When to render assistance and when not to?

[Esprise Me]

I haven't had many instances of a buddy having problems, but it's not uncommon around here for people to get snagged on kelp. It's not even close to an emergency unless you panic. But sometimes it's easier to disentangle your buddy than for him to do it himself, so I do.

 

[Blackcrusader]

Yeah, or when I descended in the pool using my snorkel. Doesn't work well. Maybe just used to all the snorkeling I had done before taking OW and mixed it up with scuba?

I've done that from the surface in the ocean.. duh!!!!

 

[lermontov]

with experienced divers some issues can be resolved by themselves easily by just pointing or signalling and they can sort it - some cant and if that is the case you help. With inexperienced divers your doing the same but also looking/monitoring stress thresholds - whatever works as a team

 

[chillyinCanada]

I'm not going to leave a buddy with a slipped tank to fix it on their own, whether they're capable of it or not. Probably same with a dropped weight.

 

[FinnMom]

The thing uppermost in my mind is trying to keep the other diver calm & preferably even happy. Inexperienced divers frighten easily, and the extreme is always that an inexperienced frightened diver might get unglued for reasons we would find pretty trivial. Gotta remember what it was like to feel butterfies with every dive, and respect that some folks never dive often enough to get over the butterflies. If the diver is relatively new or inexperienced, I would like to solve a problem ASAP. The problem I hate most is a slipped tank: it's a filthy mess to go stand on the bottom or in the shallows to fix it, but the other diver can get real upset when you try to fix it mid-water, esp. if the 1st try doesn't work.

The most effective things I've found are (1) to talk about possible problems beforehand and talk about what we would do to handle some possible problems (2) agree from the beginning to make an extra stop to evaluate everything and make a go on/go back decision just after the dive has started, at 6m for instance, or 5mins into the dive. Knowing that it's absolutely in the schedule to "get back off the horse" if you don't like it up there can make it a lot easier to climb up & try taking a few steps. I esp. do this for a 1st boat dive, or esp. a 1st (1st few) boat dive with waves on the surface.

 

[TMHeimer]

I've done that from the surface in the ocean.. duh!!!!

Yeah, but yours wasn't during the DM course....(glad no one saw..).

 

[johndiver999]

I tend to just fix the problem for them unless it is trivial. I generally want to "get on with the dive" and fix the issue ASAP.

I generally would expect the same. A loose tank cam band is trivial to fix for another diver. If you have to do it yourself, it is going to waste at least a minute or more. Who wants to take their tank off in the water, when there are better things to do?

 

[Ayisha]

An interesting discussion on one of the forums about how close we should be to our dive buddy in case they need assistance. Not talking about OOA situation just general things that happen. Some people feel the need to rush in and assist right away. I prefer to let people try to resolve their own problems especially newer divers who need those experiences and they will gain confidence in their own abilities to manage things.

The other thing is that if I see a diver with a tank slip or caught in a fishing line or tangled up in their own dsmb line ( seen that a lot ) do you immediately go to help? Does a dropped weight prevent a diver retrieving it? A lost fin well nice if someone gets that for you.

Most of the time I would let the other diver try to resolve the issue themselves rather than rush over. There have been times when I see a diver in horizontal trim trying to dump air from their inflator hose. I have swam over to them and shown them there is a dump valve on the bottom right of the BCD and take their hand to the dump valve kept them horizontal and shown them how to dump air in that position. Many tell me their instructor never taught them this. I am like well you should also learn about the equipment and know where these things are from your buddy check. In 2019 I had a diver blow out his inflator module from his BCD at 30m. Quite a shocking moment for him and I went and attached my DSMB to his BCD ring inflated it and we did a nice slow controlled ascent. He was about to ditch weights and never thought of using the DSMB in this way. Better not to wait for him to descend into the depths too far lol.

Sometimes I've had to stop a diver from touching that coral which is in fact a mottled Talisad Scorpion fish. I did watch a French instructor put his finger into a hole I had been taking photos of a Mantis Shrimp of. I didn't stop that and he ended up with a missing finger nail and a broken finger. On another dive my buddy had his camera housing broken by one. That's the risk we take for some shots lol.

So now we know who you are on that FB Scuba Accidents page.

In the synopsis above, you left out your laughing at other people's demise.

 

[Raphus]

Yeah, or when I descended in the pool using my snorkel. Doesn't work well. Maybe just used to all the snorkeling I had done before taking OW and mixed it up with scuba?

Jeah doesnt mix well..
I saw some cool fish from the surface, exhaled, descended to around 10m depth. And want to inhale, to get neutral.. Jeah i was not scuba diving i was snorkeling...
I didnt inhale, but it was a long 10m back to the surface with empty lungs


I assist only if i see the diver is close to panick, or is not able to help himself.

 

[VikingDives]

There is where the judgement come in.
Your red-line may not be the same as the diver in distress.
If all you want to discuss is benign, no-stress, no-real-problem situations, fine.
But ANY of those situations can turn to crap in a few seconds.

One of my seminal dives was as an open water diver... It was a big boat dive in Jamaica and everyone was playing follow the leader with the DM. I was hanging out at the back of the group as we went into a swim-through. There was a group of divers who'd just finished their OWD training the day before, at the resort, and some of them were near the back as the DM entered the swim-through.

By the time the last 5 divers (out of 25ish?) were entering, it was completely silted out. I'd already decided that I was going to swim over, but I was watching a woman from the "just certified" group. I could see that her anxiety was climbing, and then her husband swam over to her as she sat on her knees near the entrance. They had the following conversation via hand signals:

Him: (Angrily) Swim through there.
Her: No.
Him: (More angrily) You swim through there and I'll follow you.
Her: (Angry) No, you swim though there.

At this point the husband swam through into the silt. I'm 100% certain that the woman thought she was alone on the other side. I looked at her stream of bubbles and I could tell she was about to panic and probably go for the surface.

Not knowing what to do, I just winged it. I swam up and asked her if she was OK, and she said she was, though I could tell she wasn't. Then I asked if she would like to swim over the swim-through with me to which I received a very emphatic affirmative. I remember thinking that I should hold her hand, but I didn't know how she'd take that. We did our swim over and everyone lived happily ever after.

I surfaced from that dive resolved to get more training. I knew I didn't know how to handle her if she'd have bolted, and I resolved then and there to take a rescue course.

I think most instructors/pros have a pretty well-honed ability to identify when someone's going to make the jump from problem to panic, but that's because they see it all the time. That certainly isn't an exclusive club, anyone can recognize it, it's just a matter of knowing when and how to respond. It's probably better to move close and try to help.

If I see someone get entangled, I'm going to move in to help them if that's going to solve the problem more efficiently, whether that's a dsmb or fishing line... Same goes for a tank slip. It's easier to have someone else do it.

There's a reason, I think, that there's no underwater signal for "I need assistance" and that's because when we are below the surface there's a tacit agreement that I will come to your assistance if you have a problem that I can identify.