Near miss, always use a line.

[scott stanton]

Thanks for sharing your experience.
In that situation, I'm glad you were both able to slow things down & keep calm.

 

[lermontov]

good yarn im sure it reminds us all of the dumb things weve all done and got away with it

I had also got used to just following my buddy (who is excellent at navigation) and was becoming a bit of a passenger rather than actively thinking about and managing the dive properly.

I think this is a crucial piece of advice - ive witnessed this many many times even with experienced divers that when given the opportunity to lead a dive have not been able to navigate properly. When leading the way i believe we have a much higher awareness of tactile objects , directions shapes and general navigational aids than the seconder, obviously we have better vis and can see ahead but your right about not actively thinking about the dive

Also a bit of pride/overconfidence ( were cave trained so this is gong to be easy) im sure the experience will make you better divers

when i read stories like your i often overlay the scenario on to situations that people havent survived and think that its likely such a simple error , dropping a piece of equipment or losing buoyancy a wayward fin kick etc that leads to fatal results

 

[BlueTrin]

@MinimalMayhem , thanks for sharing. I have a genuine question: why wasn’t the first experience enough to prevent the second one ?
I.e. one could have thought that one would have used a line after the first experience on all dives afterwards

 

[Jay]

Thanks for sharing.

 

[huwporter]

@MinimalMayhem , thanks for sharing. I have a genuine question: why wasn’t the first experience enough to prevent the second one ?
I.e. one could have thought that you’d have used a line after the first experience on all dives afterwards

It's DIVER 1 and DIVER 2, not dive 1 and dive 2; From the OP:

We each give our accounts of what happened and then what we think we learned from the experience. Hopefully seeing it from both perspectives paints a richer picture than just one account.

Minimal Mayhem, thanks for sharing. Great lesson against complacency, definitely don't want to go out thinking "How embarrasing, I know better than this..."

 

[mafi]

Thank you for the write up. Glad you are both alive.

What is scary for me is that I haven’t done anything this stupid YET, which means that most likely I’ll get to do it in the future.

I just hope that when I forget my brain on the deck, I will survive it and get to write on SB about what an idiot I am

 

[chillyinCanada]

Thank you for the write up. Glad you are both alive.

What is scary for me is that I haven’t done anything this stupid YET, which means that most likely I’ll get to do it in the future.

I just hope that when I forget my brain on the deck, I will survive it and get to write on SB about what an idiot I am

My hope for you is that you'll have learned through your reading here on Scubaboard and so, won't be doing any such thing.

 

[mafi]

My hope for you is that you'll have learned through your reading here on Scubaboard and so, won't be doing any such thing.

I think we all think we’ve learned, but I am sure the OP read many stories like this and thought the same until - unexplicably - he squeezed into wreck without a line.

 

[Shasta_man]

I'd suggest that the learning we should all take away from these incidents is not to do some specific task but to stop and think when doing something. Perhaps we should all just think: "If I had to explain what I did on a message on Scubaboard, what would others say and what would I think as I was writing it". Yeah, I know, it's crystal clear now but gets a little hazy in the heat of the moment which is part of the reason these things still happen.

 

[Brett Hatch]

Sobering post. Thank you for sharing, and especially for including both divers' write-ups.