Diver Panic @ 135 ft. Rapid Ascent

[piikki]

The requirements are 24 dives to start AOW class. So every diver was not brand new.

Slice it or dice it anywhich way you want but a diver with 24 dives is a rank newbie. Yes it is more than 5 dives but we constantly hear people on boards say that they are ONLY relatively new when they have 10 or 20 or even 50 dives. The truth is you are a newbie and there is no reason to be ashamed or defensive about it.

And as far as exposure protection, the instructor wore gloves, hood, 3mm suit and also a 1mm skin underneath and recommended we do the same. He said he was fine with that equipment at depth. I decided to tough it out sans gloves and skin. I actually think it would have been much better had I had gloves. Im kind of a wuss for the cold to begin with.

Bleep! What a poor piece of advice from authority figure if the bottom temp was in fifties. No reasonable diver in their right mind would dress up like that for 50F dive, less so advice inexperienced students on deep dive to that temp to do so or allow them to leave out gloves/hoods etc. There is nothing wussy about dressing up according to conditions. Anyone who dives in 50F water in 3mm here is considered a hot water boiler. (Yes you might dip into a thermocline for 2 minutes in swimsuit even but not actually be expected to be able to perform in emergency etc). Part of training should be to make new divers realize what it is to dive in local waters safely.

The instructor is a friend of mine, so I have to defend him a little…. He was very reassuring .

A big bleep! There is no need for you to defend the instructor, friend or not. His actions would need no defending if he had done right by you. You didn’t know better about the exposure protection needed (lake bottom temps rarely vary that much btw) but he should have given you some good pointers from experience and rather over- than underestimate the needs – and rather than drag a group of inexperienced divers (minors included) to those depths to see what happens. “Reassurance” about wrong things has lead to many trust me dives and incidents/accidents.

 

[ScubaSteve]

SSI standards hold a max depth of 130' for specialty training, so yeah.... there was a violation of 5'

Thanks for the clarification Dave. 130' is very different from the 100' mentioned.

I still see apparent (based on info available) lapses in good judgement by the instructor in this scenario. And 5' or not he displayed a willingness to break agency rules/standards. It can be called insignificant until it really hits the fan.

 

[*dave*]

Thanks for the clarification Dave. 130' is very different from the 100' mentioned.

I still see apparent (based on info available) lapses in good judgement by the instructor in this scenario. And 5' or not he displayed a willingness to break agency rules/standards. It can be called insignificant until it really hits the fan.

Didn't mean to give the impression I considered the 5' deviation to be insignificant. Based on the info available, 100' would have been too deep. From what was posted, I haven't read anything I'd consider as good judgment.

If all is as has been represented, this guy should not be instructing.

 

[Steve50]

the instructor suggesting doing that dive in a 3mil deserves to be punished

 

[gcbryan]

I'm guessing that the instructor was a lot more reasonable than many of these comments.

The dive was to 135 ffw rather than 130 ffw...no problem. The divers may have had 24 previous dives and this was a training dive in fairly clear water (if they could see somewhat without lights).

The exposure protection sounds ridiculous but it worked for the instructor as well so maybe the water was much warmer until the very bottom...we don't really have those facts.

I don't think someone with 24 dives needs to be going to 130 ffw but that's the agency and not the instructor.

 

[JayJudge]

Unless things have changed, deeper than 130 is considered technical diving. I can see no reason, even in great vis/warm tropical climates, that an instructor would see fit to take Students down that deep. All rec instructors I know of do their deep at 100f, or less depending on conditions. Just my 2 psi

 

[SC_Hoaty]

Isn't there a bit of benefit to having an instructor (and not just a buddy) be the one that is with you the first time you go to the deep limit of your (future -since this is a training dive) certification? Just asking.

Edit - on re-reading, maybe I'm not clear. Scenario 1 - Get certified, get more (maybe) experience, and then go with "just a buddy" to the limit of your cert. Scenario 2 - Go to the limit of the cert with an instructor, as part of obtaining the cert. Seems a minor benefit to scenario 2.

 

[ScubaSteve]

Yes. That is why it is part of the instruction. What this poster got was hardly instruction IMO.

Isn't there a bit of benefit to having an instructor (and not just a buddy) be the one that is with you the first time you go to the deep limit of your (future -since this is a training dive) certification? Just asking.

 

[SC_Hoaty]

Yes. That is why it is part of the instruction. What this poster got was hardly instruction IMO.

I agree, Steve - particularly since the instructor had to go up with the other student, the OP missed out on having the "trained eyes" of the instructor evaluating the OP's performance at depth (narcosis, etc.). It would be nice to have a "do over" (and with better exposure protection).

Unless things have changed, deeper than 130 is considered technical diving. I can see no reason, even in great vis/warm tropical climates, that an instructor would see fit to take Students down that deep. All rec instructors I know of do their deep at 100f, or less depending on conditions. Just my 2 psi

My comment in my post above was more along the lines of being checked out at 100' and then certified to 130. I was fortunate when I did my deep diving with my instructor - it was a calm day on the Spiegel Grove and we went to 129'. I wish others could have similar experiences. Wouldn't others benefit from having an instructor at their side to the limit of their cert? Stopping at 100 seems a bit like getting short changed - so I must not be considering something (but I don't know what that is).

 

[SCarolinaDiver]

I agree, it does seem like getting short changed to stop at 100. And as gcbryan said, the instructor was more reasonable than it seems here, maybe you just have to know him. There may have been a misjudgment on depth and on exposure protection, but hes a good teacher and made it clear that it was no big deal if someone wanted to call the dive before or during the process. Hope this clears it up a bit, and hope we can all learn something.