Try Scuba Accident..what happens next?

[tridacna]

I've read enough to avoid this place. Too many great places to go in the Indo Pac without the black cloud (true or not) hanging over this place.

 

[dlofting]

My son and his girlfriend were certified in Koh Tao last year. From what I can see of their diving skills, whoever taught them did a good job. Maybe we shouldn't tar all the dive shops with the same brush.

 

[Protondecay123]

Simply put the defenders of Koh Tao always shoot the victim or messenger. They complain about "hatred" from the Samui Times and others, but there is little dispute about the facts of another tourist mishap. It's a big world there are lots of other options.

 

[Ian Yarwood]

Thank you Zef and everyone else who has written a few lines in my defence.

Unfortunately, one cannot publicly say anything unpleasant about Koh Tao without becoming a target for a bunch of apologists many of whom write comments unfettered by any concerns about accuracy or even correct spelling. C'est la vie!

It would be tedious to address every error that has been written in recent days but maybe I can dispel a few myths.

Alexx007 incorrectly states that I once lived on the islands (see #42). That is false. Su Buchanan, the editor of the Samui Times lived on both Koh Tao and Koh Samui for many years and worked as a diving instructor there. I have never lived permanently anywhere in Thailand although I have visited many times. Normally my critics assume that I have never been to Koh Tao, which is also an incorrect assumption. I have visited both Koh Nangyuan and Koh Tao and have snorkelled around both. I have never tried scuba diving. I thought both islands were beautiful but I was more impressed with the fish around Fiji.

divinh falsely stated that ALL my research was from ScubaBoard (see #44). I first learned about Rocio Gomez from an article in the Maritime Herald dated 10 January 2019 which I found with a Google search. I then read a number of the Spanish language articles from Argentina. I did not notice the ScubaBoard articles until they popped up in other Google searches several days later. Later divinh qualified his/her statement saying that my research seems to be mostly composed of posts from ScubaBoard (#49).

I do not have a "vendetta" against Koh Tao. I do not write exclusively negative comments about Koh Tao. In the past I have written that both Heaven and Hell can be found on Koh Tao and anyone who thinks otherwise is not paying attention.

I sincerely like most Thai people I have met too. My own view is that Thailand has some of the most wonderful poor people in the world and some of the most horrible rich people in the world. Unfortunately, many of the rich Thai people are also criminals.

 

[divinh]

What I can't seem to reconcile is the allegation of an island/nation-wide cover-up, while at the same time, the reporting is based on searchable online articles and posts.

 

[Zef]

What I can't seem to reconcile is the allegation of an island/nation-wide cover-up, while at the same time, the reporting is based on searchable online articles and posts.

When did you become the official spokesperson for Koh Tao or Thailand iteself? There is nothing for you to reconcile. It is not an attack against you. If there are facts that are disputable then present them and contribute to the discussion and education of the masses...anything else is just you whining in disagreement to what someone else has stated.

-Z

 

[divinh]

When did you become the official spokesperson for Koh Tao or Thailand iteself? There is nothing for you to reconcile. It is not an attack against you. If there are facts that are disputable then present them and contribute to the discussion and education of the masses...anything else is just you whining in disagreement to what someone else has stated.

-Z

Did you read the entirety of the thread? I have been on this thread since it first appeared and contributed my experience of a lost diver incident on Koh Tao.

Did you read the post from the instructor? Did you read the post from the ex-boyfriend? Sure, summaries are more digestible, especially if they come pre-packaged with a viewpoint, but reading from the original sources gives you a better understanding of the overall situation. In the US, the Covington story has schooled a lot of people on jumping to conclusions when only a certain viewpoint is presented.

 

[Zef]

Did you read the entirety of the thread? I have been on this thread since it first appeared and contributed my experience of a lost diver incident on Koh Tao.

Did you read the post from the instructor? Did you read the post from the ex-boyfriend? Sure, summaries are more digestible, especially if they come pre-packaged with a viewpoint, but reading from the original sources gives you a better understanding of the overall situation. In the US, the Covington story has schooled a lot of people on jumping to conclusions when only a certain viewpoint is presented.

I have read every word of every post in this thread...some of the posts more than once.

