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If your dive master isn’t checking your air and/or bottom time regularly, that’s a big red flag for me.
He should,but it depends on your experience and you have the ultimate responsibility for your air if you’re certified.
May be that was the case while being still on training but afterwards as certified diver the guide never check anything and I dive regularly with many dive centres in different countries
I have to disagree, it becomes your own responsibility from the moment you are certified. Most divemasters will tell you to let them know when you hit 1/2 or 1/3 or what ever. What I do think is a red flag is hurried and hard to follow dive briefings or not even a briefing at all.
Only while still training. After that it’s your own responsibility. They’ll probably ask you once or twice to gauge which route they’ll take or when to turn the dive but if you’re using more than usual due to fitness, strong current, gear issues, you should take the initiative to let the DM know or make the choice to ascend and surface.
I worked in diving for 12 years and myself and colleagues would always check air typically twice to ensure we would get all divers back with a reserve left.Experienced divers we let go on their own with a suitable buddy.@Saul
If there is a Smell or Taste in the Air, Doesn’t the Inside of the Tank need to be cleaned? My OW Portion consisted of 4, 20 Minute Minimum Dives. Or when someone hit 2k PSI. I ended each dive with more PSI than the other students.
Bad smell or taste of the air could be an issue with the compressor also, e.g. filters or bad seals in the compressor.
As mentioned almost certainly the compressor, often not replacing the filter/s often enough.2kpsi is a lot of remaining air left, 20 mins is the minimum for a training dive ,imo they were being a bit tight.
Absolutely, if the air smells coming out of your cylinder have a Visual Inspection done.
The PADI form asks if you’ve had surgery in the last 12 months. One man questioned this because he had a vasectomy, that wasn’t specifically excluded on the form, just shy of the time period (11 months). He was annoyed that he might have to get medical clearance for that. He just put no since he had no complications and it was a long time previous to that. It’s a “surgery” that’s done in the Dr office with no anesthesia.
Contrast that with the fact that I had a Tympanoplasty 3 weeks ago – obviously I shouldn’t be diving for 6 months!
That’s fine,would invalidate any insurance he hd though most likely if there was any issue.
Many people make that choice and will usually be fine. The problem is that a simple form and a dive instructor can’t make that judgements, so they don’t want to. It’s your choice to risk your own life. If you’re not sure but dive regularly ask the doctor on your checkup after surgery to sign a paper so you’re prepared for the question.
The worst center I’ve been in didn’t check certification, insurance or medical form. No briefing, we even had to ask the name of the site. Also no guide, they told us it’s just a big rock go round you won’t get lost. When we inevitably got lost they at least came for us. IMO that’s not a dive center, just a scuba tank and boat renting centre.
Can you say where this was?
@PP O2 small city in northern spain, there wasn’t another dive center so we were stuck with them
Well,dont go with them again, that’s about as bad as it gets, and as you say, that’s no dive centre. assholes.@Dreoni
I experienced that in Hurghada when the dive centre allowed an Indian woman to dive despite she couldn’t provide her padi certificate …as soon as we reached 10 meters she panicked completely 😂😂😂
@Dreoni Around the Medas Isles?
When I entered a dive center in Jamaica to ask for a beginner’s course, the staff was smoking weed. Good vibes, but no thanks. 😁
What?! They were smoking weed in Jamaica?!? Where their religion involves smoking?? That is so weird.
Quite right,you did the right thing.
It’s totally wrong if the guy is teaching scuba,do it out of hours.@The Funstead
Obviously you have never been to utila…. hahah
Bunch of cowboys there as well eh.@nyax129
Although I’ve never witnessed any issues with dive operators to date, many of the people I’ve met whilst diving ‘fun dives’ have recounted some horror stories. Now I pay for the extra case/bag on the plane and use my own kit.
While watching I just realized that the last diving centre I went diving with on vacation proudly had the PADI flag up – but they‘re not listed at all. So that was just for decoration I suppose.
