How Angry Should I Be at this Instructor?

[Todd Dicker]

Fair point made with regard to "you are a certified diver and responsible for yourself." The conflict for me was that my last instruction from him was to stay where I was, so I wanted to follow that instruction. I think in future incidents I will be less likely to give that much weight to my instructions and decide that thinking for myself will take priority much sooner.

I mentioned the firefighting thing to illustrate that I'm used to being in zero visibility situations. I'm also trained to NEVER leave my team. Ever. Ever.......EVER. If separated, the priority is to re-assemble the team, not fight the fire. Also, and perhaps most importantly, if you ever are separated from the team, you STAY PUT and let them find you (unless in immediate danger). I guess that muscle memory kicked in yesterday.

Thanks for the feedback. I'm going to just suck it up and schedule the second dive and have a more relaxed conversation with the LDS.

Cheers.

 

[boulderjohn]

Was this by any chance a PADI class? If so, here are some of the standards from the two dives. This is what your training is supposed to require:

Dry Suit Diver Open Water Dive One
• Maintain neutral buoyancy near the bottom by hovering (without kicking or
sculling) for one minute.
• Maintain neutral buoyancy during the dive and avoid accidentally kicking up
silt or touching the bottom.

Dry Suit Diver Open Water Dive Two
• Maintain neutral buoyancy during the dive and avoid accidentally kicking up
bottom silt and/or touching the reef.​

 

[crookshanky]

Are you a certified solo diver? Were you diving with a redundant gas supply? If not, then at no point should an instructor leave you alone or tell you stay put while alone. What if you had an equipment malfunction? Where is your backup gas supply? Even if your buddy is close by, in a low vis situation, if you cannot see him then you cannot easily access your backup gas supply in an emergency.

Personally I would inform the owner of the LDS as well as the training agency about the incident. And I would definitely not be training (or diving) with that instructor ever again. As others have mentioned, you are responsible for your own safety and that begins before you get into the water (ie. planning a dive with someone you do not trust). I myself am guilty of "trust me" diving, where someone with more experience (ie. an instructor) does something that I do not agree with but I follow along regardless. Do not be afraid to thumb the dive!

A drysuit can make you feel like you are back to the buoyancy level of your first OW dive. A few things that I have learned that have helped me are:
1. completely close your drysuit dump valve before you begin your descent (after you submerge)
2. only add air as needed to remove "drysuit squeeze"
3. before beginning an ascent, open the dump valve fully (or fully open and back one click) to allow venting

Some people use their drysuit as their primary buoyancy control. I am not one of these people. IMO, a drysuit is designed for thermal protection and a BCD is used for buoyancy control.

Safe bubbles!

 

[KevinNM]

This seems like you need to have a talk about this. That was certainly far from ideal.

But I don't understand the whole urge to get intimate with the bottom. Don't touch the bottom. Don't direct water at it with your kicks. If you can't hover close to the bottom without stiring up the bottom you need to ascend until you stop stiring up the bottom. If you can't dive without stiring up silt or muck from the bottom your open water instructor was negligent and you should find someone to show you how to dive neutral and in control and maneuver in a way that doesn't blow the vis.

And not going to lie to you, dry suits don't make staring neutral and in control easier. But it isn't crazy hard, it just takes enough dives when you work on this until it all becomes something you don't have to think about and you can focus on the dive instead of the dive mechanics.

 

[dmaziuk]

Fair point made with regard to "you are a certified diver and responsible for yourself." The conflict for me was that my last instruction from him was to stay where I was, so I wanted to follow that instruction. I think in future incidents I will be less likely to give that much weight to my instructions and decide that thinking for myself will take priority much sooner.

I mentioned the firefighting thing to illustrate that I'm used to being in zero visibility situations. I'm also trained to NEVER leave my team. Ever. Ever.......EVER. If separated, the priority is to re-assemble the team, not fight the fire. Also, and perhaps most importantly, if you ever are separated from the team, you STAY PUT and let them find you (unless in immediate danger). I guess that muscle memory kicked in yesterday.

Thanks for the feedback. I'm going to just suck it up and schedule the second dive and have a more relaxed conversation with the LDS.

We recently had a DM come up for the 4th member on our dive. That was at anchor somewhere below 20 metres: we got down, the 4th guy was not visible, the DM signalled us to wait here and went to look for him. I'm not sure how long he was gone -- long enough for us to start wondering -- but I do know we burned through much more gas than we needed to just hanging there. Lesson learned: next time we wait on the line as instructed, but we're coming up and hanging on the line at or above 10 metres.

In your case that could've taken you above the silt as well where maybe you could see what's going on.

 

[tbeck3579]

After reading all of this, and having just finished the PADI online OW "book work", I'm thinking "screw the silt" what about hypothermia? The OP stated he was freezing his rear off, and more important than visibility is hypothermia. A persons brain cells start freezing up first so they CAN'T make good decisions even if they want to. Anyway, sorry for a newbie to ask what may seem like an obvious question, but the purpose of a dry suit is to keep you warm. I would be "hot under the collar" if on my first dive I didn't know how to stay warm.

 

[James R]

As someone that teaches in low viz pretty much all the time, this lost buddy/group scenario is something I cover before every dive (what to do if we all get separated or if you find yourself alone) regardless of the class, from open water up. It happens. What can not happen is being alone for 14min on the bottom. I find that to be a shared blame - mostly on the instructor and some on the diver. A certified diver should know what to do if left alone, and your instructor's dive brief should have included this.

The kneeling on the bottom has been covered enough, I think.

 

[Steve_C]

Anchor line and no current. Just hold onto the anchor line and float there. I think a major issue here might be not this instructor but your previous instructors. Were those classes always done on your knees and perhaps being a bit over weighted. If you did what you had done before in classes then that is part of the problem.

 

[tbeck3579]

PADI teaches newbies (wet behind the ears like me) that getting buoyant is important for obvious reasons -- less work -- ascending, etc... Anyway... PADI is big on safety, and staying alive, as am I.

 

[Marie13]

After reading all of this, and having just finished the PADI online OW "book work", I'm thinking "screw the silt" what about hypothermia? The OP stated he was freezing his rear off, and more important than visibility is hypothermia. A persons brain cells start freezing up first so they CAN'T make good decisions even if they want to. Anyway, sorry for a newbie to ask what may seem like an obvious question, but the purpose of a dry suit is to keep you warm. I would be "hot under the collar" if on my first dive I didn't know how to stay warm.

He might not have had enough air in his drysuit to help with warmth or possibly inadequate undergarments. I can relate as it took me a while to realize which undergarments are better for specific water temps. And I'm still tweaking it.