What to do when an instructor is out of line?

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Hotpuppy

Guest
Messages
248
Reaction score
10
Location
Houston, TX
# of dives
50 - 99
This weekend, I had probably the worst experience since I started diving. Right now I'm questioning if the problem is the instructor, Course Director, or the shop. I've thought through if the issue is me, and I stand by what I did.

The root issue is that after a dive, the instructor surfaced and began cussing me out and refusing to discuss the dive. I feel this is extremely inappropriate.

The class was PADI Deep Diver Specialty being taught at Lake Travis, in Austin, TX. Conditions were 6 foot vis, 75 degree water down to 30 ish feet and then about 65 degree water at depth.

My experience is that I'm a relatively new diver, with about 25 dives. I have my Rescue Diver certification, consider myself proficient, aspire to be better with buoyancy, and just enrolled in DM class.

I have previously dove in Lake Travis at Windy Point, but on a different platform at the site. To say the least, I don't care for Lake Travis because it's very dark and the viz sucks.

The plan for this dive was to go down to the first platform, hang out while the instructor helped with a OW class, and then descend to depth, do a few skills, come back up the chain and stairs, do some more skills and an extended safety stop. The dive team was the instructor, myself, and another student.

We dove to the platform, spent 25 minutes holding the edge of the platform and then after confirming okay began our dive. The instructor led, followed by the other student who was a lady, and me behind her. Travis is challenging for me and I was focusing on keeping my fins off the bottom (45 or so degree slope) and keeping up with my team. At 74 feet I had a problem with my ears. I couldn't equalize. My ears were hurting. I moved my light up and down across my buddy, to signal that I had a problem. Unfortunately she didn't stop, but I did. I stopped, turned vertical (from horizontal) and tried to equalize. No go. At this point I was separated and unable to equalize so I slowly ascended while trying to equalize. After ascending about 15 feet I was able to equalize. At this point I was separated and I stayed put for about 30 seconds before deciding to slowly ascend to 15 feet, do a 3 minute safety stop, and surface to look for my teammates. At one point in my ascent I noticed bubbles and thought about descending, but decided against it because a) we don't dive alone, b) I have no idea who they were, c) the dive was aborted due to separation. When I surfaced none of my team members were there... so I swam to the swim steps and waited. A few minutes later the instructor surfaced.

His first comment was "Your a F****ng Idiot, I'm not going down with you again, get out of the water". I responded with, "do you want to hear what happened?" To which the first statement was repeated. On our way back up to the picnic tables he repeated his tirade of calling me a F***NG idiot several more times. When we set our gear down I asked if we were scrubbing the rest of the day and he called me a F___NG idiot one more time.... at which point I lost my cool and ripped into him verbally for being unprofessional and acting like a 5 year old.

Now, I was wrong for losing my cool and I admit that. It's bad form for a diver to rip up an instructor in front of 2 divemasters, another instructor and 12 students of various levels. However, it's also bad form to cuss out a student.

Not once did the instructor ask what happened, express any concern for my safety, or discuss what I did or did not do correctly.

I spoke to another DM while I was putting my gear away and he said I had done the right thing in regards to the squeeze. I later spoke to the other instructor and he offered to finish the dives. I told him I was shook up from the confrontation and that it would be better if I just left. I didn't want to mess up everyone else's schedule (other students) and I was pissed off about being repeatedly insulted. Diving in a bad mood is a bad idea. (pun intended).

I then spoke to the course director for about 2 hours. Most of the time he tried to pin it back on me telling me that I had endangered my buddy and that I should have gone back up the chain and stayed put. I feel that yes, I could have done things differently, but we had not discussed what to do if separated. Because a dive light was required and no discussion had been done I was operating under night dive rules which require aborting the dive if separated. My buddy was with the instructor and therefore not in immediate harm. I was the one who became separated because my buddy and the instructor did not see my signal that I had a problem.

I made what I thought was the best decision for safe diving. I signaled and my buddy didn't see it. The instructor never stopped and checked with me or my buddy during our descent from 30 to 74 feet.

I feel like the instructor was unprofessional and out of line for cussing at me and refusing to debrief the dive. I don't feel like the course director was concerned enough about the incident and I get the impression that I'm seen as the issue.

I've emailed the shop owner, copied the course director, and copied the instructor and outlined that I think this is unacceptable. I've indicated that I won't do business with them if this isn't dealt with. I also attached a copy of the dive profile to my email (from the computer).

My expectation is that this is a QA issue and that the instructor should be referred to PADI QA by the shop. That would demonstrate to me that the shop values customer service, acknowledges the problem, and wants to make sure it doesn't happen again. I feel like it's my responsibility as a customer and diver to refer it to QA if the shop owner won't.

