Risk Disclosure

Diving with compressed air involves certain inherent risks; including but not limited to decompression sickness, embolism or other hyperbaric/air expansion injury that require treatment in a recompression chamber. Open water diving trips which are necessary for training and for certification may be conducted at a site that is remote, either by time or distance or both, from such a recompression chamber. 


By Preceding with dive activities including trips and training activities both in confined and open water you agree that neither your instructors or Dive Wellington, nor PADI Americas, Inc., nor its affiliate and subsidiary corporations, nor any of their respective employees, officers, agents, contractors or assigns (hereinafter referred to as “Released Parties”) may be held liable or responsible in any way for any injury, death or other damages to you or your family, estate, heirs or assigns that may occur as a result of your participation in this diving program or as a result of the negligence of any party, including the Released Parties, whether passive or active.Before participating in any dive activities you must personally assume all risks of this program, whether foreseen or unforeseen, that may befall you while you are participant in this program including, but not limited to, the academics, confined water and/or open water activities. 


Skin diving, scuba diving, freediving and spearfishing are physically strenuous activities and that you will be exerting yourself during diving, and that if you are injured as a result of heart attack, panic, hyperventilation, drowning or any other cause, that you expressly assume the risk of said injuries and that you will not hold the Released Parties responsible for the same.

 

As Skin diving, SCUBA diving, freediving and spearfishing are physically strenuous activities you must be able to float or tread water unaided for at least 10minutes and be able to swim 200m uninterrupted without flotation aids or snorkel 300m with fins and mask uninterrupted. Prior to any SCUBA, freedive, or snorkeling, activity


In addition to the above by participating in dive activities with Dive Wellington you also agree to follow these ten rules to maintain safety while diving.


  1. Maintain good mental and physical fitness for diving. Avoid being under the influence of alcohol or dangerous drugs when diving. Keep proficient in diving skills, striving to increase them through continuing education and reviewing them in controlled conditions after a period of diving inactivity, and refer to my course materials to stay current and refresh myself on important information. 
  2. Be familiar with my dive sites. If not, obtain a formal diving orientation from a knowledgeable, local source. If diving conditions are worse than those in which I am experienced, postpone diving or select an alternate site with better conditions. Engage only in diving activities consistent with my training and experience. Do not engage in cave or technical diving unless specifically trained to do so. 
  3. Use complete, well-maintained, reliable equipment with which I am familiar; and inspect it for correct fit and function prior to each dive. Have a buoyancy control device, low-pressure buoyancy control inflation system, submersible pressure gauge and alternate air source and dive planning/monitoring device (dive computer, RDP/dive tables—whichever you are trained to use) when scuba diving. Deny use of my equipment to uncertified divers. 
  4. Listen carefully to dive briefings and directions and respect the advice of those supervising my diving activities. Recognize that additional training is recommended for participation in specialty diving activities, in other geographic areas and after periods of inactivity that exceed six months. 
  5. Adhere to the buddy system throughout every dive. Plan dives – including communications, procedures for reuniting in case of separation and emergency procedures – with my buddy. 
  6. Be proficient in dive planning (dive computer or dive table use). Make all dives no decompression dives and allow a margin of safety. Have a means to monitor depth and time underwater. Limit maximum depth to my level of training and experience. Ascend at a rate of not more than 18 metres/60 feet per minute. Be a SAFE diver – Slowly Ascend From Every dive. Make a safety stop as an added precaution, usually at 5 metres/15 feet for three minutes or longer. 
  7. Maintain proper buoyancy. Adjust weighting at the surface for neutral buoyancy with no air in my buoyancy control device. Maintain neutral buoyancy while underwater. Be buoyant for surface swimming and resting. Have weights clear for easy removal, and establish buoyancy when in distress while diving. Carry at least one surface signalling device (such as signal tube, whistle, mirror). 
  8. Breathe properly for diving. Never breath-hold or skip-breathe when breathing compressed air, and avoid excessive hyperventilation when breath-hold diving. Avoid overexertion while in and underwater and dive within my limitations. 
  9. Use a boat, float or other surface support station, whenever feasible. 
  10. Know and obey local dive laws and regulations, including fish and game and dive flag laws. I understand the importance and purposes of these established practices. I recognize they are for my own safety and well-being, and that failure to adhere to them can place me in jeopardy when diving.