Another TrustMe dive experience

[Kevrumbo]

Any backup plan if the guide has an issue during the dive? That's a lot of eggs in one basket. I do, however, like the 'pathfinder' team you described in your earlier post.

See Kev, every once in a while I like something you write

Usual overhead protocol for the particular emergency contingency that a team member is experiencing (i.g. OOG; Toxing Diver etc). If the Guide is totally incapacitated and you don't know the wreck layout that well or at all:

Tactically on a wreck penetration traverse w/o running a reel & guide line, find your way to a main corridor and look for ambient sunlight coming from an exit --make your egress, and retrieve your deco tanks, all hopefully with the Guide in tow. Finding your way to a main corridor is the challenging part -you've got several variables to consider: wreck orientation --upright, on side or capsized? Are you in the engine room, crews quarters or a cargo hold? Are you in a zero-viz Black Ash silt-out?

Depending on the Guide's problem -and state of consciousness- you might have to make some Draconian decisions for your own survival.

 

[drdaddy]

This post reminds me of why I don't do wrecks or underwater caves (I did plenty of spelunking as a skinny young man - which I am neither now). I know that some will think that I'm missing something great - that's OK with me. I was offered a "Wreck Dive" certification years ago. I thought about it and said "no thanks".

Diving is wonderful and after hundreds of dives I still say, "diving is wonderful". Last weekend I was diving at 50ft deep and grabbing a half-dozen dungeness crabs and had a blast. And a month before, laying on my belly at 80ft staring down an octopus in it's cave was glorious.

Deeper and deeper and darker and darker and going "where no sane man/woman has gone before" sounds like a trap to me. Scuba is never "safe", but, as a psychologist, I do understand why people continue to push the envelope - I just choose not to. - I never want to be in a place where my loved one and I led each other astray - I held my breath through the whole story.

Thanks to the OP for posting this - I really hope that it gives some young (or older) diver the courage to think and "thumb the dive".

 

[Kevrumbo]

This post reminds me of why I don't do wrecks or underwater caves (I did plenty of spelunking as a skinny young man - which I am neither now). I know that some will think that I'm missing something great - that's OK with me. I was offered a "Wreck Dive" certification years ago. I thought about it and said "no thanks".

Diving is wonderful and after hundreds of dives I still say, "diving is wonderful". Last weekend I was diving at 50ft deep and grabbing a half-dozen dungeness crabs and had a blast. And a month before, laying on my belly at 80ft staring down an octopus in it's cave was glorious.

Deeper and deeper and darker and darker and going "where no sane man/woman has gone before" sounds like a trap to me. Scuba is never "safe", but, as a psychologist, I do understand why people continue to push the envelope - I just choose not to. - I never want to be in a place where my loved one and I led each other astray - I held my breath through the whole story.

Thanks to the OP for posting this - I really hope that it gives some young (or older) diver the courage to think and "thumb the dive".

Pushing the envelope deeper & darker (and further) is the motivation for caves which I'm definitely not into, nor do I see any aesthetics other than stalactite/stalagmite formations that are worth the risk of going in such an overhead environment.

I much prefer the history & time capsule exploration of WWII Pacific wrecks, and also enjoy the nearly seventy years of invertebrate growth -hard & soft corals- with fish & other marine life adorning these wrecks. At times I equally prefer staying outside these beautiful tropical "artificial reefs" as well as doing the "trust me" penetrations inside the superstructure.

The allure and fun of wreck diving is not just merely researching the history for academic sake, but actually diving down yourself and vicariously reliving the history as you would imagine how it might've actually happened. . .

It becomes more meaningful when the history, and the wreck itself -"tells" an epic story: http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/basic-scuba-discussions/448529-diving-tragedy-fl-3.html#post6666047

 

[Tortuga68]

We had a wonderful time diving with Georgio on wrecks such as the Irako, Kogyo Maru, Olympia Maru, Taiei Maru and several gunboats. They had a great setup including membrane Nitrox system which is pretty impressive for a remote eco-island dive resort. It was also obvious by how he dived that Georgio was an experienced tech diver, not just a resort diver taking people on wrecks...

