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4. |
Diving Officer's Report
This is quite a difficult report to write
as I am torn between dislike of change and
the demands of modern ways of thinking. A
large group of us have just returned from
this year’s first dive trip to St Abbs. We
had two good dives on Saturday but woke to
thick sea fret on Sunday. Sadly Lynn had
an accident in the accommodation and had
to go to the hospital and by the afternoon
our numbers were depleted. However, 7 of
us dived Petticowick, and although we were
cold, the weekend had passed without a
diving incident. I was very pleased with
the fact that everyone’s dive kit was
functioning and we had no problems.
However, after I returned home, I started
to think about the trip. It ran smoothly
and everyone had a really good time. We
saw lots of wolf fish and Paul experienced
his first sea dives. But we completely
forgot about all last year’s discussions
and recommendations. Despite having spent
a great deal of time talking about boat
briefings, timing divers in and out if the
water, filling in dive marshalling sheets
etc etc., we just did the bare minimum.
For this, I take full responsibility and
offer my apologies. It is my job, as DO,
to ensure the safety of our club members.
I should have appointed a Dive Marshall
and insisted that all the necessary
procedures were carried out. It is just
too easy not to. We had a ‘virgin’ sea
diver, several of the group had not dived
since last year, the water was very cold.
All factors that could have lead to an
incident. And if there had been one –
would anyone have known where the oxygen
was, who was qualified to use it, what
sort of first aid would have been
appropriate, who would have been the
casualty’s contact person and number?
We are too complacent. As a club we are extremely lucky –we have had
very few incidents. We must not wait until
something goes wrong. I do apologise for
not carrying out a DO’s duties properly.
On every club trip (and that includes
training dives), there must be an
appointed DM who makes sure that we
Do It Right.
Kate Falkingham DO.
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