Hello everyone - not sure if this is the right place to post this but my boyfriend and I had a really awful experience this weekend and I was hoping to get some advice about what to do next. Also apologies if I lack the proper diving vocabulary in English as I've almost always been diving in Spanish!
First a bit about us: I'm 23 and have done about 10-15 dives, but unfortunately haven't been able to get certified! The first time, at around the age of 12/13, I did the theory and pool training with my sister for OWD, but my sister was not allowed to do the open water dives because she is epileptic, so I decided not to do them either. Between then and now, I have done around 10, maybe more, recreational dives, two in Bahamas and the rest in the Colombian Atlantic. Obviously they have all been supervised by PADI instructors.
My bf, on the other hand, has absolutely zero diving experience.
We had decided this past weekend (oct 31st - nov 3rd) to do the PADI OWD course, and were both quite excited about this, but encountered a series of problems which culminated in and extremely dangerous situation.
Firstly, the instructor failed to send us the manuals on time, and they arrived the day before we flew out to the coast to do the course, so we didn't have much time to study them.
Secondly, the instructor failed to show us the video or do any classroom/pool teaching
Thirdly, and I think this is the worst thing, we didn't fill in any medical forms or disclaimers, which I know you're meant to do before you dive.
So this is what happened: the guy has a dive school inland and a small house on an island where we were going to stay for the 3 nights, 4 days in which he said we could easily complete the course. We arrived in the city where the dive school is on thursday night, and the instructor informed us we would leave for the island on Friday at 8am.
On Friday morning we arrived to find his boat filled with other tourists he would drop off on the way, as well as another couple, one of whom was certified and had hired this guy for the day to lead 2 dives for him while his gf stayed on the surface. I thought it was a bit odd to take a complete beginner on his first dive with someone who was experienced, but I didn't say anything.
We arrived on the island , dropped our things off and got straight back on the boat with all the gear ready to do our first dive. I asked the instructor if we weren't going to do any classes or shallow dives first so my bf could familiarize himself with all the gear, but the guy said he wanted us to relax and enjoy the first dive, and we would do all the training exercises the next day. After him explaining to my bf to breathe slowly and not hold his breath, and also how to equalize (?apologies if this is the wrong word) the pressure in his ears and sinuses, we did the first dive. It was around between 10-15mt, for around 30 minutes.
I have to emphasize the fact that no buoyancy training was given to my bf, and the weight was not properly checked, resulting in his floating dangerously fast up to the surface during the dive due to inadecuate weighting. He wasn't taught how to use his BCD at all.
Right after the dive, my bf told the instructor he felt really uncomfortable and scared because he didn't know how to use the equipment properly. The instructor told him not to worry, that he would learn buoyancy by instinct during the next dive, and after a short interval, we did the following dive. The bf was slightly more relaxed during this dive, which lasted about 45 min at slightly less depth.
That afternoon, the instructor told us he was going back to the mainland, and left us to spend the night on the island alone. No training was given that afternoon.
The following day (Saturday) it rained heavily all day, and there were very high winds and strong waves. Obviously we could not dive, and even though the instructor arrived back at the island in the morning, he barely spoke to us all day and didn't use the opportunity to teach us some of the 8-10 hours of theory that were supposedly included in the course. We spent the day reading the OWD manual.
On Sunday it was raining when we woke up. There was also an extremely high tide and strong winds, again causing huge waves. Despite this, the instuctor told us that it would be calmer on the other side of the island, and began to get the equipment ready when it stopped raining. He helped us on to the boat with all the equipment, and waited until the boat had started to leave the dock to inform us that he would not be coming with us, and the boat driver would be in charge of the dive that day. He didn't even give us a chance to protest as we had already left by that time!
I've checked the school's website and this person is not trained or authorized to lead expeditions or teach diving.
This guy decided to take us to a place I had been diving before, which is well known because anyone who remains on the boat normally gets very sick due to the big waves in this area. There are also some fairly strong currents so it's not an ideal situation for a beginner, even on a nice day. As the weather was pretty awful, it took us all about 3 minutes to start feeling very sick.
The guy explained very briefly the depth and duration of the dive (I have to admit I got a really bad feeling when I asked the guy how many metres 30ft was, and he said he wasn't sure but he thought it was around 40m!), and without checking the equipment properly, instructed us to get in the water. Due to him not checking the gear, the BCDs were not even half filled with air, so we couldn't float properly. Also, he forgot to tell me to keep my hands on the mask and reg as I got into the water. luckily I didn't lose either.
