On a recent boat dive overseas dive I found myself in an uncomfortable situation.
The dive was to be lead by a local DM followed by two instabuddy teams (5 divers in total) all the divers were/are AAW certifide and all with at least 50 dives in the last 2 years. The dive brief was we were doing a max depth 22m dive with a total dive tme of 45 minutes or first to hit 50 bar. (we all looked at each other puzzled and muttered about still having half a tank at dive end). The DM said that they would blow THE smb at 42 minutes and we should group around it whilst doing our safety stop and back on the surface. CLEAR vis was 20m and bubbles visible up to 35m surface conditions were fairly well a millpond.
15 minutes into the dive I had a lump of phlem in my throat so I pulled my reg out, took a mouthfull of water so I could spit it out. I was in no way indicating distress The DM swam back and nigh on bust my teeth jamming the reg back in my mouth.
40 minutes into the dive I felt one of my weight pockets come loose.Rather than risk loosing it I just grabbed it out and carried on up from 8 meters to 6 meters directly above my instabuddy(who was at 8m) .I played around untill I'd done my safety stop by which time my instabuddy and the other divers had been grouped up near me and the DM for about a minute . The DM blew the SMB at 42 minutes. I held up my weight pocket for my instabuddy to see and thumbed. He nodded and I began a gentle ascent below the smb. looking up and down to watch the surface and my instabuddy. The DM swam up,grabbed the front of my rig and yanked me down to 6m again.I pointed to my computer to show I'd done my safety stop thumbed and carried on up again. Again the DM pulled me back down. At this point I'm thinking they had gone mad.
Once the DM had satisfied themselves they had done 3 minutes they carried on up to the surface normally.
The explaination given was that they wanted us to stay together and complete the safety stop.
Can anyone explain the logic of their actions? Or was I just outa line?
The dive was to be lead by a local DM followed by two instabuddy teams (5 divers in total) all the divers were/are AAW certifide and all with at least 50 dives in the last 2 years. The dive brief was we were doing a max depth 22m dive with a total dive tme of 45 minutes or first to hit 50 bar. (we all looked at each other puzzled and muttered about still having half a tank at dive end). The DM said that they would blow THE smb at 42 minutes and we should group around it whilst doing our safety stop and back on the surface. CLEAR vis was 20m and bubbles visible up to 35m surface conditions were fairly well a millpond.
15 minutes into the dive I had a lump of phlem in my throat so I pulled my reg out, took a mouthfull of water so I could spit it out. I was in no way indicating distress The DM swam back and nigh on bust my teeth jamming the reg back in my mouth.
40 minutes into the dive I felt one of my weight pockets come loose.Rather than risk loosing it I just grabbed it out and carried on up from 8 meters to 6 meters directly above my instabuddy(who was at 8m) .I played around untill I'd done my safety stop by which time my instabuddy and the other divers had been grouped up near me and the DM for about a minute . The DM blew the SMB at 42 minutes. I held up my weight pocket for my instabuddy to see and thumbed. He nodded and I began a gentle ascent below the smb. looking up and down to watch the surface and my instabuddy. The DM swam up,grabbed the front of my rig and yanked me down to 6m again.I pointed to my computer to show I'd done my safety stop thumbed and carried on up again. Again the DM pulled me back down. At this point I'm thinking they had gone mad.
Once the DM had satisfied themselves they had done 3 minutes they carried on up to the surface normally.
The explaination given was that they wanted us to stay together and complete the safety stop.
Can anyone explain the logic of their actions? Or was I just outa line?