It was hard for me to phrase what I'd like to discuss here in the topic sentence.
And mods, please feel free to move this, although it doesn't seem to fit the general diving categories. It's not an incident analysis per se, but more of a discussion about many of the safety aspects that divers and dive centres look at and some we may be overlooking a bit. This has been prompted by the recent events of divers lost at sea and the aim is to look at how we choose and evaluate a boat and its crew.
As divers we have guidelines, requirements, limits to our certifications. Dive centres will ask us for a certain certification to do some dives, will ask to see the logbook, often even not trust any of that and require check dives. They often ask for some mandatory equipment, tell us what to do and what not to do.
As divers, we pay attention to who we are diving with. We want proficient and safe buddies, preferably known ones and try to get some background info when having to dive with an unknown one.
As divers, we tell other certified and non certified people asking advice about courses, to evaluate the instructors and the centres, that a good quality instructor is more important than the agency.
As divers, we want the best equipment, we analyze possible points of failure, we spread the word when there are recalls, we try to have the right gear for the dives we do.
As divers, what do we know about the boat we are stepping on and its captain?
Aren't they a fundamental part of diving? (You know I'm not talking about shore dives)
Yet, we are not so critical of boats and their crew as we are of other divers and even some dive centres seem to have a standard for what they require from a diver and then be more lenient when it regards their own facilities and personnel. Don't we talk a lot less about these things than about certifications, dive experience and gear?
There have been to recent incidents, one with divers left in the water, another with divers lost at sea where the actions taken by the captains appear not to have been the best and have put people in danger. Will this affect behaviours or will things will tend to stay the way they are?
I know it's always hard to generalise and there are divers who pay attention to these things and require a good service from the boats as there are centres that have good quality boats and crew.
And mods, please feel free to move this, although it doesn't seem to fit the general diving categories. It's not an incident analysis per se, but more of a discussion about many of the safety aspects that divers and dive centres look at and some we may be overlooking a bit. This has been prompted by the recent events of divers lost at sea and the aim is to look at how we choose and evaluate a boat and its crew.
As divers we have guidelines, requirements, limits to our certifications. Dive centres will ask us for a certain certification to do some dives, will ask to see the logbook, often even not trust any of that and require check dives. They often ask for some mandatory equipment, tell us what to do and what not to do.
As divers, we pay attention to who we are diving with. We want proficient and safe buddies, preferably known ones and try to get some background info when having to dive with an unknown one.
As divers, we tell other certified and non certified people asking advice about courses, to evaluate the instructors and the centres, that a good quality instructor is more important than the agency.
As divers, we want the best equipment, we analyze possible points of failure, we spread the word when there are recalls, we try to have the right gear for the dives we do.
As divers, what do we know about the boat we are stepping on and its captain?
Aren't they a fundamental part of diving? (You know I'm not talking about shore dives)
Yet, we are not so critical of boats and their crew as we are of other divers and even some dive centres seem to have a standard for what they require from a diver and then be more lenient when it regards their own facilities and personnel. Don't we talk a lot less about these things than about certifications, dive experience and gear?
There have been to recent incidents, one with divers left in the water, another with divers lost at sea where the actions taken by the captains appear not to have been the best and have put people in danger. Will this affect behaviours or will things will tend to stay the way they are?
I know it's always hard to generalise and there are divers who pay attention to these things and require a good service from the boats as there are centres that have good quality boats and crew.
