RECREATIONAL DIVERS

Negligent Training

Although there are many fine instructors out there who are dedicated to teaching their students in a professional manner, diver education and certification is a business subject to the same economic and competitive pressures as any other business.

In the 1960's and 1970's diver certification programs were like boot camps. Rigorous physical activity, especially swimming, was required. Week after week the students would undergo intensive classroom studies on the physiology of diving followed by repeated pool sessions designed to totally familiarize the student diver with the equipment and process of diving. In recent years as a result of mass marketing and the competitive drive to make diver education quicker and cheaper, the dive training agencies have substantially shortened the training regimen both in the classroom and in the water. Minimal age limits have been reduced in some instances to include 10 year olds. Much of the classroom instruction is accomplished with video or audio files.

Even though dive students are exposed to most, if not all, of the required information and skills required for safe diving, often times the student has not truly mastered these skills sufficiently to survive if something goes wrong in the water.

What often goes wrong with the poorly trained diver is that the diver is initially confronted with a situation that in and of itself is not likely to be serious. Strong currents, a flooded mask, a free flowing regulator, loss of buoyancy, fatigue or disorientation would be typical examples of problems that could be easily resolved with thorough training. However, because of abbreviated training curriculums, the new diver typically lacks the practical experience to handle these stressful events. This directly results in a cascading effect where panic sets in and the inadequately trained diver never realizes that most of the time an easy solution exists to the problem. A profound and tragic statistic in this regard is the fact that in most diving deaths, the diver is found wearing his or her weight belt with air left in the scuba tank. The simple act of jettisoning the weight belt would have permitted the diver to reach the surface safely. Unfortunately, not being properly trained and sufficiently experienced, the diver is needlessly injured. A large portion of the blame for such tragedies lies with a training process that left a fully "certified" diver unprepared to safely dive. We can help you find out what went wrong.

To speak with an attorney, please call us at 1-877-266-3694 ext. 13 or email us at Do I Have A Case.