What to do when you lose your way?

[jord1990]

I would do the kick test if I had enough air. But if it's in a different direction and you get on 50 bar while at the end point of your kick test you a nice and big surface swim back.

 

[scubatuba]

I did enjoy it very much at the time, not so much last night when I was freaking out about what "went wrong" but now I'm black to thinking it was a good one again! We were on the Liberty Ship near Wrightsville Beach, a very common "check-out dive" location out that way. We got to see some cool fish and got some nice pics from a more experienced diver who was nice enough to snap some shots before we got lost!

 

[jord1990]

After I got my cert I went to Malta.
Where I got to dive with a nice cynical English bastard (I liked him allot). He said stuff goes wrong only thing you can do is learn from it.

 

[nimoh]

Interesting post
I'm not gonna start on what you should've done cause you heard that already and I think giving the circumstances you acted well.
My question would be what to do if you are lost and your buddy thinks he knows where he's going and you don't trust that. I would go to the surface then but what if your buddy refuses because he's full of himself and he thinks he's right

give your buddy the thumbs up, if he refuses, surface on your own and find a new buddy.

 

[Akimbo]

I'm really glad you had a good dive and only got panicky while safe in bed! Panic and ignorance (as-in not learned yet) conspire to kill divers far more than running out of air. One day you will look back on this as one of the best lessons of your long diving history.

 

[flots am]

Thank you for your help! I jsut want to understand what I was supposed to do and what to do if that ever happens again.

Surface normally, look around and figure out where you are

You don't need an up-line, anchor line or anything else to surface. All you need is a depth gauge and even that's optional. Just watch your depth gauge and slowly swim back to the surface, venting your BC as necessary to maintain your slow ascent rate.

Once you're back on the surface, return to the boat/shore. If it's a boat and you can't make it back because you drifted too far, signal the boat for pickup using the signalling equipment you bring on every dive (safety sausage, surface marker, air-horn, etc.). They'll come and get you once the other divers are back on board.

For a shore dive, you don't need to return to your entry point, you just need "land". Even if you annoy a land-owner, at least you'll be on land having an argument, not drowned on the bottom.

Open Water Diver training is based on being able to surface at any time for any reason. Swimming around looking for your original entry point is completely optional. And if it isn't, you're not on an Open Water dive and needed to plan it differently. This goes for both boat and shore dives. If you're somewhere that doesn't allow an exit at alternate locations (dives near shipping channels and shore dives near cliffs) for example, the dive needs better planning.

flots

---------- Post added October 7th, 2013 at 01:05 PM ----------

give your buddy the thumbs up, if he refuses, surface on your own and find a new buddy.

Never stay down longer than you want to for anybody. Not even a divemaster or instructor.

---------- Post added October 7th, 2013 at 01:11 PM ----------

I did enjoy it very much at the time, not so much last night when I was freaking out about what "went wrong" but now I'm black to thinking it was a good one again! We were on the Liberty Ship near Wrightsville Beach, a very common "check-out dive" location out that way. We got to see some cool fish and got some nice pics from a more experienced diver who was nice enough to snap some shots before we got lost!

Some of the most valuable dives you'll ever have where the dives with "mistakes"

 

[Croomrider]

Congrats on a successful first ocean & wreck dive. If slightly separated from a wreck in poor vis, the wreck will almost always look like a dark blob, if you're close enough to see anything. I would say your sense of direction was better than your buddy's. Have fun, and continue learning!

Mike

 

[scubatuba]

Congrats on a successful first ocean & wreck dive. If slightly separated from a wreck in poor vis, the wreck will almost always look like a dark blob, if you're close enough to see anything. I would say your sense of direction was better than your buddy's. Have fun, and continue learning!

Mike

Thanks Mike! That's what I was thinking too - it just looked like in one directions it was darker and more brown and the other looked more light, like open water. Who is ever to say at this point though, being down there in low vis I assume my eyes could have been playing tricks on me. We were right at the tip of the bow anyway, so we had little chance of finding it anyway in my opinion unless we happened to swim into it (which I was afraid of) or over it (which we weren't high enough for).

Thanks for the words!

 

[aprivetera]

Another thing you will learn in future courses are the search patterns. If you do manage to get off course, you can just run a quick search pattern to try to cover each possible direction in a controlled manner. This works well when combined with some natural navigation. Pay attention to the surroundings and in the event you get separated you should be able to use natural navigation / search patterns to get back on track.

Just some helpful pointers. I remember having similar dives when I first started. It is all part of the experience. Enjoy!

 

[Akimbo]

Another thing you will learn in future courses are the search patterns…

Valid advice, but you will waste a lot more bottom time compared to surfacing to find the anchor line — both in terms of Nitrogen accumulation and gas supply. Both options are bad ideas in 200'.