limeyx:Flow checks I (hope) i can handle, it's the rest
Make sure you know your 9 failures and their responses down cold. It'll make the week go smoother.
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limeyx:Flow checks I (hope) i can handle, it's the rest
Kevrumbo:A gas-sharing egress at nearly the furthest point of penetration, followed by a total light failure for the 3-man team is one of the most difficult & arduous drills to perform in an overhead class. However unlikely and improbable this occurrence may happen for real, the Drill illustrated an obvious point for me: everyone's gotta know how much gas that initial donor has. You have proper gas management and rock bottom reserve so at least you have a basic idea --how hard is it to just confirm it with a quick show of the SPG (right before the cascade of primary & secondary light failures in this Drill begins)? Also, a lights-out gas sharing egress in total darkness can take almost twice as long to effect an exit. A donor switch in this situation may therefore be inevitable.
Be consistent in practice, be prepared for the worst possible contingency. Always show your SPG on any Gas-Sharing Drill. . .
rjack321:I would go so far as to say nobody's died from checking vs. not checking the SPG on an OOA. People die in caves from excessive depth, failure to maintain a continuous guideline, and violating 1/3rds. There are some other reasons for non-cave trained OW divers
There are no scooters in Cave1, but in event of any failure the most important thing you can do is stop. More than anything, this is what the backwards kick is for.
You can then reference the line. Only then should you be addressing the problem.
A mad immediate dash/grab for the line is not what you should be doing. You would the cause of any silt - relax, slow down, deal with any issues calmly. The line should never be outside of arms reach anyway.
All of this is why you have a 60ft breathhold test. You can hold your breath for a moment to calmly address problems. You will also be doing S-drills further and further apart as the week goes on, up to 30-40 ft apart.
At the end of the week you realize that OOA and lights out aren't the big issues anyway. Navigational errors are the ones that are always looming.
Kendall Raine:Agreed, the slow relaxed approached is often the right way to deal with a cascade of problems. If you have that luxury. Sometimes you don't and your manual is back in the truck. I'm not just constructing a horror show for fun. The scenario above happend to a friend of mine five years ago in Dos. They didn't have an OOG, but that isn't too hard to imagine if, while trying to arrest a runaway scooter, you smack the ceiling and break a manifold. High speed problem followed by instantaneous lights out followed by OOG.
rjack321:Sure, but they don't teach you these things in class because by and large they aren't the cause of fatalities. The root cause in your scooter scenario is failure to stop. Whether you're riding a scooter or not, the reactions are the same - 1) stop, 2) reference line, 3) address problem. I would postulate that sequence will stand the test of time, although with only 16 cave dives I don't have enough experience to claim it has myself.
There was another fatality in Egypt this week, 300+ ft on 17/20 = diving to excessive depth IMO.