Certification Dive Mishap and analysis

[b1gcountry]

What Happened:
I was 16 when I took my PADI OW course 11 years ago while on vacation in Kauai. The instructor seemed competent and friendly, but I had no experience to judge her by. Only one other student was in this class, a guy about my age. We were both very comfortable around water, strong swimmers, and we both did well in the course.

Day1+2 classroom and pool. No Problems.

Day 3 Two dives at a local shore dive. Very calm conditions, several dive groups there. Pretty eye-opening experience, but no major problems.

Day 4 We plan the final two certification dives at an area with a large breakwater which formed a sort of harbor with a narrow mouth (I remember munitions were stren about the bottom, but I forget the site name.) The seas were about 4' around the opening of the breakwater, and had a long period. Inside the harbor, the waves were more like 1-2'. A Divemaster Candidate whom we never met before tagged along to get credit towards her Internship.

We drop in off a high pier with a giant stride. I was a bit nervous going in this way, and I dropped my weight belt when I splashed in. When the group descends, I realize what happened, and the instructor has to re-surface to find out what happened. I tell her and she retreives the belt.

After we all get down and started the dive, I relaxed. We head towards breakwater entrance. There is surge from the waves overhead, but I was not exerting myself on the way out. We turn around at around 35-40' on a flat bottom. I immediately notice the surge is a lot worse in this direction, and I have to exert myself to keep up. The divemaster, Instructor, and other student all seem to have an easier time with it, and I begin to trail them.

After a while of exertion, I notice my beathing getting harder. My SPG read next to nothing. The group is about 6-10' in front of me, and I have no means of getting their attention. I realized I had two options: 1. Swim balls-out for the instructor, and hope I make it before I die, or 2. Perform a controlled emergency ascent. I remember thinking it through in my head very rationally, but I know it was only a second. I decide to swim to the instructor.

Swimming all out, I sucked the absolute last breath I could from my regulator a few seconds before coming within grasp of her fin tip. I continually rehearsed the signals I would give her when I got her attention: "Low on Air" "Buddy Breathe". I signalled her, and she grabbed my BC Strap before fumbling for her octo. It felt like an eternity, but I managed to restrain myself and not grab the reg from her mouth. We both gave thumbs and ascended. I remember her being excited about how I handled the situation when we reached the surface. That was definitively not the thought going through my own head at the time.

We swam back to the dock, and I generally felt like an idiot. To top things off, I had problems exiting over this rocky area, and sliced my hand open on some sharp rock. When we got back to the truck, there was no first aid kit. After a long surface interval, I did complete my second dive uneventfully, and the instructor's enthusiasm did help to get me over the shock of it.

 

[ParamedicDiver1]

Hey BC...I think you did a great job in not panicking! Couple of questions...how high was the peir? And you mentioned no first aid kit...did the instructor not have a first aid kit at the site? If not...major uh-oh. All things considered...great job.

 

[agdiver75]

Also glad that everything worked out and you kept your hear.

When leading a group of divers, especially students, the instructor and/or DM does need to check on them occasionally to see if they are having trouble.
With two dive leaders (even one in training) it might have helped to have one lead the group and one follow to ensure that any straglers or divers having trouble are taken care of.

Mike

 

[OutdoorStud]

Im with ParamedicDiver1 majour uhoh on the no first aid kit. just one question, do you think trim could have been a factor in the difficulty with the surge or maybe fitness? and actually question two, what did you do after the dive to learn from it?

 

[NancyLynn]

Wow - that level headed at 16 - I'm impressed!

That aside, my daughter (also 16) had a similar experience, without the close call. She began her first checkout dive with her class and I followed about a minute later - following their bubbles on the surface until I spotted them below, then dropping down to join them. Not necessarily the safest plan, but they were ready to go and getting hot since the surface weather was warm, but they were geared for water temperature ranged from 40-55 degrees. I wasn't quite ready when they were since I had been helping pull hair out of face masks, snugging up gloves, etc. When I spotted them and dropped down to join them, I thought I counted one fewer set of fins from the surface than there should have been.

It turns out the instructor had been leading, my daughter's buddy was having trouble and slowed down. My daughter stuck tight to her buddy as she had been instructed to do. The other buddy pair was instructed to play follow the leader, so they slowed down too. The instructor hadn't noticed and was clear out of sight when I dropped down to find the class merrily carrying out its first open water dive sans instructor.

Particularly after that experience, it seems to me that there should always be at least two "on duty" certified divers in the pack - unless there is only one diver being checked out. Keeping an eye on more than one novice diver cannot be done safely (in my opinion) by a single instructor. Aside from the risk of leaving one or more divers behind, it takes quite a while to work out underwater communications. If one novice diver is in trouble, the chance of being able to communicate a contingency plan to the other diver(s) is pretty slim.

Any opinions about whether it is safe for a single instructor to take multiple divers on checkout dives; and if so, whether it is better to lead or follow.

 

[duskdiver]

Well done mate!!
This, to me, is a huge mistake of the INSTRUCTOR!!

I see this all the time, Dm`s or Instructors (especially the new ones) swimming, like nothing is going on!!
I have been so lucky,:shocked2: to have had some major problems when I was still a Divemaster, and that has made me very carefull, some people laugh at me but I am 100% sure, this has kept me out of problems. (knock on wood)

1.YOU NEVER KNOW HOW MUCH AIR YOUR STUDENTS HAS!
(Yes, I "calculate" the students air consuMption well too, but SPG´s are not precise or don't fuction at all, especially in resorts(seen many spg`s that stop at 30 or more )

2.YOU CAN NEVER PREDICT AIR CONSUMPTION
(Yes..90% of all cases you can, but that special guy or girl)
Last month I had a guy almost running out of air in the swimming pool on a 12L (80AL) in 35Min, I still dont understand that one..