As soon as we were in the water he made us swim against the strong current towards the front of the boat, and the second we got there and grabbed the line, he told us to let the air out of our BCDs and begin the dive. I grabbed the bf and told him not to do it as by this time I was pretty sure the guy didn't know what he was doing. We were all very out of breath from swimming against the current, and also still feeling seasick, therefore in no conditions to dive! To add to this, the visibility was awful and the currents very strong, making these conditions unsuitable for beginners! I told the guy all this and between my bf and I we decided we would not dive at all with this guy. So the other person on the boat let the ladder down.
My bf swam toward the ladder first, and as I was aware he wasn't in a good state, I swam behind him. The other guy stayed behind helping a 3rd person who was diving with us. The current pulled my bf away from the boat and he had no chance to grab either the line or the ladder. He had a faulty snorkel which was missing a bit of the mouthpiece, so he couldn't grab it so well with his teeth. The waves pulled the snorkel out of his mouth and he swallowed a ton of water. All I saw was him starting to sink as his BCD was not properly inflated (I had filled mine already). I had to swim really fast towards him against the current, pull him out of the water and inflate his vest. It's lucky I kept my head or he would have drowned as by this time he was completely panicking. I helped him out of his gear and out of the water, and we asked the guy to take us back to the island. He asked us if we were sure we didn't want to try another dive somewhere else! Obviously we said no.
When we got back to the island we had no sympathy at all or apologies from the instructor after this experience, and he basically continued to ignore us.
After this we both decided we would not continue the course with this person, even though he had the nerve to ask us is we wanted to do a night dive that evening! We asked him to take us back to the mainland and he refused, we asked him to take us back early the following morning and he also refused, saying his plan was to leave at 2pm. Fortunately we were able to organize alternative transport to pick us up early in the morning, and left the next day!
I wanted to ask if anyone on the forum could advise us on what to do next, or who we can write to to file a formal complaint about this? Unfortunately this person asked for payment in advance, so we paid in full. We're going to ask him for a refund in any case but what I think is more important is to report this person to the relevant authorities so he cannot continue to put other divers in the dangerous situations we were forced face.
If you've read the long story this far thank you and thanks in advance for any advice!
First a bit about us: I'm 23 and have done about 10-15 dives, but unfortunately haven't been able to get certified! The first time, at around the age of 12/13, I did the theory and pool training with my sister for OWD, but my sister was not allowed to do the open water dives because she is epileptic, so I decided not to do them either. Between then and now, I have done around 10, maybe more, recreational dives, two in Bahamas and the rest in the Colombian Atlantic. Obviously they have all been supervised by PADI instructors.
My bf, on the other hand, has absolutely zero diving experience.
We had decided this past weekend (oct 31st - nov 3rd) to do the PADI OWD course, and were both quite excited about this, but encountered a series of problems which culminated in and extremely dangerous situation.
Firstly, the instructor failed to send us the manuals on time, and they arrived the day before we flew out to the coast to do the course, so we didn't have much time to study them.
Secondly, the instructor failed to show us the video or do any classroom/pool teaching
Thirdly, and I think this is the worst thing, we didn't fill in any medical forms or disclaimers, which I know you're meant to do before you dive.
So this is what happened: the guy has a dive school inland and a small house on an island where we were going to stay for the 3 nights, 4 days in which he said we could easily complete the course. We arrived in the city where the dive school is on thursday night, and the instructor informed us we would leave for the island on Friday at 8am.
On Friday morning we arrived to find his boat filled with other tourists he would drop off on the way, as well as another couple, one of whom was certified and had hired this guy for the day to lead 2 dives for him while his gf stayed on the surface. I thought it was a bit odd to take a complete beginner on his first dive with someone who was experienced, but I didn't say anything.
We arrived on the island , dropped our things off and got straight back on the boat with all the gear ready to do our first dive. I asked the instructor if we weren't going to do any classes or shallow dives first so my bf could familiarize himself with all the gear, but the guy said he wanted us to relax and enjoy the first dive, and we would do all the training exercises the next day. After him explaining to my bf to breathe slowly and not hold his breath, and also how to equalize (?apologies if this is the wrong word) the pressure in his ears and sinuses, we did the first dive. It was around between 10-15mt, for around 30 minutes.
