Buddy got bent, sort of...

[Texasdivechick]

I have just returned from Bonaire (my first dive vacation) and I thought I'd share some of my experiences and open it up for discussion. First, my bf got certified a few months ago on a small island in the Caribbean and convinced me to get my cert in the states before we went on vacation. As I was taking my ow classes, I would ask him questions, make comments, and was surprised to discover that many topics and skills were not covered in his OW class. He had never seen a dive table until I started planning our dives while on location! On our 2nd day in Bonaire, we signed up for a guided boat dive to the Hilma Hooker, a sunken shipwreck in about 100 ft of water. We informed the DM upon boarding that we were newbies and had never gone below 60 ft. We followed the DM's instructions and stayed with the group, although bf only went to about 85ft (I went to 92ft) because he felt uncomfortable about the depth. Being newbies, we pretty much stayed close to the DM the entire dive and watched closely for his signals. We made 4 safety stops: 67 ft, 45 ft, 25 ft, and finally 12 ft. The entire dive lasted around 25 minutes. An hour after surfacing and back on land he starts complaining that he feels dizzy. We decide to go have some lunch and make plans for a dive later that afternoon. While at lunch, he said that he still felt dizzy (this is now 3 hours later) and wants to go to the hospital. He did not have any other DCI symptoms and was walking, eating, speaking just fine. I told him that I couldn't make that decision for him and that if he felt like he needed to go, then we would go and get him checked out. After a 3 hour exam the docs decide to put him in the chamber for 6 hours, "just to be safe". End of diving for him for the remainder of the trip.
I still am not entirely sure that he had the bends. I may sound crass when I say this, but he can be neurotic at times and complains often about various ailments, so I was taking this new complaint about being dizzy with a grain of salt. But seriously, it was a conservative, guided dive so I'm not sure what exactly would have caused him to get bent. All things taken into consideration: no alcohol, plenty of H20, plenty of psi's. What went wrong? Could anxiety have caused DCI? He blames me for making him go that deep, although we both planned the dive and I thought it was important to stay close to the DM, should anything go wrong that we weren't prepared for. I felt badly for him, but was I responsible for his DCI?
I learned several things on this trip. Like, when planning a DIVE VACATION, make sure that the person you're with actually wants to dive, or at least, has the same itinerary, such as 2-3 dives per day or whatever. My bf thought we were going on one or two dives over the week we were there. I had different ideas! We were in Bonaire, after all! Lesson two: make sure you carry DAN insurance. My buddy chose not to get it and ended up maxing out his credit card to pay for the hospital/ chamber bills. Lesson three: Make sure that your buddy's certification class actually covers the essential skills, like dive tables, buddy breathing, DCI, and out of air situations, none of which my buddy was familiar with. He does have a PADI OW c-card, as do I, but I think his instructor was more lax about skills. He didn't have to take the knowledge review exams and didn't receive a textbook or dvd. I gave him my copy and told him to get recertified here in the states. So, that's my trip report. On the positive side, I met some great people who were willing to be my dive buddy while I was in Bonaire, I made some great dives, and saw my first "wild" sea turtle!
Anyone have any comments?

 

[rhlee]

This was on air I assume? 85' for 25min sounds entirely reasonable to me. It sounds to me like the problems started before the dive here. If b/f wasn't comfortable with the dive plan, sitting it out was probably the right call. It might be interesting to see a computer download of your profile (if there is one), but like I said, the numbers, just roughly, sound reasonable.

I don't know about anxiety, but CO2 loading from heavy breathing can give me headaches and make me feel generally 'out of it' and last well after the dive is over. Combine that with dehydration (Bonaire is hot right? ), and who knows.

 

[ereediver]

You were his buddy, He did not want to go that deep you should not have gone that deep. It also sounds like you left him. That makes you the bad buddy

 

[jonesbf]

As far as the DCI goes he did the right thing getting checked out if he had any suspicions that he was bent. You should have stayed buddied the whole dive. Never leave your buddy. His instructor should not be instructing at all. He wasn't exposed to any of the mentioned skills, but has a c-card?! Wow... Good call on suggesting he recertify.

