Here is a very interesting video of a very near-miss diving accident.
There are several important safety lessons in here.
1) If you suspect an accident is going to happen - why spend all your time filming it? If life's are at risk - why would you do that? Not cool. I get the feeling the guy filming let this happen so he could get the attention. He could have notified the divemaster, he could have notified his buddy (which was where?) he could have communicated to the other divers earlier and helped prevent this from happening.
2) Why is there even a "divemaster" if they are not with the guests? The role of a divemaster is to guide a dive. To show interesting animal life and to guide people. If you went on a safari through the Serengeti - would you be able to just wander off on your own?
3) Please monitor your air, and that of your buddy on a dive. It is your responsibility to check your air and theirs. It is also your responsibility to know your depth limits and to follow them.
4) make sure that all the people on the dives understand these guidelines and follow them. If you can not communicate with your divers (language barriers) why are they even on the boat. "There are very strong currents and other dangers if you go below 10 meters - do not go below 10 meters" that is pretty important information to give someone. They must be able to understand.
5) Make sure all your guest understand the local signs and signals AND the local units of measurement. PSI is only used in USA and the Caribbean. Everyone else in the world uses Bar. 700 Psi (close to empty)might look quite different to someone who uses Bar (35 bar is nearly empty). 18 meters looks much different than 70 feet.
6) While it is supposedly the responsibility of each diver to take care of himself - in an emergency the other people have to take care of the victim. It becomes the other people's problem. Why not actively PREVENT accidents from happening by looking around you, seeing potential problems and trying to avoid them?
Actually I could go off for hours about the crap in this video that is wrong. The dive shop that allowed these guests to dive is partially respnsible for allowing guests to dive like this. The Divemaster is responsible for not supervising his guests. The filmer is responsible for for not actually preventing the accident before it got so dangerous - and filming it. The divers were responsible for not observing their air, for not finding out what the local measurements were, for not watching depth and for being total knobs.
Diving is safe, it is relaxing, but there are dumb people in the world. There are bad dive shops in the world. There are irresponsible divemasters in the world.
However - there are also great dive shops. Great divemasters and great divers. Luckily we have all of those right here in Khao Lak!!! ;)
Similan Island Diving
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