I just came back from some decent wreck diving in NC. Despite the weather, I got in 2 days of diving and learned some more things about current, diver stress, equipment problems, bad vis, DCS (unfortunate for my buddy) and when to call a dive first hand. Had I known some of the issues encountered on my 5th dive I would have bailed for sure. One of the divers from the group I was with asked me to go out and get in two more dives. At first I was reluctant but "peer pressure" gave in. I mean I was ready to dive but conditions were iffy. The conditions were worsening but we all went out anyway to see if we could get around the squall that blew in and get in a few more dives. The first issue I encountered was my rig blew over (bungee snapped or something) smashing my first stage into the deck, bending the yoke and dumping half my air. At first I thought it was just the o-ring but it was the bent yoke causing the o-ring to extrude. I mounted the first stage to another tank but it looked like it was not flush. I flipped the yoke over and it appeared to be flush. I pressurized my rig and five minutes later that "o-ring" blew. Now I was really PO'd. Lesson learned, if your gear does not look right or is presumed possibly faulty don't dive it (or attempt to dive it). That o-ring could have extruded (if it did not blow on deck first) underwater had we done the second dive which we all called off. In the bad vis, had I been separated from my buddy and the o-ring blew at depth I could have been bent or worse. I should have called the dives when my temper got the best of me, regardless of whether I got my gear in order or not. My stubborness got in the way of my better judgement. In any event, I borrowed a first stage and did a 65 fsw dive with my buddy. VIS was around 10-15 feet or less. I was lagging behind. My buddy jumped in and I told him I'd meet him at the line. I was so PO'd by now I was having a hard time with unfamilier gear, (borrowed reg, hose routing etc.) and flooded my mask and could not find the line in the bad vis. I was only a few feet under so I came back up, fixed my mask, blew off the attitude and swam over to the downline to catch up to my buddy. I found him at the bottom of the anchor line but vis was so poor it took me awhile to positively identify him. Now just imagine if I did dive that defective reg, I was "buddyless" on the way down, not good. This is why I really prefer to dive with a "known" buddy, to talk out a good dive plan before jumping in. With the "unknown" buddy you never really know for sure what the person is going to do on a dive. In any event we did the dive and when I settled down I actually enjoyed it. The seas were calmer and the vis was not all that bad considering some of the conditions I've dove in before. Little did I know my buddy was having a horrible dive. He was very uncomfortable in the poor vis etc. Later on the boat I told him he should have thumbed the dive. If he was feeling that bad I would rather he called it. Again, maybe he was feeling pressured to dive with me? Anyway, the vis was poor and on the return trip we went to the top of the wreck. This is where I got confused, and as I did not run a line from the anchor line, I realized we got turned around and had swam to the stern. No big deal. I signalled to my buddy to ascend from here, we'll have to surface swim. I got the feeling he wanted to "rush" to the surface and I kept signalling him to slow down. I kept him in close proximity as we did our safety stop above the stern. We surfaced after our stop and no surprise the boat was a bit off. This was when I noticed my buddy seemed a little distressed. I made sure he was ok and I signaled the boat we were both ok. As we swam back in though I noticed it was a real effort for him. I asked him periodically as we approached the boat about his condition. I should mention at this point that this guy is a heavy smoker, even before dives. On the boat he was complaining about his sore arm and shoulder. He stated that he felt this pain 2 days earlier on our previous dives (not with me) He also stated that he was diving well within the limits but his profiles in his computer proved otherwise (skipped stops etc.). We all recommended he call DAN just to be safe. In any event the doc put him in a nearby chamber. From what I understand it's sometimes hard to diagnose whether you're truly bent or not, but the heavy smoking, abused profiles etc. would lend me to believe he truly was. I'm told he's doing well after treatment. I hope this story can benefit someone out there. I know I've learned a few things..........
