New Divers Beware: Sketchy dive shop in Cozumel puts profits over safety

[SailawayKC]

As a new diver I will relate what happened to me on my 3rd dive after my check out dives. I was diving the Kittiwake and the DM was going over the dive plan and talking about going into the wreck which I didn't want to do. We were also diving to 68 feet which was 28 feet deeper than I had gone before. I really wanted to do this dive and I said nothing. Going down I had trouble with my ears and it took a long time for them to equalize. The DM did come back up to me and try to help me get down. I did make it down and was doing Ok. When it was time to penetrate the wreck I was feeling really uncomfortable about going in so I had a choice to make. Either continue or bail and dive the outside of the wreck by myself. Since my buddy was just a random diver from the boat I didn't want to spoil his dive. I decide to dive the outside and keep a close eye on my air supply. I did stick my head in a few of the opening but nothing where I was going to get stuck. I enjoyed the rest of my dive and surfaced early as I was down to 500 psi. I felt good about my decision but I know I should have spoke up on the dive boat before the dive.

The next day I had to make a harder decision if I should scrub my two Cozumel dives, which I did. My sinuses were not clear and I thought I wouldn't be able to equalize. I realized later it was the right decision.

By point of sharing is for new divers reading that you dive and learn from your experiences. I've also learned a lot from reading scubaboard.

Back to the OP if he was coughing up blood I would think the instructor would not think that was normal. I hope he explained the pain and what happened to him on the dive to the instructor so they both could understand what went wrong before the second dive.

The good news is I'm going back to Cozumel on a dive trip in two weeks and can't wait to go diving.

[gmanstan]

Students should not be placed in the dilemma of doing what is right (going up or surfacing alone) vs. doing what is right (staying with their buddy).

I dont believe there should have been any dilemma of what was the right thing to do. Your safety or physical well being out weighs the need to be with your buddy. If you signal a problem OOA, cant equalize ,whatever the problem , it is your responsibility to do what it takes to guarantee your safety.Not to rely on your buddy to understand hand signals ,or wait for him to "save you".

[iluvcozumel]

Reading Jim Lapenta's post takes me back to when I did my open water referral.....

The instructor (who by the way was a NAUI instructor) signed the blank page for my 5th training dive and sent me on a boat to do a drift dive with a group of 8 and 1 DM. My buddy and I were both doing our 5th training dive, sans an Instructor at Palancar...... We go to 89'. I was so uncomfortable, really did not enjoy the dive, had a lot of problems that I had to work out on my own, then my buddy had a run away ascent, for which I panicked and followed her to the surface.....just plain bad bad bad. Anyway, by the end of the week I was at the chamber doing a table 5 recompression ride. I am now a DM in training working my way to being an instructor and I will definitely tell my students what Jim Lapenta posted above "

based on the reputation the area has why anyone would choose to do

OW

training there and most especially referral dives is nuts. They are known for not following the rules, recommendations, or standards" unless I am there with them to guide them through the process. My current trainer is amazed at my stories about that week in Coz. I know that I am now a better diver for the experience, however, it was not safe and the outcome could have been undesirable. Coz is no place to do an OW checkout dive, unless, and I mean unless you have a qualified and attentive dive instructor teaching you. BTW, I am doing the NAUI teaching track and am appalled at the way I was taught both my Open Water class and the way the referral class went. But, I didn't know any better and my LDS at the time was no help. They are no longer around....

[Thalassamania]

I dont believe there should have been any dilemma of what was the right thing to do. Your safety or physical well being out weighs the need to be with your buddy. If you signal a problem OOA, cant equalize ,whatever the problem , it is your responsibility to do what it takes to guarantee your safety.Not to rely on your buddy to understand hand signals ,or wait for him to "save you".

An Instructor supervising a student taking a class is not just, "a buddy."

