OW going beyond the sign in Dominican rep.

[Neptuno]

just to show an example of what we are talking about as a big safety issue http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rCJta80tEsA&NR=1
That property is a park, private, you need permission, you need to sign up, show your certification to access the cave and you need to pay.
they somehow managed to bypass all that, and took a group of tourists to cave dive, something about 700'+ penetration in open water gear, no reel, no line, no extra lights, and even show in the video the stop sign we installed!!!
good that they answer my question to who took them there... now a formal complain is going in, we also sent a letter to that school informing of the dangers of doing that.. by the way, we almost got killed while surveying la jeringa with bad air we filled at that store........

[HeloDriver]

Ignorance is bliss, until it isn't.

[phillip1]

I mean we install the warning signs, I personally went to ScubaFun and spoke politely and at length about the dangers of untrained cave diving, I gave the shop the information letter we wrote about the dangers of overhead diving, the owner knows this anyway its supposedly a PADI 5 star facility, yet they still don't care and blatantly disregard safety.
It unfortunately looks like it's going to take an accident for anyone to actually care and take this seriously, even PADI could not care less.

it is so unnecessary, it looks to me like no one cares, what about all tech training agencies NACD, IANTD, TDI (yeah right) NSSCDS giving us a hand and writing PADI to DEMAND they email the PADI facilities in the DR and worldwide reminding them about the dangers of untrained cave diving, that might actually work.
I am going to start a petition online that cave divers can sign demanding this form PADI, i tried it before and few people signed but I will try it again. This kind of stuff really pisses me off, that an irresponsible instructor gets killed on his own time cave diving without training is tragic but taking unsuspecting OW clients is murder.

Is there any way NACD, NSS/CDS. IANTD could write and sign a letter for us to be distributed to the DR dive shops, not reprimanding or blaming but just reminding them of the limitations of cavern and full cave, that would probably save someone's life.

[stairman]

Lets see, dangling consoles, OW flutter kicks, poor trim and I never saw a line. In there defense the video ended at the sign indicating they were in the cavern zone. Good thing the floor was rocky. The non existant cavern skills demontrated still makes it dangerous for sure.

[bletso]

It's strange that they don't even seem to have looked at or ignored PADI'a cave video, "A Deceptively Easy Way to Die" I still show it to all my open and non cave trained tech student.

Dale

[Kelly Jessop]

even PADI could not care less.

...writing PADI to DEMAND they email the PADI facilities in the DR .

PADI is a training agency,and as long as training follows standards,then what the shop does is its own business. As much as I support the agencies,they haven't had a lot of success with the same problem in Mexico,it appears the best success is a grass roots effort. I am sure you know the shops involved,and negative publicity with the potential loss of money can have a huge effect. Would all the local resorts that refer people to certain shops like to know that their guest are endangered. Doing a local grass roots effort may make you the bad guys,but if it saves lives and protects your sport from being controlled by local authorities,then it is worth it.

[FW]

...Is there any way NACD, NSS/CDS. IANTD could write and sign a letter for us to be distributed to the DR dive shops, not reprimanding or blaming but just reminding them of the limitations of cavern and full cave, that would probably save someone's life.

Send me a list of shop addresses. I will ask the NSS-CDS BoD if it is OK to send such a letter.

[phillip1]

Lets see, dangling consoles, OW flutter kicks, poor trim and I never saw a line. In there defense the video ended at the sign indicating they were in the cavern zone. Good thing the floor was rocky. The non existant cavern skills demontrated still makes it dangerous for sure.

Were they surface towards the end is in anairdome about 800-900 feet past the sign way beyond the cavern zone.
They added the sign at the end of the video as a kind of ending but they went way past it

[phillip1]

Send me a list of shop addresses. I will ask the NSS-CDS BoD if it is OK to send such a letter.

That's grea, thanks a million, I am in ny. And get how Sunday I will send you the list asap.
The thing that would be cool if possible is to get all or as many training agencies as possible together on the same letter to add as much weight as possible and hopefully get the dive shops to actually listen to what we are trying to say.

[mag3]

Were they surface towards the end is in anairdome about 800-900 feet past the sign way beyond the cavern zone.
They added the sign at the end of the video as a kind of ending but they went way past it

The flutter kicking had me worried also. What's the silt potential for that passage?