Hotpuppy
Guest
Stupidest during OW class- jetting to surface from the dive platform (at 25-30' depth). I see this waaay too often. My husband is an instructor. While he has the students down doing skills, I stay at surface and watch for breachers, especially during Dive 1 and 2. If he has one, he has to bring all students back to surface, make sure the person is okay and has not blown a lung, then he bring the breacher over to me so he can take the rest of class back down. I then have to take the breacher out of water, make sure they are still okay and get them settled down and relaxed. This happens sometimes to students who really don't want to get certified and are pressured into it by a family member. Those people usually never get certified. Others get calm and then once my husband is finished with the rest of the classes dive, he will talk to them about getting back into water alone with him. It usually works and they finish the certification, but not always. Some people just aren't safe as they insist on jetting to surface whenever they get nervous underwater - those people he has the "talk" with and tells them they really shouldn't get certified at this particular time due to their own safety.
Luckily, he has never had anyone need to seek medical attention but we have been there when other instructors had to call 911.
Stupid after certification - not accepting help from other divers. This can be as simple as setting up gear, to navigation, to proper weighting. I see way too many new divers insist that they need a certain amount of weight even though they are using a different thickness of wetsuit or diving salt water for first time when they got certified in fresh water. They end up overweighted or underweighted and have to be rescued by crew or another diver.
It's good to hear stories like this. You and your husband are doing the right thing by making sure folks realize safety is important. It's better that they not get certified then to be certified and unsafe.