DM blew me off

[brnt999]

I am writing this, as much as anything, to vent and get it off my chest.
This past January I got my OW certification in Thailand. I did a Discover Dive, decided to get my OW, and over the next 2 days completed the course. I then completed 3, 2 tank dives in Thailand, returned home and 3 weeks later went to Mexico. I now have 25 dives under my belt and am feeling like I have learned a lot and I am hooked on diving.
On my first 2 tank dive trip I was in a large boat with about 20 divers and was teamed up with a DM and 2 other divers. One of the divers was a friend of the DM and was visiting from another country. On the first dive of the day I went thru my air before everyone else. I signalled to the DM I was at 50 bat and the DM gave me his reserve regulator and we basically floated in place while the other divers used up their air. After the saftey stop the DM signalled to me to put my regulator back in and go to the surface. On the second dive I again used up my air, signalled to the DM I was at 50 bat, and he gave me an exasperated/irritated look and continued diving. It seemed to me he was intent on showing off to his friend. As we continued along I expected the DM at any moment to do something about my low air situation-but he just kept going and I started to get a sinking feeling that the guy was blowing me off and now what was I going to do. I started thinking about what was I going to do if I ran out of air. The other divers were close by so I could signal to one of them and use their reserve regulator, or I figured we were not too deep--about 12m--and I thought I could make it to the surface doing a rapid ascent. As my air was going down I made a decision that I would give the DM the benefit of the doubt that he knew what he was doing until I was at 10 bat, at which point I would make things happen one way or another. At 10 bat I emphatically signalled to the DM I was out of air, he gave me his reserve regulator, we did the saftey stop, and we continued to the surface with me using his reserve regulator.

After completing 25 dives I have been with a number of DM's, and have observed many other DM's with their groups, and they all were professional and saftey conscious and the well being of the divers in their groups was the first priority. But as I look back on the first dive it still irritates me this partcular DM blew me off. I think what I learned from the experience is you can't put your life in someone elses hands--you can't rely on anyone else but have to look after yourself. With what I know now I would act before I got to such a low air situation, but on a first dive, to a certain extent, you don't know what is normal and you are more dependant on the DM.

 

[Wookie]

Wow. Just, wow. It's really hard to know where to go with this post. You see, dive operators expect you to posses a minimum amount of knowledge when you show up at the shop with a c-card. We expect you to be able to put your own gear together, we expect you to have basic skills like mask clearing and how to put on and take off your gear, and we expect you to know what it means to run low on air and the consequences of running out of air. Some very basic terminology is also important. In Canada, the amount of air in your cylinder is measured in bar or PSI, not bat.

Do you understand that you must save yourself? You are not reliant on a scuba instructor or divemaster to be your handy dandy air source for when you run low, you are expected to monitor your air supply (which you did), let the divemaster know when you are low (which you did) and go up, thereby taking responsibility for your own life rather than making someone else responsible for you. When you got your drivers license, did your driving instructor continue to sit in the passenger seat with his foot on the brake petal? No, you drove on your own. A scuba certificate is very similar. It's time, after 25 dives, to be in charge of your own dive planning and gas control.

An alternative to thinking the DM was blowing you off might be to tell him/her before the dive "Hey, I'm new, I'm a bit of an air hog, and when I signal you that I'm low on air, I'll make a normal ascent to the surface and get picked up by the boat." An alternative to that would be to hire a private dive guide to mentor you for a few dives and give you tricks and pointers to lower your air consumption.

Welcome to diving. It sounds like you learned to dive and became a diver. I wish you many happy years of participation.

 

[Wingy]