We however ran out of time to do the Okikawa Maru. We'd heard of a great dive swimming in through the propeller shaft, and so after moving to another resort 30 minutes away...

Just wondering why the OP moved to another operation

 

[Soggy_Diver]

What I also see here is the lack of reality in many Open Water and Advanced classes. While it is stated in nearly all of them to not go into overheads it's not driven home how bad it can get. Especially on seemingly benign overheads like so.called clean wrecks and swim thrus. Not until tech classes is it properly discussed that this stuff will kill you. In some very nasty and even creative ways.

Can you say more about "nasty and creative ways" that seemingly benign overheads can kill divers? Besides the obvious silt-out or entanglement. Are you talking here about situations like:
-a line of divers where someone in the middle has a gas problem, and there is not enough room to share air
-rolling a tank valve closed against the ceiling
-others?

This is a grim, interesting, useful topic.

 

[equineannie]

Having worked in Asia, I can attest that large number of shops are questionable. I would never work for, or dive with, a shop that wasn't a strong PADI one. If they do not have good reviews on Trip Adviser, or PADI or people I know and trust, I avoid.

 

[supergaijin]

Trip Advisor is compromised.
PADI 5* Centers aren't necessarily 'better' than normal PADI shops.

People you know and trust? The only way to make an informed decision IMO.

 

[Griffo]

Just wondering why the OP moved to another operation

We'd pre-booked and simply ran out of time at Sangat. We had planned not to dive at the next resort, but ee only had one dive left we wanted to do, so we decided to do it. We did ask Sangat to come pick us up at our expense, they seemed unwilling to do so unless there was some reason the local op couldn't take us. I guess it's just a case of inter-shop respect not to poach each others local guests.

As the new shop came highly recommended (both by Scubaboard and the people we were diving with) we just assumed they would have a certain level of professionalism. We were wrong.

 

[OkByMe]

We'd pre-booked and simply ran out of time at Sangat. We had planned not to dive at the next resort, but ee only had one dive left we wanted to do, so we decided to do it. We did ask Sangat to come pick us up at our expense, they seemed unwilling to do so unless there was some reason the local op couldn't take us. I guess it's just a case of inter-shop respect not to poach each others local guests.

As the new shop came highly recommended (both by Scubaboard and the people we were diving with) we just assumed they would have a certain level of professionalism. We were wrong.

The dive would have been perfectly safe and pleasurable had the shop not put the other 3 divers in the group. If I had been leading that dive, the flat foot overweight landing would have had that guy outside the wreck. Once inside, and found no buoyancy control from a diver, I would have shown them the door too. If they had someone on a leash, and they objected, show both the door. The problem would have been solved within 30' of penetration. The OP probably expected the same level of professionalism as was shown by the other operator, whups! I wonder what kind of checkout dive the other 3 divers had?

 

[Peter69_56]

As said previously by others, the checkout dive is not only for the LDS to check us, but for us to check them as well which we do. We then make up our minds as to what diving we do with them and whether we consider our dives to be us dives or group dives.

We have already had one experience from a dive leader (not a local) who organised 2 groups to penetrate a wreck at truk from two different entry points and meeting inside the wreck. A recipe for disaster in anyone's terms. Anyway we aborted the dive before we got into any trouble and met the remainder of our group on the other side of the wreck. I think a diver less confident in their decisions may have made the fatal error of proceeding into the wreck once we realised that our group had moved in and we were in a mix up of people coming out and had no idea where they had gone (we were tail end Charlie and it was not clear at the brief that we were all following the same path from 2 ends of the wreck thus meeting inside somewhere. In fact we met them as they came out our entry point which was a hold opening). We had a number of internal openings our group could have gone in but it was utter stupidity to attempt to go in after them with no idea of where they were. We took some flack from "getting lost", but I considered it was "saving our lives for another day".

Moral of the story, "If it feels wrong, then it is wrong".