Hi all, I am Markus, from Pro Dive, and I have just read through this present thread. I would like to clarify that there is no rule at Pro Dive that someone is not allowed to "dive right after a flight". Obviously that wouldn't make any sense. What is correct is that we prefer to start on a dive with divers that are new to us, with a dive that is not a DEEP dive. We usually like to start with a shallow or mid deep dive, so the diver has time to freshen up again after time of no diving, and we as a shop also have an opportunity to get to know the diver, his skills and capacity. That's all. Obviously the morning dives are usually deep dives, then we do mid deep and more shallow dives during the course of the day. So we just like to avoid a new diver on his very first dive with us right on a (usually morning) deep dive, as we don't know him. Of course exceptions can be made, when appropriate! Sometimes we also do shallower dives in the morning (or deep dives around noon, as we operate several boats which provide a certain flexibility), and we also do exceptions when we see that divers have the sufficient experience to go dive deep with us right away. But to make such an exception, we need to know the experience of a diver, and we usually ask 3 things in a rebooking process, for everyone. 1) certification level 2) amount of dives logged during lifetime and 3) date of the last dive. Besides this, we also need to know that a diver is ok dive medically.
There are many dive shops not only in Cozmel but in Mexico and all over the world, which simply make their divers sign a waiver, so they are not legally responsable and thats it. They admit unexperienced divers on dives to deep or too challenging, or they don't care about medical issues thinking since a diver is certified he should know about this him/herself, so whatever. We don't. We do safety and customer service! - and therefore we receive a very good amount of divers per year that know about our reputation, and we want to assure the diving for everyone, safety is our main concern, as well as customer service of course. It has to be noted that in Cozumel at least a dozen divers die every year. Usually it is because of underlying conditions, like heart problems, high blood pressure and so on, that make divers struggle which can lead to accidents - this happens even to EXPERIENCED DIVERS, when they are not fit or out of shape, lie about their medical condition, their dive experience, etc etc. We have seen it all, divers that had heart surgery that lie about this, having a huge zip scar on their chest, or divers that state they dove since 25 years and they are very experienced, but sometimes these divers haven't been diving in years, or in the 25 years mentioned they maybe did just 12 dives. So this is the reason why we like to assess every diver thoroughly, and when we make exceptions to our safety standards (like to avoid divers going on a first dive with us right away deep), which often enough we do, we need to know about that specific diver in order to allow it. So, that being said, we make exceptions every day, when appropriate!
I like to stress here that I asked our reservations team about this case, as it made me wonder what happened here when reading, and it appears that the client here unfortunately had a bit of an aggressive approach right from start in the conversation (it was our web chat, where clients can chat life with our reservations team). Coralie, who was communicating with this diver, expressed in a friendly way about our standard but during the conversation she expressed that of course we also make exceptions depending on the experience level of the diver, but to do that that she needed that information. In my humble opinion, the client didn't really give her the chance, I will post the full chat below. It seems more like an already negativity laden approach of the client to confirm something he read elsewhere, without giving much chance so we could make things right and match the clients expectations - which very likely would have been possible!
Also, it can be seen here, while the client here in Scubaboard states he is a Rescue Diver currently in training to become a Divemaster, to our staff however he stated he is a certified Divemaster already. These are the little details I was mentioning beforehand. Furthermore, a Divemaster also normally knows that for an uncomfortable divers there is greater risk on a deep dive than on a shallower dives, for obvious reasons. Quicker air consumption, longer way to surface in case of distress, etc. etc. so for an assessment of a divers true skill level a dive which is not so deep is the easiest and best, carrying the least risk. Its obvious this has nothing to do with dehydration after a flight, and my judgement is that a Divemaster, because of his knowledge, would normally know and understand it.
As of this specific case, sure, a Rescue Diver also usually has some experience and most likely he could do a deep dive to start with, which is . But my point is that the assessment of a diver sometimes can be difficult, especially if divers are not entirely honest when providing their information. So considering this, 85 dives done in a lifetime, can become 85 dives done only this year, a Rescue diver certification can become a DM certification, and maybe a last dive done only 2 days ago has been 2 years ago in reality, statements provided because a client just doesn't want to be stopped from diving, or doesn't want to start out with a more shallow dive, or do a pool refresher, or whatever.
I am not saying this is all true for this specific inquiry, i am just trying to detail how difficult the job of assessment sometimes is. And like i said, we do not wash our vest clean not caring by simply having a diver waive his rights to sue us, we are really genuinely interested in the safety of our clients. For the clients sake, and for our sake as a company as well. Our company exists since almost 15 years now and we are operating in more than one country, about a dozen dive centres in total. Our growth is due to our way of operating, always putting safety and customer service first, obviously. In all those years, we have never ever had a fatal dive accident, not a single one, and we like to keep it that way. Especially looking ay statistics in Cozumel, where there are a lot of divers and many fatalities unfortunately do happen, mostly due to unfit divers, divers that engage into dives that are just too challenging for them, dive masters that don't correctly asses a divers and supply the necessary supervision, etc etc. we are quite proud about our clean accident history since company foundation.
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