A moment that changed me: A scuba dive gone horribly wrong taught me the dangers of complacency
Twenty years ago, I took six months off from my job as a psychologist in the NHS to embark on a journey around the world. But, when I fell in love with scuba diving and took a job as a cook on a dive boat on the Great Barrier Reef in Queensland, Australia, I called my boss in England to tell him I wouldn't come back.
After two days at the diving school, the students boarded a boat for a three-day trip. It was to me that they came with their worries: "Are there any sharks on the reef?"; “Are they dangerous? "; "Is it pitch dark on a night dive?" I was the cook, but my psychology skills were put to good use.
That morning, on the boat, two of the instructors were leaving in "first hour", and they asked me if I wanted to accompany them. em> They said the best time to dive was 6am, when the fish were waking up and feeding on the coral, and the sun on the water was dazzling. They were planning a short, deep dive. They were two of the most experienced divers, but also two of the most competitive. I felt a bit out of my comfort zone, so I declined. I regretted it watching them sink below the surface of the pond.
After such a deep dive, they should have surfaced after 22 minutes. At 45 minutes, the rest of the crew and I were watching anxiously the water. It was the deckhand who noticed that none of the divers had taken their digital compass.
As time passed, my terror grew We organized rescue helicopters from the mainland, while trying to keep the potential disaster a secret from the scuba diving students, but after 90 minutes we had to cancel their practice dive, and the skipper had to explain the situation.
It wasn't...
Twenty years ago, I took six months off from my job as a psychologist in the NHS to embark on a journey around the world. But, when I fell in love with scuba diving and took a job as a cook on a dive boat on the Great Barrier Reef in Queensland, Australia, I called my boss in England to tell him I wouldn't come back.
After two days at the diving school, the students boarded a boat for a three-day trip. It was to me that they came with their worries: "Are there any sharks on the reef?"; “Are they dangerous? "; "Is it pitch dark on a night dive?" I was the cook, but my psychology skills were put to good use.
That morning, on the boat, two of the instructors were leaving in "first hour", and they asked me if I wanted to accompany them. em> They said the best time to dive was 6am, when the fish were waking up and feeding on the coral, and the sun on the water was dazzling. They were planning a short, deep dive. They were two of the most experienced divers, but also two of the most competitive. I felt a bit out of my comfort zone, so I declined. I regretted it watching them sink below the surface of the pond.
After such a deep dive, they should have surfaced after 22 minutes. At 45 minutes, the rest of the crew and I were watching anxiously the water. It was the deckhand who noticed that none of the divers had taken their digital compass.
As time passed, my terror grew We organized rescue helicopters from the mainland, while trying to keep the potential disaster a secret from the scuba diving students, but after 90 minutes we had to cancel their practice dive, and the skipper had to explain the situation.
It wasn't...
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