Safety Stand Down - Power SCUBA - San Diego CA

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I encouraged our large and diverse membership to observe the stand-down in order for them to take a pause, really THINK about what they were/are doing safety-wise, and reflect on some stories and experiences I shared with them each day of the Stand-Down.

No one in the rank-and-file was kept mandatorially out of the water. We're not the scuba police. All Power Scuba can do is ask everyone to take a moment. Better to do that NOW, in the aftermath of a case of the bends, than in the aftermath of a much more serious accident during one of our events.

People's own mileage will vary... from those expressing profound thanks to those who make fun of my efforts. I'm aware of both extremes and the majority that lies in the middle.

I've initiated discussion within our Organizer ranks and our Board of Directors and am actively soliciting membership for ideas and suggestions to improve safety.

When considering a membership base of 3,800, safety is an art, not a science. We do indeed mandate safety rules and common sense rules be followed. For every member I remove for cause, Power Scuba gains a vocal detractor on social media... which matters not one whit to me. I'm well aware there are some in our industry who flaunt safety and who poo-poo anyone who would try to tell them to reevaluate their methods. There are many dive clubs out there for that type of person. My org is not one of them.

Bill Powers
 
I encouraged our large and diverse membership to observe the stand-down in order for them to take a pause, really THINK about what they were/are doing safety-wise, and reflect on some stories and experiences I shared with them each day of the Stand-Down.
I don't have a horse in this race but perhaps I can provide some impetus to bring this to a reasonable close.

Bill, it's been well over a week now since you suggested your stand-down. And I would also thing (at least from my own perspective), if all anyone does is think about what the bend person did "wrong" but doesn't look at their own diving practices, it's sort of a waste of time. So here are the payoff questions:

1. As a result of reflection during the stand-down or from reading the safety articles/thoughts you sent, what have you members told you they are going to do differently from here on out?

2. I would hope this stand-down also resulted in you, as a trip organizer, doing some reflection of your own organizational and supervisory practices. So the same question to you but from that angle: As a result of the stand-down, what changes are you making either in how you organize trips &/or vet people coming with you, as well as any changes you might make in your supervisory practices during these trips that could possibly avoid this type of incident in the future?

Serious questions. Not trying to troll you.

- Ken
 
Building upon the insightful questions from @Ken Kurtis, I would be very curious to know if the 2014 stand down resulted in any lasting improvements to your club's dive practices. Looks like these are recurring events.
 
Ken: All good questions. VR, not so much. Two Stand-Downs 3 1/2 years apart does not any kind of a trend make, but as my group gets larger, statistically speaking there will be other incidents in the future. (Almost 4,000 members now.) I reserve the right to employ Stand-Downs and other methods I deem appropriate. A stand-down isn't a commentary or put-down on a group's record. Rather a stand-down is a public and group-wide affirmation of the leadership's intentions and commitment to safety.

As has been mentioned before in this thread (started by a well-intentioned member) not all of my actions and reactions to this incident were reported on here (by a long shot), but in very general terms:

  • Members have indeed written in asserting they plan on:
    • staying farther away from their NDLs than before
    • Taking their computers off the "Liberal Mode"
    • Paying more and better attention to their ascent rates
    • Being better buddies to each other
    • Assorted other assertions of increased safety, etc
You see, my safety bulletins didn't/don't just focus on the incidents that spurred this thread, but rather safety as a whole and common areas of problems (such as dealing with currents) that affect many divers.
  • I have been reviewing best practices with my Organizers and Board and am continuing to do so, but two changes that have evolved out of this so far are:
    • Hard core drinking the night before, on the part of a small percentage of our membership will be curtailed. Again, we're not the police, but if a member is known to have tied one on the night before (into the early morning perhaps)... and is bleary-eyed as he/she walks on deck... then they'll be asked to sit out the morning dives (at the very least).
    • "+1" guests will be allowed with a member ONCE, then if they want to attend again, they'll have to join our main site at www.powerscuba.org. Reason being: Our event pages that the members sign up to are ROBUST with safety and instructional information. A guest doesn't necessarily read that and so is already starting off at a deficit. Also, I send out group-wide safety blurbs, bulletins, and anecdotes on a fairly consistent basis. Someone's guest doesn't get to see that.
    • An increased emphasis on the trip leader/host giving a robust safety lecture at the beginning of the trip. I do this every time I lead a trip, but the trip leaders who aren't public speakers in their real lives might have a harder time of it.
One other idea that's gaining a lot of traction is asking other leaders of large groups what they do, specifically, to help ensure the safety of their trip participants? I suppose we can start with you, Ken, since you've taken an interest. No group, even a large one, is an island and we can all benefit from the best practices of those around us. Share yours if you would.

