Free Flow

[captndale]

This little narrative illustrates how a small problem can escalate into an emergency. While this incident had a happy ending, it might well have turned out differently.

Last weekend I took some divers out to dive the shipwreck, S.S. Wisconsin. Wisconsin is a 215 foot long steel freighter that rests in 130 feet of water near Kenosha. Usually, there are three moorings on the wreck, but this day there was only one. I tied up to it by my bow. About the time that my divers were returning from their first dive another charter boat came out to dive the same wreck. I gave her a stern line. Divers from the other boat then entered the water and pulled themselves forward using our floating trail / granny line that I had shackled to the mooring line so that it ran alongside my boat and extended passed my boat to the other boat we had “in tow.”

After a few minutes I notice the telltale area of smooth water permeated with foam that marks a diver below with a free flow. Free flows in the cold deep water of Lake Michigan are common so I do not think much of it but I keep an eye out for the diver and let the other skipper know that one of his divers has a frozen regulator and will be coming back presently.

Sure enough, within a minute (probably less) a diver appears coming up the line. This diver, however, is in full panic mode. He is climbing the line as fast as he can. When he hits the surface I think he continues to climb the line until he is out of the water to his waist. Another diver, whom I assume is his buddy, surfaces a little behind him, swims around a little and then swims back to the line. Meanwhile, the diver with the free flow begins to struggle.

At this point, I need to describe the situation. The fore deck of my boat is quite high above the water – 6 ½ feet, so I cannot reach the diver from the deck at that position. The diver in distress is wearing double steel tanks and carrying a 40 CF stage bottle but is still breathing from his free flowing primary regulator. His wings are over filled. The buddy does not seem to be paying much attention to the situation.

I call out to the buddy to shut down the distressed diver’s free flowing regulator but the buddy ignores me or just does not hear. He returns to the mooring line and goes back down. I call to the distressed diver to roll over on his back and swim back to his boat. He ignores me and starts pulling on the trail line in a desperate attempt to pull himself back to the other boat. Of course the trail line is only attached at the mooring line so the only thing he accomplishes is to get himself thoroughly tangled in the 20 or 30 feet of line that he gathers around himself. Now, he is getting even more panicked. He tries to get to his stage bottle, but now it is covered in a mess of line. He resumes pulling more of the trail line toward himself. I yell to him in a stern voice to stop struggling and relax, but he is having none of that.

I then realized that I might be able to get to him if I move to my midship gangway. The deck is closer to the water there. I lie down on the deck and slide out as far as I can and I can just get a hold of the trail line. I grab it and pull the diver in to me. The line is all tangled around his valve but, with an effort, I get it off of him. I pull the line free but I keep a hold on the diver’s valve while I talk to him and get him calmed down. Once I am sure that he is back in control and he is breathing from his stage regulator I let go and send him swimming back to his boat.

Many mistakes were made here. Each feeding on the last until there was a near tragedy.

• The diver had plenty of air but panicked instead of dealing rationally with the situation. He could have switched to his stage bottle; he could have turned off the offending regulator and changed to his back-up or he could have shared air with his buddy. He did not have to make a rapid ascent.
• The buddy should have helped the distressed diver on the surface. He was the closest person and in the best position to render assistance. Instead he went back down and resumed his dive, leaving an obviously panicked buddy to fend for himself.
• Once on the surface, the free flowing diver should have realized he was out of danger and simply swam back to his boat. Instead, in his panic to get out of the water he tried to pull himself back on the trail line. Even after he got himself hopelessly entangled and should have realized that the end of the line was not attached to anything, he kept on pulling and gathering more line around himself. This, at least, is something I will prevent in the future. I have firmly attached the line at the stern of the boat so that divers can pull themselves either forward or backward along the line as long as they are along side of the boat.

