Almost an accident

[SmileMon]

Hi,

I'm looking for advice for the (hopefully never) next incident.

I went drift diving today, my buddy was insta-buddy.

After about 20 minutes diving, I see him comming from below me, he signalled "up" and then "ok".

I signalled him back "up" and then "ok" and started ascending to my safety stop.

He went right past me as I was at 25 feet and I was hoping he's just fooling around and that he's going to stop for his safety stop, he was facing down so I didn't really understand what he's doing.

Since it was my 9th dive, I guess I'm not trained enough to know he's not fooling around but he lost one of his weights and was trying to descend for his safety stop.

The first thing that went through my head is "this guy is trying to kill himself" and what they taught me in OW "don't make a second accident" and I was looking up most of my safety stop to see if he stopped moving on the surface, but finally 1.5 minutes into my safety stop, the boat picked him up so I finished my safety stop and ascended.

What should I have done? chase him and try to stop him?

I have to say that I'm usually with my exact weight so catching him would be useless.

He was perfectly fine when I got to the surface and asked him what the hell he was doing... hopefully he woun't find out he's bent later on.

Advice? Insight? What should I do if such incident happens again? Hopefully never...
And more important, how do I recognise such a problem if the diver doesn't signal anything?
What's the signal for lost weight?

Thanks.

 

[TimAZ]

You did everything you should have done. Hanging back and observing prevented the possibility of having 2 accidents. If he stopped moving or displayed some kind of distress, you could re-evaluate based on depth and length of dive, what you percieved the natureof his distress was, and the surface support available (i.e. the boat that picked him up. With the boat present on the surface, need for you to ascend is highly unlikely. There was a good thread last week on what divers would do in the event your buddy went into an uncontrolled ascent. It's worth a look.

 

[trigfunctions]

It sounds like you did everything right. What did the buddy say happened?

Just curious - were you diving in South Florida? If so, where was it and how were the conditions? It looked like the weather was perfect. I wanted to go out today but had other stuff today.

 

[*Floater*]

Not everyone uses safety stops. My SSI table says that they are "recommended" and my PADI table says "A safety stop for 3 minutes at 15 feet is required any time the diver comes within three pressure groups of a no decompression limit, and for any dive to a depth of 100 feet or greater."

Maybe your buddy wasn't into safety stops, but this is the type of stuff you should discuss before the dive so you'd know whether he was just diving his plan or not.

I personally would blow off a safety stop if I thought the other guy was in trouble and needed my help, but otherwise I take my time even when others pop up before me.

 

[MoonWrasse]

Hi,

I'm looking for advice for the (hopefully never) next incident.

I went drift diving today, my buddy was insta-buddy.

After about 20 minutes diving, I see him comming from below me, he signalled "up" and then "ok".

I signalled him back "up" and then "ok" and started ascending to my safety stop.

He went right past me as I was at 25 feet and I was hoping he's just fooling around and that he's going to stop for his safety stop, he was facing down so I didn't really understand what he's doing.

Since it was my 9th dive, I guess I'm not trained enough to know he's not fooling around but he lost one of his weights and was trying to descend for his safety stop.

The first thing that went through my head is "this guy is trying to kill himself" and what they taught me in OW "don't make a second accident" and I was looking up most of my safety stop to see if he stopped moving on the surface, but finally 1.5 minutes into my safety stop, the boat picked him up so I finished my safety stop and ascended.

What should I have done? chase him and try to stop him?

I have to say that I'm usually with my exact weight so catching him would be useless.

He was perfectly fine when I got to the surface and asked him what the hell he was doing... hopefully he woun't find out he's bent later on.

Advice? Insight? What should I do if such incident happens again? Hopefully never...
And more important, how do I recognise such a problem if the diver doesn't signal anything?
What's the signal for lost weight?

Thanks.

Take the rescue class - you'll understand better how to recognize, help and avoid becoming a victim while helping someone else.

Good to hear nothing really bad resulted and that it provoked you to think about this type of stuff

 

[SmileMon]

It sounds like you did everything right. What did the buddy say happened?

Just curious - were you diving in South Florida? If so, where was it and how were the conditions? It looked like the weather was perfect. I wanted to go out today but had other stuff today.

He said he lost a weight.. I just don't understand why he was shooting so fast if he lost only one.. (slower than his bubbles but a lot faster than 30fpm).

We went to a reef between boynton and wpb, don't remember the name.

The vis was 60-70+
0-2 feet waves most of the time and once in a while a 4 foot wave (single).

It was p-e-r-f-e-c-t..

 

[SmileMon]

Not everyone uses safety stops. My SSI table says that they are "recommended" and my PADI table says "A safety stop for 3 minutes at 15 feet is required any time the diver comes within three pressure groups of a no decompression limit, and for any dive to a depth of 100 feet or greater."

Maybe your buddy wasn't into safety stops, but this is the type of stuff you should discuss before the dive so you'd know whether he was just diving his plan or not.

I personally would blow off a safety stop if I thought the other guy was in trouble and needed my help, but otherwise I take my time even when others pop up before me.

He was NAUI cert.

I would gladly blow off safety stop, but last time I tried it I was a bit more tired than usual so I thought its a bad idea.

If I'm doing the safety stop with others, I surface up with the last one usually, if I surface up by myself, I just stay at 15 feet until I'm getting low on gas (about 500-400).

 

[SmileMon]

Take the rescue class - you'll understand better how to recognize, help and avoid becoming a victim while helping someone else.

Good to hear nothing really bad resulted and that it provoked you to think about this type of stuff

Gladly, but my instructor said its useless before I do AOW, so that's my next course (already started with the book).
He said "what will rescue help you if you can't go below 60 feet?"... I told him that I want the knowledge at least... I guess we can argue for hours but he's the instructor..

I want to do rescue (I don't know if it includes CPR, oxygen administration and marine first aid, but I'll find out before I start with rescue).

 

[trigfunctions]

We went to a reef between boynton and wpb, don't remember the name.
The vis was 60-70+
0-2 feet waves most of the time and once in a while a 4 foot wave (single).
It was p-e-r-f-e-c-t..

That's what I figured. Do you know what the bottom temp was?

 

[Jim Ernst]

Gladly, but my instructor said its useless before I do AOW, so that's my next course (already started with the book).
He said "what will rescue help you if you can't go below 60 feet?"... I told him that I want the knowledge at least... I guess we can argue for hours but he's the instructor..

I want to do rescue (I don't know if it includes CPR, oxygen administration and marine first aid, but I'll find out before I start with rescue).

i completley disagree with your instructor!!!!!!!!!! 60ft has nothing to do with it actully, rescue is always a good course to have and it does teach you the things you mentioned, that is the padi course does!!!