Scenario of the Day - 27th May 05

[TerryH]

Following on from the Incident thread, somebody suggested a scenario of
the day. So rather than have some obvious ones how about some of the more
obscure.

Here's a nice and easy one (or is it) to kick off.

You have two divers doing a photo course. One is very bouyant and almost
sticks on the surface. The other very heavy and acts like a crab half the
time. Unfortunately they are friends and a buddy pair.

There is no coral and max depth is 12m. Viz is good.

As the DM (Divemaster/Dive Marshal) how would you deal with these two.
Remember that although not supposed to be a factor they are paying
guests!

Remember it's a scenario, so you have to READ it carefully.


TerryH

[Phoenix]

If I were Instructing the photo course I would emphasise the importance of buoyancy control in any case and would have them redistribute the weight between them to improve the situation.

As regards paying customers, there is only so long you can allow someone to take to descend, you have other customers waiting to enjoy their dive. All guides that I know carry 2 or 3 spare weights, if that still isn't enough then they miss the dive. I have never known a diver whinge after being told to get out the water (due to their own fault) but I have known a lot of divers whinge about having a short dive due to people holding them up.

Ian

[Conor]

tie them together? it'll even out

[MATTBIN]

Agree with Ian get their weight sorted, then do the dive, if they are both correctly weighted. The fact they are paying should have no bearing on allowing them to dive or not. Assuming its just them two plus DM then if the weight is still wrong sort it out by either ascending to the boat or back to the shop. Even a DM has the right to can a dive if he thinks it unsafe.
Matt

[TerryH]

Ok it was actually a real case, so here's what we did.

One was buoyant not because * was underweighted, but because *
liked taking panoramic shots. The buddy was the opposite and liked getting
down to the macro stuff. So although they often worked within sight of each
other, one was high, one low.

Now the high one was almost always checking out the buddy. Bit difficult
not to when looking down. However the crab was the danger. Mind clouded
with F stops and strobe arms, doing any sort of buddy awareness would
require rotating or turning. Not easy when you have a camera and are on the
deck.

The awnser? The depth was cut back to 6m (viz was 15+ at least) and a DM
was attached to swim to one side keeping both in sight. That turned it into
a sort of standard DM led dive, allbeit a very slow one.

So they both ended up with safety cover and happily carried on snapping.

TerryH