So I had a fiasco of a dive yesterday. The vis was bad on all the dives I did this weekend, but the last couple more so. Nothing earth shattering but maybe 5meters or so. We were diving a site with more currents which made it a bit more of a mess but still seemed manageable. There were also about a million divers on the site and mostly open water students except for our group.
The site was a rock formation in open water with a bunch of swim throughs, boulders etc. We dropped down and were gonna hit a swim through right away. My DM went through and two more of our group of 5, but before the last two of us could get to the opening to enter a "school" of OW divers lined up in between two of us and our group. The first OW guy was going up and down like a yoyo gripping the inflator for dear life, vertical in the water and "running" for lack of a better term. Me and the last guy (former instructor) decided we would just go around the rocks rather than wait for it all to end. Except around the rocks didn't lead to the other side of the swim through. Great. So we signalled each other, swam around, and tried to find the group eventually ascending a bit to try and spot them but vis was really poop so it wasn't working. Before too long the DM found us.. we proceeded with the dive
Then a few minutes later we're all trucking along and realize two of our group went off in some other direction and we can't see em. We all look, can't find em. The dm tells me and my buddy to stay put while he looks and so we sit there blowing bubbles for 10-15 min, the DM returning every once in a while and shrugging with the "I don't know where the heck they went" look. After this he comes back and we continue the dive.. (I think former instructor guy is unaccounted for by now too but not 100% on that)
Pretty soon we get to another swim through, the DM goes first, then my buddy and I'm waiting for him to get a bit through it before I proceed. So I'm looking at the rock beside me for a few seconds and when I look up, no buddy. Great. (This has to be some kind of record for lost divers on one dive) so I swim through, look around and decide left seems to be the only logical way to go due to my innate understanding of underwater geology (not really). But they're not there.. zzzz... So long story short I look around for a while and realize I'm not gonna find them. I've got air and I'm not panicking but I'm thinking about the dive briefing: if you get separated from your group search for one minute, surface, and reunite with them bla bla bla.. anyway I decide to poke around a little since its late in the dive (40min or so?) & the dive site isn't too massive I figure I can't be too lost. I eventually do my safety stop a few minutes later cause I hear the boat somewhere in the vicinity and end the dive.
I see the girls on the boat. I see my buddy on the boat (thanks buddy). I see the DM on the boat, and former instructor guy on the boat. No one seems concerened ha. Apparently the girls just kept diving till they got attacked by a titan trigger fish and decided to surface LOL and my buddy and DM completed the dive.
But I'm just wondering.. what happened to the dive briefing of we're gonna surface after a minute? and although I have the skills to complete a dive by myself, shouldn't someone be trying to find me?
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The site was a rock formation in open water with a bunch of swim throughs, boulders etc. We dropped down and were gonna hit a swim through right away. My DM went through and two more of our group of 5, but before the last two of us could get to the opening to enter a "school" of OW divers lined up in between two of us and our group. The first OW guy was going up and down like a yoyo gripping the inflator for dear life, vertical in the water and "running" for lack of a better term. Me and the last guy (former instructor) decided we would just go around the rocks rather than wait for it all to end. Except around the rocks didn't lead to the other side of the swim through. Great. So we signalled each other, swam around, and tried to find the group eventually ascending a bit to try and spot them but vis was really poop so it wasn't working. Before too long the DM found us.. we proceeded with the dive
Then a few minutes later we're all trucking along and realize two of our group went off in some other direction and we can't see em. We all look, can't find em. The dm tells me and my buddy to stay put while he looks and so we sit there blowing bubbles for 10-15 min, the DM returning every once in a while and shrugging with the "I don't know where the heck they went" look. After this he comes back and we continue the dive.. (I think former instructor guy is unaccounted for by now too but not 100% on that)
Pretty soon we get to another swim through, the DM goes first, then my buddy and I'm waiting for him to get a bit through it before I proceed. So I'm looking at the rock beside me for a few seconds and when I look up, no buddy. Great. (This has to be some kind of record for lost divers on one dive) so I swim through, look around and decide left seems to be the only logical way to go due to my innate understanding of underwater geology (not really). But they're not there.. zzzz... So long story short I look around for a while and realize I'm not gonna find them. I've got air and I'm not panicking but I'm thinking about the dive briefing: if you get separated from your group search for one minute, surface, and reunite with them bla bla bla.. anyway I decide to poke around a little since its late in the dive (40min or so?) & the dive site isn't too massive I figure I can't be too lost. I eventually do my safety stop a few minutes later cause I hear the boat somewhere in the vicinity and end the dive.
I see the girls on the boat. I see my buddy on the boat (thanks buddy). I see the DM on the boat, and former instructor guy on the boat. No one seems concerened ha. Apparently the girls just kept diving till they got attacked by a titan trigger fish and decided to surface LOL and my buddy and DM completed the dive.
But I'm just wondering.. what happened to the dive briefing of we're gonna surface after a minute? and although I have the skills to complete a dive by myself, shouldn't someone be trying to find me?
Sent from my HTC One X using Tapatalk