Was I too critical in my response to the following post?

[Altamira]

After reading the thread posted below, I made a pretty critical reply to the thread. After re-reading the post numerous times, I began to wonder if my reply might have been overly critical. Regardless, there are many serious lessons that could be learned from the thread, that I still feel were pretty much glossed over and minimized by the poster. Consequently, I decided to address the issue in this forum rather than in its original forum. Was I overly critical, misreading, or reading too much into the trip report?


"Rangiroa Trip Report - Canyons Dive
Discussion in 'The Pacific Islands' started by minamin13, Yesterday at 11:53 PM.

minamin13
Dive Equipment Manufacturer
# of Dives: 200 - 499
Location: SF Bay Area
We had the good fortune of diving in Rangiroa this past month, which was amazing and exceeded my (somewhat low) expectations. My trip report gives details about “the Canyons dive” in particular, which was one of the most thrilling dives of my life. Hopefully, you can read about, and learn from our mistakes, and enjoy this dive with a bit more know how than we had. Writing this makes me want to go back to Rangiroa and do it all over again, albeit a little bit differently.

Diving in Rangiroa - A Trip Report

I am curious if anyone else has done this dive in particular? I would really like to know what your experience was. Any advice that you have?

minamin13, Yesterday at 11:53 PM"

 

[DivingPhish]

Um no, in fact i'm surprised how soft the reaction was. That was a cluster**** of a dive with no gas reserve and bringing divers into deco on what seemed like a whim. From the post it doesn't sound like any of them are technically trained divers nor any sort of dive planning done.

It also sounded like they were diving single tank, and at 40m would of given them only few minutes of air with no reserve, I take back the doesn't sound like any of them are technically trained, i'm sure they are not... Divemaster should be reported if he did infact took rec divers out on a decompression dive in conditions of strong currents and didn't properly monitor or manage the conditions.

 

[Kharon]

Nope. Your reply was thoughtful and reserved. This dive was irresponsible on so many levels that it makes my head hurt.

 

[RyanT]

Not at all, you were on the mark.

 

[dutchgirl]

In my opinion also not at all. I only have a little over a 100 dives logged, but I say it when I don't think the dive is suitable for me, whether due to level of certification, my experience, when my last dives were but also simply if I don't feel comfortable with it. Apparently here the original topic opener thought it was ok doing this dive, which already struck me as a bit strange when reading the first part of the story, but reading through the rest of the story I cannot believe everything that happened. I do sincerely hope that this is a fantasy story and if not, then I hope that the original topic opener takes the posts here and in the original post at heart and strongly thinks about what went wrong (and actually also really understanding it instead of just accepting what others say) to prevent it from happening again. Because it seems to me that it could have easily been the most memorable dive not for her, but for their family and friends because they got seriously injured or even died that dive.

 

[GetDownScuba]

Did not seem overly critical to me. I'm left wondering how she only breathed 200 psi in 15 minutes, then buddy-breathed for another 15 minutes, and still had air left upon surfacing.

 

[GreggS]

Did not seem overly critical to me. I'm left wondering how she only breathed 200 psi in 15 minutes, then buddy-breathed for another 15 minutes, and still had air left upon surfacing.

Yeah, this struck me as well. Hard to see how everyone made it out with any air left.

If I had been in that group and the dive master asked that question, my immediate response would have been "Hell, no!" I've never done deco diving and would rather stay away from it. I understand things happen and someone can perhaps unintentionally go into deco, but I do check my DC often and especially keep an eye on my no deco time. I will start ascending well before it runs out. But then. most of my deeper dives are in the 70-90 ft range so I usually have a bit of time at those levels.

As to the OP, I agree with everyone else. Not overly harsh at all.

 

[outofofficebrb]

I didn’t think so. I went over to see what it was about and then left a response of my own. I mean, hory sheet!

 

[kelemvor]

It would be nice to have the kind of sac which allowed deco dives from a single tank... Not that I would do them if I could, but that's irrelevant because generally I can't.

 

[KristenK]

As a new diver, it was extremely informative to read her report and the subsequent comments. I learn so much from these boards and really appreciate the expertise and generosity of sharing that knowledge.