I've just returned from a couple of very well organised dives at a local dive centre I've just joined, and was thinking about an experience I had in Zanzibar.

I had taken a refresher course with the instructor who was very professional, but he stayed in the dive centre while two DMs took a group of 10 relatively inexperienced divers out (5 of us knew each other and had done a handful of dives each...). The briefing was just that - very brief...basically we will all descend, meet at the bottom, I will lead, you all follow. Even at the surface the group was immediately split by a current and as we all tried to swim to the DM, she was shouting instructions in Spanish (to the other 5) but nothing in English and then signalled to descend . I protested - as much as I could in now very choppy water. Luckily my buddy was fluent in spanish and translated, but by then the DM had gone down. No anchor line used and the group was still scattered.

By the time my buddy and I had reached the bottom, there was no-one to be seen! We spent a couple of minutes looking for them and then ascended (the bottom was 16 meters). We surfaced to find the rest of the group clinging to the boat. The DM and another diver (her buddy) were not with them. 15 (!!) minutes later they appeared. It turns out that the diver had no concept of the buddy system and had set off solo at the bottom. No-one knew what was going on and came back up. The diver was given a very strong telling off in a rant that lasted 5 minutes and made all of us very embarrased. She was prevented from diving with us again..

The other DM had a word with the original and took charge, took us down the anchor line and the dives ended up very rewarding. I think that counts for a bad dive for quite a few of us!!