DM responsibilities/another Q

[Desultory]

Hello,
I have a couple of questions which has become quite contraversial within my diving centre.

The issue is; I am a Divemaster working in the Andaman sea for your general fairly large dive centre.
I am originally Bsac trained and have later converted to Padi. Bsac have trained me to set up
my own equipment ALWAYS! But dive centres around the world have for a while been getting their divemasters
to set the 'fun divers' equipment up for them, 'as its good customer service'. We are required to tell the divers that its
shop policy to set their equipment up.
The issue arises because if the equipment fails etc the DM's then become responsible.
Not only this but people with 100 dives come to us and actually don't know how to set their own equipment up!!
I personally think this is wrong as does one of our instructors (surprise surprise he isn't originally Padi trained)

Would some one tell me the Padi RULE on this?
Not more opinion please....just facts would be nice. Thanks!


Second question;
One of our instructors tells us that we should purge a reg upon turning the air on as apparently 'this saves the first stage o rings
& generally helps stop long term damage'. Is this true?? Or is there any actual reason for doing this.
Or as I was originally taught-just placing the gauge against something to stop the glass/plastic from exploding out in to eyes etc is fine??
Again please no opinions. I've heard enough 'heresay'.
Appreciate replies.
Regards
Luke

 

[Diver Dennis]

I don't think there is a PADI rule for equipment set up. I have seen exactly what you describe, "experienced" vacation divers that do not know how to set up their own equipment.

 

[Dive-aholic]

No PADI rule for either thing you mention. And if you see me on your boat, don't even think about touching my gear. I only dive off of boats that don't have the policy your shop has.

I was taught the purge rule, too. Nothing to do with the 1st stage o-rings. The air goes right past them either way. Also, I've never seen an spg explode!

 

[Hank49]

Second question;
One of our instructors tells us that we should purge a reg upon turning the air on as apparently 'this saves the first stage o rings
& generally helps stop long term damage'. Is this true?? Or is there any actual reason for doing this.
Or as I was originally taught-just placing the gauge against something to stop the glass/plastic from exploding out in to eyes etc is fine??
Again please no opinions. I've heard enough 'heresay'.
Appreciate replies.
Regards
Luke

I don't know about o ring damage, but opening the tank valve while pressing the purge on the second stage and slowly releasing it stops the piston end from slamming into the high pressure seat on balanced and unbalanced piston regs. One unbalanced reg brand that I worked on was very susceptible to this and the high pressure seat would "mushroom" after only 20 dives or so, causing the seat to leak.

 

[RJP]

I agree with the "I'll handle my own gear, thank you" approach but I can also see the point of the dive op.

How many times do you see people putting their BCs on the tank backwards, not wetting the straps, losing their tanks, not opening their tanks, not checking their own equipment, etc, etc.

In general, I guess that "not letting our dumber customers kill themselves" is a pretty good form of customer service!



I was on a boat in Kona recently that had the policy "We recognize that you're on vacation, and we're here to make sure you have as relaxing a time as possible, so we handle all your gear set-up, take down, etc for you. Unless you want to do it yourself, which is fine with us as well!"

This works out pretty well I think, because it lets folks who want to do their own gear do it, and lets folks who are not comfortable doing it themselves "off the hook" without having to raise their hands and say "duh, I don't remember which way the tank valve should face."

Now, whether that person should be diving is another question alltogether!

 

[lamont]

I don't know about o ring damage, but opening the tank valve while pressing the purge on the second stage and slowly releasing it stops the piston end from slamming into the high pressure seat on balanced and unbalanced piston regs. One unbalanced reg brand that I worked on was very susceptible to this and the high pressure seat would "mushroom" after only 20 dives or so, causing the seat to leak.

what about diaphram regs like apeks ds4s?

 

[Hank49]

what about diaphram regs like apeks ds4s?

I don't know Lamont. I mainly worked on SP, US Diver and Mares piston types. I'm sure DA Aquamaster would know though.

 

[wldflwrs03]

As I am still 'new' to the sport, and SSI trained, I cannot give the 'rule' for PADI, but I can say that part of my check off was proper set up of our equipment. From the time that we were 'shown' how to assemble, it was our responsibility (they would check it after we did it to ensure it was right), but, it was our equipment, so we did it.
Having been taught this way, I was shocked when by my husband and I were going on our vacation and he told me that the DM on the boat would be assembling our equipment. I immediately said NO WAY!! To me, that is my 'life' while underwater. We both own our own gear, so mabye that is why I have that attitude, but I would like to believe that I would still prefer to do it myself and maybe have someone check it after. As it ends up, the boat we were on did have each person assemble thier own gear. And honestly, it did amaze me to see some people that have been diving for a loooooong time (they were ever so proud to 'rub it in' to the newbie (me)), did not have a clue as to how to set up thier own gear (and yes, it was gear that they owned).

 

[The Chairman]

It is in the standards that in order to get a PADI OW cert you have to be able to set up your own gear.

There is no such requirement for "fun" scuba (I guess you mean "Discover Scuba) or for dives subsequent to certification.

As for the "damage", I have seen high pressure seats actually cracked. According to the manufacturer of this design, it happens during the initial pressurizing as the knife edged valve slams into the hard plastic seat. Some manufacturers (notably Atomic) have changed the composition and the geometry of this seat to resist this tendency.

 

[cgvmer]

Ok, I am a PADI newbie, and we were taught to setup our own gear and have our buddies do a buddie check on it. I have also dove on boats that essentially asked if anyone needed assistance, and was obviously looking for people that didn't want to fess up that they didn't remember how to setup as they offered to fix a few obvious errors.

I like the attitude the divemaster on the mentioned Kona boat took, CYA for the divemaster, and allowed the customer to have as much or as little support as they wished.
My preference, as a newbie, I want to setup my gear and don't mind when someone is walking around looking for obvious problems. I also make sure my buddy's gear is correct (they are my sons anyway) and I want them to look at mine as well.