点评:My brother, a Padi Divemaster, and I (Padi Master Instructor) were booked on a dive boat out of Pompano Beach, Florida for a two-tank boat trip. The name of the boat Aqualife Divers. I had booked the trip several days earlier on the boat’s online platform and was impressed by the rating it had received online of a 4.8 out of 5. We arrived at the boat at approximately 7:15am as requested by our online reservation. Upon arriving at the parking lot, we observed a building with the Aqualife Divers logo and proceeded to make contact there. We were directed by the individual inside to fill out the online waiver by using our cell phones, which we did. He told us he did not know any further about the boat trip and that we would need to ask the boat crew if we had any specific questions. After filling out the waiver, he directed us to the boat and never requested seeing our certification cards nor did he ask our diving history. It should be noted that when signing up for this excursion online we were never prompted to download any diving credentials either. Once on the boat we were directed to the area of the seating at the bow and starboard side by an employee, who later identified himself as a scuba instructor. He asked if we had requested anything from the dive shop and I told him we had both prepaid for steel 100 cu. ft. scuba tanks filled with nitrox. The location he pointed us to had three tanks that I knew from experience were steel with two being taller than the other. The shorter tank was identified by the “instructor” as a steel 100 cu. ft. LP (low pressure) tank and I was told it was shorter because it was LP. I did not question it at first as we had just got on the boat. The “instructor” said he would get us another tank and left but returned a short time later with the fourth tank. My brother and I began setting up our gear and found that all four tanks had DIN valves, which surely would not work with our yoke regulators. We requested the yoke inserts for the tanks and the “instructor” said to look in the tool box at the front of the boat. We did and remedied the problem; however, at no time did the “instructor” ever ask if we understood how to do this or if needed any help; he did not lift a finger to fix our issue. We then requested a Nitrox analyzer and were given the Nuvair stick model. We were both asked if we knew how to work this model of analyzer and we said we did have previous experience with it. I am a Padi enriched air instructor and I had previously certified my brother in Nitrox during a stay at CocoView Resort in Roatan, where at the time they were exclusively using the Nuvair stick style analyzer. I began to analyze my tanks; however, the analyzer would not allow you to get the 20.9 or 21% oxygen mark when setting the calibration. It stopped at 21.5% and would not go lower. I brought this to the attention of the “instructor” and he also tried with no luck. He then said, “That is okay. They are all filled to 32%.” He placed the analyzer down and walked away and offered us no further options as he began to assist someone else on the boat. It was obvious to both of us that the “instructor” made the statement about the Nitrox blend being 32% because he felt that we should take his word for it and no longer question the mixture in our tanks. My brother and I began to discuss it and were overheard by the boat captain that the analyzer was not working. The boat captain informed us that we were in luck as he had his personal Nitrox analyzer in his vehicle in the parking lot. The captain retrieved the analyzer and I found that both of my tanks were filled with 32% oxygen; however, my brothger had one tank at 28% and the second at 29%. Had my brother listened to the “instructor” and set his oxygen level to 32% on his computer as the “instructor” had said the tank was filled, he may have suffered a serious injury on this trip. As the boat pulled away from the dock, I determined the tank that I was told was a LP steel 100 cu. ft., was in fact a HP80 cu. ft. steel tank. I know this as I am certified as a tank inspector through PSI/PCI and have been for over eight years. With the training through PSI/PCI, I was taught how to read the markings on a scuba tank. Also, my brother had determined that one of his tanks that was rated to 3442 PSI to be full but only had 3000 PSI.
The boat had seven other divers on it. On the starboard-aft area were two divers on rebreathers. These two rebreather divers appeared to be regulars on the boat based upon their conversations with the “instructor” and captain. Between them and us, there was a female diver in her late 20’s to early 30’s. Based upon our conversation with her, she was from Minnesota and had approximately 30 previous dives. She had rented her gear from Aqualife Divers and was given an Aqualung BCD that had missing weight pockets. My brother observed the “instructor” placing weights into the side pockets of her BCD and then zip them closed making them impossible to ditch quickly. My brother asked her where her weight pockets were and she replied she did not know. The “instructor” overheard the conversation and said, “The pockets are at the bottom of the ocean.” My brother and I began to discuss how dangerous it was to zip the weights into the side pockets. When the “instructor” overheard us, he commented, “A lot of BCDs can be bought without weight pockets.” I replied, “Yes, but that is why we use a detachable weight belt.” The “instructor” did not reply to my statement.