There is a lot to digest in the incident at hand, and it is still unclear what exactly happened to the woman that caused her to lose consciousness and basically drown...so it is not clear yet what there is to learn except an increased emphasis on safety and that based on the facts/statements presented that the instructor of this DSD event f*%ked up by losing contact and sight of his untrained/non-certified client. This is at a minimum a lack of adherence to standards, and the fact that the instructor has not been charged with contributing to the death of his client and this issue not being made more public is disconcerting and should be noticed by the diving public around the world as they decide whether they want to vacation/dive in that corner of the world.

That is basically what I have gleaned from the posts in this thread, and despite your disagreement with Ian Yarwood, I believe he has posted in good consciousness with the intent to inform the diving public of relevant issues in Koh Toa.

That fact that his sentiment does not sit well with you is an opportunity for you to present facts or a case that refutes what he has offered. Anything else is just you being butt-hurt that someone has stated something unpopular about where you perhaps live, work, dive, etc.

We can go at this until the end of time....but you have not contributed anything to refute the concerns that Ian Yarwood has raised.

-Z

 

[divinh]

I have read every word of every post in this thread...some of the posts more than once.

Great. I've done that as well.

I didn't think I needed to have it read to me via a YouTube video. I think that's the crux of my annoyance... and the "please subscribe", which to me looks like self-promotion, instead of reporting for the sake of awareness.

There is a lot to digest in the incident at hand, and it is still unclear what exactly happened to the woman that caused her to lose consciousness and basically drown...so it is not clear yet what there is to learn except an increased emphasis on safety and that based on the facts/statements presented that the instructor of this DSD event f*%ked up by losing contact and sight of his untrained/non-certified client. This is at a minimum a lack of adherence to standards, and the fact that the instructor has not been charged with contributing to the death of his client and this issue not being made more public is disconcerting and should be noticed by the diving public around the world as they decide whether they want to vacation/dive in that corner of the world.

Yes, there is a lot to digest, more so than most other incidents, and the information came out rather quickly too. Most of the time, reports are rather brief and generally written by third parties unfamiliar with diving, which make reports confusing or unreliable. Rarely do you get the perspective from an involved instructor. (If you've been reading Accidents & Incidents, you'll know this to be true.) Even with all that info, we don't have all the details, so as you elude, we can only learn to increase safety. So the question becomes, is there a general lax of safety measures on Koh Tao? Thailand? DSD's in general? If these incidents were limited to Koh Tao, then perhaps the blame is rightly assigned to the island. If these incidents were a result of poor DSD guidelines, then why blame Koh Tao or Thailand in general? If this particular incident was a result of poor judgement of one instructor, why blame Koh Tao and/or Thailand?

There's a narrative being presented that Koh Tao and/or Thailand is suppressing information about incidents to protect tourism. Perhaps that might be the case, but the information presented so far doesn't lead to that conclusion. Where are the memos from authorities? Where are the interviews with people testifying that there's been suppression? The lack of Thai newspaper coverage is no more startling to me than finding that newspapers in the U.S. don't cover regional incidents nor does the death of a tourist make national news.

That is basically what I have gleaned from the posts in this thread, and despite your disagreement with Ian Yarwood, I believe he has posted in good consciousness with the intent to inform the diving public of relevant issues in Koh Toa.

That fact that his sentiment does not sit well with you is an opportunity for you to present facts or a case that refutes what he has offered. Anything else is just you being butt-hurt that someone has stated something unpopular about where you perhaps live, work, dive, etc.

We can go at this until the end of time....but you have not contributed anything to refute the concerns that Ian Yarwood has raised.

How exactly does one refute a conspiracy theory? Flat Earth, fake landing on the Moon, etc. still persist.

Is the number of incidents compared to the number of visitors to Koh Tao enough to refute that it isn't systematic problem?

 

[oncor23]

Yes...this is unusual. We did get a statement from the "responsible" instructor. A statement mostly about how much pain he was in. A statement about how much he liked the victim. A statement about how awful it was that he was being so unfairly attacked in the media. But not much of an explanation about how he lost track of the victim. Maybe she followed some other group of divers passing by. The other students...no statements from them, but the instructor implies that they didn't know what happened to the victim. How, exactly, was she able to swim off without anyone noticing?

Sorry. This doesn't pass my smell test. Something is rotten and it ain't in Denmark.