a small incident

[reefraker97]

I was on a dive with the reefrakers, when my dive master handed me his dive shears to hold them for him. Then, my octopus detatched itself from my BC. I reached to re-attatch it , when I dropped the dive shears. Then, my dive master turned around and asked me for the dive shears, which were now in a dark hole, and the only thing I had to offer him was a shrug. This situation could have easily turned into a dangerous situation, the shears could have hurt somebody, or wouldn't be there in an emergency situation. Luckily, my dive master had another pair, and the lost pair never harmed
anyone.


Moral of the story: Don't drop your dive master's dive shears!

 

[TSandM]

I think there are several lessons from this little incident:

1. It's not easy to find a way to secure one's octopus that will simultaneously keep it securely fastened AND allow it to be rapidly deployed. Whatever method of securing it you were using does not appear to have been reliable.

2. Anything you are just holding in your hand is at risk. Distraction, task loading, or clumsiness from heavy gloves or cold hands can result in its loss. For example, when I have to use a backup light, as much as possible I leave it clipped to the D-ring on my harness, because if I drop it, it's not gone. And it's always fully on before it's unclipped, so that if it falls, it can be seen. (That won't help if the bottom is 600 feet below you, though!)

3. If you think a piece of equipment is critical to the safe execution of the dive, it's a good idea to have two of them. If you were diving in an area known for a lot of monofilament line or gill nets, then more than one person should be carrying shears, just in case something like this happens.

 

[covediver]

I think the gear being lost in the ocean equals the amount of gear being found in the ocean so the amount of scuba gear in the ocean is at a steady state.

Redundancy is a wonderful thing.

As to your octo coming undone. It happens with the best systems and after 25 years I have found no system that is fool proof, althought the simple T holder I got from ScubaPro a few year back seems to have worked pretty well.

Gear gets lost. I lost a snorkel off San Clemente Island a couple weeks ago. It probably tore off when I hit the water after jumping from the bow gate on Conception. I never did like the clip to secure the snorkel and should have switched out to a figure 8 snorkel keeper sometime ago.

You learned a good lesson today. When I helped teach diving, we advised the students to stop, think, act when confronted with a gear condition that needed attention. You might have been able to secure the shears either in a gear pocket or by placing it on the reef in a flat location before securing your octo, but I won't second guess your action since I wasn't there.

However, covediver's law of lost gear states that when you drop something it will fall into the deepest hole, just beyond or your reach or in a hole where there is a moray between you and the object you wish to retreive. Having been bit by a moray on my fingers after placing my hand in a hole without looking, I too learned a lesson.

 

[themagni]

I thought you were going to say that you reached for your octo and cut the hose with the shears.

 

[adurso]

I was on a dive with the reefrakers, when my dive master handed me his dive shears to hold them for him. Then, my octopus detatched itself from my BC. I reached to re-attatch it , when I dropped the dive shears. Then, my dive master turned around and asked me for the dive shears, which were now in a dark hole, and the only thing I had to offer him was a shrug. This situation could have easily turned into a dangerous situation, the shears could have hurt somebody, or wouldn't be there in an emergency situation. Luckily, my dive master had another pair, and the lost pair never harmed
anyone.


Moral of the story: Don't drop your dive master's dive shears!

Why had he deployed his shears?

 

[DaleC]

I'm going to open a can of worms (maybe) and ask why not have the shears on a decent retractor?
I have one on mine and can drop them all day without losing them. The retractor allows me good range of motion and tucks away nicely so it doesn't interfere with any other gear.
There are only 3 objections that I can think of against the use of one and they all revolve around some perceived restriction of motion:

Lack of ability to hand off tool to buddy.
Lack of range of motion.
Entanglement of retractor line itself.

All of which can be solved easily by twisting my wrist and cutting the retractor line (if I have to). I actually use my shears occasionally to cut away fishing line at some local dive sites and haven't noticed any negative effects from the retractor. The time I would have dropped them actually was when re sheathing (thinking they were in when they weren't).

Against this I weigh the outcome of dropping my cutting tool right when I need it the most, stressed, in an entanglement with no buddy aware or around.

Anything else I may have missed that precludes the use of a retractor?
PS. I have a second cutting tool but with full murphy in effect I will drop that one too.

 

[reefraker97]

Yes, I learned a bit from that little mishap. And as to the questions, I have some answers,
Q1: Why didn't the divemaster secure his shears? Simply, he did not have anything to secure them to, and he needed to help another diver. He was using his shears, and then someone asked for help, and he didn't secure his shears, istead he handed them to me.... which leads to question two.....

Q2: Why didn't he have a retractor? Really, I don't know. He's not cheap, and he's had years of experience. Maybe he's against retractors.

Q3:Why didn't you secure the shears in a pocket/D-ring? Not thinking is my best guess. At that moment, it didn't cross my mind that I should do that.

Any other questions, please ask!

 

[Ken abucs]

Stop, Breathe, Think, Act. Part of thinking is prioritizing. Just because something isn't 100% right doesn't mean it needs immediate attention. I would consider a detached octo as the lowest priority when task loaded. It's not going to go very far, and you can do a regulator retrieval if need be after everything else calms down.