Buddy OOA in Challenging Conditions

[TSandM]

Interesting thought, Ayisha. I make it up the steps at Carwash in MX because there is a hang line. It might not be too hard for boats to install, if they have improperly designed ladders.

 

[Beiji]

Lynn, I was looking at some of your sites. To see that in the beginning you struggled with some of the basics, and now you dive doubles and even climb up ladders and stairs in them (and you're a tiny bit older than I), gives me hope and inspiration! I need to keep going, keep working on my skills, plan better, not be embarrassed to ask certain kinds of questions (or be embarrassed but do it anyway), and do the best I can with whatever happens.

 

[Kingpatzer]

I may have missed it while reading the thread (cold meds make me not the most observant) but has anyone mentioned ditching weights?

Neither diver dropped their weights as they neared the surface. This meant that they had to worry about inflating their BC's at the surface. The boat strike to the head shows where that can become problematic. The OOA diver's level of panic might have been enough that they didn't manage to get positively buoyant either.

When I read the stats about fatal accidents, I see that many accidents' final bad step is divers losing buoyancy control AT THE SURFACE. And the vast majority of diver accident victims who are found are found to have their weight belts still on.

The easiest, safest, and surest way to ensure that loss of buoyancy control at the surface does not happen is to simply lose the weight belt. At that point the diver can forget about the BC inflator hose entirely. There is no worry about if they have air to inflate it, if they remember to inflate it, if they hit the right button, if there's damage to the BC due to hitting the boat, or whatever. For most recreational divers diving in salt water in any sort of exposure protection losing the weight belt means they will stay at the surface.

With conditions the way the were, the divers tired and stressed, dropping the weight belts at or near the surface would have raised their safety level significantly.

Now, that doesn't address the primary causes of the accident which started at the start of the dive when there wasn't a clear communication about signals and dive plans, but it could have made a huge difference in the outcome.

 

[Beiji]

Kingpatzer, you're right that the OOA diver did not drop her weights, and she did have trouble at the surface. We were separated right after we surfaced. She didn't try to inflate her BC assuming there was no air (she had been breathing on my pony bottle from 60 ft to the surface). She did go under a couple times before a crew member got to her and orally inflated her BC and another diver went in and gave her a reg. She ascribes her behavior to panic.

I, however, had plenty of air on my back and got buoyant as soon as I hit the surface. I hit the boat probably because I was preoccupied with the surface line and with my buddy's situation. Right after I hit my head (which was not as bad as I thought at the moment) I put up an arm to protect me from the boat. That may have been why I was blown off the line. When we were ascending I had to keep both hands on the upline most of the time because of the strength of the current.

 

[Kingpatzer]

I, however, had plenty of air on my back and got buoyant as soon as I hit the surface. I hit the boat probably because I was preoccupied with the surface line and with my buddy's situation. Right after I hit my head (which was not as bad as I thought at the moment) I put up an arm to protect me from the boat. That may have been why I was blown off the line. When we were ascending I had to keep both hands on the upline most of the time because of the strength of the current.

I appreciate your comment, and the line of thinking you used. However, I disagree that you had no reason to drop weights.

By your own admission you were a tired diver who needed assistance. From the PADI rescue manual:

. . . in most tired diver situations, other than dropping weights, ditching gear is a low priority.

I am not saying that every diver in every situation should drop weights, but I do believe that as a community divers do not ditch weights nearly as often as they should and that they are frequently unaware of how doing so can significantly improve upon their safety.

You were not panicking. But you had just completed a stressful assent in an emergency situation and you were still under significant stress and were not yet safe. Dropping your weights would ensure your positive buoyancy against any contingency and would make you more comfortable on the surface lessening your stress and thus reducing the probability that some additional event might cause you to enter the panic cycle. For example, the head strike. Luckily it wasn't serious. Luckily it didn't cause you to panic. But what if it were worse?

Most diver fatalities happen due to loss of buoyancy at the surface. That can happen from any number of reasons, including a stressed or panicing diver's own actions. Dropping the weight belt makes such a loss of buoyancy almost entirely impossible.

I won't say you are wrong for not dropping your own weights - though I will say that I think you should seriously question if it would not have been a wise idea to drop them as soon as you neared the surface. But I will say that not dropping your victim's weights as she neared the surface as part of your rescue was a clear oversight.

