spartan rugger
New
Hi,
This incident happened last week while I was in Cozumel. I'll first outline the facts, and then add a question or two at the end for the experts to discuss. I have about 50 dives in so do not consider myself highly experienced, and have never had or seen anything "unusual" happen on a dive before. Here's what happened:
We dove with a very reputable dive resort in a group of about 8 people, most appeared experienced except for a young married(?) couple who were just certified back home and are now on their FIRST ocean dive. Even before we get in the water, they have a problem: one of them is leaning over the side of the boat, puking. Not sure whether it's because of seasickness or nerves, but either way, not a good start to the dive. Our first dive is Palancar Bricks, and the dive profile calls for a depth of
85'. They immediately had trouble getting down off the surface, were inefficient swimmers, not good buoyancy control, etc. My buddy and I are cautious divers and were keeping an eye on them; the DM (a young guy) was not, and had only checked their air once during the dive. After about 25 minutes into the dive, the new guy was diving deeper than everyone else, down to 90' or maybe 100'. Suddenly, he discovers he's completely out of air. I was hovering about 20' above him and saw him check his gauge, and then fin fast to the DM who immediately starts giving him air from his octopus. They start heading up together slowly. The other new diver, the woman, doesn't know what to do. My buddy signals to her to stay with us and continue the dive with the rest of the group, and I check her air and she has 1000 lb left. No problem, except she suddenly panics, decides she's going up, and starts kicking hard toward the surface. My buddy signals to me that she is bolting, and I swam up about 10 feet and caught her by the fins and stopped her ascent. Holding on to her BC the whole time so she doesn't try to swim away again, we joined up with the DM and the new guy, and go up together and do a safety stop. The DM takes they guy to the surface, and I keep my hand on the woman's BC and take her up. When we surface I took my reg out so I could calm her down and tell her what to do next. She sees me do that, and takes hers out of her mouth too. She immediately swallows a big mouthful of water and pukes it right back out. I get her reg back in her mouth and inflated her BC. By this time, she is sick and physically exhausted. My buddy and I drag her back to the boat ladder, and get her fins and weights off. She is so spent she can't even climb onto the boat, so one of the DMs on the boat drags her up the ladder. It felt like a close call that could easily have ended differently, and badly. (She was ultimately OK, although did not do any more diving the rest of the week.)
Now here are the questions for the experts:
How much blame for this do you put on the DM for not keeping the new divers close to him and checking their air frequently? (Obviously the new diver should have been checking also, so primary fault lies with him.) The DM was definitely aware that they were novices.
Is the DM at fault for putting the inexperienced divers at unnecessary risk by including them in a group of more experienced divers and taking them 90 feet down on a wall, in a current, for their first dive? Would a simple 40-50 foot reef dive have been more appropriate? My sense is that they were so new to diving that did not even realize the risks of that dive, much less know how to get out of trouble. Whose job is it to assess risk, in that situation?
What else could/should have been done by the more experienced divers in the group prior to (or during) that dive, knowing they had two novice divers in the group?
Thanks for your insight.
Sparty
This incident happened last week while I was in Cozumel. I'll first outline the facts, and then add a question or two at the end for the experts to discuss. I have about 50 dives in so do not consider myself highly experienced, and have never had or seen anything "unusual" happen on a dive before. Here's what happened:
We dove with a very reputable dive resort in a group of about 8 people, most appeared experienced except for a young married(?) couple who were just certified back home and are now on their FIRST ocean dive. Even before we get in the water, they have a problem: one of them is leaning over the side of the boat, puking. Not sure whether it's because of seasickness or nerves, but either way, not a good start to the dive. Our first dive is Palancar Bricks, and the dive profile calls for a depth of
85'. They immediately had trouble getting down off the surface, were inefficient swimmers, not good buoyancy control, etc. My buddy and I are cautious divers and were keeping an eye on them; the DM (a young guy) was not, and had only checked their air once during the dive. After about 25 minutes into the dive, the new guy was diving deeper than everyone else, down to 90' or maybe 100'. Suddenly, he discovers he's completely out of air. I was hovering about 20' above him and saw him check his gauge, and then fin fast to the DM who immediately starts giving him air from his octopus. They start heading up together slowly. The other new diver, the woman, doesn't know what to do. My buddy signals to her to stay with us and continue the dive with the rest of the group, and I check her air and she has 1000 lb left. No problem, except she suddenly panics, decides she's going up, and starts kicking hard toward the surface. My buddy signals to me that she is bolting, and I swam up about 10 feet and caught her by the fins and stopped her ascent. Holding on to her BC the whole time so she doesn't try to swim away again, we joined up with the DM and the new guy, and go up together and do a safety stop. The DM takes they guy to the surface, and I keep my hand on the woman's BC and take her up. When we surface I took my reg out so I could calm her down and tell her what to do next. She sees me do that, and takes hers out of her mouth too. She immediately swallows a big mouthful of water and pukes it right back out. I get her reg back in her mouth and inflated her BC. By this time, she is sick and physically exhausted. My buddy and I drag her back to the boat ladder, and get her fins and weights off. She is so spent she can't even climb onto the boat, so one of the DMs on the boat drags her up the ladder. It felt like a close call that could easily have ended differently, and badly. (She was ultimately OK, although did not do any more diving the rest of the week.)
Now here are the questions for the experts:
How much blame for this do you put on the DM for not keeping the new divers close to him and checking their air frequently? (Obviously the new diver should have been checking also, so primary fault lies with him.) The DM was definitely aware that they were novices.
Is the DM at fault for putting the inexperienced divers at unnecessary risk by including them in a group of more experienced divers and taking them 90 feet down on a wall, in a current, for their first dive? Would a simple 40-50 foot reef dive have been more appropriate? My sense is that they were so new to diving that did not even realize the risks of that dive, much less know how to get out of trouble. Whose job is it to assess risk, in that situation?
What else could/should have been done by the more experienced divers in the group prior to (or during) that dive, knowing they had two novice divers in the group?
Thanks for your insight.
Sparty