2-Tank Dive Boat Trips on the Puget Sound with Ocean Quest Dive Charters (1-31-16 and 3-26-16)

UPCOMING EVENTS ON OUR CALENDAR

***UPDATE***

available spots are being gobbled up... 

2 tank, One Day, Dive Boat Trip on the Puget Sound
Sunday, January 31, 2016
...for more information, please visit:https://www.facebook.com/events/1667626766843018/
...to reserve a spot (no reservations -- first come, first served), please visit:http://oceanquestdivecharters.com/charters/jca-elite-scuba-131/
departs from Tacoma, Washington (Delin Docks)
8 divers maximum
4 minimum to make it a go
$90 for 2 dives
lunch included



2 tank, One Day, Dive Boat Trip on the Puget Sound
Saturday, March 26, 2016
...for more information, please visit:https://www.facebook.com/events/190901147921293/
...to reserve a spot (no reservations -- first come, first served), please visit:http://oceanquestdivecharters.com/charters/jca-elite-scuba-326/
departs from Tacoma, Washington (Delin Docks)
8 divers maximum
4 minimum to make it a go
$90 for 2 dives
lunch included

(please visit our Upcoming Events Calendar for more trips or Contact Us for private excursions)

"Justin Theroux suffered scuba diving scare during honeymoon" -- MY ANALYSIS AND TONGUE LASHING...!!!

Justin Theroux suffered scuba diving scare during honeymoon

https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2015/12/justin-theroux-jennifer-aniston-honeymoon

There is a practice in the scuba diving industry called, "Resort Diving," "Try Scuba," or "Scuba Experience." When you go to a destination that offers many types of activities, scuba diving is often available. For those that are already certified, it is a great opportunity to see the underwater sites as part of the overall experience. However, for the untrained, it can be a game of Russian Roulette. While some might think that I am over-exaggerating, I believe that any activity that takes years to master, regular and ongoing practice, and is an incredibly equipment intensive is NOT the activity to just try out and see if you like it. Furthermore, to cut your training short, into a couple hours of do's and don'ts is like asking an office physician to take out your appendix after watching a YouTube video. If you are going to try it out, do it in the pool. Don't be mistaken, even the pool is a dangerous place to be for the untrained student, but to go out into the open ocean, in my opinion is just not a good idea.

As a scuba diving instructor myself, I made a decision a long time ago, that "try scuba's" will always be done in the pool or in open water I can stand in. It only takes a moment to get into trouble and to have to rely on someone else to fix the problem can often mean that someone could get hurt. A scuba diving instructor invests thousands of dollars,(if not more) in their training and takes years to develop situational awareness, be competent in the execution of their skills (including rescue skills), and last but not least they dive a lot. Even with ongoing education and regular practice, good instructors get hurt and sometimes die.

While it's not necessary to break apart every line of the event or in the article, identifying how much was missing from Justin's training and his understanding of what he got himself into will illustrate what I'm referring to. In the end, you make the decision. In the end, he was incredibly lucky! 

“I went scuba diving and you get a little training course, where you go down about 10 feet and you see coral and little fish,” Justin explains.

Before any training session, the students signs a plethora of forms including a liability release. While these releases are written by lawyers to minimize the risk to the operator, one thing is clearly spelled out. Scuba diving is dangerous and has risk. The only way risk can be managed is with proper training and practice. Even with training and practice, injury and death can occur. My program starts with the student reading a workbook. Within this workbook are questions that have to be answered before moving onto the next chapter. It's impossible to say how long it should take for the student to get through the material, but if they sat down and didn't stop until it's completion, I would expect it would take 8-12 hours. Introducing breaks will only extend the time it takes. My education system also includes a DVD. Watching the DVD will take several hours to complete as it is interactive. Lastly there is an online course. Similarly, I would give the student an 8-12 hour window to complete this. Now comes the fun part, my review and final exam. My review includes an overview, but is also interactive where I expand upon the concepts that the student learned on their own in order for them to be able to see the correlation of what they learned to what they will do. At minimum, it will take 4-6 hours to complete this. After the education, is confined water training (what we refer to as the pool). While there is not a lot of skills that the beginning diver has to learn, it is realistic to believe that the introduction of new equipment, breathing underwater, utilization of the equipment, the skills, safety drills and exercises should take 4-6 hours at minimum. Additionally, that is ONLY if there is one student in the pool and they are incredibly comfortable, confident, and are able to demonstrate the skills back to me where I feel they are ready to (then and only then) go to the ocean. Finally, at least 4 open water certification dives over a two day period are conducted. As a new diver, training dives or "cert dives" could be 30-45 minutes long, but usually lean toward the lesser. By the end of the two days of diving, the newly certified diver might have 2-4 hours of open water training. At this point, I consider the student adequate. Adequate means that they have the skills and tools necessary to start diving "autonomously" (with a dive buddy, but without the instructor). The proverbial umbilical cord has been cut and now they are on their own. So, as you can see, I haven't even started, and it is evident that Justin is over his head.

