Buddy Descents

[evelyn45802]

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A ScubaBoard Staff Message...

This thread has been split off from another. The original thread about a different incident may be found here Lost Diver in Cozumel, Mexico, February 2016 Marg, SB Senior Moderator

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A ScubaBoard Staff Message...

I was a few miles away diving the day that Connie went missing in Cozumel. She was 62, not 41 as a previous post stated. It was only her skull that was recovered. (I am a cousin to her daughter in law, so I hope my facts are more credible.)
Tuesday was a rough day on the boat. The surf was mean and the currents on the surface strong as usual. In Cozumel, you must descend immediately upon exiting the boat or the surface currents take you away from the reef. This does not allow for the needed time to get comfortable and descend together. We were told to roll off the side of the boat and immediately descend. You find your buddy at the bottom. The visibility was much less than normal, but I would still estimate 80 feet. My dive buddy was my son who was making his very first dives. I had trouble descending due to extra body weight since my last dives, and over all stress. (It is tough to be a mom and not be over vigilant about your child's safety even if he is 30 - It was more stressful than I expected.) I have had a couple of incidents diving over the years and I have lost my fearlessness and am reasonably sober about the danger associated with the sport. By the time that I was able to descend, the surface currents had taken me out of sight of my dive buddy and the group. I looked all around for bubbles and just couldn't locate them. After 2 minutes and seeing that I was drifting over the reef at 40 feet, I decided to ascend to the surface. I was spotted by my boat and picked up in a few minutes. It took very little time for me to be out of sight of everyone. If I had panicked or had a medical condition like a heart attach or stroke, it might have cost me my life. Fortunately, my crisis ended well. Connie's did not. I feel heart break for her daughter and dive buddy and of course her family and friends. Accidents happen in life. We must do what we can to prepare for them so we survive them. Just a wrong decision in a moment tumbles into crisis. I have to believe that Connie had an additional factor or two that lead to her demise. Practice, Practice, Practice.

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[Ron Lee]

Evelyn, I have made a reasonable number of dives in Cozumel and most were such that we backroll and then all start descending together. Perhaps conditions that day made a backroll and immediate descent prudent.

Typically, the current is parallel to the reef so a delay just places you at a different point along the reef...usually a little towards the shore depending upon the drop point.

Did your son backroll on the same side of the boat as you did? Regardless of that, why did he descend and leave you? That is the prime directive of the buddy system. Stay together. So what if you took a little longer to get down? If it just places you further north of the entry point, the group should have been in that general area anyway.

My suggestion is work on your buddy team basics. He can't help you ...or you him....if he is 100 feet or more away.

 

[DandyDon]

why did he descend and leave you? That is the prime directive of the buddy system. Stay together.

It is in my book. Buddies start, stay, and end together. If we lose the group, we lose them together. None of this "meet you on the bottom" stuff, as much as I would like to do that - we don't.

 

[mmmbelows]

We were told to roll off the side of the boat and immediately descend. You find your buddy at the bottom.

Really wrong and bad direction from a dive master. That type of stuff leads to divers disappearing and people like me asking - where was the buddy at and others replying that it can happen to anybody.

 

[DandyDon]

Really wrong and bad direction from a dive master. That type of stuff leads to divers disappearing and people like me asking - where was the buddy at and others replying that it can happen to anybody.

Yeah, I don't want to criticize Evelyn as that was her DM's order, but I wouldn't follow it. With my home bud, I tell the DMs that he has a hard time clearing his ears at 15 feet, but I will stay with him, and we will descend together when we can. I used to wait at the bottom but got to thinking after all of these separated buddies & missing diver threads, and stopped doing that. If he can't descend, I'll escort him back to the boat and be sure he exits ok, but he has always got down eventually. If he did call the dive, I'd escort him back (keeping my promise to his sweet mother), then I'm okay solo with my pony bottle and PLB.

 

[evelyn45802]

withdrawn

 

[boulderjohn]

Really wrong and bad direction from a dive master. That type of stuff leads to divers disappearing and people like me asking - where was the buddy at and others replying that it can happen to anybody.

Going in negative and descending immediately is commonly done around the world in high surface currents because hanging around on the surface leads to separation. In the Galapagos it is how we did every dive. In a ScubaBoard thread a couple years ago, one of the participants refused to believe there are places where people do backroll entries and then gather at the surface before descending--who would do something so stupid, he wanted to know.

I know it is common in Cozumel to gather on the surface, but I have done negative entries there on more than a few occasions.

 

[Lorenzoid]

I think of the Galapagos as a destination for experienced divers. Are the strong currents and need for occasional negative entries sort of Cozumel's dirty little secret? When I had only around 20 dives of experience, my girlfriend at the time, who had a thousand or so, was adamant that the trip we wanted to do together would be to somewhere other than Cozumel. Having been there a few times now, it seems to me that most of the time the currents are mild and entirely suitable for new divers, but on occasion they can be ripping. It could be hard for an inexperienced diver to know to sit out a dive that the DM says is going to be a meet-your-buddy-at-the-bottom.

 

[mmmbelows]

Going in negative and descending immediately is commonly done around the world in high surface currents because hanging around on the surface leads to separation. In the Galapagos it is how we did every dive. In a ScubaBoard thread a couple years ago, one of the participants refused to believe there are places where people do backroll entries and then gather at the surface before descending--who would do something so stupid, he wanted to know.

No problem descending negative without milling about the surface first, done it many times, however it's always done in sync with buddy and descending at the same rate and together. If my buddy has ears problems on a negative descent I don't abandon them on the way down, I adjust my descent rate to theirs, keeping together the entire time. In short - we go in together, we descend together, we double check each other at the bottom with an okay? No separation at any point.

The stronger the currents the lower the viz the more important it is do a close together descent. Buddies going in the water at different times or descending at different rates in strong current, lower viz and the safety of the buddy pair is lost, thrown out the window and we sometimes can get disappeared divers. One hits the rally point and waits for the other to never show up and nobody knows what happened... and I'll be asking - where was the buddy at?

 

[mmmbelows]

Would it controversial to suggest that the DMs are more harmful than no DMs would be? They allow divers to abdicate responsibility for themselves, enable divers and buddy pairs who are insufficiently experienced to dive and cause this 'group' style of diving without either a proper 'team' or clear and effective buddies.

I know it is possible to have a guide and remain in proper buddy pairs, but reading many accounts on here and my experience as a single diver joining guided groups in the past I suspect that is not how it is usually.

Yes, there is no doubt about it being possible. I've talked to and experienced over and over again over the years always the same circumstances divers who started their diving in Cozumel, dived there a few times and now they are diving for the first time a new location and they get a dive master who isn't babying anyone and their reactions are typical, you can always tell what they are thinking. They've gotten so used to a guide that they have forgotten that they were certified to dive without one and should be fully able to. Put those dives on a boat in Florida and watch their eyes get big as saucers when they are on a moored dive site and learn they have to do their own out and back navigation on the dive.