Accepting Responsibility for Your Own Safety

[Scott]

Did the OP change his name in the middle of this post?

Appears so.

 

[TSandM]

Okay, having read the story, I understand a bit better. And I stand by my statement that you need to remediate the deficiencies that led to the need for those interventions by the DM. Frankly, I find it rather eyebrow-raising that someone with the training you've achieved needs a DM to keep you from exceeding the depth of the dive plan, or to recognize the need to adjust your buoyancy. Matt, you need some better training, or some focused practice. You should be able to do all those things for yourself by now.

And BTW, Peter won't give somebody a certification card if he doesn't think they're capable of diving independently. And in our private classes, dive four of the OW class (if the viz is better than 5 feet) is planned and executed by the students, with me and Peter hanging above and behind to monitor and ensure safety. But the students do the dive, including the navigation.

 

[Hawkwood]

... Matt, you need some better training, or some focused practice. You should be able to do all those things for yourself by now...

I am glad you added, "or some focused practice" - it is not always the training.

 

[mathauck0814]

I am glad you added, "or some focused practice" - it is not always the training.

I recall from some previous posts that the OP made that he's averse to diving locally and that he has somewhere in the neighborhood of 35 dives. If you did 4 in open water, 5 in AOW and 4 in rescue, that leaves 22 dives done over the course of some number of months.

Training is likely at the heart of the OP's issue - it's not the student's fault when the instructor fails them so blatantly. What IS the student's fault is when they concoct a doctrine of ignorance to explain away their obvious lack of ability. Though even with bad training, he likely has enough knowledge to go out and practice on his own (with a buddy of course).

For comparison, it's not uncommon for us to get in 22 dives in a week or two when the weather is good. There's no reason the OP can't be out in the waters off Maryland suring up his skills and establishing the kinds of good habits that would make him a better and more confident diver.

The trick is finding the desire to do so.

 

[FPDocMatt]

Did the OP change his name in the middle of this post?

I had asked Pete if I could change my handle. Nothing to do with this thread. He changed it for me today. In any case, I don't think changing my handle would be an effective way of avoiding criticism on Scuba Board.

 

[EastEndDiver]

I think the one thing that we all have overlooked is........How can an instructor certify in such a way that they create a danger to the student and to those around them......I am refering to "Rescue Diver" .Rescue Diver is NOT a certification that comes with Training wheels this Certification pretty much states that you are able/capable of performing in water rescues.I would have to question an instructor that gives out this certification so freely......I think in this case it comes down to "pay your money get your cert".

 

[jaycanwk]

Yes. It's like when you first get a driver's license. There's a period of time when you have a training license, and aren't supposed to drive without an experienced driving in the car with you.

I don't think anybody who has only done OW is qualified to dive without a DM. Not me, and not anybody else either. And SB members are welcome to tell me I'm incompetent, or dumb, or didn't pay attention in class, etc. But I disagree. Nobody fresh out of driver's ed is qualified to drive with only another fresh driver, and nobody fresh out of OW is qualified to dive only with another new OW graduate buddy.

And even if I said that everybody who graduates OW is qualified to dive only with a buddy, then I would still say that it's safer to do so with a DM. Does this mean I'm not accepting responsibility for my own safety? I don't think so. In fact, it means I'm accepting more responsibility for my own safety than someone who thinks that, because he's finished OW, he doesn't need a DM.



At Cozumel this week my DM suggested I add air to or subtract air from my BC a couple of times when I was finning a lot to maintain my buoyancy. That advice was well taken. He also helped me locate my buddy when I forgot to keep track of where he was and misplaced him a couple of times. At one point along a wall I inadvertently descended from 80 to 97 feet rather quickly, and my buddy (not the DM) swam down and grabbed me before I had descended further. I knew I was at 97 feet, and I was watching my computer. But it probably wasn't a good idea to be down there when the rest of the group was at 80. At no time did I feel in any danger, and at no time did I feel that the DM was really necessary for my safety. But I don't think that it's a bad idea to have the DM there just in case. And when I say I'm not qualified to guarantee my own safety, I mean that I might easily have made a mistake. Losing track of my buddy was a mistake that could prove fatal, though perhaps not when you're swimming in a group. Fatal for my buddy perhaps. That's not good. And I shouldn't have done it. But I did. What if a down-current had caught me on the wall and taken me down to 120 feet? Lots of things could happen where a DM would be good to have around, it seems to me. Especially for a newby like me. Does this mean I shouldn't be diving? No. It just means that somebody with my experience is safer with a DM watching out for him.

That's the problem right there.

You should not need a DM or anyone to be controling your boyancy for you or holding your hand in any way. What you need is more practice of your skills in confined water with a competant instructor beacuse obviously, the insrtuctor that cerified you failed you big time in that regard.

So no, you should not be in open water untill you and a buddy can plan and execute a dive independantly with little more than a briefing of the site you plan to dive, because here in Ontario at least, the DM is usually the boat captain and they do not go in the water. They taxi you to the site, give you a briefing, and that's it, you and your buddy conduct the dive from that point on including finding your way back to the boat.

Best of luck.

 

[RickyF]

I had asked Pete if I could change my handle. Nothing to do with this thread. He changed it for me today. In any case, I don't think changing my handle would be an effective way of avoiding criticism on Scuba Board.

Matt,
Unfortunately you bring a lot of the critsism on yourself. Even from some of your earliest posts, you have had a lot of issues with bouyancy control and other issues. With the problems you have spoken og on this thread and others just reinforces my concerns with how someone that does not have good basic skills can be certified as a Rescue Diver. The Rescue Diver course for me was one of the hardest courses I have done and required good bouyancy skills and the ability to handle a lot of task loading. I have even completed all the DM courses and skills except for the tired diver tow and I still think the Rescue was more difficult. I don't relinquish my safety to ANYONE!! I am responsible for my NDL, my air and not doing anything to get myself in trouble. If something beyond my ability to control does happen, then you can bet I am only a few fin strokes away from my designated buddy. I am beginning to think you enjoy the controversy because a lot of your threads seem to lend to it.

 

[arthurmnev]

"...pay your money get your cert".

That seems to be MO for a very large number of dive shops... they need the cash, and if people are not sure they will get their cert, they wont want to go there... sad, but true... people are too trained on "instant gratification". I got horror stories about my LDS, but that is for another thread.

 

[chrpai]

The thing that makes me sad about all this is that he just went on an invasion with a bunch of fellow scubaboarders. I'd hope that he'd be in post vacation bliss and that someone would have taken him under their wing while down there and turned his diving around. I wasn't there so I don't know all the dynamics but I'd hope to see a post more along the lines of "I just had a great time, thank you so much to XYZ because now I'm enjoying my diving so much more."