, it took 2 hrs for myself and my husband to do our dive medical, bcause they hadnt booked us in, even though i had told them twice to book us in 3 and then 2 weeks in advance. Apart from that, first day was fine, instructor was great, nice and calm, we all completed the pool skills well.

Then the second day...hell. first off, my husband was a bit sick in the early hours, suspected food poisoning, the dive people were late so we started off diving late when the conditions were worse, we had a different instructor who was unprepaired and envoked no confidence in any of us.

We did two dives off the island, and the conditions were just terrible. huge 1-1.5m swell and visibility of under a metre. we lost one of our group of 5 students in the first minutes of the dive, out of pure panic from not being able to see a thing going down the rope. the instructor had no compassion and just said 'its up to you, i think you should give it a go' after which she declined, and the instructor told her to swim back to shore alone. Then, we decended again, only to have the remaining 4 of us gripping onto the rope that the instructor had hold of for dear life, because we could not tell where we were (up, down, sideways) resulting in us spiraling around creating a whirlpool affect for some time. we finally got down, and my husband indicated to the instructor that he was not ok. she couldnt see the signal because the vis was so bad, so he ascended and vomited (sorry gross) due to the food poisoning. We then all ascended and the instructor yelled at him for not telling her he was not ok, he just took it and said he was going in to the beach. She tried to convince him to go back down but he was too sick, and she told him to swim back alone like the other girl.
The remaining 3 of us, a bit nervous now, descended a third time with our instructor, and had to ascend yet again because 1. a girl's regulator had caught on the rope and pulled out of her mouth halfway down, causing her to have to breathe from her buddy who were both in a panic and 2. because i got panicked & disorientated as a result and accidentally inflated my bcd too much as I was dragging on the bottom.
Well 4th time lucky and we all got down to 6m and completed a 20min dive, all of us dragging along the bottom. After ascending we all felt nauseas because of the swell but swum back sucessfully.

After consoling my poor husband who was too sick to go on for the day and therefore couldnt complete the course, and the other girl who was crying because she felt she was a coward for not battling the horrendous conditions for her first ever dive (again no compassion from the instructor), we attempted a second dive with some skills to be tested, and this time a training DM came as my buddy. She was great and i felt a lot better with her there rather than the instructor.

we all got down (first accomplishment!) and we got through the fin pivots, half mask and full mask clearing (to give an idea of conditions, i couldnt notice a change in vis from when my mask was cleared to when it was filled!) ,regulator recovery and clearing. We then ascended again, and the instructor left me and the training DM on the surface while the other two went down for buddy breathing skills. The swell was so bad at this point that 2m waves were crashing over our heads. She told me these were the worst conditions she had dived in, told me never to dive in situations like this, and also made sure I would go and dive in good conditions after this course so i remembered diving was fun.
We then went down with the instructor and i did my buddy breathing sucessfully (yay!). Then we ascended and swam back to shore. We, the 3 remaining students were completely exhausted.
After lunch we were in the pool for 4 hours learning the rest of the skills, followed by 2hrs of theory, which took us to 7:30pm. I complained then but I was glad at least that we did learn everything we needed to, and they didnt just skim us through because it was a 3 day course. That being said, at this point we were all dreading the next day.

Final day, I left my poor husband who was now well at the resort and off I went to get this thing over with. (i thought diving was supposed to be fun! )
Me, the instructor, training DM and 2 other students got our gear on (i was finally able to bend over in it without falling over, small victory!) and got out into the once again horrible conditions. we did a buoyancy test (the hold breath with deflated bcd at surface) which showed we were all over-weighted, but the instructor wouldnt let us take any off, so we dragged along the bottom again. after that we went on to sucessfully complete more skills...full mask clearing, mask removal, replacement & clearing, fin pivot by orally inflating our bcd, weight belt and bcd removal & replacement on surface. After that we swam back to shore, changed tanks, and the other 2 students took a weight off, but i still wasnt allowed.

We then swam back out, sucessfully completed some navigation on the surface, the hover and the CESA. hooray! Then, we descended again, and pointed the instructor (who was pretending to be lost) the direction of shore, which she told us was west. we then swam directly west, only to get caught on the rocks (which we saw only once we hit them) because of the instructor not factoring in the surge/current causing us to drift across the beach. after that mishap we swam to shore.
The instructor said we were all great at our skills, but i think anyone who had to withstand those kind of crap conditions on their course would be...
After that we all completed our theory and passed our final exam. we would have been excited had we enjoyed the diving, but we were all just happy to have finished the damn thing.

I am thinking of writing a letter to the dive centre and/or PADI about the expectations that were put on us and the manner and lack of organisation of instructors at that dive centre, but I dont know how effective it would be since i did pass. Does anyone think I have reasonable concerns and should write the letter?
I just feel that it was unfair to ask that much of new divers, and that girl who dropped out of our course, and ended up tagging along with another course to give herself more time to finish, shouldnt have felt she was a coward or incompetant, because of how terrible the conditions were, and the lack of encouragement from instructors.

Also, my husband asked the other local dive shops and they said they would not have taken students diving in those conditions unless they wanted to, & would provide a full refund because of the unfortunate situation if a student chose not to dive. With our dive centre they were urging my husband to complete the theory and remaining pool skills so they didnt have to give him a refund, even though he would of had to pay for the whole course again in sydney when we got back. he ended up getting a partial refund because he was sick, which is better than nothing. i wanted to complete the course in sydney as well, but i stayed on because i started that one and didnt want to quit. If i had been sick i would have jumped at the chance to get out of it.

