Are you prepared?

[ProfessorAronnax]

My only rescue was a few kids who happened to be swimming in the same spot I was diving. As the tide came in, it created an extrodinarily strong current in the channel which was invisible from the surface. These kids jumped in the water and were immediately pulled by the current into the deep water and "Downstream" They were terrified and basically froze. Fortunate for them, I had just emmerged from the water and was able to go right in after them. Gotta love fins and a BC. Every lifeguard should have them!

 

[emcgregor]

Great Post. You've described some very real scenarios. Just like fire safety, dive safety needs to be practiced. As you know, when things go wrong, they go wrong fast and can go from bad to worse in moments. Maybe a seasonal safety drill with buddies should be the norm? I sometimes think the most dangerous thing you can face underwater is Complacency.

I agree. The same way we should have gear serviced once a year (or when there are issues), we should "service" our skills. I recently had a near missing diver incident as the result of poor communication between me and 2 buddies (1st mistake - my fault). I was about 2 seconds from alerting a passing boat when they popped up about 200 metres away. Although my skills were not required (thankfully), I was thinking the whole time (which was about 10 minutes....but felt like 2 hours) about how to deal with any scenario I might encounter when I found them. I can safely say that I will be updating annually because there is nothing worse than that feeling of panick!

 

[scubapolly]

.... I know my buddy is not going to rip my reg out of my mouth because I always know how much air my buddy has.

You have a bit of a false sense of security. An o-ring blowing at depth can rapidly deplete a divers air supply, as can a free flow.

I have personally seen a diver with a full tank of air, instnatly go to an out of air situation when the first stage of their (well maintained) regulator ruptured on a dive.

I think the point of Kevfin's post was to make sure your realize what can happen. Most divers aren't blessed with a steady dive buddy that they know as well as you know yours, but that doesn't mean that you can't get into a rescue situation. Do you know what you would do if your buddy had a heart attack in the water? Or suddenly went unconcious (one of my rescue students had to deal with this situation less then 1 month after his rescue class.... which I might add he did flawlessly). what if they were stung by a box jelly (my cousin was and luckily his dive buddy recognized the animal that had stung him, and the symptoms he was experiencing, and actually had the ambulance there before my cousin lost conciousness)? All of these things can happen despite your careful planing and constant vigilance..... it is therefore important to know what to do IF something DOES happen.

I have seen most of the things that Kevfin described in real life. Granted I am an instructor and therefore dive with a lot more different people than most, but not all of the emergency situations I have been in the proximity of, have been when I was instructing.

I think the point of this post is to realize that you should be a defensive diver. You should have a plan of action for any potential situation.

 

[ProfessorAronnax]

Absolutely, especially in light of what happened in Sandwich yesterday

 

[oceancurrent]

What happened in Sandwich yesterday?

 

[jsmharley]

heres the thread for the sandwich accident....


http://www.scubaboard.com/showthread.php?t=117880

 

[bobco]

A good diver trains for himself, to be a good diver with good skills, and for others, to help if the situation ever arose on a dive. We all (most) train, the problem is keeping it realistic, and this takes time and a lot of effort if it is to be done right. Most training happens in the pool, not so good but better than nothing, and in controlled open waters, lakes, quarries and the like, much better. The people involved have to be happy to train others in the correct techniques and give their time up to do it. I dive with a club because the above happens on a regular basis, controlled buoyant lifts, from greater than 15m, surface rescue skills/AV/CPR, all get their share of time. The problems can come with people who holiday dive once or twice a year, who have no other exposure to diving through the rest of the year

Training is for life, not just for show.


Regards
Bobco

Having read the thread from above, rule # 1, never dive alone, unless you are very very good, and dont mind dying now and then.

 

[oceancurrent]

What a great thread! I'd like to chime in with some more thoughts...

I agree that there is a disconnect between a training situation and the reality of a serious diving accident. It's only the nature of the beast! While many instructors would put an honest effort to make the training scenarious as realistic as possible, the matter of the fact is that there is no way to simulate the exact state of mind of a panicked diver and the corresponding adrenaline rush of the rescuer. Also, the instructor has to draw a line and control the realism of the acting in the interest of not endangering any of the participants. Thus, a student or a DM simulating panick would never be nearly as dangerous to his rescuer as a real victim would be!

On a spearate note, I recently read the 2005 DAN Accident Report (available for free from DAN's web site). The following charts are from the report (pertaining to fatalities):

The data seems to confirm the old chime that experience (or realizing the lack of) does often times make the difference between life and death. Note that about 45% of all victims had made 0 dives during the past 12 months! This is zero, nill, nich, zilch, none! Sad, very sad...

Here is another chart:

It looks like less than 30% of all divers who died were in shape (according to the body mass index metric). Another DAN chart indicates a high proven and suspected incidence of heart attacks leading to drowning. Some food for thought, I guess ...

 

[InlandCape]

This and another thread from about a year ago that just resurfaced bring up many good points that make me think about my preparedness and how I would react. With what little diving experience that I have, I have not seen any serious incidents and hope I never do. But minor things happen quite often and how you react to them determines if there were just something minor.

While doing the deep dive for AOW we were at about 112’ and the instructors BCD was obviously giving him a few problems. His inflator valve was sticking a little. He just unhooked his inflator hose and we went on with the remainder of the dive without a hitch. That little incident left an impression on me. How would I react? Obviously this was not much of an emergency but throw in a few other issues and make that valve stick fully open and the stress would raise a lot. I know to unhook the hose but with a little stress would I simply do that? Now that I have seen that problem, and actually thought about it, I know that I would not have a problem if that situation happens. The typical OW class does not seem to spend much time covering all of the things that can go wrong and how to deal with them. I know no class can cover all possibilities and the OW is basic instruction and more training is needed.

I typically dive with my 11 year old son so I feel that I need to be particularly cautious and prepared. Our dives seldom exceed 20’. We most often dive a local quarry and when returning to the dock with air left we stop at the 15’ platform and practice basic skills. We also talk about scenarios and what would we do if…. Kind of like a basketball player mentally shooting free throws. Based on all of these comments I think we will continue to do so and after completing the rescue course beef the skills up to be prepared for a lot more scenarios.

 

[Nomad]

I think the bottom line, is to remember the inherent chaotic nature of this life.

In most situations, when a chaotic event causes the need to rethink activities, you have plenty of time to work through it, and maybe even change you mind a couple of times.

However, when one is immersed in the hostile underwater environment where we spend much of our time, one doesn't typically get alot of time to methodically analyze the situation and develop a plan to organize a solution.

In order to improve chances of survivability, solutions need to be worked out in advance, and practiced regularly.

By the way, alot of studies have been done in the past that show the benefits of visualization. Next time you have idle time (waiting for a bus, waiting for the dinner check, whatever...) create an emergency situation in your mind, then visualize yourself walking through the solution.