What to expect on a checkout dive?

[Bubbletrubble]

I wear contacts - extended wear. If they come in contact with lake/seawater, they're ruined and I have to toss them. So if I know my contacts are going to come in contact with water, then I'd wear daily wears which I don't like at all. So if I have to clear my mask, then I need to pack daily wears since they might come in contact with seawater. I don't have a problem showing I can clear my mask, or take it off entirely and put it back on, or whatever, it's just I don't know what to expect.

All this consternation about mask clearing makes it sound like you don't practice the skill very often and aren't very comfortable with it.

I have been diving with contacts since OW certification. I currently use the Air Optix Night & Day lenses that are approved for extended wear (up to 30 days continuously), although I typically remove them at night. I perform full mask floods all the time while diving in the ocean. If the mask flood is done properly, the contacts aren't exposed to that much seawater -- you just have to remember to keep your eyes closed during the skill. Some seawater does cling to one's eyelashes, which may cause a tiny amount of stinging, but it's certainly tolerable. Even with this minimal exposure to seawater, my contacts last for the full month. YMMV.

Hope this info helps...

 

[explorer08]

The problem is that people who show up at resorts aren't necessarily people who have just finished their OW certs -- or even people who have recently dived at all. Just because, five years ago, you showed you could clear a mask, doesn't mean you aren't going to panic if it flood this year. I did a dive once with a friend who was about 40 dives past his cert -- but he had been certified in the tropics, and had never had a mask flood in Puget ice water. When it happened, he lost rational thought, and his behavior was totally irrational. It scared him, and scared the two of us who were buddied with him.

You are true, things like that happen. But amongst the millions of divers worldwide they are exceptions, same as the bad drivers I meet everyday on the roads. So that can't justify putting every diver under general suspicion. And things like that happen in other areas of live as well. Again the example of the drivers licence, or a boat captains licence. There are people who didn't drive a car for several years after they got their drivers licence and - more likely - there are people holding a captains licence, but they make use of it just in their holidays. So their comfort level will not be much different from that of divers as you described them above. But while with a car or a boat much more harm, particularly to third parties, can be done than while diving, however no car or boat renter worldwide does require a test tour with any customer. So what makes diving so special, that many dive operators worldwide feel entitled to do exactly that?

And before anybody states that you need to bring proof of a certain number of flights during a defined period of time, to keep a pilots licence current - (I don't know if you have some similar saying in English, so I simply translate what we would say in German and I hope everybody will understand what I mean.) Keep the church in town!
Diving is not comparable to flying an airplane - not in terms of professional skills and not in terms of potential harms. And it is no rocket science as some people try to make us believe.

 

[SeaCobra]

It is not just respect, but also a little bit of professional courtesy, why do you want do make that instructor/divemaster's day harder that it already is? I know we all think it would be the dream job to be a scuba instructor at some exotic dive resort, but it isn't. Every week these instructors are descended upon by another large group of "divers" that think they know what they are doing just because they have a little plastic card they got 6 years ago and haven't been in the water since.

In my travels I have seen folks use an asthma inhaler on the boat and then ask me to keep it quiet (I didn't) because they lied on their medical. Another diver quickly trying to cover up a bright red chest scar from recent open heart surgery whose doctor hasn't given him permission to go diving yet! So, I do not blame the resorts one bit for trying to protect themselves and us as well.

Remember, a dive accident does not just hurt the victim, but also puts others at risk. The divemaster will be at risk trying to rescue you, others will be left unattended, etc. If asked to perform a skill, I will do so. If asked to do it kneeling, I can handle that. Then after proving myself as a competent, adult diver I will go and dive as God intended - horizontally.

 

[DevonDiver]

One of the funniest diving stories I have ever heard had to do with Danny Riordan, diving in Australia. For those who don't know him, Danny is one of GUE's cave instructors -- he's an extraordinary diver and explorer. He and some others wanting to go out with a dive op in Australia, and for reasons known only to that dive op, they insisted that if he wanted to dive Nitrox, he had to demonstrate a FIN PIVOT to the DM. In spite of Danny showing him his cave instructor card, the man was adamant. Phone calls to GUE HQ failed to sway him. Somewhere, there is video of Danny doing fin pivots in Australia to get Nitrox . . . I'd just love to see the expression on his face!

It's a funny scenario - but I've had the same experience. On holiday in the Maldives - dive op had compulsory check-outs, regardless of the customers' certification level.

They didn't charge for it... it was a quick 20 minute splash on the house reef... did a few fin pivots, cleared my mask, shared air and recovered a regulator. Whatever they asked me to do, however they asked me to do it. Nothing I couldn't do in my sleep - and was a freebie chance to ensure my kit had survived the plane transit intact.

