Uncontrolled Ascent

[Lehmann108]

I did my AOW deep dive yesterday off of Boyton Beach with an instructor and another AOW diver. A fourth guy came along. He initially had problems descending. The instructor clipped 5 more pounds of weight on him and he descended fine. After doing our cognitive task at the bottom (97 feet) we finned along the reef edge at about 90 ft with the fourth guy at the rear. After a few minutes we all noticed that the fourth guy was missing. We saw him up near the surface. The instructor was about to call the dive when we saw the boat come over and pick him up. We continued our dive a little longer then surfaced. When we got back on the boat we all "what's upped" him and he said he had an uncontrolled ascent from 90 feet. The instructor immediately asked him about DCI symptoms and he reported pain and stiffness in his neck and shoulder joints. He was placed on oxygen while we went back in to meet EMS. He was feeling alot better after being placed on oxygen. The instructor went through his gear and noticed that one of his weight pockets in his BCD was unzipped and empty. He had somehow dropped 5lbs down at 97 feet. I'll find out more about him and post tomorrow. The whole thing was kind of strange.

 

[mamashark]

Why did he have weights in his zipper pocket? A weight belt was REQUIRED for ALL of our classes and check out dives. What dive shop did you take classes with?

And, I have to add...we ALWAYS have dive buddies.

Thanks for the post!

 

[scratchmyback]

After a few minutes we all noticed that the fourth guy was missing.

Was nobody assigned to be this guy's buddy?

There are many things wrong here, but this jumps out at me the most.

 

[Daner]

I would think that losing only 5 lbs at 97 feet a diver would be able to vent air to stop the ascent or am I way off base?

The safety stop would have been tough if he was properly weighted to begin with.

 

[motorcitydiver]

Hmmmm.....ADVANCED Open Water class? This usually means a little bit of experience before moving to this point. Weights in zippered pocket instead of weight belt or integrated system. Instructor and three other divers not noticing he's missing. Continuing the dive after an uncontrolled ascent of a "student" from 97'. Lots of questions. Hopefully he's ok and no DCS.

 

[Papa Steve]

I did my AOW deep dive yesterday off of Boyton Beach with an instructor and another AOW diver. A fourth guy came along. He initially had problems descending. The instructor clipped 5 more pounds of weight on him and he descended fine. After doing our cognitive task at the bottom (97 feet) we finned along the reef edge at about 90 ft with the fourth guy at the rear. After a few minutes we all noticed that the fourth guy was missing. We saw him up near the surface. The instructor was about to call the dive when we saw the boat come over and pick him up. We continued our dive a little longer then surfaced. When we got back on the boat we all "what's upped" him and he said he had an uncontrolled ascent from 90 feet. The instructor immediately asked him about DCI symptoms and he reported pain and stiffness in his neck and shoulder joints. He was placed on oxygen while we went back in to meet EMS. He was feeling alot better after being placed on oxygen. The instructor went through his gear and noticed that one of his weight pockets in his BCD was unzipped and empty. He had somehow dropped 5lbs down at 97 feet. I'll find out more about him and post tomorrow. The whole thing was kind of strange.

This is why . . .
. . .I waited until my 25th dive to do a deep dive (nothing magic about 25 . . .but was when I felt some of the basic skills were becoming second nature, thus reducing task loading)
. . . I did my first deep dive with the instructor I had from the beginning . . he knew my strengths and weaknesses.
. . . I like the SSI program. You have to have at least 24 dives before you can get your AOW.

Granted, I'm making some assumptions about the experience of the diver and his relationship with the instructor.

 

[Lehmann108]

To clarify a few things. He was not a student, but a diver who came along with our AOW group. I agree with many of the comments. He did not have an assigned buddy but was part of a group. I'm not that experienced (a whopping 18 dives!) and have only dived out of one shop. I usually have dived with my father so we're dive buddies and know each other's gear pretty well. I like this shop, but I have noticed very little specific buddy assigments in the their charters. Nobody says, who's your buddy, check each others gear. Nothing like that at all. Also, the weight missing was part of an integrated weight system in the BCD he was wearing.

 

[JMD123]

Why did he have weights in his zipper pocket? A weight belt was REQUIRED for ALL of our classes and check out dives. What dive shop did you take classes with?

I zip my weights in on every dive i do... I use a zeagle BC, where you zip the weight into a pocket if you need to release you pull a line and they drop out...

 

[river_sand_bar]

I still wonder why the dive continued after an uncontrolled ascent??? What if there was a real emergency and the top side boat couldn't leave cus they were waiting for the dive to finish...

 

[letsgodiving]

I still wonder why the dive continued after an uncontrolled ascent??? What if there was a real emergency and the top side boat couldn't leave cus they were waiting for the dive to finish...

Maybe the boat uses the tried and tested abort dive signal; whacking something metal with a lead weight.