Lessons Learnt in Cancun

[Buoyant Babe]

I was on holiday in Cancun in April 2003. I had qualified as OW in December 2001 and AOW in October 2002. I believe I had been well trained by an outfit in the UK that promoted safe diving as paramount, but I hadn’t done much diving at all and had only a few dives in my logbook. I was still at the stage where you do what more experienced divers tell you because you put their trust in them.

Mr Helen and I had both dived together in Menorca in September 2002 and I had done some drysuit diving in Oban since then, so whilst my own confidence was building, Mr Helen was still very much the newbie underwater.

We booked to do some dives with an outfit that had been recommended in the Lonely Planet Guide book and which was a Five Star PADI Dive Centre operating since 1980. We were going to do boat dives on shallow reefs of no more than 18m.

On our first day at the dive centre, it was pretty obvious looking around that there were other people signing up for dives who hadn’t a clue what they were doing. We got on the boat and Mr Helen had to show two girls how to set their regs up on their cylinders. When questioned, they were indeed qualified but hadn’t dived for TWELVE years!

The staff took us to the back of the boat one by one and we did a giant stride into the water and swam over towards the dive guide. Mr Helen was last off the boat and for some reason, they told him to do a backward entry off the side of the boat.

We were all in a circle around the guide, and Mr Helen was still swimming towards us when the guide signalled for us to descend. I knew it was wrong not to wait for Mr Helen, but like a ‘good little diver’, I did what I was told and went down.

I knelt on the bottom and watched Mr Helen try in vain to descend. He was underweighted, but probably the stress of being the only one left on the surface meant that he wouldn’t have been able to get down anyway. Remembering my training about not ascending and descending quickly in the water, I just watched in agitation. He gave up and went back to the boat, canning the dive.

Mr Helen decided not to do any more diving on the holiday after that, but I persevered. Looking back I wished I had ignored the guide and waited at the surface until we were ready to descend together. The whole experience put Mr Helen off boat diving and I am truly sorry for that.

The next dive I did, I listened to two Mares-clad, shiney kitted divers recount their tales of derring-do at the back of the boat. I was horrified to hear one exclaim incredulously that on a 30m dive in Cozumel the guide had the nerve to tell him to do a safety stop, and that when he got to the surface he hadn’t enough air to inflate his jacket!

There was a slight swell that day, but nothing like I’d seen on boats in the UK, and I was amused to see these rufty-tufty divers chucking up over the side within a few minutes.

When we arrived at the dive site the guide gave the brief. He said nothing about a safety stop. Mindful of my guilt at blindly following the guide the day before I plucked up the courage to ask why there was no stop. “Oh you don’t need one, it’s only 16m” said one of the rufty-tufty’s.

It was at this point that I decided to take responsibility for myself and I told them that regardless of what they were doing, I’d be doing a 3 minute stop at 5m and wouldn’t surface until my computer told me I was clear.

What I learnt from this was a number of things:

1) I have been well trained in the UK, but not everyone receives the same level of training elsewhere in the world;
2) I should take responsibility for myself as a diver;
3) I’ll always wait for my buddy and descend together;
4) No matter how inexperienced you are, if your instincts tell you that something is not right, question it;
5) Not all divers with shiney kit are good divers.

After this trip I became much more self aware of myself as a diver, my responsibilities to myself and other people.

[Gav]

Thanks Helen

Some valuable lessons there in having the confidence to go with what your training and experience (even if it is limited) tells you is right, rather than going along with what you know is wrong.

Hope that experience didn't put Mr Helen off diving for good?

[Buoyant Babe]

Originally Posted by Gav

Thanks Helen

Some valuable lessons there in having the confidence to go with what your training and experience (even if it is limited) tells you is right, rather than going along with what you know is wrong.

Hope that experience didn't put Mr Helen off diving for good?

It very nearly did. It was never 'his thing' anyway, but I didi get him back in the water in Menorca in September 2003. He is still not keen on boat diving though and hasn't dived since then.

Hxxx

[Stesh]

Good post, summed up my feeling better than I could
Hope you had some great dives out there still?
incoming.

[Buoyant Babe]

Originally Posted by Stesh

Good post, summed up my feeling better than I could
Hope you had some great dives out there still?
incoming.

Actually, the dives were pretty average (apart form the large Eagle Ray I saw on one). We missed the day in Cozumel because we had been given incorrect information about the departure time.

Hxxx

[MartyC]

Nice post Helen, your sentiments and observations are spot