WHETHER YOU’VE BEEN DIVING from boats for years or you’re looking forward to your first liveaboard trip, it’s an excellent time to refresh your knowledge about staying safe on board and evaluating your dive operator’s safety preparedness. The Coast Guard has established guidelines for marine safety, and DAN has adapted those recommendations into an e-learning course that helps dive boat operators, captains, and dive professionals prepare their vessels for dive activities. The information in the course can also help all divers identify safe practices — or potential concerns — when boarding a dive boat.
All boat operators should follow a checklist for necessary equipment, including having the required items on board and ensuring they are in working order. Some of these should be easy to spot — life jackets, fire extinguishers, and first aid and emergency oxygen kits should all be clearly marked and easily accessible. Less obvious preparations such as emergency action plans (EAPs), manual navigation aids (e.g., nautical charts, a compass), or tools and spare parts may not be visible when boarding. Divers should feel comfortable asking a boat crew about their safety preparations to determine if they have taken the necessary precautions.
The vessel should have all appropriate documentation — vessel registration, insurance, and training and certification information about the captain and crew — and the dive operator should be able to confirm that everything is in order as far as the necessary legal requirements. If you ever feel that an operator is not sufficiently attentive to matters of safety, it’s better to ask questions and speak up than end up at sea in a risky situation.
If everything seems normal with the vessel and the crew, the predive briefing is a perfect opportunity for another evaluation before you make your giant stride or back roll. The operator should inform all divers of their method of accounting for everyone after the dive, monitor all divers for thorough buddy checks taking place before every dive, assist novice divers with their predive checks, and go over entry and exit procedures. The divemaster should brief everyone on any hazards, review the dive site’s layout, and communicate the dive plan and all applicable safety information before anyone is in the water. Any deficiency in these procedures should be a red flag that prompts you to consider whether it will be safe to dive. If you think the potential exists for an unsafe situation, you might need to call off the dive.
De los muchos cursos de aprendizaje a distancia de DAN cuyo objetivo es mejorar la seguridad de las operaciones de buceo, dos son especialmente útiles para los buzos que desean adquirir o repasar conocimientos esenciales para que las operaciones de navegación se desarrollen de manera segura. El curso Planificación para emergencias para buzos ayuda a los buzos a preparar un EAP para cualquier área de interés, lo que incluye operaciones de embarcaciones de buceo en general y seguridad contra incendios. Hemos diseñado el programa Mejores prácticas de seguridad en embarcaciones de buceo con los operadores en mente, pero todos los buzos pueden tener un conocimiento más profundo de las cuestiones aquí mencionadas con solo tomar el curso de 30 minutos. Ambos cursos y nuestra colección completa de temas de aprendizaje a distancia están disponibles en DAN.org/ELearning.