Deep dive scare yesterday

[IwakuniDiver]

On a training dive to 130fsw yesterday my dive buddy (and best friend)and I ran into some unexpected trouble.

Yesterday was a beautiful day in Southern Japan. Sun shining, mid-70's and a light breeze. Perfect day for a training dive gearing up for our next Mutsu expedition. The plan was to follow the gentle slope of from the beach to a max depth of 130fsw, do narc checks and turn back.

Everything was going smoothly and at about 100fsw the sun could no longer pentrate the water and from that point on, the once green water became completely black. I grabbed my trusty dive light only to find that it wasn't so trusty after all and, much to my dissmay, it was half-filled with water. (We should have ended the dive there). But, since this the reason I carry a backup, I fished it out of my BC pocket and we continued.

Once we reached our target depth, my buddy and I did an air check, and narc check. Everything was fine although I did feel a bit light-headed, nothing unusual for that depth. The trouble started when we turned to head back. After about 5 or 6 kicks, I realized that we weren't moving. A current had come up that was trying to push us away from the beach, even deeper. Phil and I are the fastest swimmers at our locker and neither of us could budge and clawing the sand was useless.

Realizing quickly how much trouble we were in I turned to my buddy and thumbed up. He quickly returned the sign and we took firm grasps on eachother's BC's. Unfortunately, vertigo in the blackness got the best of my buddy and he began kicking sideways. Seeing that we were not getting any shallower I started slowly adding air to my BC. Phil saw what I was up to and slowed his kicks when we finally started to ascend. Watching our ascent rate closely we rose up the depths and let me tell you, that bright green water at 60fsw was a VERY welcome sight.

We continued up to to 15 feet where we did our safety stop for 5 minutes (we didn't hit our NDL, we were just being safe) but much to our surprise, when we surfaced, we were in the middle of the bay nearly a quarter mile offshore. After a long swim and an even longer walk back to the truck we took a well deserved rest.

Lessons learned.
1. Be aware of tidal movements in areas that are known to have strange currents. Had we done this dive at peak high tide or low tide, this would not have happened.
2. When your instinct tells you to turn back, (like when my light failed), turn back.
3. Always carry a sausage with you for boat traffic, mine was in the locker since I didn't think we'd be needing it on a beach dive.
4. When the poop hit the fan, stop. And think about what you have to do. THEN, do it. Not vice-versa.

Looking back on it, Phil and I both knew better. We are both experienced divers that train together all the time. Luckily, we have trained for this exact scenario, so we knew what to do, but if either of us had lost our heads, it wouldn't have mattered.

Sorry for the long post but I wanted to share this experience with all of you as a reminder to NEVER get complacent on ANY dive. Things can turn sour when you least expect it.

Dive Safe Everyone.
Scott

 

[TSandM]

I've had a number of experiences with somebody holding onto me during ascent or even during swimming. It's something that has to be done very tactfully and with a great deal of thought, or it seriously impedes the diver(s). Twice, the person holding on to me has had my left arm, and has dragged it downward -- This, of course, makes it impossible for a dry suit diver with a left shoulder dump valve to vent the suit while ascending.

I feel very strongly that free ascents without a reference should be practiced as a team, until they can be done smoothly. It's sometimes the only option you have, and as you learned, hanging onto one another is not necessarily a great strategy.

My SMB and spool are in my pocket on every dive. They occupy little space, and one never knows when they might be useful, or perhaps just fun.

The good thing is that you kept thinking and formulated a plan and executed it. And everybody came home safe!

 

[jonix]

kudos to you and your buddy! thanks for the reminder.

 

[IceIce]

Glad you make it back safely.

Look at the good sides:
- You both managed to stay together.
- You made each other understand what you wanted to do
- You made it back before it's too late

Cheers!

 

[RayJayJr]

I'm curious - would that really be the only effective way to handle a decending current? Not knocking your method - since it worked correctly, and it got you up safely, but im really curious if anyone else has an alternate method for dealing with that situation.

I understand that every environment is different, but is BC inflation standard proceedure for this problem?

cheers.

 

[spankey]

well done guys for keeping your heads, not everyone would have.

To TSandM I dissagree with you a bit, although you shouldn't in "most" cases hold on to each other during an accent or even a decent, in the dark as they were, I feel this was a very good thing, they already had a problem and dealing with a current in the dark, a hand hold would be the best thing. I am sure after they go into the light they would have let go well we hope any ways, but then you dont know how close they are

well thats my 0.02c worth.

 

[Izu]

On a training dive to 130fsw yesterday my dive buddy (and best friend)and I ran into some unexpected trouble.

Yesterday was a beautiful day in Southern Japan. Sun shining, mid-70's and a light breeze. Perfect day for a training dive gearing up for our next Mutsu expedition. The plan was to follow the gentle slope of from the beach to a max depth of 130fsw, do narc checks and turn back.

