How unsafe was this intro dive?

[Jamie123]

Hi

I’ve done about 40 dives and am Advanced OW qualified. Travelling with a friend, he wanted to do an intro dive. I thought I’d keep him company and come on the dive too.

With the instructor, my friend dived to 28m! At that depth, the instructor signalled us both to surface without any safety stop, and pretty quickly. I think the instructor was lost and wanted to find his bearings. We surfaced about 80m from the coast (it was a shore dive). We redescended and swam towards the shore at about 5m depth. Half way along, my friend’s air runs out so the instructor quickly gave him his spare. Five mins later we ended the dive.

My friend loved the whole experience and wants to go diving again. I was completely shocked at what happened! Is what happened normal?!

Thanks
Jamie

 

[MikeInDorset]

Nope, it sounds terrifying. An open water discover scuba dive should be limited to 12m as I remember and should take place in a location the instructor is fully familiar with. Out of air on a course is astonishing and ending up 80m from the shore is, too. I'd expect that dive to be shallow and following a shore feature, like a breakwater.

Your location is listed as the UK. Was this a UK operator?

 

[Jamie123]

I’m based in the UK but was diving in Aqaba (Jordan). The dive also involved going to a wreck - the Cedar Pride - it’s 130m from the shoreline, so we were probably further than the 80m I said in the original post.

 

[Altamira]

No, from what I have seen of intro to scuba classes, and the normal maximum depth of 40' for such dives, this definitely was not a normal dive. It would not even have been normal for an OW class. Taking an inexperienced diver to that depth, and then putting your friend in an OOA situation is beyond incompetent and stupid, IMO. That instructor should be reported to his certification agency, and would follow that up with a strongly worded letter to the dive op that set up the intro dive.

 

[Roger Hobden]

I am just a beginner diver, but, based on what I do know, I would say that many of the generally recognized safety protocols and procedures were not respected.

 

[mi000ke]

I take almost all of our non-diving visitors on intro dives (about 10 so far), and tag along each time. My hope is that they will have such a positive experience that they will want to get certified, or at least do some repeat discovery dives.

I've used a few different dive ops, and all of the dives were preceded by about 30 minutes of land instruction, and some confined water instruction for breathing properly, removing, replacing and purging their regulator, clearing their mask, equalizing their ears, and reading and reporting air pressure. The open water dives were limited to about 40' with the DM keeping very close attention to the diver's air and buoyancy. Your friend's experience was neither appropriate nor acceptable. I would not use that dive op again for anything.

 

[JackD342]

Hands down, that was not safe, and for the vast majority of viewpoints it was wrong. But unless you are in a country where scuba instruction is licensed and regulated, this is a self-regulated industry and occurrences like this are not likely to be actually illegal.

But yes, it does happen. Many of the times I have heard these stories, the affluence and/or influence of the non-certified diver is the substitute for proper training.

 

[JBFG]

That was not safe.
I now dice regularly in Aqaba and had bunch of my friends doing intro scuba and non of them went like that.
The cedar pride is an awesome wreck but definitely not for intro or even basic open water.

 

[Photo Girl]

That instructor should not be an instructor.

 

[Bob DBF]

That instructor should not be an instructor.

I'll add this one to my list, if I can find the room.



Bob