Speyside Diving Safety Issues
Posted: Wed Jun 06, 2007 3:35 pm
We have recently returned from Tobago and witnessed problems with a Dive company that should be looked into. I can accept that I have drawn the wrong conclusions from what I have seen but I will post this to get other views.
From an experience point of view I am certified to PADI Advanced Open Water diver with 18 years experience and have logged over 300 dives on 6 different caribbean islands. In general I find the attention to safety by carribean dive organisations, with some notable exeptions, appauling. I have also dived in the USA and, by comparison, the average US dive school offers a different level of safety consciousness and diving practises.
On Monday 28th we passed the Aquamarine boat off the South end on Little Tobago around 10am in the morning. There were divers down and we were horrified to see that the “boat captain” was asleep on the floor of the boat. No we were not mistakened we looked at the boat for some time and there was no sign of the boat man and there were divers down.
We passed the same boat on Tuesday and Thursday and on both occasions the boat handler was in the bottom of the boat presumably asleep with divers down. On all ooccasions surface conditions were rough.
On Friday we were taking a surface interval by the jetty on the South West side of Little Tobago around 11am in the morning when we saw three divers on the surface in the channel between Little Tobago and Goat island about 200 yards from Little Tobago drifting North West over the Cathedral dive. One of the divers had their inflatable marker up. There was no dive boat in site and the group appeared to be drifting at around 1-2 knots. There was no dive boat visible.
After about 5 minutes we decided that the dive boat had lost them and set off to pick them up. When we were half way to get them the Aquamarine boat came round from the South West side of Little Tobago ( by now half a mile away) at full power obviously in a panic realising that there was a problem. These divers were on the surface on their own and only as we approached them did we see the main group’s surface marker 150 yards to the South. The dive boat must have passed within a few feet of the main group at full power as they dived. The divers on the surface had obviously been left to come to the surface on their own with no dive boat nearby and the main group had stayed down to finish the dive, or the three had become separated and surfaced. Either way the whole group should have surfaced, the group leader obviously had decided to stay down.
As I was once lost by a dive boat in Barbados for four hours while we leisurely drifted towards Jamaica I feel very strongly about making sure dive boats watch the divers all of the time and pick up promptly when there is a problem.
If you have seen the recent movies, that’s how it feels.
I also think that the practise of carrying on a dive with Speyside currents when a number of divers have become detached from the group is just plain wrong. Tobago North End is not Cayman or Barbados West coast. It has very strong and variable currents, is within a mile of so of open Ocean, often has severe surface conditions and requires the highest levels of diver safety practice.
The channel between Little Tobago and Goat Island often has swift currents heading for St Giles and being on the surface there can be dangerous. (I am told that the Wind Dancer lost three divers there last year and they were eventually found passing St Giles).
Any organisation that allows the boat handler to sleep on duty should be forced to discontinue operations and certainly should not have the four star that this site gives them.
One thing that divers should be aware of is that many UK insurances only cover recreational dives with “an accredited DIVE MARSHALL, INSTRUCTOR or GUIDE and within the relevant guidelines of the relevant diving or training organisation”.
In the case of PADI this is a minimum of Dive Master as commercial insurance cannot be gained below this level of certification. The divers should be made aware that if the lead diver is less than Dive Master they may well not be covered for emergency evacuation to the chamber on Barbados or medevac to Barbados or Florida (if you've ever been to the main hospital in Scarborough you'll know what I mean!!).
A sleeping boat handler is indicative of a very dangerous malaise in the dive operation that must be stopped.
For a four star safety record a dive organisation should adopt a one up, all up policy in an area of strong surface currents and the boat should be tracking them as they dive.
The point of this email is to question the four star rating for Aquamarine and to ask
What are the required safety standards that the Tobago Dive Association (I assume it exists) requires of its members?
What can the Dive Association do if one of its members ignores the rules?
How many diver emergencies are their on Tobago every year?
From an experience point of view I am certified to PADI Advanced Open Water diver with 18 years experience and have logged over 300 dives on 6 different caribbean islands. In general I find the attention to safety by carribean dive organisations, with some notable exeptions, appauling. I have also dived in the USA and, by comparison, the average US dive school offers a different level of safety consciousness and diving practises.
On Monday 28th we passed the Aquamarine boat off the South end on Little Tobago around 10am in the morning. There were divers down and we were horrified to see that the “boat captain” was asleep on the floor of the boat. No we were not mistakened we looked at the boat for some time and there was no sign of the boat man and there were divers down.
We passed the same boat on Tuesday and Thursday and on both occasions the boat handler was in the bottom of the boat presumably asleep with divers down. On all ooccasions surface conditions were rough.
On Friday we were taking a surface interval by the jetty on the South West side of Little Tobago around 11am in the morning when we saw three divers on the surface in the channel between Little Tobago and Goat island about 200 yards from Little Tobago drifting North West over the Cathedral dive. One of the divers had their inflatable marker up. There was no dive boat in site and the group appeared to be drifting at around 1-2 knots. There was no dive boat visible.
After about 5 minutes we decided that the dive boat had lost them and set off to pick them up. When we were half way to get them the Aquamarine boat came round from the South West side of Little Tobago ( by now half a mile away) at full power obviously in a panic realising that there was a problem. These divers were on the surface on their own and only as we approached them did we see the main group’s surface marker 150 yards to the South. The dive boat must have passed within a few feet of the main group at full power as they dived. The divers on the surface had obviously been left to come to the surface on their own with no dive boat nearby and the main group had stayed down to finish the dive, or the three had become separated and surfaced. Either way the whole group should have surfaced, the group leader obviously had decided to stay down.
As I was once lost by a dive boat in Barbados for four hours while we leisurely drifted towards Jamaica I feel very strongly about making sure dive boats watch the divers all of the time and pick up promptly when there is a problem.
If you have seen the recent movies, that’s how it feels.
I also think that the practise of carrying on a dive with Speyside currents when a number of divers have become detached from the group is just plain wrong. Tobago North End is not Cayman or Barbados West coast. It has very strong and variable currents, is within a mile of so of open Ocean, often has severe surface conditions and requires the highest levels of diver safety practice.
The channel between Little Tobago and Goat Island often has swift currents heading for St Giles and being on the surface there can be dangerous. (I am told that the Wind Dancer lost three divers there last year and they were eventually found passing St Giles).
Any organisation that allows the boat handler to sleep on duty should be forced to discontinue operations and certainly should not have the four star that this site gives them.
One thing that divers should be aware of is that many UK insurances only cover recreational dives with “an accredited DIVE MARSHALL, INSTRUCTOR or GUIDE and within the relevant guidelines of the relevant diving or training organisation”.
In the case of PADI this is a minimum of Dive Master as commercial insurance cannot be gained below this level of certification. The divers should be made aware that if the lead diver is less than Dive Master they may well not be covered for emergency evacuation to the chamber on Barbados or medevac to Barbados or Florida (if you've ever been to the main hospital in Scarborough you'll know what I mean!!).
A sleeping boat handler is indicative of a very dangerous malaise in the dive operation that must be stopped.
For a four star safety record a dive organisation should adopt a one up, all up policy in an area of strong surface currents and the boat should be tracking them as they dive.
The point of this email is to question the four star rating for Aquamarine and to ask
What are the required safety standards that the Tobago Dive Association (I assume it exists) requires of its members?
What can the Dive Association do if one of its members ignores the rules?
How many diver emergencies are their on Tobago every year?