Tough Lesson to learn, I'm not an instructor

[Adventure-Ocean]

I decided to detail the story as best as I could remember it. Just trying to clear up any questions. It happened on Guam in the early 80's. If you would like to read and comment on the story go to What I learned from near tragedy.

 

[vincent54]

I would say the opposite. Non-divers just don't know the danger of diving. Before I got certifed, I have no idea about NDL, deco, embolism, nacrosys, O2 tox, how and why air consumption increase with depth ... The only thing I might have know is not to run out of air.


Assume the story as it is, it is very bad idea to teach scuba without instructor crudential. By crudential, I don't mean the card, but the knowledge to teach. And on top of that, bringing a first timer to a site with this kind of depth is another big mistake. A good instructor will probably not bring OW or even AOW student to this kind of site.

Physiology and physics aren't a monopoly of the dive world. Many people have learned to dive without the almighty instructor. Im not advocating it, but I am sure a person comfortable with the water and with the ability to read can easily learn how to dive on their own. The OP was in a place and time when the certification of divers was relatively new and it was not uncommon for friends to train each other. He just pointed out it wasn't a good idea. The mid seventies you could still self teach and rent equipment without a c card, and some of us even survived. By the late seventies and early 80's it was requisite to have a certification and the DIY training was frowned upon.

 

[iluvtheocean]

the full story on the site was quite a bit more informative. key points i saw was 1: anchored at 40 feet on the reef & the guy was told to hang at the surface on the anchor line until everyone was in the water - and then took off solo swimming down off the ledge down the wall. was a surfer, free-diver, and lived alone. So a young independent man used to "extreme" activities (i will assume late teens/early 20s) - bad combo.

it's just my opinion but given the description of the person and his initial actions, i don't think it wouldn't have mattered if he had been certified or not.... he was gonna do whatever he wanted to.
it's just good that everyone lived thru it.

it was also the 80's and now we know more about what not to do and why not to do it, right?

 

[openmindOW]

Interesting point. As adults, we are responsible for our own decisions right or wrong. It seems the people accepting the lessons are just as culpable.

Under American common law, if you hold yourself out as a professional, such as a doctor or a SCUBA Instructor, you will be held to the standard of that professional.

If you hold yourself out as a person who is capable fo teaching SCUBA and if somone reasoanably relies on that representation, then you will be held to the standard of professional SCUBA Instructors.