Where was the instructor?

[Al Mialkovsky]

The report in the paper makes no sense but then reports from " civilians" often do not.

I was not there and do not know what happened, but as a seasoned instructor I have never had a student who had trouyble who did not blame everyone but themselves for the problem - usualy the equipment while they are at the site then the instructor or dive master afterwards.

I am not saying this was the students fault but neither am I saying it was the instructors. There is not enough information available to determine blame, if any.

Bingo

As many of the people writing in this thread have said, some of them with "several" dives, it's always the instructors fault.

I had a student do a drill that wasn't asked for just a few feet away from me. It was a simple purge. I was doing the drill with another student when she just decided to do this drill on her own without me watching her. Sorry, I can only see one at a time. MY DM was behind her and began to move towards her to caution her not to do that until I arrived when she inhaled water and bolted to the surface. He got her there safely. Out of the corner of my eye I saw movement but of course I couldn't surface and leave everyone else down there.

She didn't blame me or the DM but of course it's always the instructors fault.

As that article said instructors are required to stay with a student at all time but guess what, we aren't super heros and we can't prevent everything. Take some personal responsiblilty for your own actions every once in awhile. Manually inflating your bc underwater is a very simple act. All my students get that skill down on pool session one and we do 6 sessions where they get to repeat it.

Teachers are supposed to be intelligent aren't they? This one sounds dumb as a rock.

 

[WileEDiver]

A couple points of clarification:

The skill that was being performed is called "Buoyancy control – neutral buoyancy on bottom, fin pivot oral". The actual performance requirement isn't "pivot on the tips of the fins..." but "Achieve and maintain neutral buoyancy underwater by inflating the BCD orally." (as was said earlier, but just not with the name of the skill which might explain why some here don't remember doing it)

You know that part of the story where "she tried to reattach the device connected to her air tank"? We call that a regulator. Her low pressure inflator wasn't disconnected.

She never was left alone. There was an instructor and a divemaster for 3 students.

In the TV story she sates that the doctors told her that she should have had some brain damage if she wasn't breathing for more than 3 or 4 monutes. Yet she had no such damage. And she wants an expaination of why. Did she consider it's because she wasn't "out" that long, and because the instructor performed rescue breathing in the water she started breathing again?

Knowing a little something about the people involved and the situation, it's pretty amazing to read how print and TV "reporters" tell a story. I guess the old "if it bleeds, it leads" should be amended to add "and if it doesn't quite bleed, stab it." Most likely the headline should have read "Instructor saves life of panicked student!".

 

[mnj1233]

A couple points of clarification:

The skill that was being performed is called "Buoyancy control – neutral buoyancy on bottom, fin pivot oral". The actual performance requirement isn't "pivot on the tips of the fins..." but "Achieve and maintain neutral buoyancy underwater by inflating the BCD orally." (as was said earlier, but just not with the name of the skill which might explain why some here don't remember doing it)

You know that part of the story where "she tried to reattach the device connected to her air tank"? We call that a regulator. Her low pressure inflator wasn't disconnected.

She never was left alone. There was an instructor and a divemaster for 3 students.

In the TV story she sates that the doctors told her that she should have had some brain damage if she wasn't breathing for more than 3 or 4 monutes. Yet she had no such damage. And she wants an expaination of why. Did she consider it's because she wasn't "out" that long, and because the instructor performed rescue breathing in the water she started breathing again?

Knowing a little something about the people involved and the situation, it's pretty amazing to read how print and TV "reporters" tell a story. I guess the old "if it bleeds, it leads" should be amended to add "and if it doesn't quite bleed, stab it." Most likely the headline should have read "Instructor saves life of panicked student!".

The only issue I have with the instructor is wether or not she ever surfaced. My understanding after reading the accounts available is that she never broke the surface! Instead they all did and someone had to go back for her. I stand on my earlier statement that a student should NEVER be the last one up.

 

[Tom725]

No oral inflation in my PADI OW.

If true, your instructor violated standards. You are required to do and oral inflation on one of your fin pivots.

 

[String]

Manual inflate is done during PADI OW, I believe. We did both surface and underwater during the pool sessions, don't recall if we did underwater on the cert dives.

Its taught here at basic level as well. Its a better option than the ditch-and-pray weight belt jettison for solving an OOA/loss of buoyancy.

 

[Chuck Tribolet]

Its taught here at basic level as well. Its a better option than the ditch-and-pray weight belt jettison for solving an OOA/loss of buoyancy.

How can you do a manual inflate if you are OOA?

 

[Scuba_Steve]

How can you do a manual inflate if you are OOA?

OK so it wasn't just me then.

 

[String]

How can you do a manual inflate if you are OOA?

With your redundant air supply or by breathing off someone elses octopus.

 

[Chuck Tribolet]

With your redundant air supply or by breathing off someone elses octopus.

With a redundant air supply or a buddy's long hose or octopus, there's no reason to
consider ditch and pray.

 

[String]

That would depend how massively overweighted the diver is.

If theyve become separated then the problem happens most people dont have inflators on their redundant air source, if theyre negative at the time (can happen) and overweight (can happen, especially newer divers) they may not be able to swim up.

Its also a good idea to put some air in the BC ascending with a buddy, if grip is lost for some reason they dont want to go down like a rock.