 

[josh]

Make sure that your buddy's certification class actually covers the essential skills, like dive tables, buddy breathing, DCI, and out of air situations, none of which my buddy was familiar with. He does have a PADI OW c-card, as do I, but I think his instructor was more lax about skills. He didn't have to take the knowledge review exams and didn't receive a textbook or dvd.

Anyone have any comments?

Buddy breathing is not a required skill for open water, it is optional.

Dive tables (or eRDP) use, and doing the knowledge reviews and final exam *are* strickly required however, as is possession of a copy of the materials. Other skills (alternate air source etc) are also definately required skills. It *sounds* as though there was a breach of training standards, and I encourage your bf to contact PADI to clarify the issue.
You can find an appropriate contact here:
http://www.padi.com/padi/th/footerlinks/qualitymanagement.aspx
-j-

 

[Racket]

It *sounds* as though there was a breach of training standards, and I encourage your bf to contact PADI to clarify the issue.
You can find an appropriate contact here:
http://www.padi.com/padi/th/footerlinks/qualitymanagement.aspx
-j-

As bad as some instructors can be, I find it very hard to believe that they skipped the dive tables.

I agree as the buddy you need to respect your buddies limitations. If this doesnt fit into your dive plan, you need to find a new dive buddy. Fortunately for me, MY so would rather sunbathe, than dive so I don't have to feel bad about not diving w/ her.

 

[josh]

As bad as some instructors can be, I find it very hard to believe that they skipped the dive tables.

Well, thats why I highlighed *sounds* like, and suggest that they clarify the issue with padi, as opposed to saying they should *report* the issue. People do forget what they were taught (as well as instructors skipping things I am sad to say).
-j-

 

[Warren_L]

As mentioned, 25 min at that depth breathing air should not really be a problem as far as exceeding your NDL is concerned. Though I am curious about all the safety stops - why so many and why those depths? Deep stops can be beneficial, however, you really need to understand the nature of off-gassing and where your off-gas ceiling is before determining these stops otherwise you could do more damage than good. However, given your runtime of 25 min, I wouldn't think those stops would have presented a problem.

From you description of your boyfriend's training, it sounds somewhat less than sufficient.

 

[Leejnd]

Ignoring for a moment the dive aspects of this story, I will say one thing: this relationship is doomed. Sheesh, you guys aren't even married and that's how well you get along? Get out now -- save yourself the trouble of a divorce. There were more red flags in your post than I can even count.

I'm sure there will be many more comments on the dive part, as there's just so much wrong here. And I'm certainly not the one qualified to dissect it here. But the most stunning thing about your story to me is that anyone would go do a deep dive like that without even having received the most basic OW instruction. Had he even been diving since his so-called certification? (Which clearly wasn't -- according to your story, his course didn't include some of the most crucial and required aspects.)

Not to be harsh, but I have to agree with the others who said that as a buddy, you made a huge mistake. I know you wanted to experience the dive and get the most out of it for yourself, but you are each other's redundancy. If you were that far away from him, could you have saved his life if he ran out of air, dropped his reg, or panicked (a strong possibility, given how uncomfortable he was with the depth)?

I'm no expert -- I've only got 61 dives myself. But as one noob to another, I'd like to share with you something that my OW instructor said to me that really drove home how important buddies are to each other: remember that if something goes wrong, you only have the amount of time to hold one breath before you DIE. There are few activities that are engaged in by normal people in which you are that close to death.

I hope your bf does go through a real certification course before he dives again.

Editing to say...my comments about the deficient instruction are predicated on the assumption that your bf accurately described the instruction he did (and did not) recieve. Perhaps he just forgot some stuff? (Although if he actually did just forget that stuff...I sure as hell wouldn't dive with him. He'd never even SEEN a dive table? He wasn't "familiar" with OOA situations???) In any case, if it's true that he didn't even have to do the knowledge reviews, that most assuredly violates training requirements and, if that's the case, he should not have a c-card. Or go diving. I'm curious what he actually DID learn in his OW class?

 

[BMCG]

25 minutes 85 ft max depth retinue of safety stops on air...and bent?

Sounds like a distinctly low probability (read left tail) event....not impossible but rather unlikely.

I realise your b/f did not have DAN coverage, but did you contact them? Whilst they would not have covered a chamber ride for your b/f, suspect they'd have been willing to advise best course of action.