While I love Thailand and have many good friends there and have had some great diving there what you have described is not all that uncommon unfortunately. May I ask where you did DSD and onto OW? If it was Phuket I would perhaps hazard a guess you went on the three dive superday to King Cruiser wreck and Anenome Reef...theres examples everywhere but Ive been on that dive day a few times on different boats and notice differences. Many of the DMs are casual freelancers, often not knowing who they are taking out until the night before or worse, that morning. When you have a mix of people of all levels including DSD and DMs from several different agencies and shops (remember in Thailand CMAS is as common if not more prevalent than PADI) and I hate to say it but the zero to hero DM crew - generally backpackers who have never dived before and try diving on their jaunt thru asia and fall for the free accomodation become a DM work in paradise line. Ive had a girl all of maybe 19 ask if im ready to try diving and begin to reassure me that anyone can do it and once ive breathed underwater once I will be hooked for life.....which happened when she was probably just hitting high school. Gigglepot then laughed and said.."Oh Im with the wrong person" She then totally ignored/forgot the DSD guy who was sitting on the bottom with 10 bar and a confused look on his face in her group and was back on the boat flirting with another DM who was rubbing suntan oil over her when I bought the DSD guy up......no one even knew which boat he came from at first as there were 4 cattleboats out there all full.
Id say learn from it, dont let it fester, theres DMs who are fantastic and DMs who shouldnt be in the water at all let alone supervising anyone. Even with the best DM you should still remember that your own life is your main concern - glad to see it hasnt put you off diving.

 

[supergaijin]

If indeed he saw correctly that you were low on air and ignored you, you should at least have reported him/her to the dive op.

Diving in groups is not the 'best' kind of diving, however it is very common. If you are alone, it is very important for you to strike conversations and find a buddy that you feel comfortable diving with. Agree on a dive plan together, dive the plan together. Ascending together and being able to signal for the boat (if drift diving) or have a way of getting back to shore or anchored boat safely.

Keep your dives as shallow as possible- even 15-30 feet can be very enjoyable (depends on conditions).

'Cattle boat' dives are generally the worst type of dives you can experience for many reasons. Unfortunately they are also quite common.

Hope it gets better...

 

[scoobydrew]

I thought being blown off was a completely different thing to what the op has described

 

[GrumpyOldGuy]

DM's generally make poor dive buddies. An exception for private hires, most are responsible for multiple divers. When dealing with someone who uses gas faster than normal they get torn between babysitting the gas hog or trying to make sure the rest of the group has a safe and worthwhile dive. This leads to less than optimal situations including solo ascents.

Running low of gas is not an emergency. You can see it approaching and should have a plan in place to deal with it. The DM knows it can happen and should explain his plan to you before the dive. Any difference can be reconciled BEFORE you splash. Often in clear water it is signal the DM and ascend solo. Sometimes its air share. If you are not comfortable with this, get a buddy who will stick with you from beginning to end of the dive.

 

[KD8NPB]

The DM was in no position to treat you like he did.
Also, you are in no position to trust your life to the DM. If YOU need to end the dive, signal to end the dive, and do it. There's no dishonor in thumbing a dive.

All factors in question, for the enjoyment of all others, I would advise requesting a 100cf tank the future...or working on reducing your air consumption.

 

[ScubaInChicago]

I'm surprised the DM didn't tell you to go up so you wouldn't ruin everyone elses dive. I give him credit for putting up with your lack of gas management not once, but twice.

 

[drbill]

I'm a little conflicted on this. If you were assigned to the DM as a buddy, or to the group as a whole, it seems that when you ran low they should have aborted the dive and ascended. As a newbie (and being trained in Thailand where I don't feel standards are followed as rigorously... much as I enjoy the diving there), IMHO the DM should have ended the diving when you ran low and had the other divers ascend with you. At least that's the way we deal with such situations here.

I am not a DM (no desire), but was paired up with two different divers on a boat at Jean-Michel Cousteau's Fiji resort. The first was a blowhard Aussie who openly stated he wouldn't be following the DM's rules, I Left him when we hit about 125 ft and he was barreling down deeper well ahead of me. The second diver told me in advance that he was an air hog. We ended the dive when he ran low and he apologized profusely. I told him it was not necessary... he had told me ahead of time what to expect and I had agreed.

Another time I was assigned to a buddy on a dive boat (despite almost always diving solo) and she ran low on air. We surfaced together not far from the boat, and I told the DM on board that I was heading back down to film a rare critter and that the DM should make sure the diver got on board. I got chewed out later by the DM for not bringing the diver on board myself.

 

[ScubaSteve1962]

My first question is why wasn't this discussed in the dive briefing? While I've never been to Mexico, I've been a few different places and air consumption is always discussed (as in how much we will start to surface with) and how to would be handled, (whether it be surface by yourself, or as a group) When I'm low on air, I'm making my safety stop and surfacing, I'll let the DM and my buddy know, I'm not waiting to get in a critical OOA situation!

On my first dive after certification. I came up alone. Never depended on the DM to give me the okay.