An Unpleasant Experience for a Novice Diver

Most Undercurrent subscribers are experienced divers who may depend little on dive guides and take care of themselves underwater.

But we know that they have a great responsibility, not only for the ultimate safety of their divers but also for ensuring they enjoy a good experience. Most dive guides manage these responsibilities well and discreetly.

On some difficult dives, experienced divers may grumble afterward about how the guide wasn't helpful. Still, a less experienced diver may be nearly overcome with fear, struggling to survive and exit the water. Here's one who wrote us about a troublesome experience on a liveaboard in Queensland, Australia, where the guide failed her.

A relatively inexperienced diver with around 35 dives, she told us, "I thought the dive group leader was unprofessional, and I felt unsafe. She advised us not to pair up but to stay together in one group of eight and follow her. From the second day, the currents were strong and affected our dive. Also, the vague dive plans were sometimes changed by the captain yelling over the swell once all the divers were in the water and while some divers had started descending."

She asked the guide to check the current direction before the dives, but the request fell on deaf ears.

"The 'big' dive on the trip, in an area famous for manta rays, was the worst dive experience I've had. The guide didn't check the current before we got in the water, and some divers had already descended while the captain and guide were arguing over changing the dive plan. The whole dive was a constant slog against the current.

The dive guide appeared not to bother to shepherd those less experienced and swam off ahead into the current, leaving those less accomplished divers to follow along as best they could.

"Even though I'm reasonably fit," she told Undercurrent, "I struggled to keep up. Some divers fell so far behind they weren't visible at all. One diver had to pull himself along the rocks on the bottom. Another diver signaled to her he was low on air, but she just nodded and carried on.

"Exhausted and confused, we had no option but to try and keep up with her. When I finally caught up to her, I had only 700 psi remaining because the pace of swimming had chewed through my air. (The tanks had only been filled to 2500 psi.) By the time we surfaced, I had little air in my tank."

The whole experience has shaken her faith in dive guides.

Have you experienced a dive guide who was unsympathetic to your needs or abilities or those of other divers? How did you or they handle it? Write to BenDDavison@undercurrent.org, telling us about it, but not forgetting to add your town and state.