Diving "Etiquette" and the lack thereof

[Walter]

Interesting. I have a number of questions/comments.

Why weren't you with your buddy? You should be keeping track of each on your descent. If you are diving "in packs not so much buddies", you are diving solo. If you are diving solo, you need to be aware of it and you need to be ready for it. From your description of the incident, you are both far from being ready to dive solo. You both made the choice to dive "in packs." Lots of folks dive Jupiter with specific buddies.

He sensed that something was wrong but his descent continued until he landed on the bottom on his knees with 80 feet of water above him. He then tried to inflate with no lift response.

Why did he wait until he was on the bottom to slow his descent?

Little did he know but his bladder was quickly filling with water.

Why is this an issue? Water is neutrally buoyant. It will neither help him float not make him sink.

Yes, you read this right... the diver saw a fellow diver in distress and he swam off and left the distressed diver!

Why do you see a broken inflator hose as an emergency? If I had that equipment malfunction, I would continue the dive and fix it after the diving was over for the day. A buoyancy compensator is a useful tool, but not essential to diving.

But I digress...Lee then decided he had to bale out on the dive due to the emergency situation. He made an attempt to swim to the surface. But his weights and lack of buoyancy worked against him. He decided to drop his weights and slowly swam to the surface.

Why was he so overweighted that he couldn't swim to the surface? If we was compensating for a thick wet suit that loses buoyancy on descent he would not have been able to swim "slowly" to the surface.

The good news is my seasoned and smart diver-love, Lee, was able to keep from panicking and did a CESA.

That wasn't a CESA unless you forgot to mention that he was also out of air.

Lee and I have discussed it and affirmed that part of our diving credo is to never leave another diver in distress and help other divers in times of need.

An excellent way to be, but please make sure the diver is actually in distress before you save them. It sounds to me that you both consider minor incidents to be cause for distress.

I would suggest working on proper weighting and learning better buoyancy control. A diver should be able to deal with any two pieces of equipment failing.

 

[Rhone Man]

I must admit, I was a bit puzzled reading this as to (a) where Lee's buddy was, and (b) why he didn't orally inflate. But assuming that (a) wasn't around, and that (b) didn't work for some reason, I think ditching weights and going up is probably what I would have done. All's well that ends well.

As for the other diver - if Lee had given him the "I'm not OK" sign and he still left Lee alone, I would have been justifiably upset at him. However, if he didn't see that sign I wouldn't judge him too harshly for assuming that either (a) or (b) above would deal with the problem and that the situation was under control.

 

[Cave Diver]

He still had gas? It was just the inflator that crapped out on him?

Why would he choose to do a CESA under those conditions?

Basic Open water teaches the oral inflate technique. That might have been the smarter option rather than a rush to the surface.

The way that I read it, it sounds like the corrugated BC inflator hose pulled loose from the bladder somehow. I did not read it as a failure of the LP inflator hose. Most likely its one of the hoses that has a wire in it to actuate the shoulder dump, and it the whole thing pulled loose when he tried to vent the BC.

Upon descent, his BCD inflator hose gave way. He heard a pop as he tried to discharge the air from his BC

Therefore, the only gas loss was from the BC, not from the tank.

The OP also stated that he dropped weights and swam slowly to the surface. I didn't see anything indicating a rushed or panicked ascent.

He made an attempt to swim to the surface. But his weights and lack of buoyancy worked against him. He decided to drop his weights and slowly swam to the surface.

The good news is my seasoned and smart diver-love, Lee, was able to keep from panicking and did a CESA.

 

[300bar]

Controlled
Emergency
Swimming
Ascent.

Most if not all of us see this as a OOG thing.
But to the letter, OP is right,he made a CESA.
There was an emergency,he made an ascent,he did contole it and he swam.


Glad he's OK.

 

[Walter]

An ascent because of an emergency is not the same thing as an ESA (controlled or otherwise). An ESA (or CESA) is specific to being OOA (or OOG). In this particular case the emergency was all in his mind (which is where the large majority of emergencies take place).

 

[ScubaJoy65]

Jim, I don't think he ditched the tank.

(Tank would have been full, and reg was working...)

He likely didn't do a "CESA" per se...no reason to.

Sounds like he just dropped weights and swam up, breathing normally during the ascent.

You are correct, he did not drop his tank. I mistyped and will go back and make my edits to my post. Your friend Jim, on the other hand, is not exactly a kind person in the way he responded.

 

[princessaprilia]

Kind?

You are not going to get "kind" here.

You are surrounded by problem-solvers and blame-assigners. That doesn't translate well to "kind".

Some of it will sting, but also, some of it will help you learn.

 

[Cave Diver]

An ascent because of an emergency is not the same thing as an ESA (controlled or otherwise). An ESA (or CESA) is specific to being OOA (or OOG). In this particular case the emergency was all in his mind (which is where the large majority of emergencies take place).

What defines "emergency?"

What would your solution have been?

Semantics aside on the use of the word "emergency," I think that a he did the right thing by doing a controlled swimming ascent. Another option would have been the use of an SMB if they had one (and illustrates a good reason to carry one if not).

 

[ScubaJoy65]

An ascent because of an emergency is not the same thing as an ESA (controlled or otherwise). An ESA (or CESA) is specific to being OOA (or OOG). In this particular case the emergency was all in his mind (which is where the large majority of emergencies take place).

You're entitled to your opinion. I disagree. The dive master said he did precisely the correct thing.

 

[ScubaJoy65]

Controlled
Emergency
Swimming
Ascent.

Most if not all of us see this as a OOG thing.
But to the letter, OP is right,he made a CESA.
There was an emergency,he made an ascent,he did contole it and he swam.


Glad he's OK.

Thank you! Me, too!