Sail 'n Dive
Registered
A recent thread on the scariest dive so far reminds me of a scary dive in the Quadra Island, British Columbia area several years ago.
I was a newbie diver and traveling alone. I got matched up with a very nice young guy by the dive/boat operator.
my buddy and his friends, a bunch of other guys, were diving nitrox, I was on regular air.
the dive took place very early in the morning, and we were not all wide awake, imho. the dive briefing was given by the boat operator, a local who knew a lot about the area, but who stayed topside. He said, ok, this is a huge wall, and your objective will be to stay at a moderate depth. there is a really strong down current because the tides and currents are really strong here, even at slack tide, and the water peels off the shallow shelf, rolls out and down, and then curls back towards the wall at about 90-105 ft. so if you stay at a max depth of 75 feet, nice and close to the wall, you will be fine, the curve of the falling water is further out at that depth. go down to 90 feet, though, and you will be taking a lot of risks.
being new to dry suit diving,and having only 22 dives under my belt, I decided to be really really careful. but I was having a slow exit from the boat, and my buddy was hanging pretty close to the other guys, and they quickly descended. I hung out at around 30 feet, had a slight dry suit issue, got it sorted out, and turned around to find my buddy. he was quite simply gone gone gone.
I thought, well, ok, what is going on here, I descended a bit more, a bit more, looking around, and thought, well, that was weird, I guess we got separated. I did not really think much about it at the time, I kept looking around and descending slowly to about 60 feet or so, still no buddy, and no group of guys either. not even bubbles.
ok, I thought, I must stay calm, no problem, my gear is working, this is cool, nice wall, keep looking, don't freak out. I gave it a few more minutes, and then did a slow and careful ascent.
did a really cool safety stop, where I ran into another diving party, and I sort of said in sign language, I am ok, but I lost my buddy, anyone seen my group? and they signalled no, but no worries, stick with us, you are doing fine, which was a relief.
finished the safety stop, came to the surface, the boat was right there, and lo and behold, just a few minutes later, there is my buddy and the other guys, surfacing nearby and getting into the boat.
I was sort of shy and new to diving and so I just said, hey, I guess we got separated, just want you to know that I am ok. You see, all along, I thought that I was the one taking almost too much risk being in this diving area in the first place, and I would not have been surprised if he had told me that I was the one who had screwed up.
It never even occurred to me to ask _him_ if he was alright. He looked fine, I was a newbie, and there had been a separation, so obviously I was to blame, right?
Well, blame really is neither here nor there, but here is what happened to him and his friends. I think he saw me get into the water ok and begin my descent. I don't think he saw me slowing at 30 feet and fiddling with my suit.
So then they descended well past 85 feet, pressing right up against and even a bit past the depth limits in the briefing (which were quite close to their nitrox limits too if you think about it.) and it all happened in a flash. It was like they all stepped into an invisible elevator going straight down. The downcurrent dropped them all really fast to a depth of about 135-150 feet in a matter of seconds.
These guys are all built like football players, and they have about 200 dives each under their belts, mostly in places like Quadra Island, in current and tide, with dry suits, often with nitrox. But they could not control the descent or come up. They inflated everything, suits and bcs, and were finning for their lives. By some miracle, the downcurrent eventually weakened a bit.
Then the next risky part -- suddenly all that finning and inflation started to work and work fast. They had enough skills to not get too badly narced, and to dump the air out of both suits and bcs , and to do a controlled ascent. also, they were damned lucky not to experience the toxic effects of breathing nitrox below recommended depth. (maybe they did much later, we did not stay in touch, but they did not seem to be having any ill effects right after.)
Obviously, the moral of this story is: listen to the dive briefing already ! plan your dive and dive your plan !
(one of my dive instructors later said, after hearing this story, there are flashy cowboys, alright, but there are no old cowboys, those guys tend to live fast and die young ...)
I was a newbie diver and traveling alone. I got matched up with a very nice young guy by the dive/boat operator.
my buddy and his friends, a bunch of other guys, were diving nitrox, I was on regular air.
the dive took place very early in the morning, and we were not all wide awake, imho. the dive briefing was given by the boat operator, a local who knew a lot about the area, but who stayed topside. He said, ok, this is a huge wall, and your objective will be to stay at a moderate depth. there is a really strong down current because the tides and currents are really strong here, even at slack tide, and the water peels off the shallow shelf, rolls out and down, and then curls back towards the wall at about 90-105 ft. so if you stay at a max depth of 75 feet, nice and close to the wall, you will be fine, the curve of the falling water is further out at that depth. go down to 90 feet, though, and you will be taking a lot of risks.
being new to dry suit diving,and having only 22 dives under my belt, I decided to be really really careful. but I was having a slow exit from the boat, and my buddy was hanging pretty close to the other guys, and they quickly descended. I hung out at around 30 feet, had a slight dry suit issue, got it sorted out, and turned around to find my buddy. he was quite simply gone gone gone.
I thought, well, ok, what is going on here, I descended a bit more, a bit more, looking around, and thought, well, that was weird, I guess we got separated. I did not really think much about it at the time, I kept looking around and descending slowly to about 60 feet or so, still no buddy, and no group of guys either. not even bubbles.
ok, I thought, I must stay calm, no problem, my gear is working, this is cool, nice wall, keep looking, don't freak out. I gave it a few more minutes, and then did a slow and careful ascent.
did a really cool safety stop, where I ran into another diving party, and I sort of said in sign language, I am ok, but I lost my buddy, anyone seen my group? and they signalled no, but no worries, stick with us, you are doing fine, which was a relief.
finished the safety stop, came to the surface, the boat was right there, and lo and behold, just a few minutes later, there is my buddy and the other guys, surfacing nearby and getting into the boat.
I was sort of shy and new to diving and so I just said, hey, I guess we got separated, just want you to know that I am ok. You see, all along, I thought that I was the one taking almost too much risk being in this diving area in the first place, and I would not have been surprised if he had told me that I was the one who had screwed up.
It never even occurred to me to ask _him_ if he was alright. He looked fine, I was a newbie, and there had been a separation, so obviously I was to blame, right?
Well, blame really is neither here nor there, but here is what happened to him and his friends. I think he saw me get into the water ok and begin my descent. I don't think he saw me slowing at 30 feet and fiddling with my suit.
So then they descended well past 85 feet, pressing right up against and even a bit past the depth limits in the briefing (which were quite close to their nitrox limits too if you think about it.) and it all happened in a flash. It was like they all stepped into an invisible elevator going straight down. The downcurrent dropped them all really fast to a depth of about 135-150 feet in a matter of seconds.
These guys are all built like football players, and they have about 200 dives each under their belts, mostly in places like Quadra Island, in current and tide, with dry suits, often with nitrox. But they could not control the descent or come up. They inflated everything, suits and bcs, and were finning for their lives. By some miracle, the downcurrent eventually weakened a bit.
Then the next risky part -- suddenly all that finning and inflation started to work and work fast. They had enough skills to not get too badly narced, and to dump the air out of both suits and bcs , and to do a controlled ascent. also, they were damned lucky not to experience the toxic effects of breathing nitrox below recommended depth. (maybe they did much later, we did not stay in touch, but they did not seem to be having any ill effects right after.)
Obviously, the moral of this story is: listen to the dive briefing already ! plan your dive and dive your plan !
(one of my dive instructors later said, after hearing this story, there are flashy cowboys, alright, but there are no old cowboys, those guys tend to live fast and die young ...)
s huh...?