Things went okay but that bugs me.
Worst dive center ever was in Tunisia: they knew I was an instructor and I had told them that I didn’t want to go diving with beginners (it’s a holiday, after all) Only when the boat was out of the harbor I was told that we were out for a dive with a DM and 3 beginners and that the other guy of the center that was on the boat was not going to dive with me (and there was no refund). So, I went in the water with the other 4.
5 mins in the dive, one of the beginners went up like an arrow and the DM followed her, leaving me and the 2 other beginners behind at 15 meters. I went in instructor modus, signaled them to re-group, and we had a nice, albeit boring dive for another 15 mins. When we surfaced, we got to hear that the other beginner had a panic attack, just like on her first 2 dives…
Oh yeah: paperwork was fudgy, briefing almost nonexistent, and good thing I always bring my own gear with me because theirs looked old, and I don’t know how well serviced it was.
Some of the red flags I have seen besides the video
– rusted cylinders (and I mean really really bad one’s)
– valves screwed on crooked.
– unserviced compressors which included oil smell and taste.
– antique gear where dinosaurs dived with.
I really hate how the main camera looks “blurry”. Probably a mist filter of some sort but, really too powerful.
I have a real problem with the medical forms. I think they are just to protect the Certification Agencies, Dive Shops and Instructors from lawsuits. It can be very hard to find an MD with a background in diving medicine. Come on we are suppose to be adults. Give us the information about health issues that can be contrary to safe diving. And let us decide whether to see a doctor or take the risk. There is risk in every thing we do in life. As we get older most of us will have had some condition during our life time that could be contrary to diving. Do you want to have to get a physical from an MD every time you take a course?
We need to get a physical every year.
In one dive at Hurghada the dive centre allowed an Indian woman to dive while she claimed that she forgot her padi dive card also she didn’t have an E card as well of course as soon as we hit 10 meters she panicked completely and the guide too her back to the boat , 10 minutes later I got a wet breath from the obviously never serviced regulator and I was choking with sea water at 20 meters depth that was the most dangerous thing I ever experienced while diving I tried to cal my self and successfully continued the dive but I never go with that centre again 👎 as you expected it was the cheapest centre it was 30 dollars for two dives including all gear rental and dinner at the boat
That’s dirt cheap. A red flag in itself.
Every registered dive pro, even divemasters, can check your PADI brevet by app on their phone. All they need is your name and birthday. If they don’t, they don’t want to know.
Can you talk bout Cozumel I’m going on January
the only problem i see with all of these scenarios is getting your money back. you usually prepay before diving and if the dive shop thinks it’s not their fault you aren’t going to get a refund.
Your life is worth more even if you lose some money. If they don’t refund you definitely leave some bad reviews.
Recently had lunch with a cousin, told him I’m Adv Open Water Certified. I asked him if he’s ever wanted to SCUBA, I expected, “That sounds like a lot of fun!” Instead he told me that he’s gone diving a few times, including at least 1 cave…all uncertified, all untrained. I basically told him he’s an idiot lol. But I understand, ignorance is bliss :D
Wow, yeah that’s a bad habit. As as long as it goes unpunished hell probably keep doing increasingly risky things. Normalization of deviation.
That’s what they call a „serial try-diver“. They just dive without certification and some dodgy dive centers label it a try dive, no matter how deep. Completely irresponsible.
At a young age I got labelled with Asthma, but after a recent check with my family doctor he declared that the effects of it has become so negligible that I don’t even have to take the medication any more. But the safety form before a dive always specifically states if you have had a history/prior experience with Asthma, and because of that I have been to a dive doctor and they gave no conclusive statement about any issues with the lungs (did have some issues with being overweight but I’m working on that).
But because of this I now a form from the dive doctor that says I’m unfit to dive and would have to spend another 100 euro’s just to get another look at it, even though the reason I went to the doctor seems to be for all intents and purposes ‘gone’.