“I thought, ‘That’s great, I’ll do it again’.”

This is when Justin should have decided to get fully certified. Going through three full days of training (minimum) on one's honeymoon is usually the last thing one wants to do, so the course would have normally been completed in advance. Going on another "experience" increases the likelihood of injury and does not add to the diver's skill or abilities as their was no training. What they accomplished on the first experience is not indicative of how every other experience will be. There is no further training while the amount of time underwater is becoming larger.

"...but he had a bad feeling at the start of the dive after discovering their French guide spoke hardly any English and took little notice of the fact Justin was a novice."

Trained scuba divers learn that anyone can, "call the dive!" This means that at anytime if any diver is done, feels uncomfortable, or just wants to end the dive, "WE" end the dive. Jumping in the water with a guide and following them with little ability to communicate means that if one wants to end the dive, they have to leave the safety of the instructor and ascend on their own. If it's hard enough to understand someone underwater with a limited amount of hand signals that have to be clearly understood, having a guide that doesn't speak your language is not even on the scale of bad to worse.

So he puts the [oxygen] tank on me and someone had just used my tank before me, and I went down…  I look at my [oxygen indicator] and it’s on red, basically.

The scuba diver, from the beginning of my program, during confined water training, and regularly and often during certification dives is trained to understand that the only way to make sure that the equipment they are using is assembled appropriately, is to do it themselves. The student that relies on someone else to "pack their chute" and then proceeds to leave the surface where an unlimited supply of air exists, MUST understand the concept of "gas management." Gas management is not just checking your submersible pressure gauge (SPG) to see how much air is left in the cylinder, but knowing that the cylinder you just connected to your other equipment is not full. Starting a dive with a tank less than full is not just a red flag, but screaming sirens blaring "YOU'RE GOING TO RUN OUT OF AIR." No one starts driving through the desert without making sure they have a full tank of gasoline! Having an SPG in and of itself does not guarantee that one will never run out of air either. Like with all equipment that one has never seen and nor used before, how to use it, and in this case, what the information on the SPG is telling you when you look at it is as important. If a diver starts their dive and the SPG reads 2,500psi, one should expect that after a short period of time, that number would be lower. If it is not, this indicates a failure in the SPG, and without proper training to understand this concept, it is likely that one of two things are going to happen. One, the diver is going to tell someone (like Justin did) or Two, ignore it. Given the odds, 50%: do nothing and 50%: tell someone, it is a 50% chance of running out of air! Those are unacceptable odds! It doesn't matter that Justin made the right decision, he could have easily made the wrong decision. He only had two choices. The experienced diver has more options and thus lowers the risk of running out of air to what is considered an acceptable and manageable risk for scuba diving.

