paschen
Contributor
I never fully understood what instructors go through teaching - making sure everyone comes out alive etc while still making people feel like they have accomplished something. I truly do not know how you do it.
Backstory:
Vis was 1-2m on the weekend and I was happy to tag along on a dive (3 AdvOW students who were "practising" their navigation while the instructor did the last two OW dives for an OW student). Any excuse to get wet!
The dive plan was as follows:
East till hit pipe - go out around pipe, back in then West to second pipe - out to end - here the 3 Adv OW students would go North about another 15m do a square and come back in - while I, the instructor and OW student hung at the end of the pipe playing with buoyancy etc.
Plan the dive and dive the plan - right? Wrong.
The 3 Adv OW students kept finning off super fast all over the place and not staying close to eachother. The instructor was dragging the poor student with us as we tried to catch up to them and make them go nice and slow. We got to the point where they were to do their navigation exercise. I was buddied up on the fly by the instructor with one of the guys.
We lasted as a 4 for all of 2 minutes when my buddy went off flat out in the wrong direction.
I played chasie all over the bottom with him - finning like crazy while pulling myself along to keep him in sight. He was obviously hopelessly lost, but refused to admit he didn't know how to use his compass (even though he had done a navigation dive - no visibility makes you realise you don't know more than good vis I think).
Anyway. I draw a map of the site. I write the direction we need to take to get us back to the Pipe (which goes out 30m and we will hit if we take that direction). I show him on my compass, line him up and he is off again like a bat out of hell. Within moments his consol is dragging behind him, he is off line and shortly after we are again heading in the complete opposite direction with me chasing after him finning and pulling for all I am worth.
Without notice he surfaces (into a main boat traffic channel). I am now over the frustrated emotion and genuinely concerned for his safety. I very carefully surface and find him lining himself up with the pipe entrance - just as I get close enough to talk to him, he goes down without even giving me a glance, let alone telling me he is going down.
He doesn't descend fin first, he goes head down, gets turned around and is off going in the opposite direction again.
I am not very annoyed and also very worried because I want to call this dive and get the hell back to shore especially as I know his air was half of mine when we started the navigation exercise - I was now at 110bar and he would be at the most 50bar due to panicing etc - most of the traffic is pleasure boats (read "no idea how to handle a boat") and we are now WAY out of dive marker range. I chase and chase and chase and chase only to see his fins head upwards - surfacing again into the main channel. Before he could descend again I informed him we were swimming back on the surface - his air was now 35bar and was refusing to listen to me on compass work or to fin slower to reduce air consumption. He then swam off full speed, again leaving me behind. I yelled out at the top of my voice STOP to my buddy. He stopped and yelled back "You having difficulties swimming?" I couldn't have murdered him. I catch up to him and tell him even on the surface we should be sticking together. I suggest we practise using the compass on the surface to get back to shore... He says "I don't like to use my compass." Shoot me now.
We get back to shore and the instructor is visably relieved and trying to put a positive spin on it, but I tell you this - how in the world do you deal with people like that day in and day out? With hindsight, I think the dive should have been called as soon as it was evident that they AdvOW students weren't using their compasses. IMO, he did the right thing by putting me with him as his primary duty of care was to his OW student and theoretically the AdvOW students SHOULD know how to handle themselves underwater.
So hats off to Instructors and Guides who put up with wankers day in and day out.
Backstory:
Vis was 1-2m on the weekend and I was happy to tag along on a dive (3 AdvOW students who were "practising" their navigation while the instructor did the last two OW dives for an OW student). Any excuse to get wet!
The dive plan was as follows:
East till hit pipe - go out around pipe, back in then West to second pipe - out to end - here the 3 Adv OW students would go North about another 15m do a square and come back in - while I, the instructor and OW student hung at the end of the pipe playing with buoyancy etc.
Plan the dive and dive the plan - right? Wrong.
The 3 Adv OW students kept finning off super fast all over the place and not staying close to eachother. The instructor was dragging the poor student with us as we tried to catch up to them and make them go nice and slow. We got to the point where they were to do their navigation exercise. I was buddied up on the fly by the instructor with one of the guys.
We lasted as a 4 for all of 2 minutes when my buddy went off flat out in the wrong direction.
I played chasie all over the bottom with him - finning like crazy while pulling myself along to keep him in sight. He was obviously hopelessly lost, but refused to admit he didn't know how to use his compass (even though he had done a navigation dive - no visibility makes you realise you don't know more than good vis I think).
Anyway. I draw a map of the site. I write the direction we need to take to get us back to the Pipe (which goes out 30m and we will hit if we take that direction). I show him on my compass, line him up and he is off again like a bat out of hell. Within moments his consol is dragging behind him, he is off line and shortly after we are again heading in the complete opposite direction with me chasing after him finning and pulling for all I am worth.
Without notice he surfaces (into a main boat traffic channel). I am now over the frustrated emotion and genuinely concerned for his safety. I very carefully surface and find him lining himself up with the pipe entrance - just as I get close enough to talk to him, he goes down without even giving me a glance, let alone telling me he is going down.
He doesn't descend fin first, he goes head down, gets turned around and is off going in the opposite direction again.
I am not very annoyed and also very worried because I want to call this dive and get the hell back to shore especially as I know his air was half of mine when we started the navigation exercise - I was now at 110bar and he would be at the most 50bar due to panicing etc - most of the traffic is pleasure boats (read "no idea how to handle a boat") and we are now WAY out of dive marker range. I chase and chase and chase and chase only to see his fins head upwards - surfacing again into the main channel. Before he could descend again I informed him we were swimming back on the surface - his air was now 35bar and was refusing to listen to me on compass work or to fin slower to reduce air consumption. He then swam off full speed, again leaving me behind. I yelled out at the top of my voice STOP to my buddy. He stopped and yelled back "You having difficulties swimming?" I couldn't have murdered him. I catch up to him and tell him even on the surface we should be sticking together. I suggest we practise using the compass on the surface to get back to shore... He says "I don't like to use my compass." Shoot me now.
We get back to shore and the instructor is visably relieved and trying to put a positive spin on it, but I tell you this - how in the world do you deal with people like that day in and day out? With hindsight, I think the dive should have been called as soon as it was evident that they AdvOW students weren't using their compasses. IMO, he did the right thing by putting me with him as his primary duty of care was to his OW student and theoretically the AdvOW students SHOULD know how to handle themselves underwater.
So hats off to Instructors and Guides who put up with wankers day in and day out.