Open Water Certification Dive Question

by Anonymous

I would like your opinion about our open water certification dive.

My question is how should a instructor handle the following scenario?

Two students are diving in the ocean, off of a boat for their open water certification dives. The depth is approximately 30 feet and visibility is about 10 feet.

Instructor and students are on the surface preparing for their first descent. The instructor says descend and the students raise their low pressure inflater hose and deflate their bcd's.

One student begins his descent and the other realizes he is not properly weighted. The instructor is prepared for somebody being light and has extra weight just for this reason.

Now remember this is the students first dive, 30' of water, 10' of visibility.

What should the instructor do?

(1) Stay on the surface and add weight to the light student, while the other student decends?

or

(2) Should the instructor descend and let the student that is descending know to surface so he can add weight to the light student and descend together?

Hi,

Interesting question. Now I will have to preface my answer to say that I am not an instructor - this is just my personal opinion.

Given the circumstances, I would think that the instructor should signal the descending student to come up and wait so everyone can descend together. You do not want to get separated - especially if you are new divers.

The instructor does not know how the student descending solo will react during the dive so he should be within range of the student at all times in case of an emergency, anxiety attack, etc.

Diving in the ocean is much different than your pool dives, especially given the conditions you cite. While the depth is shallow, it is deep enough to lose site of the descending diver.

That is my opinion. How did the instructor handle it? I would really like to know.

I would also like to hear other's people opinion on this scenario. Please let us know what you think by leaving a comment below. Thanks

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starstarstarstarstar 		How the instructor handled the situation!!!!
by: Anonymous

The instructor stayed with the student on the surface. The student that was decending experienced anxiety, and confusion etc. Many things go through your head at the moment of seperation. Such as are they at the bottom, did they drift far enough away where I can't see them, are they at the surface, what do I do???? So I acended. They were at the surface. The student that was on the surface said it didn't take that long to get properly weighted. But I must say it seemed like a very long time to the decending student. The instructor said acending was the right thing to do. With the anxiety only getting worse by the second, I felt it was my only option.

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