Unfortunately, I did not pay attention to the proposed dive sites when booking the trip. As we reached our destination, which was a very large ship wreck called Lady Luck, we were given a briefing on the dive site and told the top of the wreck was about 80 feet and the bottom was 132 feet. Based upon my Nitrox blend that was 32%, I was able to determine that my maximum operating depth was 111 feet which I would later find while on the dive that this maximum depth only allowed me to see about 10% of the ship wreck. Most of the wreck sat past my maximum operating depth. We were never given the option of choosing our own Nitrox blend, nor did anyone consider filling our tanks based upon the depths we would be diving. As we were about to gear up before our first dive, at the request of the “instructor,” My brother asked the four female divers on the port side of the boat if they had analyzed their Nitrox tanks. It should be noted that only two of the fourteen tanks rented by customers had Nitrox decals affixed to them and those two belonged to one of the four females on the port side of the boat. All four females looked perplexed when I asked them if they were Nitrox certified. They did not understand my question as they were unaware of Nitrox. Based upon our conversation, they said they had a couple of dives since their open water certification and had no other formal scuba training since open water. My brother then told the “instructor” that the females had not analyzed their tanks, and he then used the analyzer given by the captain to check the tanks for the four females. He also took the time to explain what Nitrox is to the four females and he showed them how to read their computers, which they had rented from Aqualife Divers. The “instructor” had not taken any action prior to this to either show the females how to use their computers or confirm the females had analyzed their tanks. While he was analyzing their tanks the “instructor” said to my brother that the four females had ordered Nitrox when they paid for their rentals on the Aqualife Diver’s website and that is why they were given nitrox tanks. We later confirmed with the four females that none of them had a Nitrox certification nor where they ever asked by the staff for a Nitrox certification card. No guests on the boat were ever asked to document their Nitrox blend, which is something I have never seen in the past.
This boat does not have a divemaster or dive guide join divers in the water. It allowed very novice divers to go to depths way beyond their training on a gas mixture they were not trained to use. Further, they would have failed to analyze the gas mixture for those divers had my brother not intervened. They also provided rental equipment (such as the BCDs) that were not being used as designed which was unsafe.
I would also like to point out that the head and showers on the boat were out of order during our trip and there were several things stored on the floor of the boat that made it a tripping hazard. They also had no camera rinse tank available.
Lastly, when we returned from this trip, I went to the Aqualife Diver’s website and saw the Lady Luck ship wreck that we dove listed on their website. The dive was listed as a technical dive that should only be attempted by expert divers with a depth of 90 to 140 feet. Based upon our conversation with the five other recreational divers on the boat, none of them were ever asked their diver level and none of them were ever asked to show their certification cards.
On the website of Aqualife Divers, it shows them to be a Padi (Professional Association of Dive Instructors), SSI (Scuba Schools International), SDI (Scuba Diving International) and a TDI (Technical Diving International) scuba diving shop and boat. Also, on their boat they proudly display the SSI “Official Partner Dive Boat” decal.
This dive operation (Aqualife Divers) is a tragedy waiting to happen and it is a disgrace to each of the listed certifying agency. I strongly encourage the certifying agencies to intervene to keep a tragedy from occurring.
See attached screen shot of the Aqualife Divers website listing the Lady Luck as a dive for Experts only and a screen shot of the website displaying the agencies that Aqualife Divers is affiliated with.