“We’re going around and we’re going really deep…

How deep is deep? I don't know about you, but taking a large mouthful of water at 3 feet is the same as 300 feet. I don't know too many that would tell me that 3 feet is deep, but I know that everyone would make sure their child is supervised in 3 feet of water if not 3 inches of water! So, depth is subjective. What is important is understanding how much air is required to get to the surface. When other factors are put into play, just getting to the surface is not as straight forward as everyone thinks. The surface is a boundary between the air and the water. Believe it or not, the surface is the worst place for a diver to be. Scuba diving is done under the water. While under the water, your equipment is on, being used, and rarely ever does the second stage primary regulator (the part of the equipment that is in your mouth delivering air to you) come out of your mouth. Inexperienced divers sometimes get to the surface and fail to obtain positive buoyancy and start to remove their gear. YES! The inexperienced diver gets to the surface where there is an unlimited amount of air and drops below the surface where there is none because the equipment they are wearing is designed exactly for that purpose. While the equipment has the ability to keep the diver on the surface, it does not do this on its own and if the inexperienced diver sometimes fails to obtain positive buoyancy, what do you think is going to happen to the untrained diver?

“I just wanna go up…,” he remembers. “I go to my friend and I’m like [indicating with eyes], ‘Look’, and he’s like, ‘Oh my God, you’re about to die…!’ It’s just sheer panic in my eyeballs!”

Good training cannot prevent all accidents, but good training can help to minimize risk and help to resolve issues where and when they happen (underwater and while diving). Going to the surface is not the only option.

The actor finally managed to convey his panic to the instructor, who provided him with an emergency oxygen mask, but the switch was far from smooth.

Even divers that have received their certification rarely practice "out of air" (OOA) emergencies, "air sharing ascents" and/or emergency swimming ascents. Why? Well... Why don't people practice fire drills at home? Why don't people take CPR and First Aid courses? Why don't people with children have the phone number to the Poison Control Hotline programmed into their phones? These are all valid questions but I think we all know the answers. "That takes work..." "I'll do it next time..."  "I'm too busy..."  "I forgot..."  Everything else that is important takes priority and gets pushed to the top of the list. Scuba diving instructors are fortunate just by the fact that by default they get to practice their skills every time they teach a new student.

“I can’t just swim up to the top because I don’t wanna get the bends (decompression sickness), so he pulls the respirator (sic) out, puts it in my mouth, hits this ‘clear’ button which sends all these bubbles out, sends water down my throat, so now I’m coughing and hacking under water, which is not a great feeling…,” Theroux added.

Decompression sickness is caused by nitrogen. When nitrogen comes out of solution (your blood), if those bubbles go to places they are not suppose to, an injury may result (they are supposed to be exhaled). Depending on where those bubbles go, the resulting injury will vary. Just ascending does not cause decompression sickness. Even just ascending too fast does not cause decompression sickness. Failing to have this understanding means that it is likely that Justin could ascend slowly and ignore signs and symptoms that could appear hours after being out of the water. Failing to get proper treatment could result in permanent injury or death. Justin would not have learned about decompression sickness to the extend that a fully trained diver would.

So what does this all mean?






What do you think...

Oregon's 25 Best Swimming Holes (for monkey diving)

http://www.outdoorproject.com/blog-news/oregons-25-best-swimming-holes

Oregon's 25 Best Swimming Holes

we will be visiting several for monkey diving this summer...

An "Advanced Open Water Diver" is More Than Just a Certification Card

When scuba diving is just one of many activities that one can occupy with their time, commitment to the sport and training can take on many forms. Some students will take their beginning
certification and just dive for a while. Learning to become proficient takes time and being able to master those skills may take many years. Realistically, a new student is given very little to
learn in order to receive a scuba diver certification. Diving often and regulary, getting feedback from peers, and taking specialty classes will add to the diver's knowledge and skill base. Those
new skills will open their eyes to other diving opportunities (deep, night, search & recovery, wrecks, nitrox, drysuit, etc.).

As to the number of dives required to become an advanced diver, this is somewhat of a misconception. Some agencies will award their advanced certification with as little as five additional dives (nine in total) while others make their divers wait until twenty-five logged dives. More dives has a practical benenfit. The more you dive, the easier it gets.

As like in other sports, as your skills improve a divers will need gear tailored to specific diving environments. Attitude, ability, and confidence is important, too. While it's impossible to
quantify attitude and confidence, that is where an experienced instructor can evaluate how the diver is doing, how far they've come, and what they still have to work on. Continuing to need work
also doesn't mean that a certification can't be awarded, because like one's initial scuba diving certification, skills will improve over time and with ongoing practice.

