Advice on Guided Dives

[Mikus]

Hi Guys,
Need some advice: saved up for a long time and finally went to French Polynesia on holiday.

During the holiday we went diving 4 times on Bora Bora with a top rated dive company. The first dive, was ok the second a bit dubious with us surfacing with 40 Bar each but the last dive frightened the life out of us surfacing with less than 10 and 20 bar each.

We are new divers (30 dives) and wonder what we should have done and whether we should report an incident to someone?

During the dive (Avg18m), we signaled DM at 100 Bar, then 80 Bar. While I was at 70 bar my wife noticed she was down to 60 bar. We signaled the DM and expected to be heading toward the exit point only for me to turn and see the DM putting my wife on his Octopus! he was on Nitrox, we were on air.

The dive then continued for some minutes with him diving under a small overhang nonchalantly pointing out flora and fauna to my wife (who was not in the least bit comfortable by now), until I too also signaled I was now at 50 Bar. We were now at about 12m depth.

The DM turned the dive a few degrees right, let my wife back on her own primary and then continued. Not gaining much ascent I closed up to my wife and slowly began ascending while still following the DM below. I was at about 35 Bar and my wife at about 40 bar and 9 m when we finally spotted the down-line of the exit Buoy, we headed to meet it at 6m.

By the time we reached it at 6m I was down to 25 Bar my wife at 35 and we were both a bit nervous.

By the time we finished our safety stop I was down to 10 bar and my wife at 20 bar. When we surfaced I have no idea what I had left as I was just glad to get up and out.

I know that this will never happen to us again as I will take firmer charge but I would love to have some comments from you experienced guys about this and what I should have done.

Many thanks

 

[Bowers]

may I ask you typically consider as rock bottom air to surface with? many dive ops use 500 psi (34bar) as the minimum. you most certainly surfaced with less than what ive seen as standard but im curious how far below your standard was it?
also was there a predive breifing that covered how much air you should be exiting with? making sure all buddies and DM are on the same page to begin with can alleviate a lot of anxiety later.

 

[Mikus]

Hi Bowers,
Thanks for the reply. We were trucked onto the dive boat in a very hasty fashion, there was a basic dive brief, location direction, depth etc. and only a quick point, "Remember to let me know half-tank" I think he meant 100 bar as that would equate to half a tank. Not what I would consider a good briefing at all.
Personally I would consider my last 50 Bar (500 psi) as sacrosanct, only for emergencies such as gear failure while at safety stop or a possible extension of the safety stop as indicated by my computer. I also understand that SPG's are not really as accurate as the could be so I like to leave room for SPG errors also. So in short, surface with 50 bar.

 

[1000RR]

@Mikus, it's great that you've expressed your concern and I applaud you posting up your questions and asking for suggestions. My daughter and I have about the same number of dives as you. The one thing that we did that made us feel MUCH more comfortable was really digging into and trying to understand some of the fundamentals for good [recreational] dive planning. ALWAYS dive YOUR plan. The DM will have a general plan for everyone - ideally turn around and start heading back at 1/2 tank... whoever reaches that point first. But at the end of the day - your (and your wife's) life are in your hands. My daughter and I have our own plan and it generally follows the DM's plan. Our air consumption has gotten very good so we're not usually the first to the 1/2 tank mark. But we have been to that point before others in the past and we headed back (on our own) or to the surface (depending on the type of dive)... Do some searches for Proper Dive Planning, Rock Bottom Calculation, etc. Also might not hurt to practice some navigation type skills. That also helped feeling more comfortable with where we're at in the water and which way to get back to the boat. Once we better understood our own dive plan, it made us much more comfortable following (understanding) someone else's. And by "following someone else's" I ONLY mean to the extent we can still remain within our plan.

As Bowers mentioned, 500 PSI = 34 Bar. Around the US and places that use the Imperial System (psi) it's standard it seems to be a minimum of 500psi back on the boat. Not sure if that changes where you're at... but that would tell me that 34 is the minimum and do your dive planning accordingly.

 

[Doc]

Since 50bar is your minimum and you surfaced at 10bar....

Report this immediately!

To yourself. (No Agency has any control or issue)

Make copious notes, print this thread as it evolves. Then, glue it in your log book.

I know that this will never happen to us again as I will take firmer charge but I would love to have some comments from you experienced guys about this and what I should have done.

Many thanks

Take firmer charge a bit sooner.

(And the next time you go off to paradise, do more than four dives) These questions will then resolve themselves automatically.

 

[uncfnp]

We had something similar happen our first ocean dives post certification. I think it was dive 5 and 6. We kept signaling the guide, and there were only 3 of us on the first dive that day, and she just kept swimming. Eric surfaced near empty. Next dive the 3rd diver sat out and again that same guide swam like her life depended on it and we signalled repeatedly. This time Eric was out at the surface.

We decided never again and almost immediately signed up for AOW and took control of our dives, guide or not.

The procedure for a low on air diver continuing a dive on the guide’s octo is something done by dive ops in certain parts of the world. I am not thrilled with it personally but it is an option and choice each individual most make and worth discussing before the dive.

 

[Mikus]

Thanks all for the advice, we have been shore diving quite a bit in Bonaire and practicing dive planning and are actually getting quite good at it. I think on this occasion I had assumed too much from the DM and also failed myself by relying on the DM's plan and not my own.
A lesson learned that will not be repeated, as you say, plan your dive and dive YOUR plan. It is in red in my logbook, along with the quote "don't do that again!"
BTW we did do more than 4 dives, but only 4 on Bora Bora. the rest on the other islands were really boring swimming with whales, dolphins, sharks, mermaids and the like
Well I think I have pinned this one firmly down to my own failure to lead guys, so many thanks for the help and advice...really helped.

 

[Bubblesong]

@Mikus Which signal did you give to your DM? Was it just the amount of air left, or did you give him the thumb's up, turn around, "we're going back now, hope you will join us"?
Common threads keep popping up on SB;
1. is the people who want to spend a lot of time and money becoming dive guides and they are not in it for the money, the "customers" are just tagging along with their free dive rides, and
2. the newer diver stuck with a dive guide who doesn't want to end the dive, because (S)he is having fun and still has air.
3."Trust Me" dives that are too deep or in conditions that interest the DM, but endanger the newer diver.

 

[Mikus]

We both signaled remaining air and received an ok in return, but we assumed that the DM would understand our air concerns, so again my fault for not being absolutely clear that I was concerned about being low on air. It was a drift dive so no real option to turn around. Maybe I should have been more assertive and signaled an ascent, a very good point and again one I will not forget, thanks Bubblesong.

 

[Bubblesong]

I should have been more assertive and signaled an ascent,.

Both you and your buddy must hang together as one on this, as my experience was that even when I wanted to turn around, my daughter trusted the dive guide more than me! I fought against leaving her below, even as the dive guide was telling me to surface alone! Yep, there are more weird experiences than can be counted!
Also, if the dive guide has the flag, and you have not got your own "safety sausage" DSMB, the boat will find the DM and not you, which could also happen if you get separated by accident.