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The liveliest letters from the DIVER mailbag...
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I always look forward to reading Off-Gassing to see what subjects may arise; fun, fact or fantasy! Here's a tale of an unusual excuse for a training dive not being completed.
In the first week of September, conditions on the Sussex coast were tricky for a navigation course, but neap tide and 2m visibility gave us the option to go ahead, and we succeeded with the reciprocal swims and navigating a square course.
Then one instructor, assistant and two students went in to navigate to five points using a scuba sextant. Five weighted pop bottles were laid out at 10m intervals as markers, the tide was slack and off we went.
Mark 1 to 2 was fine, then chaos! A very playful bottlenose dolphin arrived and buddied up with the two students. After the initial surprise and obvious distraction, time-out was called to enjoy the antics of our new companion as he rolled on his back and nudged at our hands and fins.
It was wonderful, but eventually we had to navigate on. However, holding the compass square and level was obviously boring to our clever friend, who constantly nosed and lifted the arm of anyone aligning a compass!
We gave up and set out to recover the markers. We found one and then searched the known positions for the others, but found none.
Swimming back, we saw three markers sitting ahead - obviously collected for us by the dolphin! It had been with us for more than 40 minutes and we had not completed the course requirement.
The dolphin had arrived by following in a fishing boat earlier in the day, and there was quite a crowd on the beach and on the lifeboat gantry when we emerged, though no-one else went in. It appears that a circling boat attracted the dolphin away and we hope he rejoined his pod at the Isle of Wight, where a group of 20 had been reported during the day.
So it was bye-bye to our new buddy and back to the dive centre to plan a re-run of the navigation dive!
Tony Dobinson, Chichester
I read with interest the debate started in Off-Gassing by Chris Kitson's letter Dealing With Diving's Outlaws (July), about who should "police" the dive trade.
I believe that a fundamental point is being missed. Dive-business owners and dive-boat skippers have a legal "duty of care" to their clients, whether they like it or not, and no amount of "off-gassing" will change that.
Many dive-boat skippers seem to believe that they are no more than water-taxi drivers. This is totally incorrect.
They generally choose the dive site and are responsible for determining if the weather conditions should stop a dive going ahead. They may have local knowledge of hazards such as strong currents, obstructions and bottom contours that even the most experienced diver could not predict without having visited the site before. They have a duty to pass on this information to passengers in the dive briefing.
A skipper who chooses a site that is unsuitable for an inexperienced diving party could be held liable for an ensuing accident. The fact that the skipper did not check the divers' qualifications or experience would not avoid this liability.
It is commendable of Philip Pope (In a Perfect World, September) to suggest putting the responsibility back on divers' shoulders, but that responsibility can't be transferred to a diver's relatives, who may sue any skipper or responsible third party called to account in a fatal accident.
Skippers earn significant profits from UK divers, and have a duty to provide a safe, appropriate service and to maintain their equipment in a safe, serviceable condition - something many appear willing to sacrifice to profit!
Ask most UK skippers if they carry an adequate diver-recall system and you will generally be met by silence.
Those who stumble out a reply may say they would rev their engines - difficult if the engine fails, or if they haven't briefed the divers in advance. Some may recall throwing thunderflashes, but how many still have these and are licensed to use them?
Mr Pope believes that eventually the dive trade will be too frightened to give advice and Mike Snelling (Skippers As Police - Do Me A Favour! August) that the litigious consequence of checking qualifications would be disastrous for a skipper in the event of an accident.
The truth is that "failure to give adequate advice" leaves the dive trade and skippers just as exposed legally as giving "wrong advice".
Rather than refusing to give advice that could ultimately save someone's life, perhaps these dive traders and skippers should become more professional about their business plans.
They should accept the risks they are selling and hold adequate liability insurance to cover them, and produce realistic and sustainable profits, some of which could be put back into making their goods and services safer.
The dive trade should concentrate on raising standards and achieving zero death and injury in our sport. Perhaps the leading agencies training new divers outside the club system should take the lead by providing new dive packs only to approved dive schools. Getting rid of the outlaws is the real way forward.
Anna Sims, Dive Master Insurance, Leigh on Sea
The Great Snorkel Debate intrigues me. I did most of my training overseas at PADI schools, where it seems almost a whipping offence not to have one's snorkel firmly fixed to one's mask. Mine was of the type with the flexible bottom which drops away from the jaw when not in your mouth, and would always be getting caught in my BC inflator or otherwise making a nuisance of itself.
So I would remove it, stuff it in my BC pocket and when resurfacing clip it back on to keep everybody happy.
This worked fine until recently in Ellerton Pond, when my buddy and I got caught in a huge weedbed following jack pike, and I lost my snorkel in the weed. Off I popped to my local dive shop, where there appeared the answer to the Great Snorkel Debate - a simple roll-up snorkel that pushes into its own housing and can be clipped to your BC.