[robint]

Not all instructors on Cozumel are bad. My husband, daughter (age 12 at the time), and I did our OW referrals there. Our instructor (Margaret at PapaHogs) was fantastic, followed the rules to the letter, and gave us the joy of diving. I would recommend her to anyone, especially young divers. She was great with our daughter who had a bit of fear on Dive 3 and wanted to go back up on the boat. The DM took her up. My husband and I finished dives 3 & 4 without her. She was told that only when she was ready would she be allowed back in the water. The next day the 3 of us went snorkeling... 20 minutes floating on top of the water and she turned to us and said "snorkeling sucks, I wanna be down there!". The next day we took her back to PapaHogs and she finished. She is 23 now, and a fabulous diver to this day.

robin

[ggunn]

At the risk of being accused of defending Deep Blue (I'm not - I wasn't there and I don't know the op or anyone associated with it), I urge caution against skewering a business in a public forum on the basis of an unsubstantiated posting. There are at least two sides to every story, and it is hard for me to believe that an op (any op) would try to talk a diver into going on more dives who was coughing up blood and/or suffering from obvious barotrauma.

[Jim Lapenta]

I agree with that. But if they did they should not only be outed but hoisted by their petards and left flying in the breeze that is the internet for all to see. The operation should be contacted and given a chance to post their side.

And it may not have been the operation but just the person posing as an instructor (yes I said posing for obvious reasons). If that were the case then the operation should get rid of that instructor. But I'm betting that this is not the only one who takes new divers deeper than 60 feet. Because when they do NOTHING HAPPENS TO THEM! In this case it should also have not allowed the student on the boat without better verifying their skills and knowledge.

I hope a mod will send a PM to Deep Blue and make them aware of this thread. John?

[mselenaous]

Don't let what happened to me happen to you. I was finishing up my Open Water certification with Deep Blue dive shop in Cozumel MX. I was on my "check out" dive in pretty deep water (Palancar Reef) and was having trouble equalizing my ears. I was the only student with my instructor but he was also guiding 2 more experienced divers. I signalled to my instructor that I could not equalize my ears. Rather than have me ascend a bit to try then or even return to the surface to discuss, the instructor kept us going to the bottom (78 ft.) pacing the dive to the more experienced divers. I was in serious pain and kept signalling that my ears were not well. When we finally surfaced after the dive I coughed up some serious blood and my head was pounding. He seemed uninterested and said it was "normal". Bleeding is not "normal" in ANY adventure sport. Unless, ofcourse, something goes terribly wrong. Regardless, after an hour he had me do another dive (60 ft.) so I could get certified. Same thing happened again. That was two weeks ago. I couldn't dive the remainder of the trip, because my ears hurt so bad and couldn't "POP" them. Deep Blue dive staff and management offered no apologies or any words of regret. They wanted me to just book more dive trips, period. I went to the DAN clinic in CZM and the ear specialist said I had suffered Barotrauma.

My Ears are finally showing signs of improvement and I should have no permanent damage. I did however lose 3 days of diving that I'll never get back. There's two points to take away from this.

• One: read/learn about equalizing your ears well and practice sound diving procedures regarding this.
• Two: Beware of sketchy, profit motivated racketeers such as Deep Blue. Do your research and choose amoung well established more ethical professionals.

Your ears should NOT hurt while diving and you definitly should NOT be coughing up blood upon surfacing.

Not to cast blame on the student nor the instructor, but as a student doing up front research you would have been directed to the following informative links. I am posting these so that any potential diver who finds this will learn that responsibility is a two-way street, so think and breath before you act, and choose wisely.:

Who is responsible for what?

What to Consider as a New Student to Diving?

How to find an excellent SCUBA class

What If...? What to do when things go wrong.

Pet Peeves And Safety Concerns For New Divers

[Kilili]

I think there's another lesson to be learned from this. Quite simply, take responsibility for your own actions, and don't do things contrary to your better judgement.
Having said that, I had a similar problem aeons ago, doing my first dive at a Club Med intro to diving class. I suffered thru it too. Now, I adhere to the lesson just cited.

[Thalassamania]

If students were ready to take responsibility for their own actions, and/or had developed the judgement that they should not do things contrary to, then they'd not be students and they'd not be diving with Instructors (e.g., people supposedly specially trained and tested concerning their ability to take responsibility for the safety or people who are in the process of developing their better judgement). No?