I can imagine that some divers might have too much ego to accept that their capabilities could be questioned, but really... I was glad to do the check-out.. it reassured me that the dive op had stringent standards and took customer safety seriously. I also knew that I wasn't going to end up buddied to anyone who was a serious liability (they split divers onto 'basic' and 'advanced' dive boats/sites).

I don't see the connection between fin pivots and nitrox though. A check-out should be relevant to the activity. Basic skills for basic dives. Specialist skills for specialist dives. Ensure appropriate working knowledge of necessary procedures and equipment. Peasy.

 

[explorer08]

It is not just respect, but also a little bit of professional courtesy, why do you want do make that instructor/divemaster's day harder that it already is? I know we all think it would be the dream job to be a scuba instructor at some exotic dive resort, but it isn't. Every week these instructors are descended upon by another large group of "divers" that think they know what they are doing just because they have a little plastic card they got 6 years ago and haven't been in the water since.

In my travels I have seen folks use an asthma inhaler on the boat and then ask me to keep it quiet (I didn't) because they lied on their medical. Another diver quickly trying to cover up a bright red chest scar from recent open heart surgery whose doctor hasn't given him permission to go diving yet! So, I do not blame the resorts one bit for trying to protect themselves and us as well.

Remember, a dive accident does not just hurt the victim, but also puts others at risk. The divemaster will be at risk trying to rescue you, others will be left unattended, etc. If asked to perform a skill, I will do so. If asked to do it kneeling, I can handle that. Then after proving myself as a competent, adult diver I will go and dive as God intended - horizontally.

Sorry, but again my opinion is completly different. I am working for 5 years meanwhile as a full time instructor and dive guide for dive centers in Turkey (while diving since 1984 and being an instructor since 1989), so I know both sides of the medal. In one point I completly agree with you:

I know we all think it would be the dream job to be a scuba instructor at some exotic dive resort, but it isn't.

But, and every professional in the diving industry should be aware of that every day, dive ops and diving instructors are working in a service business. So it's not the most courtly duty of customers to make instructors and divemasters happy and their day easy. Customers usually are spending a lot of money for their holidays and their diving. So in reverse they can expect for their money, that the dive op does everything to make their dives as comfortable, as exciting and as much fun as possible. That is the first and main duty of any dive op. This duty is connected to the duty to make diving for the customers as save as possible and here it starts to become imprecise, because making a dive save may mean completly different things, depending on the kind of dive and the experience level of the divers. So what may be ok on one dive and with one group of customers may be completly inappropriate on another dive or with other customers. And last but not least it belongs to the duties of a dive op to protect the marine environment in his area. Dive safety and environmental protection are coevally topics which are in the interest of the dive op itsself. But these duties should always been appreciated in a way that they interfere as less as possible with the dive ops first duty. And as described before that all can be done in a discreet manner and without treating customers as incompetent until they give proof that they are not. If any dive op is not able to handle it that way, may be they are in the wrong business.

 

[Juardis]

All this consternation about mask clearing makes it sound like you don't practice the skill very often and aren't very comfortable with it.

No consternation. I practice clearing my mask every time I get in the water. Problem is, other than my OW cert dives 3 weeks ago, my only experience in the water has been in a pool. So I know I'll be practicing mask clearing and I either wear daily wears or no contacts at all. I don't know what to expect at the resort we're going to with respect to checkout dives. But thinking about it further, I should always wear daily wears since there is always the chance I'll need to clear my mask if for no other reason than it fogged up or I want to practice.

 

[explorer08]

But thinking about it further, I should always wear daily wears since there is always the chance I'll need to clear my mask if for no other reason than it fogged up or I want to practice.

Good decision, you never know before when you will need it!

 

[eternaljonah]

the other day we went out diving with a team of 3 and one person diving with us had not been out since a while, then at 23m his mask fogged up totally and he tried to clear his mask by opening the top of the mask instead of the bottom. the other diver helped him out and all was well. i believe that if the dive operation has 10 new divers and does not know the actual level of each diver it is useful to do a check out dive, just to see who they will buddy up with who and who they dive master has to keep an eye on. once the dive operation knows you can handle yourself, they can give you the freedom to dive....

 

[Tigerman]

....
This duty is connected to the duty to make diving for the customers as save as possible and here it starts to become imprecise, because making a dive save may mean completly different things, depending on the kind of dive and the experience level of the divers.
....

But demanding a quick check of the divers skills, THATS too much to ask to make sure everyone is safe and actually have the experience they claim?
There is no "good service" in NOT making sure people can safely perform the dives they pay you to perfom and that the people they get buddied with have about the same skill level and air consumption..

 

[explorer08]

But demanding a quick check of the divers skills, THATS too much to ask to make sure everyone is safe and actually have the experience they claim?
There is no "good service" in NOT making sure people can safely perform the dives they pay you to perfom and that the people they get buddied with have about the same skill level and air consumption..

You know my answer and you find it in this thread!