In 2006 I was I had an Asthma Like Condition. For the most part is Under Control without Meds. Just have some problems in Hot Muggy Environments. I dove to 60 Feet without problem when I did my PADI OW on Aug 5, 6 2023.
Why can’t your family doctor sign a note saying that your asthma should not impact your diving abilities? That’s all the dive center cares about.
Either that or lie on the form if you’re sure it isn’t an issue any more. I personally lie about having had back problems. Broke my spine years ago, which doesn’t cause me any issues anymore but used to.
Did you declare your asthma when you did your course. How would you deal with diving into a strong current?@chris Philhower
@PP O2 No, Its Under Control. Just Hot, Muggy days give me problems
Just so you know, if you did have a diving accident, any insurance would be void, not being a killjoy, that’s just how it is. @chris Philhower
When a dive center treats customers like they are not welcomed time to turn around spend money where your welcomed
Agree with all the points made with the possible exception of a dive pro handling underwater. We always had a zero-touch policy or one-finger rule, i.e. if you put the end of your finger on a rock to steady yourself. I have seen a dive pro pick up a sea cucumber and show it close up to guests, he was very respectful and tbh i don’t see a big problem with that. I doubt v much if the cucumber was offended.Shark feeding I do not condone at all,but it is legal in some countries. Stroking morays is common and that’s just plain dumb imo, they can and do leave very nasty injuries that always go septic, even if mr cool instructor thinks he knows what he is doing. Yes look dont touch is the right mantra though.
Unfortunately, too many apply to most of the holiday dive centers. I can’t remember a holiday where I didn’t experience at least one of the points mentioned.
I trust trip advisor it always give me good dive centres but of course they are much expensive that other
@Saul I try to do that too, but even then.
@Saul problem with tripadvisor is that those shady dive centers often also do daytours, snorkeling trips etc. and try to get as many 5 star reviews as possible through that. Learned this the hard way in Egypt.
While diving in Cuba my equipment was not maintained and had loads of champagne like air leaks. I asked a guide if it is normal, he replied – anywhere arround the world it would be unacceptable, but here it is perfectly fine.
😂
Staff with heavy beards always give me pause 😮
Wrong channel. 😉
@Leopold Bloom For sure 😆
A huge red flag for me is any diver or dive operation with the approach of “this is super safe and nothing can go wrong” it’s a mindset that instantly puts my mind in high alert. Diving is a dangerous hobby, it’s the acknowledgement of this and the preparation to prevent the dangerous situations that makes a dive safe.
Good “watch outs”.
Bringing you to the 30 meters without checking your license. And you only hear that dive plan in the boat.
I went to a dive center that had a “deep” wreck. My dive buddy was OW only, but I wanted to do it. After diving with them the first day I asked about it, and they said they’d take us both…
And they did… my buddy hit 157′ (~48m) on that dive with their dive guide just watching (I got him to come up and the deep part of the dive was then over).
I always take regs and mask as a minimum, and usually a 3mm neoprene undervest in case the centre wet suits are knackered, which is more common than you’d like to think it is. 🥶
That, my travel wing and my dive computer.
I work at a dive centre that ticks a few of these boxes. It’s one of those PADI 5 star centre factories. Started working there for other reasons, ended up becoming an instructor there. Now, after watching this video, I felt the need to make a burner account to comment my experience there.
For starters, the rental equipment. This is a relatively large and very popular dive centre due to pricing, location and the history of the business. With this, the equipment is guaranteed to be extremely used. The regulators are hardly ever washed, with only the mouthpieces being very briefly dunked in a bleach solution. On busy days, sometimes they’re just hung straight up on the racks without washing and just given to the next unlucky customer. There’s only one technician in the whole club and the poor guy is so overworked that, oftentimes, leaks (of which there are plenty) go unresolved or are only temporarily fixed. The amount of times I’ve had to take a diver out of the water because their o-ring popped, the one time an LP hose exploded due to wear and tear during a guided dive, the amount of cylinders that are champagne leaking from either the handwheel mechanism or the neck port (or both)…
When teaching courses, it’s often way overbooked and leaves students with poorly fitting and often mis-matched equipment. For example odd fins, plastic backplate and wings BCDs that are meant to be used with integrated weight pockets are paired with a weight belt which often leads to terrible trim that is literally impossible to fix because there aren’t enough pockets to go around. Management recently stopped us from using the jacket style BCDs that are meant to be paired with weight belts which has only exasperated the issue.
