LIfe Threatening Dive Experience - Fiji

[charlier]

Excellent post from the OP. Every year, we all read similar posts regarding near misses or dives that end with tragic consequences. After a few posting, the discussions mostly focus on equipment. Although I always make sure that I have the proper equipment in remote regions of SE Asia and beyond, a more important issue is making sure that the resort has experienced divemasters/guides, well-trained crew, and talented boat captains.

Without support from a safe, experienced, and well-trained resort/LoB dive team, the best safety equipment will not help that much.

 

[jfe]

Dammit you are one cool and collected dude, with my fuse either myself or the DM and captain would be taking meals through a straw in liquid form. Glad you came off this episode unharmed. I would definitely report them to whatever agency they are operating under, it is a risk and the next person may be a "Paul", who will either drown or get lost. I would also make sure that on every web page they are advertised my story be told to discredit them, not out of retaliation but to try and safe someone else, unless they can proof they changed their operating methods.
I do not think a SMB would have helped you in this regard, but if a DM has to has to dive down and try and find a path to dive I personally will have reservations, leaves too much question marks in the dive plan. It also is apparent that lost diver procedure is a joke to these guys, may be as you mention they do it all too often. They are a huge risk to anyone diving with them.

 

[scubafanatic]

Hi Punkabilly Turk,

We were threading water to try to stay within the location of our dive. The current was pulling us way from where we started the dive and we were trying to stay in site of the dive boat. Whenever we have done drift dives in past, we always had the dive boat follow along with the dive bubbles and we always made it a point to stay within site of the dive master. We did not expect to do a drift dive in confused waters and spend the majority of it going into a strong current. Kind of defeats the purpose of a drift dive. Yes, we should have brought our safety sausage with us, but we stupidity did not bring it and we assumed that it was just four of us diving that we would all stay together. The dive master did not give much of a talk before the dive besides saying it was a superman drift dive. They were not very friendly or informative which lead me to believe mistakenly that they were not very experienced. They did not supply us with Safety sausages.

We learned a great deal on what to look for now when sizing up a dive shop.

Bill

Not to change the main subject too much, but I have encountered dive ops that will deliberately guide the group head-on into a current....either to rapidly burn off all the diver's air or as a joke or punishment, or they are in a bad mood.......artificially shortened dives allow the dive op to squeeze in more dives = more $, or they want to teach the divers a 'lesson'. I have had a DM on a live aboard night dive deliberately ditch his group while diving an essentially bottomless wall dive, at night!

 

[charlier]

Wow, I must be in the minority. I have rarely experienced dive ops that artificially shorten dives or needlessly head into a current. When I am guiding, I cannot imagine ditching my group.

 

[scubafanatic]

6 ft SMB. Period. I've got 2 now. 3 ft one for the quarries, 6 ft for the Great Lakes. Bright pink.

Here's what I bring on ALL dives (including POOL dives) relating to 'safety':

3 computers ( 2 AI, 1 non-AI)
1 SPG
spare mask
titanium line cutter
Halcyon blunt tip titanium knife
JOTRON NATO/military grade emergency strobe
2 LED lights (night dive = 3 dive lights)
Jon line
manual whistle
McMurdo Aluminum dive canister
DeLorme 'InReach Explorer' (uses Iridum Space Satellite network)
3 Halcyon SMB's ( a 4 ft and (2) 6 ft)
signal mirror

presently shopping for:

(PLB/marine radio) to fit inside above dive canister)
Nautilus PLB, the new version

still debating on:

'air horn' spliced into the BCD inflator hose (these things seem to (too) easily rust out/corrode based on my past experience)

 

[scubafanatic]

Wow, I must be in the minority. I have rarely experienced dive ops that artificially shorten dives or needlessly head into a current. When I am guiding, I cannot imagine ditching my group.

The 'deliberately heading into a current' tactic is probably the most common offense, it cycles divers in and out of the water ASAP so the dive op can pick up the next batch of paying divers, and they think they have pulled one over on their unsuspecting guests, like nobody notices what they are up to!

 

[scubafanatic]

Why don't charters offer the nautilus or other locating device for a small rental fee and require a deposit if you lose it? Or maybe there are some that do. It seems like it would not take long to have them paid for in rental fees.

There ARE some dive ops that provide such locating devices, for free......I believe I read the Galapagos based live aboards do this, probably others in remote locations as well. Aldora (Cozumel) used to use the original Nautilus for their divers, but abandoned the policy as they reported the Nautilus (original version) was very unreliable with poor warranty support....which may be why Nautilus abandoned the radio feature in their new version and just offer the emergency signal feature version nowadays. Word is that eventually Nautilus will reintroduce the radio feature back into their product, once they get a proven design figured out. At this point I'm not sure I trust (with my life) the Nautilus product, so I'm shopping PLBs and micro marine radios from well proven marine rescue supply houses like : starmarinedepot

 

[clownfishsydney]

I keep reading about these scenarios in books and on here. How many people are carrying a Nautilus Lifeline? I've been waiting to grab one but the more I read about these lost at sea episodes the closer I'm getting to pulling the trigger.

I doubt a Nautilus Lifeline would have helped here. May have later perhaps, but I doubt it would with the dive boat (note the new one does not have a radio, only DSC and AIS).

 

[clownfishsydney]

Isn't the new Nautilus Lifeline basically a PLB in a canister? There's no more VHF radio function it's just a single button mayday/distress signal.

Latest one has DSC and AIS only.

 

[NYCNaiad]

Right - Nautilus Lifeline (now discontinued) was a vhf radio that could also send a DSC distress call. The new Nautilus GPS loses the radio and just has the DSC distress call and also has AIS to show your location to ships with AIS receivers (commercial ships use this). Both are much more limted in range and who monitors versus a PLB. A PLB transmits a signal to satellites on dedicated world-wide frequencies for distress beacons monitored by Search and Rescue orgs.

How Do PLBs Work - PLB Review - Personal Locator Beacon Reviews

I've always been a bit iffy on exactly how a PLB worked so that article was fantastic. Thanks! I had the old Nautilus LifeLine & have been shopping for a PLB. I had thought to also replace my Nautilus with the new one since it was my understanding that with a PLB, it may take time for you to be rescued so using the Nautilus could get you saved more quickly if someone's monitoring...but having the PLB is good as a back-up. Do you disagree?

... It was our own fault for not bringing our dive safety sausage. We were at the limit of what we could bring which was one bag each weighing no more then 50 pounds, so we left them at home to make space for cloths and such. Stupid more on our part. I'm not sure it would have done any good as our sausage would not have been seen over the waves and not having the boat look anywhere near us, but going forward we always will take them on every dive. ....

I was left at sea & know how scary that is. Glad you are safe! While I think it is absolutely critical to always have a 6ft SMB with you, this wasn't seen in the waves we were in though we could see the boat far off in the distance so it's unlikely that yours would have been seen either. Also, if you ever forget something, it never hurts to ask the dive shop to borrow something. I did that once on a trip easily. I think you handled things well with the exception that like me, I assume you'll now be planning for if/when you're left at sea & getting a Nautilus and/or PLB.

...I also bought a Dive Alert Plus before our last trip. t attaches to the inflator hose and makes a very loud noise when you're on the surface....I'm a bit of a gear junkie and sort of bought it on a whim, but did find it very effective at getting someone's attention.

This is great! I hadn't seen this before, but now I'm going to get this as well. Thanks!