 

[jridg]

The diver had plenty of air but panicked instead of dealing rationally with the situation. He could have switched to his stage bottle; he could have turned off the offending regulator and changed to his back-up or he could have shared air with his buddy. He did not have to make a rapid ascent.[/SIZE][/FONT]
[*]The buddy should have helped the distressed diver on the surface. He was the closest person and in the best position to render assistance. Instead he went back down and resumed his dive, leaving an obviously panicked buddy to fend for himself.
[*]Once on the surface, the free flowing diver should have realized he was out of danger and simply swam back to his boat. Instead, in his panic to get out of the water he tried to pull himself back on the trail line. Even after he got himself hopelessly entangled and should have realized that the end of the line was not attached to anything, he kept on pulling and gathering more line around himself. This, at least, is something I will prevent in the future. I have firmly attached the line at the stern of the boat so that divers can pull themselves either forward or backward along the line as long as they are along side of the boat.
[/LIST]

Thanks for the story - something that is very important to realize - once in full-blown panic mode - all rational thinking goes right out the window. Sure, he could have done x or y - but the reality of your situation is that he was NOT thinking in a rational manner. You assisted the best you could - the diver was on the surface, and bouyant - so there was little risk of drowning - but the diver was still in full panic mode and there is not much you could have said or done to resolve that issue - other than being in the water and face to face with the panicked diver yelling to otherwise trying to reassure the person, they simply are not going to take it in.

The buddy was not much, if anything like a 'buddy' - more like completely useless if you ask me. Another reason I never count on assistance.....

 

[ianr33]

If a diver can't shut down a post to stop a freeflow what's the point of diving doubles? Do you think he would have just bolted for the surface with a bunch of deco to do?

 

[TSandM]

I find this story very frightening.

People who are just beginning to dive doubles may go through a period where they can't easily reach and manipulate their valves -- certainly I did. At that point, it's like diving a big single tank (with a bunch more failure points). But you don't carry a deco bottle or a bottom stage during that phase, or at least it isn't very smart to do that. And once you CAN reach your valves, a free-flow is all but a non-event. It's the easiest kind of failure, because you know precisely where the problem is, and can quickly shut down what needs to be shut down.

If someone goes into full panic when in doubles and carrying a deco bottle, something has gone very wrong somewhere. Either they have no training and have just taken this on by themselves, or their training has not given them enough practice with failure scenarios, or an instructor failed to recognize someone who doesn't have the temperament for technical diving.

And the buddy should be shot.

 

[BabyDuck]

what she said.

what in the world is someone in doubles doing panicking with a simple free-flow?? stuff like this is why there's so much encouragement for 'intro to tech' type classes for people wanting to get into doubles - it ain't hard, but you need to know what to do.

 

[jridg]

And the buddy should be shot.

Yup - as for the panic situation - not being a doubles diver (yet) I cannot speak to the additional stress load. Not having any further information regarding the diver's experience and 'ability' makes all of this speculation.

However, I still feel that anyone can panic. Personally, I cannot imagine a situation where I would panic - yet I am fully aware it could happen. Without more information, there really isn't any way to say what caused this one.

 

[Doc Intrepid]

I find this story very frightening.

People who are just beginning to dive doubles may go through a period where they can't easily reach and manipulate their valves -- certainly I did. At that point, it's like diving a big single tank (with a bunch more failure points). But you don't carry a deco bottle or a bottom stage during that phase, or at least it isn't very smart to do that. And once you CAN reach your valves, a free-flow is all but a non-event. It's the easiest kind of failure, because you know precisely where the problem is, and can quickly shut down what needs to be shut down.

If someone goes into full panic when in doubles and carrying a deco bottle, something has gone very wrong somewhere. Either they have no training and have just taken this on by themselves, or their training has not given them enough practice with failure scenarios, or an instructor failed to recognize someone who doesn't have the temperament for technical diving.

And the buddy should be shot.

+1

Good thing the diver wasn't on the deco bottle when the regulator began free-flowing.

 

[openmindOW]

If someone goes into full panic when in doubles and carrying a deco bottle, something has gone very wrong somewhere. Either they have no training and have just taken this on by themselves, or their training has not given them enough practice with failure scenarios, or an instructor failed to recognize someone who doesn't have the temperament for technical diving.

Yes. Somethings was clearly wrong in training.

Or, MAYBE, he was in training. Maybe that's why the buddy re-descended.

Is it possible that there was a Tech Class going on here?

And the buddy should be shot.

Yes.

 

[biscuit]

You may well have prevented a drowning, captndale. Being that tangled in the line, he could have wound up face down at some point and not had the sense to flip himself upright.

I'm going to change how I now leave my line out too; thanks for the post.

 

[dumpsterDiver]

Cool story. We have all seen divers display incredible feats of strength by literally climbing very far up an anchor line while fully geared up.

What scares me the most is that the dive could not calm himself down when he reached the surface and had all the air and time and bouyancy in the world. Some of these "tech" divers really scare me.