Well, after reading this thread, I guess I've been lucky.... Seems to me that as a new fresh diver, with few dives, you trust the DM or instructor 100%. It takes some dives until you realize that you're responsible for yourself. My regular buddy is my wife, and we went though our OWD on a holiday in Asia, with an instructor who could'nt pronounce english very well... Now, when we both have passed our 100ed dive, it's a bit weird looking back on what we actually has been through... Dive 5 was in cold water at home, one eardum set my wife out for 3 months...but we ended at last up with some great guys who "took care" of us
We where lucky to have to great greek instructors leading us on our dive 20-30ish, where we got used to sharing air etc.(which I know some on this board strongly advises against;another discussion..)- Then we went to Asia for AOW& Nitrox, and prepared for the Deep Diver exam before a dive holiday in the Mediterrean--- With a lot of wrecks, we just followed and trusted the DM, on dives down to 30-40 meters with a single 12... Forgot, also had a cave dive on another Greek island...So I think it's kind of usual to experience "the local attractions" this way. After you build up more experience, and doesn't feel like a complete newbie,you can question the DM's decisions.
Most of the DM/Guides we have met are responsible, there's only 3 on my list of complete, or almost complete idiots, but I think we had about 40-50 dives before we really got pissed off...because we both had near drowning experiences(on different dives).
Since I became addicted to diving, I've read so much about incidents, deco, tech, wreck, etc. on both this and local boards, and learned a lot...and my SAC is better than after OWD
.. And I agree with J.Lapenta & others, but I think that this not an isolated case, I strongly feel that such incidents/diving happens frequently.
The different learning organizations are focused on getting more divers, because in the end it's just business, and does not seem to emphazise or focus nearly enough on the dangers of diving. To scare away people will not generate money........
And, yes, I've also been on a wreck dive with 2 DM's/or maybe DM students, where diver number 4 took the initiative and guide us in a wreck, because he had been there before(and the DM's not..).
I'm just hoping more fresh divers would read and learn from the Scubaboard forums, so maybe, just maybe it could lead to less such dangerous approaches to diving..........
---------- Post added May 7th, 2013 at 01:22 AM ----------
Forgot: we did'nt get time to finish our Deep Diver Cert.....