I'm glad I have the experience of doing those terrible dives though, I have learned not to panic even if I cant see anyone or anything, got a better feel for my position in the water, and that something huge and evil isnt waiting out there to get me (a big fear of mine before). I'm going to go along with my husband on one of his course dives (if the instructor lets me) so i can test out my skills in water with reasonable visibility. I think i will be more keen on diving then.

 

[Marek K]

Zoe--

Wow.

I'll leave it to others, knowledgeable about instructing and PADI standards, to comment about taking OW course divers out in those kind of conditions; or letting students in less-than-optimal shape make their own way back to the beach, no matter how close.

I suspect (hope) that keeping you over-weighted was on purpose in those kinds of swells, to keep you on the bottom.

But why do you say your husband would have had to to re-do the whole course again back home? They should have been able to complete his course work, exam, and pool sessions there; and given him the paperwork to complete his open-water dives elsewhere... anywhere. That's called a standard referral... or kind of reverse-referral, in this case. That would have probably been a bit more expensive in total than doing it all in one place, but less than having to do it all over again.

In any case, there is no reason in the world for either your husband or that other woman to think badly of themselves for aborting that dive. In fact, good for them. The absolute rule is, it's personal responsibility -- any diver can abort, at any time, for whatever reason. Even if they just "don't have a good feeling about this," or if the water looks an odd color.

Though I can see where that would be a tough call for a student to make while in a course like that.

And you should be very proud of yourself for having stuck through it, despite everything.

Finally, I know how stong an impression a bad diving experience can have. Please don't give up, or let your husband do so. It's not always like that -- not even close.

-Marek

 

[miketsp]

Well, first I think congratulations are in order for seeing it through.
It was unfortunate that your husband was not able to complete the course.
As for the conditions, there are two sides to this. Diving is all about experience and confidence and the earlier you hit some bad conditions, in my opinion, the better.
If this happened with an instructor nearby, still better, even if it wasn't the best instructor in the world.
I think you'll find that when you start diving in better conditions you will enjoy them much more because of what you've been through and if one of your future dive buddies silts up a site by kicking up the bottom, you won't face any surprises.
I know quite a few divers with a lot of logged dives that only dive in swimming pool conditions and as a result do not get everything they could out of their hobby.

 

[ScubaFreak]

Zoe,

Congratulations on getting through what I can only describe as a total mess. :11:
The instructor from the second day onwards, has broken standards straight away by sending a student back to the shore unaccompanied. It's as simple as that. So you would be perfectly in your rights to comment to PADI. People like this is what gives instructors a bad name. The DM trainee that you had assisting you at the surface seems to have the right idea, but again, I would never allow a trainee Divemaster to supervise an uncertified student at the surface. Regardless of their competence.

I'm quite intrigued that the Dive Op actually allowed the course to go ahead in such bad conditions. You're right, Diving is meant to be fun. Whereas I must admit, i would consider 1m swells to be fun , they're definitly not fun for students learning the basic skills.

What you described is also another reason to be wary of 3day certification courses. While SCUBA isn't that tough to learn, theres quite a lot of information within an OW course, and to cram it into 3 days, IMO is too much (but thats been discussed plenty of times)

Buoyancy checks are also very important, it makes skills, swimming and general diving more awkward and tricky if weighted incorrectly. So if you weren't happy, and voiced your opinion, this is another reason to alert PADI and let them know how you felt.

I think asking the instructor from your husbands course to join them on the OW dives might not be a bad idea, but depending on the class size etc, you may not be allowed as you won't directly have a buddy.

Glad you managed to get the cert, just remember, diving is fun, so remember to practice your skills and if you think that conditions are too strong for you, never ever be afraid or embarrassed to thumb the dive.

Scubafreak

 

[The Kraken]

Congrats on completing your course of study. My regards and regrets to your husband.

With respect to the conditions and Mike's position on adverse conditions, I must take an opposite position.

A new student, generally speaking, is in a new and hostile environment and is faced with enough task requirements in just performing the necessary skill requirements. In my opinon, for an instructor to compound the anxieties of the student and the difficulty factors of completing the requisite skill tasks is unconscionable.

It is my opinion that the instructor should have called the dive, I would have.

I would not knowingly put a certified, new diver in peril in those conditions.

I know this is a judgement call, but that is where I stand.

There is always tomorrow.

 

[Stirling]

I'm glad I have the experience of doing those terrible dives though, I have learned not to panic even if I cant see anyone or anything, got a better feel for my position in the water, and that something huge and evil isnt waiting out there to get me (a big fear of mine before). I'm going to go along with my husband on one of his course dives (if the instructor lets me) so i can test out my skills in water with reasonable visibility. I think i will be more keen on diving then.

There's always a silver lining ... congratulations for sticking it out and completing this mess of a check-out dive. I think you are right that the experience will be beneficial to you in your future diving - if nothing else, you will recognize better than many other new divers what surface conditions like those mean for the visibility, surge, and other conditions under water, and know enough to avoid diving in similar conditions in the future.

Another valuable lesson learned - dive professionals are not all equally professional, or even competent. You and your husband will have to watch out for yourselves, because nobody else has as much interest in keeping you safe.

Diving isn't just supposed to be fun, it *is* fun, and it's even more fun when it's done safely. It won't take many tries to have a truly great diving experience, whether in Sydney or elsewhere, and that will help put this fiasco into perspective.