翻译:我的兄弟是一名 Padi 潜水长,我和兄弟(Padi 潜水长教练)预定了一艘从佛罗里达州庞帕诺海滩出发的潜水船,进行一次双气瓶游船之旅。船名为 Aqualife Divers。几天前,我在船的在线平台上预订了这次旅行,它在网上获得的 4.8 分(满分 5 分)的评分令我印象深刻。我们按照在线预订的要求,大约在早上 7:15 到达船上。到达停车场后,我们看到一栋印有 Aqualife Divers 标志的建筑,于是在那里联系。里面的人指示我们使用手机填写在线豁免书,我们照做了。他告诉我们,他对这次游船之旅一无所知,如果我们有任何具体问题,我们需要询问船员。填写完豁免书后,他带我们上了船,从未要求查看我们的认证卡,也没有询问我们的潜水历史。值得注意的是,当我们在线报名参加这次短途旅行时,也没有被提示下载任何潜水凭证。上船后,一名员工将我们带到船头右舷的座位区,他后来自称是一名水肺教练。他问我们是否向潜水店要求了什么,我告诉他,我们都已预付了 100 立方英尺钢制水肺气瓶的费用,里面装满了氮氧混合气。他指向的地方有三个气瓶,根据我的经验,它们是钢制的,其中两个比另一个高。较矮的那个气瓶被“教练”识别为 100 立方英尺钢制 LP(低压)气瓶,我被告知它较矮是因为它是 LP。我们刚上船,我起初没有质疑。“教练”说他会给我们拿另一个气瓶,然后就走了,但不久后带着第四个气瓶回来了。我和弟弟开始设置装备,发现所有四个气瓶都有 DIN 阀门,这肯定无法与我们的轭式调节器配合使用。我们要求提供气瓶的轭式插入件,而“教练”说要查看船头的工具箱。我们照做了,问题解决了;然而,“教练”从来没有问过我们是否知道如何操作,或者是否需要任何帮助;他没有动一根手指来解决我们的问题。然后我们要求提供 Nitrox 分析仪,并给了我们 Nuvair 棒式分析仪。我们俩都被问到是否知道如何操作这种分析仪,我们说我们以前有过使用经验。我是一名 Padi 高氧空气教练,我之前在罗阿坦岛的 CocoView 度假村住宿期间,曾为我弟弟颁发过 Nitrox 证书,当时他们只使用 Nuvair 棒式分析仪。我开始分析我的气瓶;然而,分析仪在设置校准时不允许您获得 20.9% 或 21% 的氧气标记。它停在 21.5%,不会再低了。我把这个问题告诉了“教练”,他也试过了,但没有成功。然后他说:“没关系。它们都加满了 32%。”他放下分析仪走开了,没有给我们提供其他选择,而是开始帮助船上的其他人。我们俩都很清楚,“教练”之所以说 Nitrox 混合物是 32%,是因为他觉得我们应该相信他的话,不再质疑我们气瓶中的混合物。我和弟弟开始讨论这件事,船长听到他说分析仪坏了。船长告诉我们,我们很幸运,因为他在停车场的车里有自己的 Nitrox 分析仪。船长取回了分析仪,我发现我的两个气瓶都充满了 32% 的氧气;然而,我弟弟的一个气瓶是 28%,另一个是 29%。如果我弟弟听了“教练”的话,在他的电脑上将他的氧气水平设置为 32%,因为“教练”说气瓶已经满了,他可能在这次旅行中受了重伤。当船驶离码头时,我确定我被告知的 LP 钢 100 立方英尺的气罐实际上是 HP80 立方英尺的钢制气罐。我知道这一点,因为我已通过 PSI/PCI 认证为气罐检验员,并且已经做了八年多。通过 PSI/PCI 的培训,我学会了如何读取水肺气罐上的标记。此外,我的兄弟确定他的一个额定压力为 3442 PSI 的气罐是满的,但实际上只有 3000 PSI。