Am I right here? This has shaken my trust of the instructors because I feel like there was an attempt to cover up behavior that shouldn't be tolerated.

******* What I wish had happened*****
I believe that this goes back to the dive plan, and in the future I'll try to be more vocal. It's a delicate balance between being assertive and argumentative.

- Instructor should have stated the dive objectives and required buddy and I to plan the dive.
- Instructor should have allowed us to run the dive and only taken control of the skills portion. Maybe one student lead descent and one student lead ascent. This would demonstrate that we have mastery of the material as opposed to being able to just dive the tour.
- Instructor should have covered a separation plan if he didn't want us to surface when separated.
- Instructor should have done meaningful knowledge reviews of course material (as opposed to reading the question and the answers)
- The descent would have been slower because it is a challenging dive and 2 of the 3 divers are relatively new. We would have included check points where we stop, make sure everyone is fine, and then decide to continue deeper.
- Safety should always be the first priority, period.
- Instructor should have expressed concern when we separated, listended to what happened, and debriefed the dive with suggestions on alternate strategies.
 
The shop does not need to contact PADI. You do. Here:
Consumer Alerts - Quality Management Reports - PADI Scuba Diving Training Society

As to what you did. Yes you did the right thing with what happened. There was a breakdown regarding separation protocols. Did you endanger your buddy? Perhaps but so did the instructor by not keeping an eye on the both of you. What did you really do wrong? You didn't punch him in the face the on the second F'ing idiot remark. And is a quality report called for? Abso-freakin-lutley. Someone like that has no business teaching anyone. That the CD or owner did not immediately take action against him is reprehensible. In this case going off on him in front of everyone else would be totally justifed but what you did was show some class that he has none of.
 
In order for the shop, the other instructor, or the course director to initiate a QA review with PADI, they would need to have witnessed the incident. You need to contact PADI yourself.
 
Of course we're only hearing one side of this story but what you're saying is shocking.

I suggest you send an email to PADI at QA@padi.com with a complaint about this situation and ask them for advice about what, if anything, they can do from a QA standpoint to help you.

Apart from that, life is too short to waste a lot of energy on losers. Get a different instructor to finish you deep specialty and then take your business elsewhere.

Please, for the sake of other divers, name the instructor and the shop here and inform them that you have done so.

R..
 
The instructor blew it when he lost a student and, it would appear, way too much time went by before he realized his error. His behavior after the dive was unprofessional. I'd suggest you tell the shop that you require a full refund of course costs and your expenses for the wasted day.
 
I'm not an instructor, so I am not going to comment on that aspect of the situation. But this is why I prefer diving side-by-side, rather than lead-and-follow, especially in low viz or with unfamiliar dive buddies. If the person in the back runs into problem, it is too easy to lose them.
 
This was horrible for the instructor to have behaved in this manner. Completely unacceptable. Only "25" dives under your belt? Do you really feel you are ready for a DM course? You admitted yourself you don't like this lake. If this is where you would be assissting as a DM, maybe you should get comfortable with this location first.
 
Well, I'm not an instructor so my opinion doesn't count. However, I was taught that the lost buddy procedure was to surface and I'm sticking with that approach until there is a really good reason for doing something else. In a perfect world, the rest of the group would have noticed that you were missing within about 30 seconds and you all would have been on the surface together.

I'm not sure about doing a safety stop during a lost buddy procedure. If the stop is really an optional 'safety' stop, I would blow it off. I want to find my buddy on the surface - right now!

Now, if everyone is going up and down a line then doing the stop might be ok because you would expect your buddy to reach you on the line. Still, I would blow it off.

The instructor is a complete idiot and totally unsuited to the profession. Bad stuff happens when diving and it happens more often on training dives. Deep dives add an even higher probability. It is the instructo'rs duty to keep control of the class, know where all of the divers are located and keep them together. If the instructor can't do the simplest of tasks, perhaps there's an opening at Burger King. Over there he really can have it his way!

I'm not going to defend what you did; I wasn't there. I don't think you were wrong (although I would have kissed off the safety stop) but I wonder why you had to signal with a light. I tend to stay a LOT closer to my buddy. I want to be able to reach over and touch her. If the group was more tightly packed, everyone could have stopped while you equalized. No big deal, happens all the time.

But the instructor needs to find another line of work. Soon!

Richard
 
so .. what else were you supposed to do ?
... continue down and to get their attention at risk to permanent damage to yourself or even deadly risk to your safety during the dive due to distraction from pain

just flabbergasted at anything other than a "well done" from the CD
 
Would be interesting to hear the other side of the story before casting blame.
 
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