I have to emphasize the fact that no buoyancy training was given to my bf, and the weight was not properly checked, resulting in his floating dangerously fast up to the surface during the dive due to inadecuate weighting. He wasn't taught how to use his BCD at all.
Right after the dive, my bf told the instructor he felt really uncomfortable and scared because he didn't know how to use the equipment properly. The instructor told him not to worry, that he would learn buoyancy by instinct during the next dive, and after a short interval, we did the following dive. The bf was slightly more relaxed during this dive, which lasted about 45 min at slightly less depth.
That afternoon, the instructor told us he was going back to the mainland, and left us to spend the night on the island alone. No training was given that afternoon.
The following day (Saturday) it rained heavily all day, and there were very high winds and strong waves. Obviously we could not dive, and even though the instructor arrived back at the island in the morning, he barely spoke to us all day and didn't use the opportunity to teach us some of the 8-10 hours of theory that were supposedly included in the course. We spent the day reading the OWD manual.
On Sunday it was raining when we woke up. There was also an extremely high tide and strong winds, again causing huge waves. Despite this, the instuctor told us that it would be calmer on the other side of the island, and began to get the equipment ready when it stopped raining. He helped us on to the boat with all the equipment, and waited until the boat had started to leave the dock to inform us that he would not be coming with us, and the boat driver would be in charge of the dive that day. He didn't even give us a chance to protest as we had already left by that time!
I've checked the school's website and this person is not trained or authorized to lead expeditions or teach diving.
This guy decided to take us to a place I had been diving before, which is well known because anyone who remains on the boat normally gets very sick due to the big waves in this area. There are also some fairly strong currents so it's not an ideal situation for a beginner, even on a nice day. As the weather was pretty awful, it took us all about 3 minutes to start feeling very sick.
The guy explained very briefly the depth and duration of the dive (I have to admit I got a really bad feeling when I asked the guy how many metres 30ft was, and he said he wasn't sure but he thought it was around 40m!), and without checking the equipment properly, instructed us to get in the water. Due to him not checking the gear, the BCDs were not even half filled with air, so we couldn't float properly. Also, he forgot to tell me to keep my hands on the mask and reg as I got into the water. luckily I didn't lose either.
As soon as we were in the water he made us swim against the strong current towards the front of the boat, and the second we got there and grabbed the line, he told us to let the air out of our BCDs and begin the dive. I grabbed the bf and told him not to do it as by this time I was pretty sure the guy didn't know what he was doing. We were all very out of breath from swimming against the current, and also still feeling seasick, therefore in no conditions to dive! To add to this, the visibility was awful and the currents very strong, making these conditions unsuitable for beginners! I told the guy all this and between my bf and I we decided we would not dive at all with this guy. So the other person on the boat let the ladder down.
My bf swam toward the ladder first, and as I was aware he wasn't in a good state, I swam behind him. The other guy stayed behind helping a 3rd person who was diving with us. The current pulled my bf away from the boat and he had no chance to grab either the line or the ladder. He had a faulty snorkel which was missing a bit of the mouthpiece, so he couldn't grab it so well with his teeth. The waves pulled the snorkel out of his mouth and he swallowed a ton of water. All I saw was him starting to sink as his BCD was not properly inflated (I had filled mine already). I had to swim really fast towards him against the current, pull him out of the water and inflate his vest. It's lucky I kept my head or he would have drowned as by this time he was completely panicking. I helped him out of his gear and out of the water, and we asked the guy to take us back to the island. He asked us if we were sure we didn't want to try another dive somewhere else! Obviously we said no.
When we got back to the island we had no sympathy at all or apologies from the instructor after this experience, and he basically continued to ignore us.
After this we both decided we would not continue the course with this person, even though he had the nerve to ask us is we wanted to do a night dive that evening! We asked him to take us back to the mainland and he refused, we asked him to take us back early the following morning and he also refused, saying his plan was to leave at 2pm. Fortunately we were able to organize alternative transport to pick us up early in the morning, and left the next day!
I wanted to ask if anyone on the forum could advise us on what to do next, or who we can write to to file a formal complaint about this? Unfortunately this person asked for payment in advance, so we paid in full. We're going to ask him for a refund in any case but what I think is more important is to report this person to the relevant authorities so he cannot continue to put other divers in the dangerous situations we were forced face.
If you've read the long story this far thank you and thanks in advance for any advice!