I've chosen to make six specialties the foundation of becoming an Advanced Open Water Diver. The specialties I start my students out with and require as a prerequisite: Night Diving, Deep
Diving, EAN Nitrox, Drysuit Diving, Navigation, and Search & Recovery. These specialties will prepare the diver for incredible and diverse diving opportunities. While each specialty requires a
minimum of a couple dives, often, specialty dives will be combined and skills will start to overlap to help the diver to learn to task many activities at once and for many of those skills to become second nature. Twelve dives is the foundation required to complete the course requirements but should not be a guarantee of an advanced diver certification.

What kind of equipment is required for these specialties? While I don't sell equipment, and I believe that owning one's own equipment fosters continued diving and confidence in that equipment.
Just because a diver can't afford to purchase all the equipment at once, is not a valid reason to not start an advanced diving program. Very often rental equipment is available yet when not,
inexpensive yet quality alternatives are easy to find. When I dive, I carry all of the equipment necessary if not have it at my disposal to use on subsequent dives.

My primary equipment, includes my regulator system, plate and harness, wing, drysuit, dive computer, compass, dive light, reel with line, signal marker buoy, whistle, and scissors. I have a dive slate and pencil but don't always bring it with me. I also can carry an extra mask and a redundent breathing system when diving alone or in advanced diving conditions. My fins attach with spring straps. Not only does it make donning them easier, but reduces the chance of breaking a strap. If I dive with a redundant breathing system, the regulator hangs round my neck on surgical tubing that is fashioned around the mouthpiece of the regulator. Easy enough to cut off if necessary and flexible enough not to constrict my breathing. If in the event of an emergecy, the attachment points can be pulled off (not attached so tight that I could get caught by something else).

My regulator system includes my first stage, a primary second stage and an alternate second stage. This is standard to the industry although configuaration may change and routing and positioning
is flexible and can vary. I use to dive with an integrated alternate second stage, but I don't anymore to be consistent with how new students learn and typical rental equipment. My alternate
second stage is on a longer hose and is attached to me with a quick release that will stay fastened and conveniently available, but can be deployed immediately and conveniently. I use an analog
pressure guage which is attached in a location that is visible without having to seek it out, move it, or disconnect it. Attachment options vary with all equipment but everything is attached in a
manner that it is out of the way and free from possible entanglement but can be disconnected easily in the event of an emergency.

I wear a dive computer on bungee cord and it is on my arm and sits a little above my left wrist. The bungees make it easy to put on even with thick gloves and I don't have to worry about a buckle
coming undone and losing it. My compass is also on bungee cord and I wear it on top of my right hand. I've found that this position keeps it always available and when I hold my hand out in front
of me, I have the proper perspective to see it and the numbers indicating the direction I'm going but also keeps my field of view facing forward and in the direction I'm going. Having to look down
at a compass is like texting and driving -- don't take your eyes off the road! I always take a dive light with me. It doesn't matter if I'm diving in the daytime, a dive light helps one look into those cracks and crevices where all the critters are and it is a great tool to communicate with. It too is attached in a manner that can be removed and used but if necessary can be let go without worry of loss. A bungee cord is used to keep it stowed and out of the way when not in use.

A reel with enough line for at least twice the depth of any planned dive and a signal marker buoy hang from my right hip. Each is attached separately so each can be used independently. While
leaning forward or when in diver position, the signal marker buoy and reel don't hang below my stomach to prevent touching the sea floor or entanglement. A whistle is attached on my right shoulder
but can be removed if necessary. I always leave it attached to avoid dropping it. It can even work underwater. It is close enough to my mouth that if I do not remove it, I can still use it.

Scissors are brought on every dive as well. It lays flat on the top of the corregated airway of the low pressure inflator system attached with a couple bungee cords. It is easy to deploy and use
if necessary. The dive slate would go high on my left arm (if brought, as I'm right handed) and is usually turned down to be out of the way. The dive computer could be set opposite of the slate if
both are being used and both can be rotated at the same time.

