Basic rules broken become near miss

[Yeason]

Were you trained to do these dives single tank or with doubles of some sort? Why no deco bottle?

I have been trained on both singles and doubles. For dives in the 40-50m range I have done these with both configurations and per instructors I've worked with the main recommendation is redundant 1st/2nd stages as this is considered basic air redundancy. Usually when going past 45m and incurring deco I try to carry a deco bottle. However, unfortunately on these dive boats in this particular area, space is a premium and bringing a pony can be an issue. So I made the poor choice to continue on this dive when it would have been better with a deco bottle. Part of this was the "I've done it tons of times before without a problem".

 

[Marie13]

I have been trained on both singles and doubles. For dives in the 40-50m range I have done these with both configurations and per instructors I've worked with the main recommendation is redundant 1st/2nd stages as this is considered basic air redundancy. Usually when going past 45m and incurring deco I try to carry a deco bottle. However, unfortunately on these dive boats in this particular area, space is a premium and bringing a pony can be an issue. So I made the poor choice to continue on this dive when it would have been better with a deco bottle. Part of this was the "I've done it tons of times before without a problem".

If space on the boat is such an issue that bringing an AL40 (for example) is a problem, I'd rethink that boat!

 

[uwxplorer]

Again, your description of a near miss is to be commended. You will notice that my first post was trying to be constructive.
My further reactions were to your qualifications, which I understood, in your mind were supposed to prove that you were an experienced diver. Well, guess what: my buddy was an "experienced" hypoxic trimix diver who was also an OW instructor. That didn't prevent him to dig himself in a hole he was not able to recover from.
So my apologies for being upset, and consequently for upsetting you, but if our warnings can entice you to re-examine your whole approach to diving, then you will have gained something from this thread that you might not have expected.
And we will have gained another critical pair of eyes in future discussion of dos and don'ts in diving.

 

[wetb4igetinthewater]

@Yeason

I hope you don’t think that I’m beating up on you. I prefer to look at the human factors that lead to this incident. No one says before a dive “I’m sure looking forward to having an emergency.”

Given that under stress, the mind is impaired from thinking clearly, I’m not sure what the solution is other than developing an awareness of when one is stressed and dealing with that stressor before moving on.

On that note, not sure how to address the “I’m running late, so skip the normal checks I would do.” It’s simple to say don’t or find buddies who will say “hey, you haven’t finished your checks.” The availability of good dive buddies has on a few occasions led me to dive solo.

 

[Yeason]

@uwxplorer Thank you, most everyone has been constructive. You did not upset me, in fact your comment about instructors rushing people through is part of why, as an instructor, I prefer when I can teach independant courses.

In my mind my certifications are not experience, but mean I should know better than this... but they also mean that I should have the skills to complete these dives. By by no means do I think I am done learning. Experience comes with time and learning experiences of which this is one. And I hope that this will be the closest I ever come to a chamber. I will always be learning, and this thread is part of that. I hope that maybe someday I'll be a guru (another pair of eyes), but even at that point I will still be learning.

 

[Zef]

@uwxplorer
In my mind my certifications are not experience, but mean I should know better than this... but they also mean that I should have the skills to complete these dives.

Your certifications mean nothing...your training and experience mean everything. Your training and experience are less suited to evaluate that you have the skills to complete a particular dive and more suited to evaluate from the perspective of whether you should do the dive in the first place.

You can't dive the plan if you don't plan the dive. As an instructor and someone with some tech training you don't have much of an excuse.

I think the best thing about this thread is that it removes instructors from the pedestal that many place them on by clearly showing that not all instructors are good divers or good decision makers. Instructor certification is like any other training in diving, in and of itself it does not necessarily make one a better diver. But the average person certified or not tends to believe that a certified instructor must be a good diver to obtain that qualification.

-Z

 

[Yeason]

I think the best thing about this thread is that it removes instructors from the pedestal that many place them on by clearly showing that not all instructors are good divers or good decision makers. Instructor certification is like any other training in diving, in and of itself it does not necessarily make one a better diver. But the average person certified or not tends to believe that a certified instructor must be a good diver to obtain that qualification.

I basically agree but would suggest that it's a better distinction to say that this thread proves that nobody is infallible, not that anyone is a "good diver".

 

[lermontov]

I basically agree but would suggest that it's a better distinction to say that this thread proves that nobody is infallible, not that anyone is a "good diver".

I think you have all the ingredients, its just packaging them together to execute the dive safely and technically correct. My suggestion is one youve already said -dial it back a bit and consolidate on some more 30-50 m dives.

 

[wetb4igetinthewater]

But the average person certified or not tends to believe that a certified instructor must be a good diver to obtain that qualification.

Sacre bleu!

 

[uwxplorer]

I hope that maybe someday I'll be a guru (another pair of eyes), but even at that point I will still be learning.

Far from me the idea that I am a guru, and even further the dream of becoming one. I f-ck up some aspect of a dive pretty much every single trip in one way or another. I just try to analyze those mistakes in a surgical manner after each trip. The hardest is when apparently nothing wrong happened. There is always something in the making...
What your own analysis of your experience shows is that it is a non trivial thing to do methodically without practice. So practice f-cking up (you will) and practice your Hercule Poirot or Sherlock Holmes skills on yourself.
Remember, as long as we don't grow gills, one breath too many without a steady supply of breathable gas, and we are out of the show.
Thanks for sharing your experience.