diving in hawaii

Jonnykitedude

Hi guys

I posted here back in June as I was going on holiday’s injury to Oahu in Hawaii and was wondering if anybody had info but the post seems to be gone.

Anyway I found a place that would do charter boat dives to reefs and wrecks for $100 for two dives so said ill be having some of that.
Anyway I have done my padi a number of years ago and was a bit rusty so I asked could I do a shallow dive (12m) no probs they said. We drove out to the harbour got all our gear and off we went on the boat. Now I haven’t been diving in 4 years so I was a bit nervous so I asked the instructor to take a quick look over my equipment so he had a VERY quick look.
First dive went ok nice warm water etc
Second dive we had a scout around came across some giant see turtles and other marine life, coming to the end of the dive I was down to 1.5bar so showed the instructor and he gave me the ok,had another swim around thinking we where on our way back but it turned out that he was bring us off somewhere else, at this stage I was at .8bar showed him my gauge and he gave me the ok again, at this stage I was crapping myself and we stated to make our way back, had another look .5bar showed him it again and he told me to ascend on my own so I was going back up the line on my own and I could feel resistance on my reg so stopped took one more breath and made my way back down tapped him on the shoulder to tell him I was out and I buddyed back up with him.

My point is this was a dive school and they seemed very laxy daisy with people while diving and they shouldn’t be are there no regulations on places like this?

redved

sounds worrying. when you say .5 bar do you mean 50 bar? If so it was the correct decision to surface although the instructor should have gone with you in the first place.

Whenever I go with a buddy the turn around to head back is usually at 100 bar

seadeuce

Different schools differ on their approach to visiting divers. It's usually down to the DM on the day. Never expect a standard, even though there's supposed to be one.

In Oahu they turn over a few thousand divers every year (I am talking about EACH centre) and they have a very "assembly line" attitude, same as the industry down on the GBR.

When you reached your own "reserve" of air (50/30 bar) only YOU should decide to give the UP signal. Don't hand over control to an absolute stranger who may/may not be an experienced diver/DM, there are many bad ones out there.

Call the dive. If your good buddy has two charges he should have all three ascend. If ten charges, he should allocate a buddy to you (usually the one with the lowest air!). Either way you should get to the surface accompanied.

As I said, schools differ and rarely are standards imposed. Someone usually has to die before that happens.

Think and act for yourself or that someone could be you.


Seadeuce

BTW where was it? Sea Tiger and the barge?

walshy123

as said before do you mean 150, 80 and 50 bar?
unless u were at a serious depth i wouldnt have been worrying that much but i agree, him telling you to go up alone was a bit dodge

strange that your air was gone at 50bar though?! i ran out at 20bar as i hit the surface few weeks back and had to manually inflate bcd - bit stupid! but i was aware of it and at this stage was only feet from surface (shore exit)