"Open Water", the movie

OK, for those of you who have seen the movie and know more about diving than I do, and NOT for those of you who don't want any of the PLOT SPOILED:
Why didn't they ever get rid of their tanks?
Why did the DM (Guide?) start counting after everyone started milling about?
What kind of sea fish nibble holes thru neoprene and then thru your skin?
If they actually surfaced on time (as the GUY claims), how did the boat manage to get so far away so fast?
Where were they? Scenery suggests Trunk Bay, Saint John, USVI; Jamaica; Mexico--
Why did she place the tourniquet between the injury and his foot, as opposed to between the injury and his heart.
Are there really that many people left behind?
Once on a dive, I met a guy who claimed to have been left behind, but he was more annoying than the annoying guy in the movie, and I suspect it was done on purpose.
Please note, this entire post is a little bit tongue in cheek and a little bit curious about the technical aspects of the movie--no offense intended to anyone living or dead, so if you want to yell at me, do it offline and outside of my hearing. Cheers.

I haven't seen the movie, but I do remember the "incident". Empty tanks float. I would imagine they would want as much bouyancy as possible. Inexperienced DM (or an idiot. Gringos in should equal gringos out all the time, no exceptions). I was on a drift dive in Cozumel a number of years ago where we did lose a diver. Actually, she lost us. Her dive buddy (and friend) couldn't clear so she saw her bud back to the boat and then decided she could catch up to the rest of us. She couldn't find the rest of us so just cruised down the reef, out into open water, down to over 100 ft. When the boat picked us up, she wasn't there and her friend totally freaked. We cruised the reef for half an hour before the boatman started checking the other boats, and we did find her with another party. She was pretty freaked out also. Not a good experience at all.

I saw the movie, but it sure isn't going to stop me from diving!! The moral of the store... Don't be a dick to the DM I would guess this happens occasionally... While at the GBR, we saw the boat which left a couple behind who were killed by sharks... But rumor has it, they were about a mile from an island and deceided to dissapear. Urban myth??

Last year a dive boat left a couple behind in Key Largo Florida. They spent an uncomfortable and unhappy night on a small concrete light tower along the reef. But at least they survived. Also, when I lived in Colombia, a couple went out with a fisherman (there were dive charters available but they were trying to save money!!!) and got left. They were getting swept out of the islands to open ocean, but managed to ditch their tanks and swim to the last island before the open ocean. A search party found them, too. The fisherman had panicked and gone back to town to find help... The moral of those stories: make sure you dive with a reputable operator!

Hi,
It was in Australia around 1996 and there are many theories of what really happened. Doing a search I found this article:

http://www.startribune.com/stories/1553/4951122.html

That is an interesting story. I like it better than the movie. btw, the annoying person I referred to in my original post was not the male main character. He was the minor character who has appeared in a different guise on each dive of my short diving career: brash male in his thirties or forties, supremely confident of his diving skills in spite of evidence to the contrary, almost always has forgotten a key piece of equipment or has a piece of expensive equipment that malfunctions, demanding of and noncompliant with DM. In the movie, this guy added to the confusion that led to people being left behind, but went on to lead a presumably happy life, continuing to annoy those around him. Thanks for the responses!

Ummmmmm....I didn't see this because I was afraid they got eaten or something at the end. Did all turn out well? I'm SUCH a wuss!

Sirena

Seachange:
They were diving the Great Barrier Reef and were a couple from Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

Sirena, don't worry about anything you may see or think you have learned from the movie "Open Water". After all, it's just Hollywood and they are selling tickets.

If you are diving off of a dive operator's boat, all you need to do, is make sure that you make a big impression on the dive master and everyone else on the boat. And stick by him, while doing your dive. You won't ever have to worry about being left behind.

Also, sharks don't eat divers. On very rare occasions they might take a taste out of a swimmer but you know, only in Florida, rarely in California and there's a few more hits off of South Africa. Nothing you should ever need to worry about.

Besides that, sharks don't like eating people. They don't really like how we taste anyway. The problem for people is, that one taste test, about does us in.

Seachange, we have all seen that anoying person (is he from Idaho by any chance?). You can really see some characters. In Bonaire a few years ago, we had a fellow tourist at the resort who had every piece of dive equipment known to man, and wore everything every time he hit the water (shore diving). Middle aged guy who cut quite a figure with all that gear hanging off him. :rolleyes: Also a cute blond there on her honeymoon, always had a full wetsuit on (black with pink piping) with pink booties, wearing peach lipstick. Always hustling around the dive pier, giving advice, always looking good and on the move. At the end of our stay, drinking beers in the outdoor bar, someone asked if anyone had ever see her go in the water. Nobody had. Amusing.

The water's a bitch on most peach lipstick. Especially that special "honeymoon peach" flavor.

Just think of the movie as "The Blair Witch Project" in the water. Mostly someones imagination
No one knows what happened to thses people after they got off the boat.
There is a lession to learn here. Find a reliable dive operator by doing your own reseach on them before you dive with them.