Lack of Preparation

The Boy Scout Motto, “Be Prepared,” is something group leaders should live by. Think Murphy: If it can go wrong, sooner or later, it will.

Before their trip begins, group leaders should envision every possible adversity, and think about how to deal with each situation. Here are some examples:

• Cancelled flights/missed connections (the group leader or other group members).
• Lost luggage (again, the group leaders’ or others’).
• “Cheer up! The hurricane didn”t actually hit the island…”
• A couple that is part of the group decides that this is the perfect time for a loud and messy break-up.
• A group member falls off a rented moped, breaks leg.
• A group member has a bad dive, blames the group leader.
• Liveaboard dive boat loses an engine, can’t make the crossing to “that really special island” everyone was counting on.
• The group leader gets food poisoning.

Dive instructors are trained to deal with a variety of diving emergencies. Group leaders need to be equally ready to deal with these non-diving “emergencies” that can otherwise be fatal to their trips.

What happens when they don’t? Five years ago. I was taking small group of divers from California to Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula to complete their Cave Diver certification. Ours was part of a larger group, the balance of which consisted of divers from a store in the Tampa Bay area.

When we arrived at the airport in Cancun, the store owner from Tampa was running around like a chicken with her head cut off. Why was she so frantic? It seems that she and her boyfriend assumed that his lack of a passport “wasn’t going to be a problem.” As a consequence, she and the rest of her group were now in Cancun, while the boyfriend remained stuck in Miami, hashing it out with Immigration.

What was particularly embarrassing was not only the fact the store owner should have known better, but that she acted more concerned about getting back together with the boyfriend, rather than focusing her attention where it should have been: on the happiness and well-being of her customers.

It’s amazing that, in this day and age, people still think they can get in and out of the country with just a drivers license. Sure, a voter’s registration card will supposedly work — but why take chances? Insist that everyone in your group have a passport and, if necessary, a Resident Alien (Green) card. Then there won’t be any problems.

Hell, I’ve even started taking my passport with me on domestic flights. It’s easier to fish out of your pocket than a drivers license when asked for ID at the ticket counter and security — and, when they see a real-live passport, almost no one questions that you are whom you say you are.

Taking advantage of special opportunities »

::: TOP ::: HOME ::: SUBSCRIBE ::: CONTACT US ::: ABOUT US :::