Rare is the boat that hasn't had an incident on it's decks. Rare is the shop that hasn't had an ex-student run into trouble. Rare is the large group that hasn't had an incident within it's ranks. It's what you do when addressing said incidents that reveals who and what you are. As I've said before, I could certainly decide to throw up my arms in resignation, sigh, and say, "Accidents are gonna happen within a group this large". I choose not to do that.

Thanks for your inquiry!

Bill Powers

ALSO: This will be my last post in this thread as I think the subject has been run into the ground at this point. I'm grateful for those who are genuinely interested in making positive suggestions and enhancing safety for the community overall. If anyone has any further specific questions for me they're welcome to IM me.
 
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One other idea that's gaining a lot of traction is asking other leaders of large groups what they do, specifically, to help ensure the safety of their trip participants? I suppose we can start with you, Ken, since you've taken an interest. No group, even a large one, is an island and we can all benefit from the best practices of those around us. Share yours if you would.
Happy to contribute.

In the spirit of full disclosure, when we had our brick-and-mortar store open, we ran about 50-60 local SoCal trips a year (mostly 1-day, but some 2- and 3-dayers). In the course of 18 years of doing this, we had two fatalities on trips. One was a guy who had a heart attack on the surface kicking back to the boat. The other was a guy who (IMHO) basically scared himself to death by diving to 156 feet at Farnsworth (despite our briefing instructions not to exceed 100 feet) and passed out underwater, was brought up by his buddy, was given heroic and massive rescue efforts, and didn't make it. We had a few bends cases, none that I recall seeming to be too serious and many which didn't manifest themselves until post-trip or the next day, and no embolisims. Since end of 2006, we don't run many local trips but do generally 6 foreign group trips each year and have had to this date no fatalities, bends, or embolisms. And the point of telling you all of this is that, while as Bill said, no group or man is an island, no one's perfect, either.

Here are some of the philosophies and practices we employed, in no particular order, and then I'll wrap with a story of how all of those in concert likely saved a guy's life:

• My people are all quite empowered to be The Scuba Police. They are authorized to tell you you're not doing a dive when their judgement says so. We'll do our best to sugar-coat it and convince you it's a good idea (or even YOUR idea), but in the end, our judgement trumps yours. I'd rather piss you off or refund you than go through years of litigation and pay off your estate.

• I also tell them that good DMing is invisible. Try to do it with a velvet glove, not an iron fist. Clever manipulation is a good thing and having people come up with as their idea what you hoped they would do in the first place is ideal.

• Everyone personally checks in with the DM when you arrive. No "The sign-in sheet and waivers are over there." You fill out a form that gives us highest-level cert, # of dives last 12 months, # of lifetime dives, date of last dive, and chat with us a bit. Just gives us a quick picture, especially if we've never met you before.

• Everyone sits through the 15-minute 28-point pre-departure briefing. (If you're a "regular" and we know you well enough, you could sign a waiver that asks to skip the briefing because you know it and agree to abide by it.)

• We always had at least three working DMs on every trip. That would be one of the deck running the dive with the roster tracking divers on and off the boat, one suited up on the deck available for rescue, and one diving either escorting or off on his/her own.

• My favorite saying is "You never get hurt on a dive you don't make." We'd try to include that thought throughout the day.

• We try to drill into divers during the briefing that we cannot be responsible for their safety underwater. Only THEY can do that. We also let them know that if there's a problem, they need to do everything they can to get themselves to the surface and stay there. (See weight policy below.) We told them that we can respond once we know you're on the surface but if you're missing underwater, it's likely a body recovery, not a rescue.

• We had a strict out-of-air policy. Run out-of-air, done diving for the day. No exceptions.

• We would try to be aware of your night-before (many of our trips were outer island so left at 1AM) drinking habits. If you seemed hung over, you skipped the first dive. (I'm amazed at when people say that if you have a beer for lunch, you can't do the 2 o'clock dive, but they have no problem with the diver downing shots until 2AM splashing at 7AM.)

• We encouraged you to drop your weightbelt if you had the least inkling you were in trouble and we offered to replace it at no charge if we couldn't find it. Many dead divers found on the bottom with weightbelts in place MIGHT have had a chance had they ditched the weights and floated - even unconscious - to the surface.

• We rarely believed you when you signaled "OK" and didn't panic when you didn't signal. Drowning divers have signaled "OK" as they go down. I encourage my people, again, to use their judgement. We'd often send out a rescue DM to see if someone was OK or to kick back with them just because things didn't look right. In fact, in the case of the aforementioned surface heart attack fatality, he had given three OK signs on his kick back but my DMs didn't like the way he was kicking and we already had someone halfway to him when he passed out.

