Out of Air Incident - Assistant Instructor

[deepblueme]

After that Rescue Course talk to a few Inst. telling them what you goals are. Then narrow it down to a couple that are willing to let you sit thru their O/W class and pick one to take your classes with that did the kind of job teaching that you are will to help with.

 

[meekal]

Hola,

....planned a 70 foot max depth for 15 minutes then gradually work our way back to the boat that was anchored at 35 feet. Everything was.......

....almost 37 minutes into the dive and at a depth of 40 feet I suddenly feel a pull in my fins...I turn around and he gives me the Out of Air signal as he is rushing ....

if the boat was anchored at 35 feet and he tugged your fins at 40 feet, he only had to go up 5 feet to get on the boat?!?!?!?!?!

sollie mang....i just HAD to do that..... "the devil's in the details"

 

[1_T_Submariner]

Wow scary the people you meet with different training (Or lack of) I gave an Insta-Buddy tour of our local quarry one time. We did buddy checks etc... and I told him what I thought would be a good plan. 25' checkout some fish etc... Turn around when he got to 2000 (he had an Al80 I had a 120). He couldn't comunicate how much air he had left (I read his gauge) then when we got back I noticed that he didn't have a watch/computer/bt timer I asked him if he was using tables etc...He didn't know what I was talking about. Umm that was the last dive of the day with me.

 

[Semita]

if the boat was anchored at 35 feet and he tugged your fins at 40 feet, he only had to go up 5 feet to get on the boat?!?!?!?!?!

sollie mang....i just HAD to do that..... "the devil's in the details"

meekal: I got you covered man!!!!....I developed a very complex schematic to describe the situation. He pulled at 40 but was FAAAAAAR from the boat.

Let me know if I need to explain anything else.

 

[meekal]

meekal: I got you covered man!!!!....I developed a very complex schematic to describe the situation. He pulled at 40 but was FAAAAAAR from the boat.

Let me know if I need to explain anything else.

View attachment 37183

ahhhhhh.... tanx mang.... that certainly helped..... you can SEE from my 'understanding' of the situation why i was sooooooooo confused!

 

[MikeFerrara]

Wow scary the people you meet with different training (Or lack of) I gave an Insta-Buddy tour of our local quarry one time. We did buddy checks etc... and I told him what I thought would be a good plan. 25' checkout some fish etc... Turn around when he got to 2000 (he had an Al80 I had a 120). He couldn't comunicate how much air he had left (I read his gauge) then when we got back I noticed that he didn't have a watch/computer/bt timer I asked him if he was using tables etc...He didn't know what I was talking about. Umm that was the last dive of the day with me.

You did buddy cheks but didn't know what equipment he had until after the dive

 

[JcoldwaterIL]

Like I said....I hope the "system" catches him.

Well, the "system" yo are referring to may not catch him, but his respitory "system" may catch him next time hes ooa and take care of everythign through natural selection.

 

[Semita]

ahhhhhh.... tanx mang.... that certainly helped..... you can SEE from my 'understanding' of the situation why i was sooooooooo confused!

 

[Saturation]

Sorry to hear. I personally have encountered it often. A story common enough to say reliably that divers with big mouths, are big risk.

Hola,

This Saturday we were out diving of the Coast of Honduras in the Bay of Cortes. Specifically in La Picuda (short for Barracuda).We were four divers....instructor and student and myself and another diver who was an assistant instructor.

I have dived the site in many occasions and I was asked to lead the assistant instructor out to the wall(his first time diving La Picuda). I determined a dive profile, reviewed hand signals, etc. We planned a 70 foot max depth for 15 minutes then gradually work our way back to the boat that was anchored at 35 feet. Everything was ready and visibility, water and dive site looked great..

As we jumped into the water the "Assistant" was having trouble with his bouyancy...he mentioned that it was a brand new BCD and after a couple of minutes added 4 more pounds to his gear. Everything looked good so we started diving...

From the beginning he was up and down....diving down to 90-100 feet then coming up to 70 - 75....he constantly pushed ahead of me....and I remember asking him once to keep a level depth several times.

At almost 25 minutes I checked my air and I was close to half a tank....I had kept very calmed and I figured he should have less than half a tank....I asked him how much air he had and he could not communicate back to me...he just pointed to his gauge and gave me an OK signed......

He was ahead of me at this point and I told him I was at Half a Tank and that we were turning around. He understood and we headed back towards the boat. Here he continued to dive all over the place.

At almost 37 minutes into the dive and at a depth of 40 feet I suddenly feel a pull in my fins...I turn around and he gives me the Out of Air signal as he is rushing to the surface.....visibility was great and I was able to follow his EXODUS to the surface from 40-35 feet.

As he reached the surface I am now at 20 feet he gives me the OK sign again and starts swimming to the boat. I decide to follow him at 15 feet to complete my Safety Stop.

After my safety stop I surface next to him and we climb the boat.

As we are taking our gear off he starts bragging that he has over 500 logged dives and that he is an assistant instructor. To me, he was nothing but a careless and dangerous diver.

My concern is that he is working on becoming an instructor...what is he going to teach his students if he does not follow any type of standard diving rules? I am almost tempted to say his name but I do not think it is allowed...He does work in a dive operation in Costa Rica.

 

[h90]

I dove already with one very scary instructor and one very scary DM.
you never know if someone is really an assistant instructor, I think for some money you can buy that, also. For example in Thailand with some cash I am 99% sure I can get a doctor degree and open a clinic.