I use a stainless steel plate as this reduces the amount of extra weight I have to carry and offers lots of attachment points. Being metal, I also don't have to worry about wear. During recreational dives, I use a harness system that is fashioned from two inch wide nylon webbing and allows various positioning of d-rings and buckles. I have metal buckles that can release the shoulders if needed. I have two large loops for my arms and one that comes around for my waist. Around the two pieces that come around my waist are two integrated weight pockets with a quick release in order to ditch the weight.

Everyone always tells me how much equipment I have, but I look at them and tell them how much equipment they are missing. An easy entry to this gear would include and in the order of what I
believe should be bought (even if everything else is preliminarily rented:

10ft bungee cord ($3)
2 snorkel keepers ($6)
1 scissors ($5)
2 brass ($5)
1 storm whistle ($10)

NIGHT (most dives shops don't rent lights)
3 dive lights ($100)

SEARCH & RECOVERY and DEEP
1 wrist slate ($10)
1 signal marker buoy ($20)
1 finger spool with 150ft line ($25)

NAVIGATION (some rental systems have compasses)
1 compass ($50)

(prices can go up from here)


Divers take for granted that a dive light is necessary during a night dive, but most don't think about lights during the day. Light technology has come quite far in the last few years and with advancements in this technology, the prices have dropped considerably. I've bought lights that cost over $700, but now lights with that kind of power can start under $100. Light kits with a primary light, backup, and a tank light can start around $100, too.

A signal marker buoy and line is not only indispensable for drift dives, but doing mid-water ascents. Doing a mid-water ascents takes a lot of practice, and until that point in time, deploying an SMB at depth can make it a little easier and safer. Spools are made from PVC and are virtually indestructible. Reel quality varies, but if you are going to invest in one, don't buy a cheap one. Not only can cheap ones break a lot easier, they also get fouled more often. Make sure you reel has at least 150ft of line and that the line is braided, not twisted.

Invest in a pair of EMT sheers or scissors. They are inexpensive and will cut through anything. Most divers spend too much on knives and most of the time cut themselves rather than use them as an effective tool.

Bungee cord can be your friend if used properly. It takes a little of the tension off the items it's holding on to, but gives a little as to prevent breaking. Buy a long length and keep it in your save-a-dive kit for all occasions.

Bolts snaps made of brass can be purchased at hardware stores. Stainless steel bolt snaps are marine grade and quality ones are easily found at marine specialty stores.

Compass quality can vary incredibly. I am partial to the Suunto SK-7, but will have to look at the SK-8 as it is brand new for this year. A good compass should be able to glow in the dark, have a viewing window, two lubber lines, a rotating bezel, and fine azimuth delineation.

Snorkel keepers make great ways to attach equipment to a d-ring and are easy to pull the equipment out and away or just break clean off in the event of an emergency. An inexpensive addition to any save-a-dive kit, as well.

How many students in open water scuba diver class are too many...

Many traditional educational classes include a practicum, lab, requires group participation and a presentation. Scuba diving education is similar. After the educational component from which the student learns about the physics and physiology of scuba diving, the underwater environment, techniques, about waves, tides and currents and much more, students go to "confined" water or the pool. The instructor demonstrates the skills that the student will repeat. These new in-water skills introduce the student to the equipment, how it operates, how to manage the skills necessary to operate it, and even how to overcome innate anxieties or fears the new student may have. Breathing underwater is not a natural process, but with practice becomes easier. Some skills, like mask clearing are easier for some students than others.

 

After the student has demonstrated to the instructor that they understand the principals of the skills, can adequately show them to the instructor, and after numerous dives, the student becomes a diver. There is a lot of debate as to what level the student should be able to demonstrate the skills. Some say that the student should "master" them before moving on to the open water, but I think "mastery" of skills takes longer than most realize. Before my cave certification, I thought my buoyancy was pretty good. When you have only inches above and below you in which to move without kicking up silt and disturbing the ceiling, a "mastery" of buoyancy is truly required. With that being said, if the student had to master skills (like buoyancy) prior to receiving their certification, confined water and open water would be very much longer than they currently are. The average student could spend six to ten hours in the pool and their open waters dives, depending on location, could be as short as twenty minutes. I've seen instructors that limit certification dives to fifteen minutes. I have to say, and I'm sure most will agree, in an hour of water time, mastery is impossible! 

