Carnival Pride - possible death ashore in Grand Turk

[PeaceLoveCruise]

No, that's an 8 to 1 ratio and it's criminal.

 

Agreed. So very sad for this young boy and his family. I can't believe they didn't have enough lead divers in the water.

 

 

PeaceLoveCruise

[PeaceLoveCruise]

Please give your family our condolences.

 

 

PeaceLoveCruise

[sharecruises]

A good point to remember.....Carnival simply contracts a local tour operator in the various ports....

 

sometimes a tour on these boards becomes popular and bam....now it is Carnival only, book thru the ship only...

 

this is a great deal for a local operator and means money

 

some tour operators get bad reviews, complaints from cruisers....if enough, Carnival can and will drop them.

 

Carnival however is not right on these tours...and they are not perfect, and the tours can have things go wrong, just like any tour/activity.

 

I don't know how long this dive company was contracted...or how they usually did their dives...maybe they normally had more instructors on a "discover" dive/newbie dive??

 

I do know divers (I am sure not one LOL...chicken)...and I know there are many dive schools in Florida. It is not a frivolous undertaking IMHO. I also have heard of lots of accidents/tragedy during the short Lobster season in the Keys when lots of new/out of practice people try to dive

 

This is such a sad thing. I hope others will be more aware, and if they are diving for the first time do your "due dilligence", make sure there are enough GOOD instructors in place or else just don't even try it, demand your money back at the excursions desk.

[gtalum]

Take the time to learn to dive at home, and then take a real dive while on vacation. These "discover scuba" classes just aren't safe. There are a lot of things that can go wrong in a dive.

[cluelyss18]

First, my condolences to the family. This is heartbreaking.

 

Second, what is a discover scuba class?? My boyfriend completed his PADI cert this past fall for our swat team and it took WEEKS. Classroom days as well as ocean days. I don't see how someone could learn everything they learned in just a few hours.

 

In fact, I've been searching for a dive center for him to dive with on our upcoming trip and one of them said "Come dive with him, you can take the 90 minute class and be ready to go"

 

I asked if they were out of their mind.

[San_Antonio_Ex]

I dove With Oasis Divers on a Carnival excursion in Grand Turk in January. It was a two tamk dive for certified divers. I let the DM know that I had only 7 dives previously, four of those were my certification dives. The DM kept me right with him the entire dive and stopped frequently to check that everyone was ok. I was very impressed. In Aruba, I was not as impressed with Red Sail...

 

My condolences go out to the family of this young man.

[Laurie S.]

We dove with Oasis in March and were very unhappy with them. There is no excuse for the loss of the young man in the discover scuba class. They violated PADI standards for instructor to student ratios.

[alex12_3]

First, my condolences to the family. This is heartbreaking.

 

Second, what is a discover scuba class?? My boyfriend completed his PADI cert this past fall for our swat team and it took WEEKS. Classroom days as well as ocean days. I don't see how someone could learn everything they learned in just a few hours.

 

In fact, I've been searching for a dive center for him to dive with on our upcoming trip and one of them said "Come dive with him, you can take the 90 minute class and be ready to go"

 

I asked if they were out of their mind.

I actually did a Discover Scuba course earlier this month in St. Maarten. On dry land, an instructor teaches you the basic theory of scuba diving, and teaches you about the equipment. Then, in the water, he demonstrates some essential tasks and procedures, and ensures that you can complete these as well. Then you go down for real (though only to a limited depth) and explore a bit under very close supervision.

 

When my girlfriend and I went, we were the only two Discover Scuba students on the boat with our instructor. Our instructor did have a third student along, but she was in the process of getting her Open Water certification, had already completed a few dives, and did not need such intense supervision. Additionally, my girlfriend couldn't quite complete the in-water exercises and unfortunately could not actually go diving. While that did suck, it shows that our instructor did consider safety first. So underwater, it was the instructor, myself, and another student who was plenty able to take care of herself on such a novice dive.

 

I think discovery courses are a good idea but only with a good dive shop and instructor. Certification classes aren't cheap, and it would be awful to complete all the instruction and then discover during your first time in the water that you don't want to or aren't able to do it. This way, you get a taste of what it's actually like before making a commitment...and for me, it made me want to commit.

 

Regardless, the dangers are always present, no matter what. The typical limit is 4 students per instructor, which I thought was pretty good. Now I realize it can go very wrong. I can think of plenty of scenarios where a lone instructor can very quickly be overwhelmed by the emergencies of four people who've never been in water deeper than 5 feet. But even with only one or two students this incident could still have happened. I kept having problems during the exercises where I was getting water in my mouth and heading back to the surface to spit it out and breathe. The instructor told me that I kept moving my lips and breaking the seal to the regulator (he was right). It happened to me a couple times deep underwater but I learned how to expel it.

 

However, I could totally see someone either moving their lips, or losing their regulator, or whatever, and getting a mouthful of water and having no idea what to do. I was taught how to recover and clear my regulator if it somehow ran off, but you have to imagine what it would actually be like deep underwater. Between not being able to breathe, panicking due to knowing that you're deep underwater and can't breathe, and even the stress of the instructor grabbing you and trying to help you...I can see how this incident could have happened through no fault of anyone's. It could have happened to any brand-new diver with any instructor from any dive shop, even one-on-one. It could have happened to me.

 

Maybe in the near future we'll have more info on exactly what happened, what with the police now investigating. Unfortunately I see a lot of finger-pointing yet to come.

[jtonra]

I was on a SCUBA dive in Cozumel, I had my certification for two years prior to this trip. ANYWHO I was chatting with the other divers, among them there were several with more experience than me, and a couple with less, and ONE who had been certified right before the cruise.

 

ANYWHO, our first dive went fairly well, until we were ascending, the gentleman who had been certified right before the cruise blew past our safety stop (since we went around 100ft down it is ENTIRELY necessary) He did not have any MAJOR issues, but he did get some really bad nose bleeds and was told not to dive again that day...

 

The company that we dove with was booked through the cruise line, and they told us multiple times that we NEEDED to do the safety stop. I am sure the person diving maybe had some issues that were not related to skill, but there are times where someone may not quite listen to all directions.

 

It is unfortunate either way, and my best wished go out to the diver, the family, and to the other families of the divers that had perished due to diving incidents.

 

Diving is dangerous, when you have a tank strapped to your back an you are 50+ feet underwater, things can happen.

 

You should never again dive with someone who lets a newly certified diver do a dive to 100 feet. That is an absolute no-go. Newly certified divers should not be diving below 60 feet until they have MANY dives under their belts. I'm actually very surprised anyone contracted through the ships would do a dive that deep. They typically limit their dives to 60 feet regardless of the experience level of the divers.