Almost died today--Any captains out there???

[Thalassamania]

I have it on good authority that lightning is not a problem for divers who are evenly shallowly submerged. Fish get killed because their blood is isotonic with the sea water and thus conducts electricity about the same as the water around the fish. Humans (for that matter all mammals) are hypotonic (lower salinity) than the current day ocean and thus a mammal's body is an insulator when compared to the surround water and the electricity will flow around in rather than through it.

However, freshwater divers need to be concerned.

 

[vladimir]

a better solution, i think, is never to lose the ability to go back underwater (a safe place to be in a thunderstorm at sea)

maybe you could manage your weights better so you can keep some on you on the surface and still be able to head down if you need to.

I agree that she shouldn't have dropped the weightbelt in this circumstance. But she should be lauded for remembering her training and doing some things right, too. She aborted a dive that she wasn't comfortable with--that is an instinct that will serve her well during her dive career, hopefully tempered with the judgement born of experience. And when she was in distress on the surface, she had the presence of mind to drop her weightbelt. How many times have divers been criticized for not doing that, often posthumously?

 

[H2Andy]

did i criticize her for dumping her weight?

but we could all manage our weight better so that dumping all our weight is not our only option

 

[magicwanz]

If Mr. Cobia swam by or I ran into a nice grouper, I definately would have taken the shot... I was by no means on "Shark Watch" with my spear gun... Just know guys that I was by no means snorkling around, looking out for sharks, but was present with her.

You should start looking for sharks when your hunting cobia, sharks can be pretty helpful with that...

Regards,
Chris

 

[caseybird]

The OP is a new diver was/is clearly anxious about blue water diving. Not uncommon. She and her buddy started a drift dive with lightning nearby, something we are told is not so unusual for the area.
She was buddied with a much more experienced diver who brought along a speargun.
Because of equalization problems, she felt ill soon after reaching the bottom, and thumbed the dive. She and her buddy ascended to the surface, where she dropped her weights.
At the surface, she discovered the boat was too far away to do a pick-up, the seas were rough and there was lightning in the area. Despite her clear distress she managed to deploy a safety sausage, and hold onto it for at least 45 minutes. Her dive buddy saw the boat leave the area and tried to shout to it. When the dive boat didn't respond, he spent the time waiting for pick-up searching for more game to spear in the close vicinity of the OP.
We have no indication why the dive boat left the area, we don't even know if the dive boat moved at all. We do know the divers surfaced some distance from the boat.
The original dive boat eventually picked them up. The OP was quite distressed and upset. I don't see any indication of real panic. Nor did anyone require medical attention. (If I got anything wrong please correct)
My Obsevations:
Teaming a speardiver with a less-than-confident new diver was a poor plan. Speardivers on this board have often told us hunters hunt solo. The OP needed the full attention of her buddy, at depth and on the surface.
The boat briefing may have included more information about recovery if the dive boat had to leave the site. Something as simple as "when you surface, if you can't see us, deploy a sausage and wait" might have eased some of the anxiety the OP had on the surface. I don't know how much of a briefing is customary on these boats, perhaps the OP could have been more proactive about finding out what to do in that situation before she got in the water. In reality, I'm sure she was relying on her more experienced buddy. Trust-me dives are not a good plan.
How to handle the lightning: A really interesting question. Clearly, being underwater is best. The simplest way to ride out the storm is to deploy a SMB, and use it to hang around 15 to 20' deep until the storm passes. Lightning is very apparent underwater. The buddy team should have stopped their ascent around the 15' mark, shot a bouy and hung until the storm passed.
At that depth air will last a long time. The OP couldn't do this because she dropped her weights and it is unlikely she was trained to deploy a SMB on a line. The buddy might have been trained and equipped to shoot a SMB, but he couldn't re-descend without leaving the OP on the surface.They probably weren't prepared to do it, and probably didn't have the gear. Once the OP was on the surface without weights, the buddy team had used up all it's options.
My conclusions:
Be prepared to lose the boat. (Bring signaling gear)
If there is lightning in the area, be prepared for an extended hang. (Bring and know how to use an SMB)
Buddy teams must have good commmunications about likely contingecy plans before the dive. ("since we're seeing lightning before we begin the dive, if we ascend and see a wild ass lightning storm, stop at 15 feet, I'll deploy the SMB and we'll hang until the storm passes")
And to the OP, If all else goes wrong, and you are at the surface in a horrible storm, drop your weights and ride it out. This is what you did, it saved your life. Not a bad dive after all.
Good diving.