Everything was going smoothly and at about 100fsw the sun could no longer pentrate the water and from that point on, the once green water became completely black. I grabbed my trusty dive light only to find that it wasn't so trusty after all and, much to my dissmay, it was half-filled with water. (We should have ended the dive there). But, since this the reason I carry a backup, I fished it out of my BC pocket and we continued.

Once we reached our target depth, my buddy and I did an air check, and narc check. Everything was fine although I did feel a bit light-headed, nothing unusual for that depth. The trouble started when we turned to head back. After about 5 or 6 kicks, I realized that we weren't moving. A current had come up that was trying to push us away from the beach, even deeper. Phil and I are the fastest swimmers at our locker and neither of us could budge and clawing the sand was useless.

Realizing quickly how much trouble we were in I turned to my buddy and thumbed up. He quickly returned the sign and we took firm grasps on eachother's BC's. Unfortunately, vertigo in the blackness got the best of my buddy and he began kicking sideways. Seeing that we were not getting any shallower I started slowly adding air to my BC. Phil saw what I was up to and slowed his kicks when we finally started to ascend. Watching our ascent rate closely we rose up the depths and let me tell you, that bright green water at 60fsw was a VERY welcome sight.

We continued up to to 15 feet where we did our safety stop for 5 minutes (we didn't hit our NDL, we were just being safe) but much to our surprise, when we surfaced, we were in the middle of the bay nearly a quarter mile offshore. After a long swim and an even longer walk back to the truck we took a well deserved rest.

Lessons learned.
1. Be aware of tidal movements in areas that are known to have strange currents. Had we done this dive at peak high tide or low tide, this would not have happened.
2. When your instinct tells you to turn back, (like when my light failed), turn back.
3. Always carry a sausage with you for boat traffic, mine was in the locker since I didn't think we'd be needing it on a beach dive.
4. When the poop hit the fan, stop. And think about what you have to do. THEN, do it. Not vice-versa.

Looking back on it, Phil and I both knew better. We are both experienced divers that train together all the time. Luckily, we have trained for this exact scenario, so we knew what to do, but if either of us had lost our heads, it wouldn't have mattered.

Sorry for the long post but I wanted to share this experience with all of you as a reminder to NEVER get complacent on ANY dive. Things can turn sour when you least expect it.

Dive Safe Everyone.
Scott

Good to hear ya'll got out OK. Had a similar experience.
Because of the fantastic weather this past weekend down here in Izu, my buddy and I soon found ourselves @ 110 fsw taking pix of all the giant purple soft corals. We began to explore deeper down the steep sand slope into the darkness and soon noticed that we were being sucked out. Luckily we were able to go parallel back to the rocks and get back up without incident. I suspect it was caused by the tail end of the last typhoon.
BTW, how does one perform a narc check ?

 

[orangelemon]

I'm curious - would that really be the only effective way to handle a decending current? Not knocking your method - since it worked correctly, and it got you up safely, but im really curious if anyone else has an alternate method for dealing with that situation.

I understand that every environment is different, but is BC inflation standard proceedure for this problem?

cheers.

Despite all the skills you learn on your courses, if you dive often enough in different areas at different times you are going to have a situation that you didnt expect, a down current in darkness with a buddy swimming sideways calls for a clear head, Stop, Think and Act seems to have worked here, inflating the BC slightly and monitoring ascent rate seem to be the best solution, and almost the only solution available.

 

[NJMike]

I've had a number of experiences with somebody holding onto me during ascent or even during swimming. It's something that has to be done very tactfully and with a great deal of thought, or it seriously impedes the diver(s). Twice, the person holding on to me has had my left arm, and has dragged it downward -- This, of course, makes it impossible for a dry suit diver with a left shoulder dump valve to vent the suit while ascending.

The first thing I thought, being new, was that holding onto each other may have been the smartest thing they did...

If his buddy was disoriented and started kicking sideways in the darkness, and if they were NOT holding onto each other, the day may not have ended so well for his buddy...

 

[victor]

Dark, Disoriented, Vertigo, Narced
Very nasty situation you got into.
Your training has stood you both in good stead.
You and your buddy know each other well and he recognised that your solution was superior to his and went along with it.

I agree on keeping in physical contact on the ascent until you were both comfortable with the situation, e.g. in natural light, shallow enough for the narcosis to wear off, clear of vertigo, etc.

As to calling the dive when your primary light failed, no I probably would not have, you both had a backup, it's not a wreck or cave dive, it seems reasonable to continue.

I am not supersticious, however if I had that "I should not be doing this feeling" then I would have called the dive.

Thanks for sharing your experience, I had never considered what currents a falling tide would create at depth. I assume you were caught in the equivelent of an offshore rip on the surface.

Luckily you had a reference so could quickly see that you were being pushed down, under some situations you could easily have been carried quickly to a dangerous depth.