Surely this must be the answer to both the "must have a snorkel" and "why do you need a snorkel" brigades? Six weeks on I haven't lost it but it's there when I need it.
Ian McGuire
I was amazed at the last sentence of Trevor Fury's letter More On Snorkels (October): "The snorkel is the simplest piece of equipment you've got, and IT CAN SAVE YOUR LIFE"!
Perhaps if Mr Fury paid more attention to his gauges, or if his instructor/buddy was paying attention, he would not have ended up having to use the snorkel in the first place.
Who was leading the dive? Why did he run out of air on two separate occasions? Why did he not know which buttons to press to inflate his BC? What did his DO/Divemaster have to say about this sorry episode?
Yes, I am sure that the snorkel saved his live, but a little care, forethought and common sense would achieve the same result. The letter contains so many basic errors that I am inclined to think that it was a complete wind-up.
Just to put this into perspective I have only been diving for a year and have just qualified as a BSAC Sports Diver. Whatever agency Mr Fury has trained with should hang its head in shame in allowing him to dive in this manner and risk his own safety and the safety of his buddy.
Ray Carlisle, Skegness
I am sure that Mr Ireland's comments about BSAC divers (Talking of Buddies From Hell..., Off-Gassing, September) were prompted by an encounter with a particularly obnoxious individual who clearly has a problem with human beings. People of that kind are best avoided.
I am sorry that Mr Ireland didn't consider what potential damage his inflammatory remarks could do to relations between divers of other organisations and his own in our area and possibly nationally. Staff at a renowned local PADI dive shop were aghast at his openly offensive remarks, as was I and many other divers I know.
As both a BSAC and PADI diver, I invite Mr Ireland to join me for a dive, so that I can show him that it is not who you dive for, but what you dive for that counts. Meanwhile, as a PADI diver please allow me to apologise on his behalf to all BSAC divers for his unfounded remarks.
Dave Cole, Exeter
I qualified BSAC 3rd Class in 1979. It was a very active club, meeting twice a week, and we dived year-round in the UK. The years spent with the club were some of the best times of my life, and I logged about 200 dives.
Then I married a non-diver, had three children and fell out of the diving loop for 17 years until a family holiday in Turkey, where I found a dive school on site and got wet again. Bliss!
I also found that the world had turned PADI. After being in such a structured club environment, I found the prospect of diving with strangers quite unsettling. I thought it only sensible to ask my new buddies their diving history and likewise tell them mine, even though the dive guide had already matched us on paper.
I did feel embarrassed, but why should you be labelled a prat and arrogant to ask about your buddy's experience? Not only does his life depend on it but yours might too. It's not competition, just common sense.
I've since joined my local BSAC branch to revise and update my skills. My new branch is equally keen on club nights, weekend diving and fun.
My query with PADI is on its qualification titles. "Advanced Open Water Diver" might lead you to suppose that this is an experienced diver with 100 or so dives and rescue qualifications to boot. No, only 10 dives are required. Not only is it a misleading title but, more dangerously, it gives the warmwater, once-a-year holiday diver inflated ideas of his or her abilities.
PADI has opened up diving to the world, but it seems that the qualification titles just pander to the ego. I know BSAC seems to be following a similar path to appear more user-friendly, but while 3rd Class Diver never gave you ideas above your station, it always sounded a bit naff.
Jane Didsbury Mitchell, Shrewsbury
I chuckled when I read the letter from D Ireland about buddies from hell. My buddy (and husband) and I are lucky to sit on top of the fence. We're BSAC Sports Divers but dive mostly overseas with PADI operators.
We have been diving for three years and, like Mr Ireland, dive for pleasure, for love of the reefs and marine life, not because we want to push ourselves to dangerous extremes.
On a friend's advice, we started training with a local BSAC club early one September, intending to qualify to dive in Jamaica eight months later. By Christmas we were world leaders in chucking kit into a swimming pool and kitting up on the bottom. I can still quote the Constant Volume Law in my sleep.
Garry and I moved to a whole new level of intimacy after four months of buddy-breathing but still hadn't made it to open water and began to get anxious about our holiday plans.
We joined another club and, with the help of two excellent instructors, managed to get BSAC Club Diver one week before we flew to Jamaica. There we were shocked to find ourselves diving with PADI divers who had gone from zilch to "Advanced" diver in a matter of days! We were thankful to be diving together, because some of their antics were scary.
There needs to be a middle road for diver training. BSAC takes far too long to get to first base and everybody is treated as though they are thick. BSAC divers generally are well trained and extremely disciplined but a lot of branch divers have no teaching skills and, I suspect, put off as many potential divers as they successfully train.
