I don't think you're doing it right...

[viajero]

That's the full story. I'm not trying to get any dive ops into trouble (hence I will not name the shop). I'm just trying to understand whether that was the way things are done because I felt a bit uncomfortable. Nothing happened in the end, but I just want to understand what the protocol is.

Anyway, we descended slowly towards the 10 m depth, swam around, did the exercises, swam some more, and then ascended. The rope certainly looked like it was 10 m deep, and the bottom was pretty flat. The DM confirmed that we did the exercises at the 10 m depth.

I still don't understand 10 m down and 10 m of water. I see both as having 10 m of water pressure above my head.

 

[viajero]

As for the dive site, we took a boat (about 40 min) to one of the nearby islands and started our dive there.

 

[Bellaco]

I still don't understand 10 m down and 10 m of water. I see both as having 10 m of water pressure above my head.

You can be IN 10 meters of water and be floating on the surface, or you could be kneeling on the sand 10 meters deep.

 

[viajero]

You can be IN 10 meters of water and be floating on the surface, or you could be kneeling on the sand 10 meters deep.

Ok I understand now. I interpreted 10 m down as "10 m deep" rather than having 10 m of water beneath me.

 

[Griffo]

When i did my first discover dive in Thailand, they made us walk in from the shore to about 2m of water (although at the time it felt like the surface was miles away). I found it awefull and hated it. I went very close to pulling the pin, in reality only pride prevented me from giving up.

We did our basic skills (s-drill, mask clear, fin pivot), then they rounded us up, stuck us on a boat, and went out the dive site. I was then given a 5 sec description on how to do a back-roll off the boat, and told to go hang onto the line. After the dive in the shallows, i was rather nervous to say the least. However once i was in deep water i was far far more comfortable than waddling around on the bottom in 2m of water. Did a 50 min dive with a fairly square profile to 18m, which considering how hard i was breathing during the skills dive previously was an indication of how much calmer I was. Fell in love with scuba on that dive.

 

[Belce]

You can't get a DM cert without some scuba experience, what makes you think this person had none?

 

[Agility]

As I interpret the question the OP had zero experience not the DM

 

[Rogersea]

Long story short, I did a discover scuba course and went into the open water with the DM with ZERO scuba diving experience (not even pool dives). We were 10 m into the water (I only found out after we surfaced) and started doing the hands-on exercises, such as clearing your mask, retrieving the mouthpiece, and blowing water out of the mouthpiece. Shouldn't we have done this at least in shallow waters?

Yes, you should have been in shallow water during the "intro to skills" portion of your DSD and you should have been with an Instructor when going to Open Water on the first OW experience.


I am glad everything turned out well.

Cheers,
Roger

 

[t-mac]

Yes, you should have been in shallow water during the "intro to skills" portion of your DSD and you should have been with an Instructor when going to Open Water on the first OW experience.


I am glad everything turned out well.

+1. Completely irresponsible of the instructor. Most instructors will acknowledge that extra care is needed in DSD versus any other program because of the focus on experience and not training. This would be irresponsible in OW and it is doubly so in DSD.

 

[Islandheart]

Agree with OutRefAdv.
If no pool available, then use "pool like conditions", that does not mean 10m/30' of Open Water, neither on the surface or under water.

Plus in that situation OW, an Instructor is required for the skills intro and an Instr is required for the 1st OW dive part, DM can do a follow on dive.

From what I see, this Operation, who ever it was, did not have an Instructor available, a DM that did not know what he was doing and therefore, really did not care about the safety of their customer. Sad.

Glad Viajero is fine and here to share the story .......and not in one of the forums other sections !!!!!!!!!