3.YOU ALWAYS CHECK THE STUDENTS AIR YOURSELF!!
(my GF started to work at new center and Mr.Course Director himself, and I hope he reads this, checked her students air...well he didn`t!!

4.YOU NEVER SWIM LIKE YOU ARE GUIDING CERTIFIED DIVERS!!
(You want to have your students next to you, I brief them on that, wim on your back a lot)

 

[Jim Malone]

I have the same experience as a divemaster. When we dive during the OW-course there is at least one Divemaster per two students and an instructor. Diving with 4 OW means two divemasters and 1 instructor. During these dives i always swim about a meter above the buddy pair, so i can watch them and deflate their BC if they should start to ascend. during the dive i am solely focused on my divers and the group and never on any wildlife or anything else. It's pretty exhausting to be vigilant all the time. I also show them my air supply frequently, and most of the time they will realise that they should check air pressure, and show it to me as well. After doing the mandatory excercises i take them to a sandy part around 12 feet deep and get them to kneel down. Then we just watch the fish swim by, and this is the thing most find the most fun part. When one of them is at 75 bar we slowly follow the bottom up to the shore.

 

[soltari675]

Wow, crazy instructor. To help with what SHOULD have happened:

When I did my certification 2 months ago, my open water was done with at least 2 advanced divers (instructor and divemaster). On the second day we even had a second dive master tag along. The instructor led the dives and the divemaster stayed behind us. The instructor still turned and checked on us, asking to physically see our gauges. Now I certified in a quarry after a week of rain, so visibility was very poor. Say 5ft max. We lost the instructor once, but the divemaster was right there with us and in less than a minute the instructor was back. She always checked where we were.

Also, as far as the first aid, the instructors at my shop ALWAYS carry a first aid kit and oxygen in their van, on every trip, not just certifications.

Just some knowledge about what should have been done. I am lucky I suppose. I love my dive shop and divers.

 

[Peter69_56]

Well all during my Dive Master training it was reinforced to me the following;

You are here for one thing and one thing only, to take care of the students. You are not to sightsee, be distracted or wander off or be bored. You WILL keep your eyes glued to the students at all times!

You are to be tail end charlie and slightly above all the students so as to catch any errant divers drifting to the surface.

You will have sand kicked into your mask, you may have your mask kicked off, because of where you will be, be aware it will happen and deal with it.

You may be bored, "tough", your sole job is the safety of the students first. Make sure you fulfill your role and duty at all times.

Take the job of DM seriously or don't bother to become one. These students look up to you, respect you and depend on you.

I carry my own first aid kit in my car when diving, also an emergency beacon with me and just purchased an Diver O2 kit. All for diver safety. I take the lives of students I am with seriously, they depend on me for their safety. I will not dive with Instructors or DM who have the certification just so they look good they must be proffessional at their job, if not they can dive with someone else. I expect my training to be of quality thus I must provide what I expect of others.

 

[John C. Ratliff]

B1GCountry, good job. I have one observation; the buddy system broke down. Buddies should be next to and monitoring each other, not in a "goup" where they swim after the instructor. More later...

SeaRat

---------- Post added February 10th, 2013 at 08:08 PM ----------

...sorry, but my wife called me to supper.

The development of the Submersible Pressure Gauge (SPG) was supposed to eliminate out-of-air situations. Up until that time, we were depending upon the J-valve to give us information that we had only 300 psig (for a single tank) left. This would give us about 5 minutes of air left when we pulled the J-reserve rod. On doubles, the J-reserve was set at 500 psig, and was on one cylinder. When pulled, it made a "woshing" sound as the air equalized. The original Cousteau patent for the AquaLung showed three cylinders, with one valved separately. That valve was kept closed until the other two cylinders were drained, and then was opened with an even greater "woshing" sound audible to divers nearby when the diver went on the reserve cylinder. That way, according to the patent, you could eliminate the need for a gauge to show the air remaining. So out-of-air has been a concern from the very beginning. Other devices were developed, such as the sonic valve and the sonic regulator which told you when air got to 300-500 psig by a sonic warning or vibrating regulator second stage.

When everyone decided the SPG was the way to go, we thought we would eliminate out-of-air because everyone could monitor their own air on a minute-my-minute basis. But we still have people forgetting to look at their SPGs. As the SPG became more sophisticated, and went digital, alarm bells have been incorporated (which cannot be heard under wet suit hoods). But still, we have out-of-air situations.

As you have grown in your diving experience, I'm pretty sure this has not been repeated, and you are monitoring your SPG. Afher an experience like this, learning occurs. We all go through this at times. I remember having to buddy breath on a science dive where I was photographing a subtidal clam bed sampling for about 5 minutes to get the photos I needed. This was in about 1975, and I did not have an SPG.

One "trick" I have used is to dive my SPG and my J-valve tank, and keep the J-valve in the "On" position. I will ignore the J-valve, and dive the SPG, using the criterion of 500 psig to get out of the water. That way, I will always have an "extra" 300 psig left in the tank, even if the SPG is reading zero. So if something weird happens, I do still have a reserve.

By the way, had you not gotten to the instructor, you could either have turned around and buddy breathed from one of the other divers, or made your emergency swimming ascent. If you had ascended, you probably would have gotten at least one more breath from the scuba simply by the pressure differential.

SeaRat