Role of the Dive Master

[medic5]

I am certified but very much a novice and only dive while on occasional vacation in the warm waters. In all of my dives I have never had an official "buddy" as my family does not dive. I have always experienced the dive with a DM along who led the group of divers. In most instances the DM regularly (every couple of minutes) checked on us to make sure we were OK, no problems, sufficient air, etc. During a recent dive the DM checked on the 3 of us at depth but then did not look back for 15 minutes or so, during which time I had some buoyancy issues. By that time I was slowly rising and could not maintain depth. Not a rapid ascent by any means but a problem.

I could see the DM below but of course could not get his attention. By the time he looked and found that I was "missing" I was at a depth of 10 feet and he was at 50. I could tell that he was really, really concerned that I was missing and he could not see me. He began to backtrack looking for me (I guess he was looking for my body) and I also turned to try and stay in sight of him although almost at the surface. He finally surfaced but with the swells he could not see me on the surface. This was a shore dive and I began to swim back to the shore from our departure point. There was another DM on the shore and he, after about my swimming to shore for 10 minutes, did spot me and I gave him the OK sign. It was a little challenging to get back to shore.

Afterwards I appologized to the DM as I know I scared the cra* out of him. What could I have done differently, presuming I could not fix my buoyancy issue? Was swimming back to shore the correct procedure or should I have stayed out a while longer trying to meet up with the DM? Never having had a buddy, how should a dive with the DM work if we are not within arms reach as I fear some type of true catastrophic emergency, such as equipment failure, where I can see the DM but can't get his attention.

Thanks for the input.

 

[ScubaRich]

Oh my!

The short answer, The DM is a tour guide, Nothing more.

 

[sydney-diver]

Hi,

You should always dive with an assigned buddy, the DM cannot keep an eye on you to the level you need when he/she is also leading a dive. Because you don't have a permant buddy you should make sure you buddy up with someone else at the start of the dive (you should make sure the DM knows you don't have a buddy - maybe he/she thought you did).

Normal practise where I dive is if you get seperated search for the missing diver for 1 minute under water then ascend to the surface and group there. If you had a buddy, he/she would have seen you ascend and follow you up so at least you'd be together on the surface and the DM would know they'd lost a pair and not a single diver.

As you dive more, you'll make friends with other divers and wont have this issue. Good luck with your diving

Dave

 

[Garrobo]

Depends on the dive shop and their rules for what the DM is to do. Some are just guides and others take the job more seriously and keep in touch with his/her ducklings, point out interesting (to them) stuff and monitor everyones' air and location in the water, etc. In your case it seems that you were underweighted or didn't have the pause to let the air out of your BC. When I started diving I had a problem of rising to the surface when my tank was low on air, especially on shallow reefs. I remedied this by laying on more weight. I had one DM they called the weight Nazi who tried her best to get me to use less lead but snce I have about 25% fat ratio I tend to float.

 

[Crush]

If you hire your own personal DM to dive with you (and only you), then you should reasonably expect a higher level of care. That being said, if you are paying him/her good money, you should discuss what services will be provided or expected well in advance of getting on the boat/driving to the shore.

In your group of 3, the DM was likely trying to spot cool things to point out (he/she would understand this to be their job). Again, if you paid for his/her services, did you discuss what you would get for your money?

Finally (ouch) what happened with your buoyancy? Don't get me wrong - I am not an expert, but you have really got to figure out what happened and practice having it not happen again. Did you do a weight check at the surface? Did you account for losing a few pounds of air as your dive progressed? If you were wearing any neoprene at all, it would have compressed at 50 feet, making your less buoyant. Granted, you were using air, but is it possible that you failed to vent all the air in your BC when you noticed you were rising? I suspect you might not have been oriented vertically with the BC hose and dump valve pointed upwards so that the air could escape?

 

[Arizona_SVO]

First, may I suggest some good reading: http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/new-divers-those-considering-diving/283566-who-responsible-what.html

Second, the short story is the DM is basically responsible for duties such as pointing out really cool things, noticing the comfort level of folks on the boat and alleviating potential problems. They help ensure that folks know what to expect, what the 'rules of the road' are for a particular dive site, and what the expectations of you, as a diver, are for the dive boat. Some of these things may fall into the 'tour guide' realm, and others may be shared with the crew of the boat - but that is their choice. You should make your concerns known to the DM before the trip, and ask for their help during the trip - they may pair you with another diver, may pair you with themselves, or may not acknowledge you at all (but the good ones will definatley help you out).

At the end of it all, the DM is resposible for getting all the phone numbers of the single women and collecting the tips.

It is amazing how fast folks answer on this board - 4 replies in the time it took for me to write this one...

 

[MauiScubaSteve]

I had one DM they called the weight Nazi who tried her best to get me to use less lead but snce I have about 25% fat ratio I tend to float.

Where was that at?

 

[fnfalman]

First of all; unless you have decided to dive solo, you should have a dedicated buddy instead of a DM who "once in a while check on the group members". You and your dedicated buddy or buddies (as in team of 3 or something) should have your own dive plan and should stick together until the dive is over.

A divemaster, even when paid, can't pay attentions to individuals if he or she were suppose to lead a group.

Lastly, you're responsible for yourself. A divemaster, even when paid, shouldn't have to go around checking for your air pressure, etc. The only time a divemaster should do that is when he or she leads divers who are participating in Scuba Discovery/Scuba Intro. Certified divers, no matter how green, should be able to figure out what depth they're at, what pressure is in their tanks, and whether or not they are going to run into decompression limit.

And TALK about your dive plan with your buddies and the DM. Don't expect for people to know what you want or expect. Don't leave anything to guesswork.

 

[Garrobo]

Halemano: Upper Keys, Largo.

 

[medic5]

This was in Aruba. My first dive was just a DM and me as the other two people came from overseas, spoke limited English, and were doing a refresher course. I did not have any problems on this first dive and the DM did have me review a few skills underwater as it had been about 1 year since my last dive.

For the second dive the other DM, the one who had take out the other two people, was my DM also, with the first DM sitting this one out. With a total of four of us there was no discussion of my "buddy", obviously an error on my part. I was comfortable on both dives with monitoring my depth, air consumption, time, etc. In hindsight I was not underweighted, I was having difficulty dumping some of the air from the BCD. 100% my fault, and I have learned from my error.