Being able to do something well doesn't necessarily mean that you can teach it!
Some PADI operations seem interested only in money. This year in Sharm we saw a lady achieve Open Water Diver who should have been told to get out of the water and stay out. It's the only time I've stuck my nose in, and I told the instructor he was a disgrace to his profession. Most people can dive, but not everybody should dive.
We have dived with the worst of BSAC and best of PADI, and there are pluses and minuses with both. But for anyone starting out, note that despite the blustering of many BSAC clubs, its qualifications are not recognised worldwide! In the Southern Hemisphere diver operators will look at your little blue book in amazement. We paid for BSAC international divers cards, which give equivalent qualifications, to overcome that problem.
Toni Foers, Sheffield
I read Diver's comparative examination of fins with great interest (Split Decision, September). I have been diving for five years, and a couple of years ago had to have my left ankle joint fused with metal following serious surgery.
This left my ankle joint weak and I was unable to manoeuvre my Mares Avanti Quattros, even in the easy diving off Railei Bay in Thailand.
I found swimming against a current practically impossible and either had to rely on my boyfriend giving me a tow or hope that my one-legged swimming action might result in me reaching a useful destination and not simply providing entertainment for the fish.
One of the divemasters on board took pity on me and lent me his Apollo split-fins. It was a revelation. Despite being only 26 and a strong swimmer, I had felt limited by my injury, but the lightweight material of some split fins makes it easy for me to swim hard and manoeuvre.
I have since bought a pair of Scubapro Twinjets. These were not highly rated by your article, but I've found them invaluable. If I feel like it I can at times keep up with my boyfriend in his giant Quattros.
Your point about relying on your fitness and technique for maximum propulsion is important and well made, but for those of us who need a little bit of help, great fins can make all the difference.
Katherine O'Donovan, London N7
A Red Sea safari to the Brothers on the my Valerie provided terrific diving for our party of 12. It was an excellent boat to dive from, with good food and tremendous hospitality.
However, we had serious concerns about the quality of the compressed air and the condition of the cylinders in use. At some point during the week, everyone complained about their air tasting and smelling of petrol. Four people experienced dizziness while diving, three vomited on completing dives and 14 stated that they had experienced a burning sensation in their throats during and after dives.
Divers began to miss dives from day 4 because of severe headaches, and respiratory and ear-clearing difficulties. Every member of our party refused to dive on the last day because the breathing air was so obnoxious to taste. Six of us, including myself, developed chest infections and laryngitis during the week
A dark brown oily residue had built up in a new regulator first-stage filter after just two days' diving. Others were showing signs of similar deposits by mid-week.
The crew did what they could, bleeding all air out of cylinders and refilling after changing the air filters, but this had little lasting effect. We took the issue up with the manager/co-owner of the Valerie, but apart from the cylinders being replaced by new ones, received no guarantee that a major overhaul of the compressor system would be undertaken in the near future.
We are a very experienced group. Five of us have more than 8500 dives between us, and one owns his own dive charter business in the UK, so we are probably more sensitive about safety than divers who have undertaken only a few holiday trips. The potential for a serious accident is obvious, particularly as diving the Brothers involves aggressive, deep profiles.
Jan Moore, Salford BSAC
David Easton of Red Sea Divers replies: We responded to Ms Moore's detailed report by immediately contacting the Russian and Egyptian owners of the vessel. Other divers on the boat that week reckoned that the compressor was operating properly but there seemed to be a problem with the metal tube leading from it to the filling area.
The owners assure me that this tube has been replaced, the tanks cleaned and the problem with the smell from the air supply solved - when it was tested at the local hospital it was found to be non-toxic.
A Russian group on the boat the following week reported that the air supply was perfectly OK. We appreciate Ms Moore's concern, but her worries have proved unwarranted.
Many of us share Mark Childs' views (Shellfish Attitude to Environment, Off-Gassing, August). I am always upset when I see people arrogant enough to think that the seabed was laid down just for them to rip up. I also pity these people oblivious to the fact that by damaging an area, there will be less for them to enjoy on their next trip.
If a diver did bring up a shellfish in a Marine Nature Reserve, I dread to think of the damage he is doing in "unprotected" parts. Must areas be legally protected to gain a diver's respect?
Respect for the environment is taught when you learn to dive and I would advise Mark to give diving a go before abandoning the idea.
He will then be able to help others realise what they are destroying and correct their mistakes. It may take one conceited individual to ruin everyone's fun, but it also only takes one person to speak up for others to listen.
Laura Hepburn, Eastleigh, Hants
I would be interested to know what your readers consider to be a reasonable charge for an air fill. I live in Bristol and it is costing £3 per 12 litre cylinder in all the shops. This seems expensive, as it is only £2 when we travel to the coast.
Terry
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