 

 As I mentioned, "adequate" is really a better word describing where many students get to by the end of their class. There are several factors that influence this as well. How many students are present at one time during pool and certification dives is really my focus. As with most other programs, often, class is taught for the "lowest common denominator." That is really disappointing. What does that mean? It means that within the bell curve some will do poorly, most will do adequately, and some with do very well. Even if only two were doing poorly, the extra attention needed to bring them to adequate means that the instructor's attention is devoted elsewhere. The other two that are doing very well are often not given as much attention as they deserve because the outward appearance is that "they got it." An inexperienced instructor could consider the students that do very well needing less attention. This is a mistake. At this point, it works out that now 50% of the class (if 8 are attending) are now falling behind. This is unacceptable. The student deserves more!

 

In my opinion, class size should never be larger than four students at a time. Even when students proceed with ease, keeping an eye on four divers is precarious. Once the student is ready for the open water, they should posses the skills and confidence necessary to make a safe ascent to the surface where they would establish positive buoyancy and wait for the instructor with the other three to arrive. Needless to say, I know that every instructor has had at least one experience where they looked back for a student and they weren't their. In the early days of teaching, that shot of adrenaline that suddenly shot through my veins caused me to think of the worse case. Today, I have far greater confidence in my students as a NAUI instructor than I ever have. That momentary anxiety never manifested in an accident or a student getting hurt, but it goes to show that in large groups an individual can disappear in two kick strokes in the low to no visibility of the Pacific Northwest.

 

I decided that this meant I take one or two students out at a time. NO EXCEPTIONS. Coming to the assistance of one diver is precarious but two is difficult. I want the student to have lots of water time. That can mean shorter dives, but more of them. It could also mean doing longer dives and still more of them. The greatest benefit to the student that the instructor can do is to say to them, "you need to dive more with me before I issue your open water scuba diving certification." Additionally, I always recommend that these new divers limit their depth to sixty feet while they practice slow and steady ascents and descents, learn to manage their gas and dive time, and start to get the hang of good buoyancy.

 

I am not just an instructor, but I am a mentor. I encourage new divers to come to future open water weekends (which are free) and meet new divers, come dive with me on a regular and ongoing basis, and let me find dive buddies for them with a little more experience that I know and trust. Trust is earned in scuba diving. "Trust me" dives have gotten divers injured, or worse. Its a sad fact that some push too hard and too fast and want to do it all before they are ready for it. Recently, I had a student tell me they want to go cave diving. Not cavern diving, but full cave. While the enthusiasm was great to see, what bothered me was that they thought they were emotionally ready for cave. Cave skills are quite simple. Cave attitude is not. That means that "gung ho" has no place in cave, let alone in any type of diving. Patience, practice, confidence, and dives takes time. Years.

 

So what do large classes and really mean? Large classes are often predicated on the "funnel verses tunnel" system. Hope that if enough students go through the program that the dive shop will get more gear sales. I'm lucky to find dive shops that I partner with that share my perspectives. "Dive, dive often, and when you're ready for gear, we'll be here." And when they do have large classes, they have Divemasters in the water to be an extra set of eyes. I've never taken a technical dive class that had more than three people in it. A technical diving specialty doesn't preclude the chance of accidents, but my experience is that technical instructors require a higher degree of competence. Similarly, most technical classes require additional gear and are often more expensive. My advanced technical training classes costs ranged from several hundred to over two thousand dollars each and the trips to get to those locations ran into the tens of thousands. This is not to mean that spending lots of money is a key factor in safety, but few are willing to pay these costs without the devotion to scuba diving.

