Doing it Wrong on Bali

I had an unsettling experience last week on Bali, that I hope I never repeat.

We were staying at the Japanese owned Emerald Resort at Tulumben in Northeast Bali. We were the only guests due to the recent sad bombing in Kuta. The resident Dive Operator is Cactus Divers, and I arranged for their chief instructor to guide me around the spectacular WWII wreck of the Liberty, which rests just off the beach.

I asked him to limit our depth to 14 meters and to hit the surface within 45 minutes. I consider this to be a fail safe formula where I don't trust the rental gear, which looked shabby. I made the instructor repeat this back to me, twice.

When I started to descend, I noticed the depth guage was acting erratic. My rig had no octopus. I had no dive watch or computer or compass. It turned out that both the depth and pressure guages they gave me were faulty, and my second stage chattered badly. I should have ended things as soon as I checked out the gear.

After a while of exploring the beautiful wreck with it's great corals and its resident ball of thousands of silvery papio (foot long jacks or pompano) I started to feel resistance in my mouthpiece with 1000 psi showing. It took me three attempts to get the guide to lead us out of the wreck and start to head in and up.

When I could barely pull any air from my mouthpiece, with the pressure guage reading 800 psi, I took my guide's octo and found it delivered more salt water than air. I made it through a slow ascent and safety stop trying to spit our most of the water without drowning. I swam in without being able to inflate my bcd. When I got to shore, my tank was empty and the guage showed 800 psi.

The guide showed me his computer. We had been down over 20 meters and we had been under for 49 minutes. When I asked him about the depth, he said "you wouldn't have seen a lot of the sights at 14 meters ! The guide (This guy is a PADI chief instructor !) thought all of this was funny. I wanted to kill him.

I guess my biggest mistake was in trusting this guy and not maintaining control.

Our other Bali dives, with better operators, were great !

Aloha,

Jonathan Starr
kalepa@maui.net

sometimes It really Pisses me off what some of these operators will do for a buck:upset:

This is EXACTLY why I bought my own gear as soon after open water as I could afford to.

It's also why I have never rented anything other than lead and tanks since then. I have seen way too many rentals cause problems on dives or just plain fail. From leaking BCD inflators to sudden problems with regulators etc. I don't know if I would still be diving if I didn't own my own gear.

OK, OK, I DID rent fins in the caymans once because mine were in my big 'clothing' suitcase lurking somewhere in a terminal in Miami for a day or so (they didn't fit in the main Tub-O-Gear).

I also rented a BP/wing so I could dive doubles for a deep wall dive that same trip. The dual wings 2nd inflator had a slow leak so I was constantly having to fiddle with my bouyancy... I have since bought my own wings and harnes so I don't have to worry about that anymore either...

It definatly makes travel harder, but I know the condition of all my gear (I know it's all been maintained properly, etc).

My budy and I have begun looking at the larger pelican cases with weels to simplify dive travel. Kinda rough getting past the price till you think about the fact that it will be protecting the equipment you use to stay alive and healthy at depth...

If you own your own equipment I recommend bringing it with you where ever you go - pack carefully and lock your bags. Be ready and preparred to unlock for inspectors and airport personnel. However, if you dive DIN-mount tanks don't forget to bring your DIN to yolk converter along - because dive operations through the Carribean don't own them, don't loan them, don't stock them for sale. And every cylinder in the Caribe is yolk mount.

Here is a recount of my recent BVI experiences (for a point on dangerous DMs read closely):

Diving in St. Thomas

I wish I had brought my own gear, at least a reg and guages. I have great stuff here on Maui, but since we were travelling around quite a bit, my wife doesn't dive, and this wasn't primarily a diving trip, we only carried mask, fins & snorkles.

This trip was my first experience ever at renting gear from operators. I assumed that they would be well equipped like the Maui Dive Operators. I learned some good lessons.

Aloha,

Jonathan

Jonathan Starr once bubbled...
I guess my biggest mistake was in trusting this guy and not maintaining control.

Click to expand...

Nah, your biggest mistake, was not calling the dive when you saw the condition of the gear. Our dive instructor was very clear on the idea that you must never dive without a dependable depth guage and a timer. That you must log your own dive profile and not that of your buddy. DAN has lot's of accident reports from divers who simply went by their buddies computers, etc, but having descended/ascended a little slower/faster, or ran a little deeper for a little longer, ended up taking a DCI hit.
Similar mantra in my sailing crowd. When the wind increases,and you think "Should I reduce sail?" The correct answer is ALWAYS, YES! If your diving and you ever think "should I get out of here, the correct answer is also yes.
Look upon this as an educational experience, pack your own regs next time and may you live long and dive frequently.

Jonathan Starr,
Every certified diver is responsible for the his dive plan. You tried. I won't say anymore about ending the dive when you know there are problems with the equipment.

Why would you dive without an alternate?

If you're ever in Indiana stop in and I'll show you how to strip a divers scuba off him at depth. That way the next time an instructor hands you a reg that don't work you can just take his. And BTW, that's what I would have done. I would have takes his.

If I ever get to Indiana when the water is warm, I'll take you up on your course in underwater gear exchange. It would have been a fun way to mess with the guy's head.

Unfortunately, in this case I would have ended up with a partner (and I use the term loosely) without an alternate.

I learned my lesson. Next time I see gear and/or attititude like this, I'll vote with my booties and walk on up the beach.

Aloha,

Jonathan

One these days people will realize SCUBA gear is life support gear--not something to be taken lightly:doctor:

Six years ago, I saw a a similar failure while diving at Menjengan Island, Bali - a rental depth gauge was streaming a very small trail of bubbles. Although it wasn't catastrophic I saw the renter show it to the DM during the dive. The DM acknowledged it and kept us within 30 feet of the surface for the remaining part of the dive. At the end of the dive, topside, the DM took the leaking unit, pulled it out of the protective rubber surround and set it aside.

While I always prefer to take my air integrated dive computer, I was immediately pleased that I had brought my own octopus.

Diving the next day with the same dive shop, the DM did the standard helpful setup of all gear for the customers first. I then observed him setting up his gear only to find that the previous leaker was at the bottom of the box, rubber surround just as he had left it the day before. I heard him say "oh" with a light groan and then fit it to his cylinder as there was no other unit he could use.


On a side note, I've found that diving on Bali, especially Menjengan Island and Paidang Bai, to be exceptionally nice for a tourist area. Lots of corals, mantis shrimp, crocodile fish, clownfish/anenomes, tridacna clams, etc. In fact it was that Bali trip 6 years that got me back into underwater photography - there is so much beauty there and I would definitely go back!

Sorry your experience was jaded by an equipment failure.