OWN your Dive

[divin'dog]

I'm sharing this for newer divers or those who may not have been diving in a while....

Thanks gt2003. Scary/confusing moments for you on that dive. I totally understand what happened to you and why you did what you did as a newer diver... But now you have a whole new understanding of being responsible for yourself! Tough way to get the lesson but you now know that the DM is not to be ultimately trusted upon for your safety/doing the correct thing. Thanks for taking the flak so that other divers can benefit from your experience.

 

[Sam Miller III]

Plan your dive...
Dive your plan

Have PRIDE:

Personal
Responsibility
In
Diving
Events

You apparently have poor training and refuse to take responsibility for your poor preparation for diving

SDM

 

[Barnaby'sDad]

You assume it was covered in his OW training, and/or not overshadowed by the concept of follow the instructor/DM, he will keep you safe.

Bob

Exactly. Without a good reason to dismiss an instructor...most people...in particular those that are inexperienced...will trust the instructors judgment, because they have no reason not to.

Not exactly the same...but similar concept. I had a negative experience in an altitude chamber years ago (mask off at altitude and wait for hypoxia symptoms to set in...note...and put the mask back on).

I could feel multiple symptoms and went to put the mask back on, but the instructor said that it was too early. The symptoms got more severe and I eventually put the mask on when I was "permitted" to.

The whole point of the exercise was for each individual to recognize which symptoms of hypoxia hit them and in what order. The point wasn't for everyone to keep their mask off for 'x' amount of time and put their mask on at the same time.

I was VERY sick following that. I couldn't concentrate, had a severe headache, disorientation, etc. That incident almost caused me to wash out of the track for my career field.

Needless to say...having not even dived yet...I know in advance that I will not trust someone else to make that call for me (unless we're talking erring on the side of caution).

 

[ReadyDiverOne]

gt2003 (original poster),

Man, you are a glutton for punishment!! But you are brave to repost and good on you, mate. I've been watching the original thread and now your repost for several days and I cannot believe the unbelievable amount of unfair, second-guessing, hindsight is 20-20, sanctimonious, self-serving criticism you've received from some on this forum. It is really incredible that anyone would criticize you given the per se reckless and shockingly irresponsible behavior of the DM. Of course knowing what you know now, you should have ignored the crazy actions of the DM, but how could you know that at the time, especially since his actions were iteratively crazy?? We are all taught and told--explicitly and implicitly--both during our training and certainly during the dive briefing, that the DM is the boss of the dive (yeah, yeah, the DMs may say, no, you're the boss of your dive and yes, that's true, but try getting sideways with the DM on any boat dive (going too deep, getting too far away) and see how that goes for you). This is doubly true in your case, when you made your issues clear to the DM. Of course, you own your dive, but again, any suggestion that you made some terrible mistake and should have willfully ignored the DM you had specifically hired to help you is profoundly unfair after-the-fact second-guessing.

Again, thanks for the lesson and for the courage to post (and repost!!). Thankfully, I think DMs like yours are rare and I've never had a DM act even remotely this irresponsibly. But your experience is a real eye-opener and will certainly be on my mind if I ever have a crazy DM like this.

 

[gt2003]

Hi @gt2003

You were chastised quite enough in the original thread. Your summary post here could be valuable to less experienced divers who missed the original thread in Near Misses and Lessons Learned. It is a very simple, very important lesson.

Good diving, Craig

Thanks Craig. Some folks just love to chastise. I could care less. It was my mistake, I know it, so could care less what they hell they say. I posted hoping someone could learn something. Nay sayers will be nay sayers, Don't Care!

 

[gt2003]

gt2003 (original poster),

Man, you are a glutton for punishment!! But you are brave to repost and good on you, mate. I've been watching the original thread and now your repost for several days and I cannot believe the unbelievable amount of unfair, second-guessing, hindsight is 20-20, sanctimonious, self-serving criticism you've received from some on this forum. It is really incredible that anyone would criticize you given the per se reckless and shockingly irresponsible behavior of the DM. Of course knowing what you know now, you should have ignored the crazy actions of the DM, but how could you know that at the time, especially since his actions were iteratively crazy?? We are all taught and told--explicitly and implicitly--both during our training and certainly during the dive briefing, that the DM is the boss of the dive (yeah, yeah, the DMs may say, no, you're the boss of your dive and yes, that's true, but try getting sideways with the DM on any boat dive (going too deep, getting too far away) and see how that goes for you). This is doubly true in your case, when you made your issues clear to the DM. Of course, you own your dive, but again, any suggestion that you made some terrible mistake and should have willfully ignored the DM you had specifically hired to help you is profoundly unfair after-the-fact second-guessing.

Again, thanks for the lesson and for the courage to post (and repost!!). Thankfully, I think DMs like yours are rare and I've never had a DM act even remotely this irresponsibly. But your experience is a real eye-opener and will certainly be on my mind if I ever have a crazy DM like this.

Lol, posted for learning. Could care less what they say. If I had a feeling they would maybe hurt it. Fortunately...I don't!

 

[gt2003]

Plan your dive...
Dive your plan

Have PRIDE:

Personal
Responsibility
In
Diving
Events

You apparently have poor training and refuse to take responsibility for your poor preparation for diving

SDM

And apparently having 5000 plus dives doesn't mean you have the ability to read the entire thread

 

[gt2003]

Why did you follow him down from the safety stop?? Why not go to the surface??

Ignorance, lack of recent diving experience. Safety stop wasn't over. He dropped the weight and took off. Still 100% my fault. Won't happen again.

 

[gt2003]

Why didn't the OP simply follow his Open Water training? This wasn't a lesson that should have been learned during this dive, it should have been learned before he got his C card.

As mentioned, I own 100% what happened. I relied on the DM far too much. It won't happen again. Hoping someone will learn from my mistake and not have to go through it themselves.

 

[Kimela]

@gt2003 and @ReadyDiverOne - Hear, hear!!! When I think about what I learned in class and promptly forgot when I hit open water I'm internally horrified and thankful I didn't die within my first 100 dives! It's SO easy to think that we each absorbed every tidbit of learning, like little scuba theory sponges. But there's so much to absorb and then keep it in a part of the brain that is accessible when anxious due to extenuating circumstance, that it's just not realistic to think we are going to be anything close to perfect. Competent - maybe - but anxiety is the great equalizer. Just my 2 cents - and I may take some heat for those pennies! But I think you did a good job with what you had, you learned a lot, and you're going to have a great time diving (in Cozumel in October, right?)