A memorable shore dive experience...

[Bob DBF]

The problem, as others have already covered, is lack of communication and understanding of the dive plan.
The next time you see that you are headed down the same road, should you not want to take over the briefing, just ask pointed questions you learned might be helpfull from this experience.

My other advice is for you and your buddy to weight for freediving and practice entrys, exits and diving in the surf without the SCUBA gear. What you learn will help you when diving with tanks, and it's fun.



Bob
-----------------------------------
I may be old, but I’m not dead yet.

 

[supergaijin]

Sounds like some divers learned the lesson that diving can be strenuous at times if you're not ready for the conditions. Like most divers who encounter problems they will live to tell the tale and hopefully learn from it and return to the water with a lot more respect for its power.

I haven't used social media for hooking up with fellow divers but I can feel that it's just a matter of time before there is an accident and one diver (Dm or Instr- or even Rescue) is suddenly having to defend himself in court. I wonder if anyone is signing liability release and whatnot.

As the organiser of the dive, I feel it would have been prudent to find out if everyone was prepared for the conditions at hand- in this case a surf entry. What to do if someone indicates that they have no experience is another story. Potentially I would have advised that person not to dive. This may sound very cold, but I would probably only 'coach' the diver in question if I felt they were a nice person. If they were dicks, or I had the feeling that the info would go in one ear and out the other, I wouldn't step in unless it was to advise them not to dive.

Depending on the place- 3ft waves can be extremely strong. (It also depends on how you measure waves- for me coming from NZ where we measure waves from the back, 3ft is big enough to surf on). Surf entries and the required techniques often do not get covered in a basic OW unless those conditions are actually part of the course. If the dive was organised by 'laymen' then there is much more of a burden for individual responsibility and honesty as to whether the conditions are beyond personal comfort and experience.

The organiser was right IMO to continue diving when you gave the OK signal; OK means OK. I don't see a moral obligation for a stranger to hold hands and offer moral support in this situation- but I wasn't there at the time and so can't know all the story.

This is a different realm of diving that I have never been part of. I have organised my own dives but only with people I know. With the limited knowledge that I have now as a fairly experienced diver in a variety of conditions, I would not feel comfortable being in a diverse group of divers hooking up over the internet..... unless maybe they had a well-maintained log book as proof of experience?

 

[dumpsterDiver]

Wow you gotta "save" in less than 50 dives... Congratulations. Seeing people nearly kill themselves while trying to dive gives you a lot more respect for diving.

 

[fjpatrum]

Supergaijin, yes I am beginning to lean more towards the fact that the organizer had no responsibility to come back in and check on us. That's actually why I gave them the okay signal and tried to indicate they should go ahead and dive. As I said, I would have probably called at least my own dive but that's based on my own personal compass and was biasing my original thoughts on the matter.

The waves were mostly 1 to 2 footers (as you measure them from the back) with the occasional 3 footer every minute or so. It wasn't a particularly rough entry for me, but the other diver had a lot of issue with it. My brother, trying to help her deal with her initial issues and then trying to rescue her got "beat up" a little and wasn't prepared for the extra exertion. Without helping her I think he would have been fine, going slowly, but maybe not.

To your point about waivers, I've never signed one or had anyone else sign one (when I was the organizer) for any of the activities for which I've used social media to meet people. That includes kayaking, climbing, hiking, and scuba diving. I think the general consensus is that everyone there is supposed to be prepared for the activity and responsible for themselves.

The "pre brief" can vary significantly in quality, though, depending upon the organizer. I wasn't present for the briefing the other diver got as Sean and I were first there and already discussed the dive with the organizer. We were gearing up when the other two divers showed up and talked with the organizers so I don't know how much discussion they had about experience and preparations etc. The discussion Sean and I had with the organizer was more what to expect on the dive and didn't cover our own experiences at all, though, so I suspect the other divers had a similar discussion.

---------- Post added May 9th, 2012 at 08:48 AM ----------

Wow you gotta "save" in less than 50 dives... Congratulations. Seeing people nearly kill themselves while trying to dive gives you a lot more respect for diving.

I'm pretty "safety minded" to begin with so this was something I expected to encounter sooner, rather than later... especially since most of my dives are with insta-buddies and/or similar types of group arrangements.

 

[shmuggy]

The diver was fortunate that complete strangers noticed her situation when they had their own buddy pair and somewhat challenging conditions.
I have found that I use a lot more energy on shore dives swimming out two far against the surf so I try to get under water ASAP- even at 6' down- conditions are much better and you use hardly any air.

 

[AfterDark]

The diver was fortunate that complete strangers noticed her situation when they had their own buddy pair and somewhat challenging conditions.
I have found that I use a lot more energy on shore dives swimming out two far against the surf so I try to get under water ASAP- even at 6' down- conditions are much better and you use hardly any air.

Real World.

 

[RonFrank]

There seems to have been a number of errors in the planning and execution of this dive.

Buddy pairs - It's apparent there were No buddy pairs assigned. There should have been. This is planning 1o1.

The dive plan - Having dove there the plan sounds reasonable except that the plan should have included the buddy pairs. Also it seems there was no safety check, or gear check. Was this a meet at the float start? Was planning to continue once everyone was at the buoy? Technically the dive had not started but its difficult to tell what the plan was. A plan this simple should not fall apart, but it did.

It seems clear that the girl was a beginner and had no business in the Ocean. Teens routinely play in this level of surf. Sounds like the life guard was there and hauled the girl to shore, but how is a diver unable to handle minor surf? She ends up in shoulder deep water but is not wearing her mask or fins? This girl had no business in the surf and your buddies had no business being involved in a group dive.

This is why regardless of the group size dive in pairs. Threesomes can work but require more coordination. Group dives often fail as this one did.

 

[Searcaigh]

Someone who has to rely on another diver to inflate their BCD for them has no business even considering solo diving ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

Or diving period

 

[fjpatrum]

As an update, I just got an email that the "subject" diver who had problems went out a few days later on a somewhat easier entry dive and made sure she found a buddy and learned from this lesson.