Student drowns in class - Dubai

[Abdullah]

What's "low viz"? <10m? <5m? <3m?

"Good" summer viz in Nordic waters is some 5-8m. By blue water standards, that's pretty low. Still, a lot of people learn to dive in that kind of viz, with very few accidents, none of those caused by a student panicking or being lost.



Totally agree.


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Diving the gulf side can be like diving in milk at times. A new diver feeling a little claustrophobic might be overwhelmed in these conditions if their only experience was a swimming pool.

Fujairah (Al Aqah) is less than two hours drive from there and is usually pretty good diving conditions with plenty to see. The logistics may be more complicated, but if the goal is to promote diving as a long term interest, training in decent visibility with interesting fauna would likely be the better option.

 

[ajduplessis]

What's "low viz"? <10m? <5m? <3m?

For OW students anything less than 5m is very low. 3-4 students, instructor and DM all within 5m is not the way to teach IMO. I believe the viz at this site is 3m at best, hence the instructor surfacing minus a student.

 

[Storker]

For OW students anything less than 5m is very low. [...] I believe the viz at this site is 3m at best, hence the instructor surfacing minus a student.

In that case, we have slightly different definitions of "low". I agree that less than 5m is on the low side and that 3m is too low, but OTOH, 5m in the surface layer is pretty normal summer viz around here.

I seem to remember it was only a little bit better than 5m when I took my OW. We had a few DMs who hovered around us in addition to the instructor, though. Groups of 4-6 students.

 

[Oldbear]

I think it is a "keeping students under control" issue over viz. Granted I have dived Dubai before and best part of the dive was the anticipation of the dive, while the actual dive sucked sea cucumbers. But students learn to dive world wide in low viz daily. It is ultimately the instructor's responsibility to maintain control of the students, not the student's...hence that is why they are students.

 

[Diving Dubai]

Update:

The equipment has been fully inspected. It had all been serviced within a 12 month period by a reputable and authorised establishment.

All equipment was found to be fully functional

Tank had over 50% air remaining. Air was of exception quality with no contaminants

information above was from very reliable source.

 

[BoltSnap]

I dove that spot many times and I don't see what is so "horrible" about it. Driving to Fujirah for two hours means dealing with traffic and driving back after a long and tiring day of dive training or the expense of paying for over priced hotels there. The issue isn't visibility but is about student control and how many students the instructor has during the dive at the same time.

I dove and trained divers in New England where 5 meter visibility is considered a good visibility.

 

[TSandM]

We take Puget Sound students into 5m or less of viz routinely -- if we didn't, we'd cancel a lot of classes! But we have decided that 2:1 is the maximum ratio. We will have more than two students in the water at a time, but each buddy pair has a CA.