Another Hawaii DSD lawsuit against PADI....

[Wookie]

Another Hawaii DSD lawsuit against PADI..... https://cdn.fbsbx.com/v/t59.2708-21...2ad75486085bfed0b3e3b6bf6f25&oe=5D8BDA2E&dl=1

 

[ScubaWithTurk]

I saw this and was a bit confused. A DSD requires a confined water session. You have to have the students practice mask clear, reg remove and replace and reg recovery followed by a swim (where I teach them to kick properly)

Regardless, I believe 4 DSD students with one instructor is a recipe for trouble. I have never taken more than two which is one student for each arm and for the first portion of the dive I am above them with a hand on each student's cylinder.

I know @cerich , @RainPilot and I had extensive talks about this as it relates to standards and feel it is time for the WRSTC to change the ratios to 2:1 for the DSDs.

 

[Esprise Me]

Has PADI always required a confined water session for DSDs? I don't remember doing that when I did a DSD ~10 years ago on Catalina, and I can't figure out where we would have done it.

ETA: This suit appears to stem from the incident previously discussed here: 13 year old diver dies - Oahu, Hawaii

I'm guessing the word "another" is in reference to this being filed around the same time? DSD Fatality suit. Brooks v. PADI

 

[Cowfish Aesthetic]

I saw this and was a bit confused. A DSD requires a confined water session. You have to have the students practice mask clear, reg remove and replace and reg recovery followed by a swim (where I teach them to kick properly)

When my wife and I did a DSD in Hawaii in 2013, the “confined water” portion was done in the ocean at a sheltered beach. We walked in and did the required skills. Then we eventually swam out from that beach for the dive. I don’t recall now if we returned to the shore between the skills and the dive or if it was continuous.

 

[Graeme Fraser]

Definition of Confined Water - extract
Confined water is a general term that refers to either a swimming pool or confined open water. Confined open water is an open water site that offers swimming pool like conditions with respect to clarity, calmness, and depth.

DSD optional Open Water Dive
Discover Scuba Diving participants and PADI Scuba Diver/ Open Water Diver students may progress directly from Confined Water Dive 1 to Open Water Dive 1 without exiting the water.

 

[Esprise Me]

Interesting. I don't know that conditions off Casino Point are ever quite what I'd call swimming pool-like in any of those categories, though it's calm, clear, and shallow enough that people snorkel right off the steps. It drops off real quick though. I wonder how loosely this requirement is usually interpreted.

 

[JackD342]

Ratio’s, conditions, etc. are always supposed to be applied more conservatively as needed, subject to the dive leader’s judgement. That can often shift responsibility from the program itself to the decisions of the individuals involved.

One more option, although no indication it was involved here:
If participants will go on an open water dive, and shallow
water for skills practice is inaccessible, an instructor
conducts the skills session from a boat, dock or other
surface support station by using a descent line, horizontal
bar or platform that is within 2 metres/6 feet of the
surface. The ratio is 1:1 when using the descent line option.