船上还有七名潜水员。右舷后部有两名使用呼吸器的潜水员。根据他们与“教练”和船长的谈话,这两名使用呼吸器的潜水员似乎是船上的常客。在他们和我们之间,有一名 20 多岁到 30 岁出头的女性潜水员。根据我们与她的谈话,她来自明尼苏达州,之前大约有 30 次潜水经验。她从 Aqualife Divers 租借了装备,但却得到了一个缺少配重袋的 Aqualung BCD。我哥哥看到“教练”把重物放进她的 BCD 的侧袋里,然后拉上拉链,这样就无法快速脱身。我哥哥问她重物口袋在哪里,她回答说不知道。“教练”无意中听到了我们的谈话,说:“口袋在海底。”我哥哥和我开始讨论把重物拉进侧袋有多危险。当“教练”听到我们说话时,他评论说:“很多 BCD 都没有配重口袋。”我回答说:“是的,但这就是我们使用可拆卸配重带的原因。”“教练”没有回答我的话。
不幸的是,我在预订行程时没有注意建议的潜水地点。当我们到达目的地时,那是一艘名为 Lady Luck 的非常大的沉船,我们被告知了潜水地点的简报,并被告知沉船的顶部大约 80 英尺,底部大约 132 英尺。根据我的氮氧混合气浓度为 32% 的情况,我能够确定我的最大操作深度为 111 英尺,后来我在潜水时发现,这个最大深度只允许我看见大约 10% 的沉船。大部分沉船都位于我的最大操作深度之外。我们从来没有机会选择自己的氮氧混合气,也没有人考虑根据我们要潜水的深度来填充我们的气瓶。在我们准备第一次潜水前做好准备时,应“教练”的要求,我的兄弟问船左舷的四名女潜水员是否分析过她们的氮氧混合气瓶。值得注意的是,在客户租用的十四个气瓶中,只有两个贴有氮氧混合气标签,这两个属于船左舷的四名女性潜水员之一。当我问她们是否获得氮氧混合气认证时,这四名女性潜水员都看起来很困惑。她们不明白我的问题,因为她们不知道氮氧混合气。根据我们的谈话,他们说自从获得开放水域认证后,他们只潜水过几次,而且自开放水域认证后没有接受过其他正式的水肺训练。然后我哥哥告诉“教练”,这四位女性潜水员没有分析过她们的气瓶,然后他用船长给的分析仪检查了四位女性的气瓶。他还花时间向四位女性解释了什么是 Nitrox,并向她们展示了如何读取她们从 Aqualife Divers 租来的电脑。“教练”在此之前没有采取任何行动,既没有向女性展示如何使用电脑,也没有确认女性潜水员已经分析过她们的气瓶。当他分析她们的气瓶时,“教练”告诉我哥哥,这四位女性潜水员在 Aqualife Diver 的网站上支付租赁费用时订购了 Nitrox,这就是她们获得 Nitrox 气瓶的原因。我们后来向四位女性确认,她们都没有 Nitrox 认证,也没有向工作人员索要过 Nitrox 认证卡。船上的客人从未被要求记录他们的 Nitrox 混合气体,这是我以前从未见过的。
这艘船没有潜水长或潜水向导陪同潜水员下水。它允许新手潜水员使用他们未受过训练的混合气体潜入远远超出他们训练的深度。此外,如果我的兄弟不干预,他们就无法分析那些潜水员的混合气体。他们还提供了租赁设备(例如 BCD),但这些设备没有按照设计使用,这是不安全的。
我还想指出,在我们旅行期间,船上的头部和淋浴器坏了,船底存放了几件东西,有绊倒的危险。他们也没有可用的相机冲洗水箱。
最后,当我们从这次旅行回来时,我去了 Aqualife Diver 的网站,在他们的网站上看到了我们潜水的 Lady Luck 沉船。这次潜水被列为技术潜水,只有深度为 90 到 140 英尺的专业潜水员才能尝试。根据我们与船上其他五名休闲潜水员的交谈,他们从未被问及潜水员级别,也从未被要求出示认证卡。
Aqualife Divers 网站上显示,他们是 Padi(专业潜水教练协会)、SSI(国际水肺学校)、SDI(国际水肺潜水)和 TDI(国际技术潜水)水肺潜水商店和船只。此外,他们的船上还自豪地展示了 SSI“官方合作伙伴潜水船”标签。
这次潜水行动(Aqualife Divers)是一场即将发生的悲剧,对每个列出的认证机构来说都是一种耻辱。我强烈鼓励认证机构进行干预,以防止悲剧发生。
请参阅随附的 Aqualife Divers 网站屏幕截图,其中列出了 Lady Luck 仅供专家潜水,以及显示 Aqualife Divers 所属机构的网站屏幕截图。