Divemaster Candidate Out of Air...

[AggieDiver]

However, if I was solo and went OOA, and was dong a cesa from 60', I think I too would blow by the other divers. By the time you moved from 60' to 15', you're almost there anyway, and have momentum, and you don't know it the other divers are going to safely give you air, or how much air they have.

The first letter in CESA stands for "controlled". Going from 60 feet to the surface out of control risks serious injury or death. If this guy was a DMC, he should be able to control his ascent well enough to stop at the emergency 2nd stage hanging over the side of the boat at 15 feet specifically for this situation. He didn't need to go to a diver who was not his buddy for air, the dive op had a 2nd stage hanging over the side ready for his use. I understand that panic had probably overtaken him at that point, but the most useful skill in diving is the ability not to panic when the stuff hits the fan. For those of us reading this board hoping to learn from the mistakes of others so that we don't make them ourselves, the take home message from this incident is NOT that he was right to make the CESA to the surface...it is that he was wrong to panic and pass up six divers and an available air source at 15 feet in his rush to reach the surface. Stop, breathe, think, act. Panic isn't a part of that process...

 

[diverdowndh]

#1 you are diving
#2 you are someone's dive buddy
#3 you are taking pictures

In reading this it made me think of myself taking pictures. While no where near DM level, i've done enough dives to know that I do NOT know it all. I can say I've tried to maneuver in to get a shot and then realize my dive buddy is watching me, but not me her. Very good advice!

 

[waynel]

That's very sweet. I too have a lovely bride/dive buddy. However, I must be reading your post wrong. It sounds like you have "relieved" your wife from buddy responsibilities. Just a question...do you think perhaps by doing so you might be assisting in her development as a photographer, but not as a reliable diver? I'm actually quite insistent that my bride work on diving and buddy skills. Personally I want more out of a dive buddy than a convenient octo holder. Please, I mean no offense, to each his own. However, forget about me. If somehow my bride gets seperated from me underwater and encounters andemergency, I want her to have the skills she will need to take care of it. Taking care of my bride/dive buddy might be a sweet act of devotion, but would I be enabling her to ignore skills she needs to develop in buddy diving because I'm doing everything for her? Just a question.

 

[AggieDiver]

I have the same concerns sometimes with my wife Wayne, so you are not alone. I tend to do what every husband does...help...when sometimes I should let her learn for herself and insist that she develop her own skills instead of relying on mine.

 

[Blitz]

Absolutely no excuse. I am a photobug and a budding videographer and I always know about how much air I have. The fact that this guy is a DM candidate and did this makes me sick. How do you manage other people problems when you aren't aware enough to manage your own?

 

[diver 85]

That's very sweet. I too have a lovely bride/dive buddy. However, I must be reading your post wrong. It sounds like you have "relieved" your wife from buddy responsibilities. Just a question...do you think perhaps by doing so you might be assisting in her development as a photographer, but not as a reliable diver? I'm actually quite insistent that my bride work on diving and buddy skills. Personally I want more out of a dive buddy than a convenient octo holder. Please, I mean no offense, to each his own. However, forget about me. If somehow my bride gets seperated from me underwater and encounters andemergency, I want her to have the skills she will need to take care of it. Taking care of my bride/dive buddy might be a sweet act of devotion, but would I be enabling her to ignore skills she needs to develop in buddy diving because I'm doing everything for her? Just a question.

You going on the Flower Garden trip in early August??......

 

[diver 85]

That's very sweet. I too have a lovely bride/dive buddy. However, I must be reading your post wrong. It sounds like you have "relieved" your wife from buddy responsibilities. Just a question...do you think perhaps by doing so you might be assisting in her development as a photographer, but not as a reliable diver? I'm actually quite insistent that my bride work on diving and buddy skills. Personally I want more out of a dive buddy than a convenient octo holder. Please, I mean no offense, to each his own. However, forget about me. If somehow my bride gets seperated from me underwater and encounters andemergency, I want her to have the skills she will need to take care of it. Taking care of my bride/dive buddy might be a sweet act of devotion, but would I be enabling her to ignore skills she needs to develop in buddy diving because I'm doing everything for her? Just a question.

In response to your diving wife & her diving skills, when we (myself, oldest child age 14, & wife) were certified in '85, I remember the advice our instructor gave me then----let them fend for themselves, you are doing them NO FAVORS by hooking up their equipment etc etc(this goes for everything assoc. with diving).....BTW, advice I have tried to maintain but have slipped with once or twice......., but.......

 

[CoralSeaMan]

I am an instuctor and have just purchased a new digital camera. When I dive for fun I work hard at being a good buddy. I have dived with the same buddy for years on at least one trip a year to the Carib
bean. On my last trip, I did some photography. In years past, I would have been unable to focus too much on the pictures. Now my diving is good enough to spend a lot more attention on photos than on diving. Nonetheless, I found myself drifting into coral, losing depth without noticing and generally focusing more on the photos than on being underwater. My buddy stayed with me and watched my back but I wasn't of much value to him. With time I hope I get better.
There were no problems on this trip. But I can see how someone could get so focused they lose track of things. Diving solo seems to be inviting more complications in this situation.

 

[rhlee]

The two dumbest things I've ever seen done UW were done by DMs (both BTW were
VERY proud of being DMs, and not acting as DMs at the time). I imagine a DMC could
even exceed those.

Alright Chuck, I gotta ask. What were the 2 dumbest things you've seen done underwater?...

 

[all4scuba05]

I know of a diver who has been diving for quite some years with over 1000 dives under his belt. This guy has pulled some crazy stunts. He's done plenty of ESA's. Why? Because sometimes, on his "shallow dives" with single tank he'll dive till he has run out of air and then shoots for the surface. He states that if an ESA is done correctly from those "shallow depths" nothing will go wrong. Some here know him by name and he's respected highly so.
Things that me me go Hmmmmm.