tombiowami
Contributor
One item to add about the guy quitting, MHK really honed in on the lack of buddy skills around that event. This was by far the most critical he, or any of them were the entire class. It was not mean spirited or anything of the sort, kind of like the concerned grandparent. The details around the event were that the student got cramped and was having a very hard time with his
doubles/buoyancy/trim. There was no real help given by his buddies at that time. (all in color video
for all to see) The guy thumbed the dive to one of his two buddies (3 man team) and surfaced.
The second buddy did not tell the 3 what happened or offer to call the dive in general. The buddy team was 2 instructors and a tech oriented student who have dove together frequently.
Extending that action to the rest of us, I don't think anyone really talked to him after the dive to find
out what really happened and if there was any help we could offer. I just had a Rescue class in
which we talked about how to help anxious divers. I know if someone is anxious I need to sit down and discuss what is causing the anxiety and see if it is real or imagined and if there is any help I can offer to alleviate it. We just kind of let him go.
Observations- For the buddy team their meager, non defensive, reply was that they had dove with the guy so much that they assumed he knew what he was doing and was alright. They understood the error of their ways with no problem. I noticed a
common thread in this and other dives I have been on in which the more one knows someone or
thinks they are a good diver the less attention is paid to them. In separations there may be less attempt to
find them "because they know what they are doing". Since this was a class I think there was some shirking of duty to the instructors also, "because they are better divers than us?"
We were concentrating on how to do a good frog kick we lost sight of the more important issue of "is my buddy alive and near me, as he has my backup gas". This is another DIR Fundamental, that even the simplest tasks, like buddy awareness, can fly out the door with even a minute amount of task loading, like learning the frog kick.
One of MHK's/DIR stances is to be an aggressive buddy. Be constantly checking each others gear, demeanor, comfort level, etc. Part of this for me is the ego deal of being scared to bring stuff up to more experienced divers, and not wanted more inexperienced divers telling me anything. I only have 60 dives so it is easy to see this is just personal ego issues.
In the book Deep Descent I think similar post mortem observations are made of Ormsby, they saw he had a convoluted rig but did not say anything. Same book, it seems a lot of Doria fatalities were accompanied by buddies getting separated and each thinking the other was alright becase they were such good divers.
Our buddy skills improved quite a bit on the subsequent dives.
Tommy
doubles/buoyancy/trim. There was no real help given by his buddies at that time. (all in color video
for all to see) The guy thumbed the dive to one of his two buddies (3 man team) and surfaced.
The second buddy did not tell the 3 what happened or offer to call the dive in general. The buddy team was 2 instructors and a tech oriented student who have dove together frequently.
Extending that action to the rest of us, I don't think anyone really talked to him after the dive to find
out what really happened and if there was any help we could offer. I just had a Rescue class in
which we talked about how to help anxious divers. I know if someone is anxious I need to sit down and discuss what is causing the anxiety and see if it is real or imagined and if there is any help I can offer to alleviate it. We just kind of let him go.
Observations- For the buddy team their meager, non defensive, reply was that they had dove with the guy so much that they assumed he knew what he was doing and was alright. They understood the error of their ways with no problem. I noticed a
common thread in this and other dives I have been on in which the more one knows someone or
thinks they are a good diver the less attention is paid to them. In separations there may be less attempt to
find them "because they know what they are doing". Since this was a class I think there was some shirking of duty to the instructors also, "because they are better divers than us?"
We were concentrating on how to do a good frog kick we lost sight of the more important issue of "is my buddy alive and near me, as he has my backup gas". This is another DIR Fundamental, that even the simplest tasks, like buddy awareness, can fly out the door with even a minute amount of task loading, like learning the frog kick.
One of MHK's/DIR stances is to be an aggressive buddy. Be constantly checking each others gear, demeanor, comfort level, etc. Part of this for me is the ego deal of being scared to bring stuff up to more experienced divers, and not wanted more inexperienced divers telling me anything. I only have 60 dives so it is easy to see this is just personal ego issues.
In the book Deep Descent I think similar post mortem observations are made of Ormsby, they saw he had a convoluted rig but did not say anything. Same book, it seems a lot of Doria fatalities were accompanied by buddies getting separated and each thinking the other was alright becase they were such good divers.
Our buddy skills improved quite a bit on the subsequent dives.
Tommy
