[Mark Chase]

Imported post

As far as I know there is no law against it as long as you’re doing it for free. I dived uncertified for Nitrox, uncertified for Trimix etc. My only concern was personal life insurance for next of kin.

I am now TDI Trimix qualified but I have no formal rescue or instructor training past my own personal self taught medical knowledge and knowledge of the risks associated with diving.

I would take an unqualified ADULT diving no problem. I would have to see them use a snorkel mask and flippers but if they displayed confidence with that kit in deep water I would haply take them down to say 10m on something like the Far Mulberry or Chesel Beech after a few basic skills in the shallows or in a pool.

Lets face it that’s what I did on my first ever dive. A few skills kneeling on the bottom in 2m of water then out on to the reef in St Lucia. No computer no timer just a depth gauge and we went to 20m (60ft to be precise)?

? That was in 1989.

I would want to see:

Their eyes
Their breathing
A flooded mask clearance
Regulator swapping to my long hose and back
And a basic understanding of how the bcd worked.

If the person could demonstrate these skills and they didn’t look like they were about to freak I would take them out in minimum 5m viz on a dive that I knew like the back of my hand.

I think its only in the last year of diving that I felt confident enough to do this. One must be totally in control of their own diving before they can envisage dealing with someone else’s problems. When I first started diving with my wife and she got in a mess I would get my self in a mess trying to help her. Now I can deal with her little problems without my own materialising so I feel ready to help others. Being qualified to do so is a secondary issue.

ATB

Mark Chase

 

[Mark Chase]

Imported post

Quote[/b] (dan @ Feb. 03 2004,20:45)]

Quote[/b] ]flippers

FINS!!!!!  

Oh bugger there goes my last shred of credabuility

Mark Chase

 

[Mark Chase]

Imported post

Quote[/b] (Juz @ Feb. 04 2004,12:13)]with full legal backing and the support of a school/club............


This would then include surface cover (with access to Emergency services probably via a mobile), to act as an assistant in an emergency.

This may also include first aid kit and O2.

None of this is necessary we are not talking about professional or club based dive training. We are talking about taking a bud in for a dip. No law against it and no way in the UK you could be prosecuted if your bud coped it unless you coerced then into the water.

I avoided any rescue diver, dive master etc qualifications to avoid ANY liability in this area. Ignorance IS a defence in law.

Strange isn’t it we would take our friends even our friends kids in our cars and hurtle down the motorway at 70+ MPH where were 100's if not 1000's of times more likely to kill them but we think it is irresponsible to go for a bimble.

I took my wife to the Silly isles and taught her to snorkel, she loved it AND she was good. So I took her to the local dive centre for a bimble try dive. Remember this is a shore dive in UK conditions but with 8m viz.

The dive guide gave her a 15min briefing and we went in down to 8m at one point but mainly at 5m. She loved it and signed up for the OW course as soon as we got back to Blighty. Unfortunately she hated the training and all the pool skills but I managed to persuade her to tough it out and then did the referral in the Maldives.

Had she not done the bimble dive I don’t think she would have completed the OW course. Now three years later she has 45 dives but she thinks diving in the UK is mad. So every time we go abroad I have two or three dives of looking after her and then she is back up to speed and away.

She trusts me to do this and no one else.

As someone else said having an instructors ticket doesn’t instantly make you capable of doing the job that comes with diving experience. I wouldn’t take on a dive with someone who I felt was not up to it. Snorkelling and free diving are a good test for that. In January we took a 25 year old girl with us to Egypt to help with the baby sitting. She was a fantastic swimmer and liked the idea of diving. My wife suggested I took her out for a dive using her equipment. I took her snorkelling in the Blue Hole and found her to be uncomfortable with the mask and the concept of breathing through a snorkel with her head in the water. She also didn’t like floating out over the edge of the reef. Getting a mouthfull of water in the snorkle resulted in instant head up thrashig around and ripping the mask off.

I instantly canned the idea of taking her out for a dive and suggested to her she should perfect snorkelling first.

ATB

Mark Chase