The last thing that I have to mention is the lack of many instructors to get their students to get to know each other. I've seen instructors take the group out as a whole, descend, surface in fifteen minutes, swim back to the shore, and dive over. I have to ask what experience they got from that. To make matters worse, the instructor is often away doing other things during the surface intervals (on the phone, on the internet, hanging out with their friends) rather than interacting with their students and making sure that no one is feeling alone and left out. There are divers that dive alone, but for the most part, divers want to talk about their experiences, share them with others, and be part of a community. I can't emphasize enough how setting up equipment, briefings, finishing two open water dives, and logging dives should take the entire day. To that point, I've seen divers with the look like "no one came to my birthday party," sitting alone by themselves, waiting for the torture of this experience to finally be over.

Learning to scuba dive used to take months. It was an arduous journey of trails and exhaustion. Much of the standards have been cut short or all but thrown out. Ask any diver that learned fifty years ago and they tell you stories that mimicked "military-style boot camp." I say all this with trepidation, but I care. I care about my students, I care about their safety, and most of all, I want them to continuing loving this sports their entire life. With drop out rates statistically reaching 80%, learning to scuba dive is not a great financial commitment but it's an emotional one. Please devote a year to decide if you like it. Let your skills develop and dive a lot. Try to dive one weekend a month. While that's only half of what I really want you to do, I will feel better knowing you have been practicing those important skills I taught you and your hours in the water has turned into days in the water (or better).

Safe diving my friends.

 

To dive or not to dive the Oregon Coast Aquarium...

...that is the question. Here's why.

I brought several divers to the aquarium about a year ago. As the leader, their instructor, and friend, it is my obligation to make sure that everyone is safe. As much as we all want to have fun, safety must come first.

I was really looking forward to it, too. What I saw really disturbed me. What happened bothered me even more. It was like the divers were being herded through like cattle... There were too many divers for the staging areas; too many volunteers that only had one responsibility which meant that none of them communicated amongst the rest of the volunteers; and when it was time for a supervisor, none were to be found that could make any executive decisions.  

I'll leave out the details of the logistics of getting to the aquarium, getting in, where to go and the like out as those are not relevant to the issues I had with the diving portion of this experience.

If you aren't aware, you are not allowed to bring your own gear. You can bring your own mask, but that is all. All the gear is chosen for you by volunteers. Many of them were divers, but when it comes to fitting and sizing others, they have very little experience. I understand that a perfect fit doesn't have to be a priority, but some were in equipment that was just totally wrong for them. The issue of fitting and sizing becomes a concern as will be seen in some of the following narratives. There were plenty of each in all the sizes, but sizing variances due to manufacturer made a big difference. Additionally, many of the new divers that had only rented equipment before just didn't know what size they wore. It had always been picked for them at their local dive shop where they rented.

BCD sizing was first. A proper fitting BCD is important. A proper fit ensures that the BCD holds the tank firmly to your back, keeps the tank properly attached so it doesn't fall out, allows easy reach of the airway and power inflator, and in some instances is the place that the alternate air source, octopus, and/or instrument console are attached. Lift capacity was not a consideration for those that were in drysuits. Weight integration was not an issue as all wore weight harnesses. No fittings, bolt snaps, plastic quick releases were on the BCD's which meant that octos, and instrument console were left to dangle. While it is very likely that monitoring gas pressure, depth, and dive time was the least of anyone's worries, not having the octo in a location that can be easily accessed, deployed and used or shared surely is. Octos that are dragging behind the diver, dragging through the sand, are rarely there when you need them. 

Next was the weight harness. As this was a DUI event, DUI weight harness systems were used. If a diver had never used one before, explanation of ditching the weights was adequate but fitting was not. When I started to proceed to adjust the harness to be in it's proper position for me, I was told to not adjust it. I was told that the harness was to sit low on my hips. There are several issues with this placement. The first is the center of gravity and pivot point. For those in a drysuit, it would meant that the low fitting harness would keep the diver's legs so low that they would very likely be in a vertical position. Most divers I witnessed were. Divers that dive in this position will be very likely to have propulsion issues as well as are very likely to be dragging their fins all over and on the habitats. Most were. The biggest issue about having the system so low was the angle of the divers arms to the dump handles. In order to maximize leverage to pull the weight pockets out, ones arm must be as close to the body as possible and as close to 90 degrees as possible. As the harness drops and the angle increases, the ability for the muscles in the arm to pull the dump handles diminishes. It is very possible that one might not be able to ditch the weights at all. For recreational divers, ditching weight is a critical part of an emergency buoyant ascent. I couldn't understand how all the "DUI Reps" that were there didn't know this and why I had to fight to get the harness in the place that I wanted. It was such a battle that I almost didn't dive until someone just said, "let him put it where he wants." Later, that person told me that one of the reasons that they wanted divers in that position was to avoid drysuit runaways. Since this event gave divers the opportunity to try out drysuits, they might not have had a lot of experience in one. Modifying gear configuration in order to keep a diver's feet down to avoid a runaway is not a justifiable alternative to proper fitting and proper training and comfort in a drysuit.

