Panic in the City

When I got to the dock, what I saw was the instructor and his group, all at the surface, circled around one of the students. The student was floating flat on her back, her arms and legs rigid and shaking. She was shrieking and wailing at the top of her lungs.

In all my years of diving and teaching, I don’t ever think I’ve seen a diver so utterly paralyzed with fear.

Thinking the student might be hurt or injured, I went to the edge of the dock, to see whether the group needed assistance from someone on shore. I got there just in time to hear the instructor say something I absolutely could not believe. It was:

“Don’t worry. As soon as we get you calmed down, we’ll take you under water and try again.”

He may as well have just said:

(No, folks, I am not making this up. It really happened.)

Why do things like this happen? »

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