Buddy missing on surface - What would you have done?

[cyklon_300]

you. They are attempting to offer constructive (and possibly life-saving) advice to someone who apparently has a very low potential for avoidance learning. You regale the board with your continuing mis-adventures and then seek sympathy, encouragement, or exoneration for your blunders.

The message is to take a good hard look at your diving practices. They need vigorous personal scrutiny and modification.

 

[gangrel441]

I think its admirable that you laid all this out. A good learning lesson for many.

Here's the lesson learned: Hey, everybody... take the RESCUE DIVER certification! Then practice what you learn.

I second that!

And clean out your PM box, you.

 

[Rick Inman]

The question was "what would you have done," but okay - some people just cannot resist the kick a guy when he's already admitted mistake.

Did you feel I was kicking you by asking the question? Forgive me, it was not my intent.

As for what I would have done, it's easy to type out the "right" answer - having not been there.

But here's what I "did" do two nights ago:

We were a threesome - which I am used to and don't mind. The plan was to poke around for a while in 15' at the end of the dive, and then swim the 200' under the docks to the exit point.

When I turned to look at one of the buddies, I saw that he was ascending toward the surface - unannounced. BTW, this guy is 62 years old. I go to the other guy, point to the ascending diver and give him the thumb. I then go up to check on the the ascending diver, who tells me he was low on air and didn't want to go under the docs. No problem, I say, just let us know so we can join you. One up, all up.

Here's where are stories converge. The diver I gave the thumb to didn't surface.

So?? What did I do?

I checked my gas. I had 1300psi in an HP100. I made sure the diver on the surface had his BC inflated and instructed him to swim around the dock to the beach and not to descend again. Then I put my reg back in my mouth and started searching for the other diver on the surface. When I found his bubbles, I headed down to join him. He had just gone under the dock in 12' of water, so I joined him, exchanged OKs, and accompanied him to the beach where we met up with the other diver.

Around the trucks, we all agreed that the diver that went up should have alerted us, and that we should have all stayed together. We also agreed that I should not have ascended without the buddy that remained down - I should have insisted on the thumb and brought him up with me, instead of just giving him the thumb and heading up. The diver that stayed down agreed that he should have accompanied me to the surface.

 

[gangrel441]

Rick

One thing I didn't see there was how deep the diver was when you found and rejoined him.

 

[DandyDon]

Did you feel I was kicking you by asking the question? Forgive me, it was not my intent.

No - not at all. Sorry it seemed possible that I had. Thanks for your sharing, too.:05:

 

[Diver Dennis]

12' gangrel.

 

[Rick Inman]

When I found his bubbles, I headed down to join him. He had just gone under the dock in 12' of water, so I joined him, exchanged OKs, and accompanied him to the beach where we met up with the other diver.

12'

 

[gangrel441]

Thanks Dennis...long week.

Hmmmm....Rick...12' isn't that deep, but still solo descent at night with a shore buddy who doesn't have visual sightlines. You did find your buddy's bubbles and follow them, in line with accepted lost buddy procedures...

Don't like the idea of solo descent on night dive, but I can deal with this one...

80 ft, on the other hand...

 

[H2Andy]

Don, here's the situation as i understand it

you arrive at the surface with one buddy missing after having seen him ok at
12 feet some time earlier. you have shy of 40 cf of air backgas and pony.

the problem is buddy separation.

what is the solution?

 

[Web Monkey]

After getting seperated once on low vis water (or high-viz mud, depending on if you're an optimist), and having a pretty good scare, my regular buddy and I agreed to a "lost buddy" procedure of "look around for a minute or so", then send up an SMB and do a normal ascent.

Whoever gets to the surface first can see where the other buddy is and wait for them to surface.

This doesn't generally work with see-them-once-on-a-vacation "boat buddies", since I can't rely on them to do anything in particular. In that case, I'll still send up an SMB and do a normal ascent, then see if they returned to the boat.

In any case, my dive plan typically doesn't include enough air for me to do an underwater search of any significant area, so the only real option is to head back to the boat, and see if they show up.

Terry

I met up with two other divers at a popular practice hole across the state line to descend as a trio to the 81 ft bottom. I've dived with one several times before, the other as part of a group tour to Belize - saw both of them as multi-card vacation divers who should know what they're doing. I try to avoid my nature of wanting to tell them what I think we should do, and respected their training and experiences enough (they'd both done this hole several times before) enough to just participate in group discussion of the dive plan.