 

[Beiji]

Kingpatzer, thanks for your additional comments. I have to say that I never thought of taking off Trish's weights. At what point do you drop them for another diver?

I will seriously consider what you said about dropping my own weights.

 

[TSandM]

I wouldn't have dropped weights if I had been Beiji. But I would have ditched my partner's weights, because she was having trouble maintaining positive buoyancy, and I can drop her weights faster than I can orally inflate her BC -- plus, once the weights are gone, even if we get separated, she'll stay positive.

 

[Bubbletrubble]

You were not panicking. But you had just completed a stressful assent in an emergency situation and you were still under significant stress and were not yet safe. Dropping your weights would ensure your positive buoyancy against any contingency and would make you more comfortable on the surface lessening your stress and thus reducing the probability that some additional event might cause you to enter the panic cycle. For example, the head strike. Luckily it wasn't serious. Luckily it didn't cause you to panic. But what if it were worse?

If Beiji had dropped her weight immediately upon surfacing, that would have made her decidedly positively buoyant and would have removed the possibility of dumping air to get below the surface to avoid the boat smacking into her head. Personally, I want to have the option of redescending whenever I surface around boats (even if the boat that presents a danger is my own).

Dropping Trish's weight to get her positively buoyant would have made sense in this scenario since she was in a panic-like state.
I think Beiji made the right choice not ditching her own weight.

 

[Kingpatzer]

Kingpatzer, thanks for your additional comments. I have to say that I never thought of taking off Trish's weights. At what point do you drop them for another diver?

I will seriously consider what you said about dropping my own weights.

Anytime you are at the surface, or within a foot or three, so that a buoyant assent is not an issue you can drop the weights. Where I you, I would have been looking at her weights as we left the safety stop and would have been in the process of removing them as we broke the surface or just before (so she wouldn't have to even consider buoyancy at the surface).


TSandM -- I understand that the call for an individual is going to vary -- as I said I'm not advocating always dropping weights. However, given the fact of the head strike, the feeling of needing additional assistance described, and the surface conditions I think I might have sided on dropping my own weights. But it is definitely a subjective call and I'm not going to say it's wrong not to in this situation. I do think not considering if it should be done is, however, a mistake.

 

[fast97rs]

beiji, if you decide to use a bigger pony bottle (a 30 or 40) you can sling it like a stage bottle, in which case you can pass it up to the boat personnel before climbing the ladder. Makes life easier!

fast97rs, I really disagree with you about the OP being right to stay on the line. The other diver was completely out of gas, and ended up on the surface, rattled enough to be unable to remember to orally inflate her BC OR drop her weights. People drown that way. The boat did not have a dressed safety diver, and I think it was only luck that got someone to this lady before she went back underwater and didn't come up. I've read way too many descriptions of accidents that went that way.

If both divers are together, the boat has one place to send a pickup craft for rescue. It's not as though we are advising that two divers be floating around independent of one another. Keep hold of the OOA diver until she's on the ladder.

1) There was a rescue diver ready to go. That's who performed the rescue

2) She was so exhausted she could barely hold on to the line... how do you expect her to perform a rescue in that condition? First thing you learn in rescue is that you should always make sure you are safe and in a good enough position to do the rescue before even attempting it.

3) What rescue craft? They were 10minutes into everyone else's dive... no chance the boat would have untied from the wreck and left the boat full of divers to go pick them up.


I agree that if Lisa would have been up to the task she should have stayed with the diver and done the rescue/tow back to the boat herself... or untill relieved by the divemaster... BUT that was not the case.


Also.... why is everyone blaming the gear here? Fair enough... a larger primary cylinder would not have depleted as quickly... and a larger pony would have lasted longer as well...

The issue here isn't the gear but the implementation of the gear/resources the divers had. The 13' pony lasted long enough for a 3minute safety stop.... Thus, it was large enough for a proper accent and surface inflation. A larger primary cylinder and pony would have only led to more diver fatigue.

Drag your finger through the water. That creates drag and a lot of it... people forget how much drag simply having an extra hose creates. More gear is not the solution here. Properly rigged gear and its implimintation is.