Diving today (1/21) and lessons learned

[dk2943]

I promised that I would provide a follow up report.

First thing I did was have a heart to heart with my friend. He acknowledged he was way wrong and thanked me for saving his life. Then we worked out SOPs for future dives such as we go under together and stay together and be more mindful of each others air.

Friday, the lds, Underwater Unlimited in Coral Gables, gave me a training dvd to watch. I watched it twice. Then, last night, I went to the university pool with some other divers courtesy of the lds. First, we worked on bouyancy, and yes, it is clear that I can dive with 12 to 14 pounds of weight. I do not need any more. Then we worked on manually inflating my bc. I must have spent 30 minutes on the surface practicing to be sure I had it right.

I am looking forward to a much better dive this weekend.

 

[LAJim]

I speculated earlier on the thread (as someone at a similar station in life) that fitness and aging could have been a contributing factor to some of this. I applaud your pool work as being a smart way to upgrade skills and work out basic bouyancy issues.

For all I know you are a triathalete; if not - please consider the role of fitness when taking up diving in your 50s. I hit the gym really hard last night even though I got plenty of exercise diving the night before.

Jim

 

[dk2943]

Nothing close to a triathlete, although I admire them immensely, but I do work out regularly.

 

[james croft]

I would not have considered this option either. Why would you want to unhook your tired buddy's inflator, then hook it to your bc, then inflate your bc, then disconnect from your bc?

Right. Just orally inflate your buddy's BC. Using the features of your BC needs to be second nature. With practice, muscle/memory takes over and you do it naturally.
I remember when there were no power inlators. (Or BC's)

 

[zufur]

I only found this option once in the thread, but in my opinion its the most important thing which would have saved you all the stress.
You should have called the dive when you could't find your buddy on the surface, period.
To check with your buddy after you go into the water and drop down together is, in my opinion, a very important safety measure.

 

[Web Monkey]

Congrats on keeping your cool and making it back safely. My only question is why did you not think about taking your buddys low pressure hose and hooking it to your inflator and inflating your bc if he had plenty of air left.

Not to poke holes in a perfectly good bizzare theory, but the LP inflator hose is where your buddy's inflator (and alternate second stage, if it's an Air-2) gets it's air from.

The time to tinker with the only working set of gear is not when the other diver is OOA.

The other problem with this is that if anybody ran out of air, came over to me to share, then started taking my hoses apart, I'd assume they had some sort of mental defect in progress and handle the situation accordingly. Taking my gear apart would not be one of the acceptable solutions.

Terry

 

[Licensed to Creel]

If your like me the best lessons learned are the hardest ones learned. Good job on keeping your cool. That often times is the difference between bad and terrible. Like the earlier post from CHITOWN. Man, drop that lead! It's a hell of a lot less significant than your life. Good job though and KEEP ON DIVIN!