There are more things but this post is already long enough. Here's the story of all of this put into practice:

We're diving Farnsworth. I'm the in-charge deck DM. I have a DM on the bow suited up to jump if necessary and another DM about to get in the water to do the dive with one other person. Diver jumps in the water and his AIR2 immediately begins free-flowing. I'm yelling down to him but he either ignores me or can't hear me as he kicks to the bow (maybe 40 feet). I yell up to the bow DM to shout down to him. (Diver is either diving by himself or catching up with his buddy. Can't recall which.) Diver still doesn't respond and dives down the anchor line before bow DM (wetsuit only - no tank or weights) can jump. I instruct my about-to-dive-DM. "Go down and find the guy with the bright green fins and check his air. Bring him up if necessary." My DM jumps in and heads down the line and catches up with the diver in question at 100 feet as he's heading deeper. (Also recall, at Farnsworth, we'd try to set a depth limit of 100'.) DM grabs his fin and gets his attention, motions to check air pressure. Diver doesn't look at gauge and signals "OK". DM shakes head and motions again and this time diver checks. He's got a little less than 300psi (this is less than 3 minutes into his dive.) DM grabs hold of diver's BC and signals "You and I are going up". Diver nods and they ascend. At about 80 feet, diver sucks his tank dry and DM hands him DM octo. They continue up. DM tries to slow them down to do a safety stop but diver is a bit anxious and keeps kicking so they miss the safety stop and pop up (both OK) just off the bow of the boat. My DM escorts diver to the swimstep of the boat. After a short calming-down period, we review the dive with the diver, suggest he sit the next one out (and perhaps the rest of the day), and tell him that if he wants to do dive #3 or #4, he'll go with one of us.

There is absolutely NO doubt in my mind that if we didn't have the mindset about safety that we do, and didn't have the policies and procedures in place that we do, that that diver would have likely died on that dive and we prevented that.

Enough of what we do. Anyone else want to share their organizational policies?

- Ken
 
I respect your opinion. And I stand by mine: responsible adults generally do not need to be told to go to their room and think about what they've done.
I run a pub, which by nature is full of 'adults' the amount of times I've had to give regulars a 2 week ban, to go away and think about what they've done.
 
Happy to contribute.
Here are some of the philosophies and practices we employed, in no particular order, and then I'll wrap with a story of how all of those in concert likely saved a guy's life:...
- Ken

Very well put Ken, just what I'd expect from one of a dying breed(southern california NAUI instructors). I'm amazed at how many divers are so reluctant to call a dive if they don't feel 100%. Obviously this is compounded on boat dives, where divers are more likely to feel compelled to "get their money's worth". Exponentially worse in a vacation or resort setting where time is limited.

Completely anecdotal, but every local diver I know(5 in total) who's gotten bent and taken a chamber ride had been drinking heavily the night before. I think the OP from power scuba makes some reasonable points about using more conservative dive computer profiles, blowing geezer gas on an air profile if you're over 50, and not pushing your bottom time right up against NDL limits on deep multiple dives. I guess the question is, who is certifying muppets who don't understand all of this already?
 
I guess the question is, who is certifying muppets who don't understand all of this already?

Kaamoss, in my experience, it's not that instructor's don't turn out students who haven't been taught points like these... or that the students didn't understand those points. The failure is that many students-now-divers CHOOSE to deviate from those teaching points or not place the same emphasis on them their instructors did. The "normalization of deviance" is a worrying trend these days among many divers.
 
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Kaamoss, in my experience, it's not that instructor's don't turn out students who haven't been taught points like these... or that the students didn't understand those points. The failure is that many students-now-divers CHOOSE to deviate from those teaching points or not place the same emphasis on them their instructors did. The "deviance of normal" is a worrying trend these days among many divers.
Do you mean Normalization of Deviance? I mean, for some, deviance is normal.. I guess :p
 
Kaamoss, in my experience, it's not that instructor's don't turn out students who haven't been taught points like these... or that the students didn't understand those points. The failure is that many students-now-divers CHOOSE to deviate from those teaching points or not place the same emphasis on them their instructors did. The "normalization of deviance" is a worrying trend these days among many divers.

Power Scuba, I think in most cases you are correct. Although, I will say that having gone through many PADI and NAUI training programs, I find that in general they have very different emphasis placed on certain concepts. Every PADI program I've gone through has given me the impression that they are more focused on getting people through the program despite their poor skills or core understanding, than they are on diver safety first and foremost. I think if you look at the litany of "specialization" certifications PADI offers vs NAUI, and how PADI "gates" their DM and Master training behind a ton of arguably useless "specialization" courses, compared against NAUI DM and Master requirements, the motivations look clear. Objectively, PADI looks like an endless money grab and sales pitch. I've also noticed that most PADI programs tend to try to gloss over or sugar coat the harsh realities of what could go wrong while diving, because they want to sell 20+ specialty courses and gear and not scare new divers away. NAUI's only cert requirement for Master is AOW, DM appears to need no special cert, and Instructor appears to only require a nitrox cert.

I want to clarify, I'm not trying to say anything about the instructors in either programs, and I'm 100% sure there are NAUI programs out there with more focus on making money and not scaring away new divers than safety.
 
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