Posted by MikeT on June 03, 2004 at 20:58:36:
In Reply to: Drifting Dan . . one more time posted by Ken Kurtis on June 01, 2004 at 11:45:35:
I think this accident, even though nobody was hurt has helped make Cal Boat diving safer. I have been on three boats since the incident. Each time there has been better Captain - DM interaction. And an awareness and seriousness that may not have been there a few months ago.
I agree with Ken that it is two issues.
If Dan hadn't been found by the Boy Scouts after being lost ,because of his errors in diving the rigs, he would most likely have died, no remains found. The news (and not much) would be "Diver died when diving an advaced dive in PV" - end of story.
Because he was found and there was evidence of what happened. we have issue #2. How could the system fail so bad. And we have these intersting messageboard strings.
I feel bad for the Captain. And PADI's responce to the thing is kind of lame. Maybe it wasn't a "training" trip, but shouldn't the training the DM got be questioned. The DM's trainer, the shops PADI rating, etc. When you take on responsibility for the lives of divers on a boat, you cannot screw up, especially with the check in/out board. I think he should be banned from doing the final roll call on a boat forever. It's that important! It would be a lesson to others to not take any chances and making sure. I have been on many boats where I have seen the yell-out roll call and other people have said "there here", or "there in a bunk". I know a few times, the DMs didn't verify it. The Reef Seeker's way of doing a eye-to-eye rollcall works so much better.
The pair of Divers that were teamed up with this guy are issue #3. These guys suck! I dove an oil rig about 2 years ago. I wasn't qualified for the dive (it was #22 or somthing). I went with a close DM friend of mine so I felt pretty safe about it. The first dive was great. But my DM friend breathed thru his snorkel on the swim in (live boat = desiel fumes). He felt sick, so I got buddied up with someone even more non-experienced than me that was scared to go to 100 ft again with the guys he came on the boat with. At the start of the Dive the buddy took too long to decend and we lost sight of the rig. My mind was thinking (ok, dive briefing said - don't lose the reef, if you lose it, Scrap the dive. Luckily he was swimming in the right direction of the reef and we saw it. I kept an eye on him the entire time and led him around the rig.
After I heard the original story. My first thought was, why the hell didn't the two buddies care about this guy. When you tell the DM you will buddy up with a guy, you take a little responsibility.
Mike Thibeau