Dear all,
Thank you all for you supportive replies. Especially the ones where I read that smbs are going to be used more make me happy. I read a couple of questions or remarks, which I'll try to answer or comment on.
#10 Peterbj7: "Can't help wondering what the boat captain was doing" - the captain (12 years with the company and captain for even longer) was strongly leaning on his experience with waves and currents. He anticipated where we would surface, based on the time passed and the spot he picked up the two girls from our group and made his way up there (but not to close). From what I've heard, this was the first time that his knowledge let him down.
#13 Dive California: the use of an smb by the diveguide became standard practice, the day following my accident. I suggested they should provide all diving customers with an smb, but they are affraid divers might get entangle in the rope. I agree that it's always a good idea to practice it a couple of times to master the skill of using an smb. For safety reasons they also no longer allow dive couples to surface by themselfs if one becomes low on air. As of now it's always the whole group who surfaces at the same time, close to the buoy of the diveguide.
#14 WimW: the visibility that day wasn't good. We had 'only' 7 meters, being 21 ft. The procedure now is that the whole group surfaces close to the buoy. When everyone has surfaced the dive guide signals to the captain that it is save to approach.
#16 vladimir: Regarding the sheelding of the propellers (2 engines of 200 hp) the owner states: "We thought about the remote possibility, that a propeller can hit a diver, many years ago. My partner bought 4 year ago, 2 diesel jet sky engines (100.000 US$) to try them out, but it didn’t work out, they where to slow and to heavy. We bought one year ago very expensive engines/propeller protector for our Yamaha engines, but it didn’t worked out. Our engines are to strong and to big. The vibrations loosen all the times the screws.Those propeller protectors are only working well on small out boarder on low speed. I guess that we need to invent our own propeller protector because not one of the day dive speed boats in Galapagos has find a solution up to now."
At the moment they are experimenting again with tunnel protection. But attaching them in a way they actually stay on, still is an issue.
Then I asked an expert why engine builders have not solved this problem yet. It turns out to be a political issue. Some classic reasons: 1. If the industry ever starts to use them, those injured in the past will sue them for not using
them earlier.
2. The industry has said they do not work and are no good for decades. If all of a sudden they
start to use them, how will they explain their statements from the past.
3. If they do start using guards, some people will still be hurt, some from the guard itself.
4. If they start using them, those with existing boats are going to say the industry should pay
to retrofit them to existing boats, and the industry does not want to pay for that.
5. Each step in the distribution chain (propeller manufacturer, drive builder, boat builder,
boat dealer say they do no know how or where the boat is going to be used so they don't
know what kind of guard to put on.
All in all very discouraging...
I also have a question. Being a PADI IDC Staff Instructor, I'm familiar with the PADI curiculum, but it would not surprise me if this applies to more recreational diving organisations:
During the open water course, the use of smbs is only mentioned briefly. This subject is gets more in depth coverage in the 'boat' adventure dive or specialty course (as facultative part of the advanced open water course). Problem is that this facultative part hardly ever gets taught, because there are more usefull modules to choose from. In my country it's common to learn diving while shore diving, in places designated for divers without any boats. And after the course the new divers take a plane to one of the tropical places in the world and dive off boats. Therefore many new divers dive off boats, without having any knowledge of this safety aspect. I would like to know if you agree with me that the use of smbs should be one of the skills students have to master during the open water course.
I'd also would love to get your attention for the relaunch of DANs campaign regarding propeller safety:
DAN Europe - Safety Campaigns
Nathalie.