High Sierra Divers

One of the responsibilities of a dive shop is to hire experienced and capable instructors that are able to make responsible and sound judgements to protect their student and to set a good example for them. The instructor that came out of that shop saturday May 5^th, 2012 was the exact opposite of this description.
My buddy and I were thinking about diving monastery that day but after checking the conditions we knew it wasn’t gonna happen but we drove by anyways to check for ourselves. Before we even got out of our car we saw the way the waves were breaking on the rock formations, laughed, and called the dive. However, we saw some people with scuba gear in their trucks so we walked over to say hi and talk to some divers. We find that they were actually setting up to go for the dive. Skeptical of their decision we leave the beach to go check if we can get into Lobos. We didn’t get in (of course) and as we’re driving back my buddy suggests that we go watch them enter and see if they’re ok. Just as we’re walking up the hill I see a 12 year old KID and his fifty-​something year old father (?) entering the water and doing everything wrong and most importantly without their regs in their mouths (obviously they weren’t briefed properly on how to enter this dreaded beach). They both get caught up in the waves, lose their masks, and get rolled a few times. The kid disappears in the waves for a few seconds so my buddy and I run over to help carry the older guy from his tank out of the surf zone and get him out of his gear as he tries to catch his breath. The instructor (I think) was able to pull kid out of the surf zone and into the water before escorting him out of the water. We go over to help them out of the water.
This is the exact reason why people DIE at that beach. Not only did the instructor made the extremely irresponsible, stupid, and brash call to dive that beach on that day. He also made that call for his inexperienced students, including the 12 year old kid, that now have a near drowning experience with scuba! The worst part is that some of the students never realized how dangerous of a situation they were put in because of that instructor that they’re supposed to trust.
Unfortunately, certification and qualification are two very different things…