Drysuit fitting was simple and quick. Most suits sizes fit divers adequately. After our drysuits were on and we were showering off (to keep bacteria from entering the aquarium tanks) we were reminded to use the BCD for buoyancy and only add enough air to the drysuit to relieve squeeze. I guess I should probably just nodded my head and stayed quiet, but I said that I use my drysuit for buoyancy and this individual went off about all the reasons why this was wrong. Without starting a debate about the pros and cons of each method, suffice it to say he was not a drysuit instructor, not a scuba diving instructor, had not logged over a thousand dives in his drysuit, and had no technical diving experience (particularly as a cave diver -- the type of diving that requires the best buoyancy techniques).

The equipment was completely assembled by the volunteers. A lot of it was assembled adequately, but personal preference played a varying role from setup to setup. I could see that some of the systems were being set up in a general fashion and that others were set up as they would had done for themselves. When the time came for me to check the equipment, confirm that the tank valve was on, the tank was full, the tank strap was firmly connected, the BCD height to tank was appropriate, I was told to "Not touch the equipment." Now I can understand if someone changed something that could effect safety, but checking your gear and checking your buddy's gear is part of the pre-dive planning that I teach all my students. Not being allowed to touch the gear was ludicrous.

After the gear was assembled, it was brought into the area near the tanks. During this waiting period, I asked about the safety divers and emergency procedures. I asked what their protocol was if there was an accident. Why? Because a part of every dive briefing includes one. No one could tell me who would call 911; who would bring emergency services to that area (if they could even find it); who would identify who was in need of help; and most of all how to get divers out of the water (the entries and exits are usually precarious rock entries -- not a place that the diver can be "dragged" out -- like from a beach and on the shore). There was so much going on and so many people moving around and doing their own thing, that I could easily see that a diver could have an issue in the water and no one would be the wiser. It was quite noisy in there and not very well illuminated. A diver calling for help could be lost in the background noise and easily missed as they slipped below the surface.

Once we got in the water, a guide was present while the divers explored. I didn't see much of our guide, but upon leaving the aquarium I did see a diver in a different tank on his back struggle to right himself while the other diver in the water was occupied elsewhere. The regulator was in the diver's mouth and eventually they righted themselves, but the "guide" could have easily looked up to find that the diver had drowned.

I haven't looked into the statistics of accidents at the aquarium during these diving events, but I bet they are low to non-existent. Perhaps a fall or a slip... Whether or not anyone has ever been hurt, I find that I cannot recommend that anyone attend this event and dive at the Oregon Coast Aquarium. The event is poorly managed, there are too many people that don't know what is happening around them, and in my opinion, it's just too dangerous. Visit the aquarium, but don't dive in it.

Were these experiences solely my own? Was I having a bad day and making mountains out of mole hills? I asked several others that had dove the aquarium before about their experiences. Most enjoyed the experience but didn't see what I saw. A few of the more experienced saw things they didn't like, but didn't say anything nor voice any concerns at that time. They did their dives and went home. Some even said to me, "that's not my problem." I can't help but wonder how many new divers just went along with what they were being told to do regardless of how they felt about it. I ingrain in my students that any diver can call off or end any dive for any reason. If they feel that anything doesn't make sense to them, ask questions about it. I didn't hear any of the divers asking questions that day. I saw these issues... I know that many others did too.

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