 

[OceansBlue]

She completed her profile? Good. Don't think she had when the first posts asking went up.

So why did your buddy let you ascend alone?

DandyDon, I'm troubled by some of your posts in this thread, and I'm not sure what your point is or where you are trying to help. Please re-read all of this thread...especially BlueAnchor's and WaterWarrior's posts again. She states in the very first post that she came up with her buddy.

"I grabbed my diving buddy, and gave him the signal. He was reluctant to but did anyway. So, we went up to surface where a thunderstorm was passing through us..."

I've also beed troubled by a lot of the harsh criticism given to both BlueAnchor's and WaterWarrior's comments. People, you need to do a little detective work and piece the events together through their posts. So many people have just outright twisted the events that occured to them and then bashed them and or their skills. She actually did the correct thing when she started feeling uncomfortable on the dive.

1) Several people said she should not have gone on the dive with the thunderstorm, but she asked the captain what was it doing, and he said it was blowing to the north. I am presuming that meant it wasn't coming towards them, so why would she think she should abort the dive at that point? If the captain tells me it looks good to go diving, then I'm going unless I call it off for some other reason.

2) She started feeling uncomfortable on this dive, so she called it off, and she & her buddy went to the surface. I don't see any issues here either. This is the proper thing you're trained to do.

3) Where it gets tricky is that when she got the surface the storm had changed direction & they were caught under some fierce lightening. Now, I don't know about anyone else, but my training classes never covered what I'm supposed to do if I get caught at the surface with severe lightening all around me. I was also never trained that I would have to ride out an electrical storm while the boat went away. I'm sure that the first time this happens to anyone else, that you'd be pretty scared too.

Of all things, this should be an educational thread and I applaud all those who have tried to make it that way. How many people here have been caught in an intense lightening storm when they came up to the surface from a dive? I'm a fairly experienced diver, but I have never come up in the middle of an intense lightening storm. I'm pretty sure if that would have happened to me, I would have been scared s**tless too, but that in no way is to say that I'm scared of the ocean and that I have no place being out there.

BlueAnchor, many people here believe since that you haven't dived much that you need more training and experience. I for one am all about continuing education, but I don't know of one course that is going to give you the training that you need to ride out an electrical storm if you're caught in one. You made it through a rough day, and now might be the time to reflect if there is anything that you might have done differently. I am taking this thread as a learning experience for myself, and should I find myself in your situation, I for one plan on taking the advice of shooting off my SMD and hovering at 25 or 30 ft till the storm passes by...as long as I have enough air to keep me at depth. When the captain realizes that he is short divers, he will come back to look for them.

BlueAnchor, I do hope that the events of this one day & the useless posts in this thread do not scare you away from diving. No one really knows why the captain went away unless you are able to talk to him. From your scenario it sounds like he was trying to keep the boat safe from the storm, ride it out, and then come back to get you guys when it was safer. Many people have had to wait for a boat to pick us up, including myself. Unfortunately, for your cicumstances, you were caught in the middle of a lightening storm.

 

[WreckDivingFool]

Ok I am going to put my pre-tax $.02 in here again. I was one of the first to post up on this topic, and this has turned into a circus. The OP has edited the OP numerous times over and has changed details of this little soiree as the flow of the topic changed. The more negative towards them it got, the OP was edited to reflect attempted proper dive technique. As the sympathy rolled in and a kinder, gentler posting ensued, the OP was edited to reflect a desire for more attention from the OP.

