Safety Divers for Deep Dives - What Do They Do?

[Rainer]

Let's look at this from an alternate point of view:
What can I, as a potential safety diver in the future, do to make people's dives easier? Any kind of specific practicing I should do? Jeff's "4 bottles with 3 scooters" practice is out of the question since scooters aren't on the team yet, but I'll assume that learning to deal with lots of positive bottles would be good.
Anything else?

I'm not doing SD dives, but why not try hooking up with teams doing dives requiring SDs and see what they need? Maybe you could get into some mentored role? Sounds pretty interesting to me.

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

Why would support diving require navigation? It requires the ability to follow a bit of string.

LOL ... I was wondering the same thing ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[SparticleBrane]

I'm not doing SD dives, but why not try hooking up with teams doing dives requiring SDs and see what they need? Maybe you could get into some mentored role? Sounds pretty interesting to me.

The team I currently dive with might be in need of some support divers in the near future, hence why I'm asking.

Barry, that was a poke at your "I can't see my compass" posts.

 

[Rainer]

The team I currently dive with might be in need of some support divers in the near future, hence why I'm asking.

Barry, that was a poke at your "I can't see my compass" posts.

That's cool. Still think you might want to seek out some T1/T2 divers and see if they can't offer some better, local advice.

 

[SparticleBrane]

That's cool. Still think you might want to seek out some T1/T2 divers and see if they can't offer some better, local advice.

Got that too!

 

[texdiveguy]

Rick.... good post dude....but I think you are confusing 'Safety divers' for what you are describing which are 'Support divers'....2 separate team members in most organized dive expeditions.

Some general guidelines/basics as recommended---copied from my notes:

*Deep Safety Divers – [Sub 130 feet to 200 feet]

Certification - Trimix (GUE Tech 2 or TDI Trimix or NAUI Trimix I)

Rescue, CPR, DAN O2 and First Aid Certifications

Recommended Cave Training/Overhead Environment

Skill Proficiency -
1) Demonstrate mastery of the Technical Skills requirement
2) Demonstrate mastery of the Pre Dive Safety Check
3) Demonstrate mastery of the Fundamental Skills requirement

Insurance – Dan Preferred

Must log 15 dives within the past 12 months at this level

Must log 75 total dives within the past 12 months – any level.

Must support a training class to these diving levels bi-annually.



**Shallow Safety Divers – [To 130 feet – No-Stop Profiles]

Certification - Nitrox (GUE Tech 1 or ANDI Nitrox 2 or NAUI TechEANX)

Rescue, CPR, DAN O2 and First Aid Certifications

Skill Proficiency -
1) Demonstrate ability in the Technical Skills requirement
2) Demonstrate mastery of the Pre Dive Safety Check
3) Demonstrate mastery of the Fundamental Skills requirement

Insurance – Dan Standard

Must log 10 dives within the past 12 months at this level

Must log 50 total dives within the past 12 months – any level.

Must support a training class to these diving levels bi-annually.



***Support Divers – [To 50 feet – No-Stop Profiles]

Certification – Advanced Diver, Nitrox and Rescue

CPR, DAN O2 and First Aid Certifications

Skill Proficiency -
1) Demonstrate mastery of the Pre Dive Safety Check
2) Demonstrate mastery of the Fundamental Skills requirement

Insurance – Dan Standard

Must log 10 dives within the past 12 months at this level

Must log 50 total dives within the past 12 months – any level.

Must support a training class to these diving levels bi-annually.

++Thought this might be of interest to you on your dive group as a road map of ideas...

 

[Tigerman]

I do see the point in them being "active divers". However I dont really see the "50 dives within the past 12 months at any level" thing being very relevant, but thats just me.
If someone says "50 dives" to me it doesnt really tell me much other than that theyve been in the water. Doesnt tell me much about their abilities. 50 dives to 20 feet at the same 80 degree water location might not be exactly what youre looking for?
Just the thoughts that fell into my tired brains after a long day at work..

 

[Sloth]

I did my first dive as a support diver a couple of weeks ago. It was actually kind of stressful.

The dive was a simple profile to 150'. The conditions called for a drift dive and since the surface conditions were mild it was decided that we would track divers via their bubbles until they shot a marker at 70' ( as soon as they said "track bubbles" me and Fish, my dive buddy, looked at each other and grimaced). Expected time to see a SMB at the surface was only going to be 25mins with a max extension of 35mins.

Well, due to the current and the dive teams going under a ledge diffusing their bubbles further we quickly lost track of their exact location. At 20mins we suited up and did our equipment check and modified drills and waited for the SMB to pop. 25mins rolled by and no sign of an SMB. Ditto at 30mins, then 35mins. Me and Fish started jokely saying "so, at what point did they say to contact the coast guard again?" By this time the captain started following the ledge at the scheduled depth and finally he spotted them further west then expected.

By the time we got into the water they were at 20 feet. My total dive time was 6 mins. Shortest dive to date

 

[fweber]

So my question / concern is: Why aren't they deco certified? What happens if one of the "deep" divers cannot get to recreational depths? What if the safety diver needs to stay longer at depth and blows NDL?

Ok that part said, it's a super idea to have someone in the water at a pre-determined depth and expected time... so kudos on that.

What do they do?

- communication conduit to the surface in case of emergency
+ since it's unlikely that any diver on the dive could ascend to the surface directly without issues... a safety diver within NDL can do a bounce dive to the surface and relay problems / issues at least once... not repeatedly though
+ communicate latest surface conditions

- spare gas in case of emergency
+ wouldn't rely upon the safety diver to bring you deco gas to complete your dive
+ but in the cases where you just can't all the gas for you and a friend the safety diver becomes more critical

- carry extra tables and gear / lift bags / supplies... reading materials for deco... game boys / psp's... the water proof cases aren't generally good for 200+ ft. LOL

- off load gear (eg. camera and samples)
+ take 'em off your hands and back to the ship

- gas check

- max depth check and table check
+ make sure it's within planned parameters, if not go back topside and cut tables
(have seen this done once)

- neuro field exam
+ for some of the dives that really push the limits this becomes more critical

I don't dive deep that often and have only gone out once with a safety diver in the water, so take the above advice with a grain of salt... just my $0.02

Might post to cave diving forums where there's sometimes "stage" or safety divers being used.

Dave

A pretty good list. In addition, we expect our safety divers to be able to descend to bottom depth if need be. I would add.

• 
  Equally trained.
  Diving the same back gas.
  Meeting the team at their first gas switch. Usually, 40 meters for us.
  Providing an additional witness and confirmation at each gas switch.
  Positioned nearby but out of the way.
  Carrying extra cylinders of each deco gas

 

[do it easy]

An interesting twist- when I go out on smaller boats, and there are, say, 4 divers, we do two up, two down. Essentially, the two divers on the boat are supporting the two in the water. The hairiest part is while the second group is diving since the first group is still off-gassing. However, if they needed to splash in, the first group usually would have about an hour out of the water by the time the second set of divers is hitting their shallow stops.

This is for intermediate depth dives where the divers aren't too burdened by tanks and equipment, but having support from the surface could make a bad situation better. The "support" divers wouln't splash in unless there was an obvious problem.