Teaching there has been both a pleasure and a nightmare. During slow season, there’s no rush and every open water course I’ve taught in that time were major successes. However, when it gets busy, it is horrendous. Instructors are paired with two groups of six students, doing all the skills with twelve students over the course of four days while being hunted down by your managers to squeeze you into a try dive between course dives becomes practically impossible when you have the compounded gear problems, management problems, general human problems (such as being late and health issues) makes for a very rushed and bad experience both for my students and myself. With some students I just do not feel comfortable putting my stamp, even if they did all the skills, there are those with a natural habit for just creating havoc in the water.
I don’t want to stamp their file but management pressures me to just pass them because if I don’t then they have to deal with an unhappy customer that didn’t pass the course. I know that your OWD certification is just meant to be access to continue learning how to scuba dive on their own, but if I feel a certain person isn’t ready to make that leap yet I cannot just not pass them because that jeopardises my position in the club.
This all stems from company-wide time management issues, the system is overloaded and there’s nothing that the instructors can do about it. Nowhere to turn to.
The other clubs around here are just as bad, so as far as jobs go it’s kind of like picking which wall you’d like to bash your head against repeatedly.
Another couple of things:
-Some instructors, including myself, have been pushed into teaching specialty courses that they are not qualified to teach and then management having other instructors sign off on it.
-PADI certifications are meant to be processed by the centre within 7 days of the student passing the course. On numerous occasions, customers have walked in asking where their certifications are from over a year after finishing their course.
-Nitrox fill tags are never to be believed, sometimes off by a whole 2%
-Filters on the regulators are often corroded
-Second stages constantly smell of bleach so very hard to detect contaminants from the cylinder
-The filling nozzles coming from the air banks frequently start leaking and sometimes rupture while filling tanks (deafens the whole club).
-I heard a story about a guy who was filling tanks at the back and had his hand blown off by a ballistic cylinder valve.
All in all it’s a very unsafe environment both for the instructors and the customers/students. Feels shameful to work there. I would say more but the rest I want to say would probably lead to me being recognised.
Peace out ✌️
I recently did my first “dive” (confined water try scuba), and there were 3 equipment failures of varying seriousness between my try scuba group and an open water class using the pool. My mouthpiece was cracked (very uncomfortable), one of the BCDs’ back pad thing (?) came off and was floating in the water, and one of the OW students had a pretty massive first stage leak. Needless to say, I’m going to have a serious talk with them before doing my OW cert.
Such a shame to see dive centers like this…
Sure, new school equipment is a cost for them but, it needs to be spent otherwise new divers may be turned off
Tell them to sort out their maintenance properly,
First thing to make me feel comfortable when entering a dive shop looking to dive is when the ask to see my cert.
All on the same boat:
– No hex key for a yoke insert
– Using petroleum jelly to lubricate o-rings on nitrox cylinders
– Fins floating around in about a foot of water in the boat because the bilge pump doesn’t work
Smoking is mine. I don’t say I’m an instructor, I just ask about guided tours when I’m out. If the tour guide smokes I don’t go…. most smokers I have dove with suck down more gas and end dives earlier.
Another big red flag that is very common is those desperate dive centres that push sales on you in an intense manner! 😠 I can’t stand when people are so pushy when trying to get you to buy every single course they offer and just won’t leave you alone, they keep bringing it up, even around other divers although you already declined. Its so uncomfortable and unprofessional!
The same with pushing gear _they_ want to sell. If a diver wants to buy a brand then sell them that brand. You can recommend alternatives but, don’t push it