I personally think this is just a desire to be coddled, gain attention, and to want people to contact, comfort, and cajole the OP. Maybe I am wrong, but if you go and read the posting from the VERY beginning, prior to the comma and 1-iron references, you will see quotes that do NOT exist in the OP as of now.

In our sport, and for those of us who this is our line of work, we know we have risks that we take every time we strap on our backs an overly pressurized man made object. Then we breathe from a tube the vital life sustaining invisible substance called air from that man made object on our backs. And then to top it off, we step into a world that we are merely guests in for a short time before returning to our world.

For most of us, our problems and concerns seem to subside when we hit the water and breath from the afformentioned tube and object on our back. But for some, the drama begins when we hit the water. Taking a spear gun into the ocean on a dive and "protecting" someone is foolish at best. Placing blame on a captain for your own short comings is merely a way to justify a lack of planning, comfort, execution, training, etc.

My personal advice is to take that logbook with those 20 or so dives you have (at most) and go back and do a refresher course. It sounds as if both if you need to understand how a dive truly works, and the theory behind it. And I would suggest taking a boat diving specialty course as well. It sounds as if that can help you out.

And just a helpful hint.... LEAVE THE SPEARGUN AT HOME AS WELL AS THE BLAME AND CRIES FOR SYMPATHY! We all make mistakes, no matter how long we have been diving. The key to becoming a better diver it to come up with a plan on how to learn from them........

Now what does that leave me after taxes on my $.02? Do I owe anything now?


SAFE DIVING!!

I posted this on the last page. For those of you who think we are being critical, the OP has made numerous changes to the OP so unless you started out fresh on this thread when it first went up, you really cant follow all the drama that has been going on

 

[DandyDon]

A little confusion to explain here, excerpting the particular parts confused...

DandyDon, I'm troubled by some of your posts in this thread, and I'm not sure what your point is or where you are trying to help. Please re-read all of this thread...especially BlueAnchor's and WaterWarrior's posts again. She states in the very first post that she came up with her buddy.

Yes, I recall that she did. It was a couple days ago I think, and this thread has really seemed to run amuck at times, but I am pretty sure she did say that. Edit: Walter below says she added that later. I don't really know. Anyway...

When I asked...

So why did your buddy let you ascend alone?

I was quoting Ardy about his experience...

Having been left 'bobbing' around in the ocean for almost an hour myself I do understand the concerns that it brings. In my case it was a clear day and no sign of the boat anywhere and my dive guide/buddy who was badly hung over didnt appear on the surface for nearly 30mins after I did.

I'm kinda picky about descending & ascending with my buddy; was curious why his sent him up along...?

 

[Walter]

I have it on good authority that lightning is not a problem for divers who are evenly shallowly submerged.

True, but they weren't submerged.

She states in the very first post that she came up with her buddy.

Yes, but that was a later edit. In her original post, she seemed to say she'd surfaced alone and away from the flag. We now know neither of those are true. I'm sure she thought she should edit the original post to answer questions when she should have made a new post. She's new here. Some of the early comments aren't spot on, but honestly they made lots more sense before she edited the post.

 

[Splitlip]

I just scanned the last few pages here. I can understand the OP's mind set. New diver in admittedly bad conditions.

But did I read it correctly that the dive buddy, a Jupiter diver with 25 -50 dives is the BF, who presumadly knows the drill in these cases, was looking for targets of oportunity to shoot instead of offering encouragement to his buddy?

If I misread, please feel free to correct me.

Edit:
Here:

Maybe I am wrong, but I still don't get it.

"I was by no means on "Shark Watch" with my spear gun. For those of you in the area that know much about the ledge this time of year, it is very alive with surface and mid depth fish including kingfish, AJ's, bonito, sailfish, ocasional dolphin/wahoo, and cobia. Looking down while the diveboat was no where in sight was kind of a relief from worrying about getting struck by the overhead lighting for a guy that is obsessed with pelagics."