Error during first boat dive

[cgvmer]

My son, daughter and I went to key Largo to do some shallow water diving since she is 11 and only as one dive since her junior OW training. In anticipation of my daughter becoming certified, my son(16) AND I took our AOW and Rescue classes just to make me more comfortable with her in the water(we are both hold current lifegaurd certs as well). My son has approx 30 dives, and I have about 75, so we also are relatively new.

Our first day of diving we have 3-5ft seas and the ride out to the site is bumpy, besides that my daughter has something heavy and creamy for breakfast so when we tied off the buoy she got seasick and vomited on the deck. I got permission from the captain and had her jump in the water where she calmed down quickly. The rest of the divers suited up and dove in, only then did I have my daughter return to the boat. She quickly geared up and returned to the water holding onto the drift line with my son. I geared and jumped in. The three of us did an equipment check again before deciding to descend. My son dropped first, my daughter next followed by me. I kept a close eye on my daughter and just as I was at 15 my duaghter was just above me she reached up to dump any remaining air in her BCD she accidentally squeezed the inflater at the same time. I reached up grabbed her foot and stopped her from shooting up. I moved her hand off her inflater hose, and gave her the signal to stop and relax, I then pointed to the air release and operated it, she gave me an OK. I then showed her the inflater, operated it and she again gave me an OK. At this point I saw my son hovering behind my daughter, the three of us again gave an OK all around, then my daughter offered a thumbs down descend signal. We continued the rest of the without incident(the 6ft Morey eel startled her when she saw it) the max depth was 30 ft and after 32 minutes we returned to the boat. Where my daughter doffed her gear and jump back in the ocean floating behind the boat. We moved to the second dive site and dove without incident.

I am glad I had the additional training, but realize now we should have gone back over her equipment one more time, since she trained in the same BCD, but her last dive she did not use it.

We went out on 5 more boat trips over the next couple days, and twice the rough seas convinced my daughter to call her 2nd dive of the trip. Something I always told her she can call ANY dive for ANY reason and she did.

 

[Ann Marie]

Sounds like you all reacted well. Congrats. Sometimes learning from the little mistakes we make is the best way to learn.

 

[mpgunner]

Agree. You did a great job and I'm very impressed on the control and ability to adjust. Have fun getting wet.

 

[DandyDon]

Having the inflate and deflate so close together has confused many who turned into corks. I use the dump instead. Good parenting & diving.

 

[Jim Lapenta]

I have to say you did very well. If there was any error in the way this dive went it was in one place and that is in the descent. If all of you were diving as buddies you all should have been descending at the same rate together. The slowest equalizer sets the pace of the team. And you learned to go over your gear and it's functional aspects before the dive. I've worked with a lot of kids. And sometimes they just don't remember or with their generally smaller hands hit the wrong button. Fortunately you were in a position to help. Nicely done. Just please try to remember my suggestion about descending together at the same rate. It will make it easier for you to demo anything you mighjt feel the need to and easier for your son or daughter to see what you are doing. It may be from her vantage point that she could not clearly see you depressing the deflator if she was above you. On the same level it's pretty much a given she'll get the message. And congrats to her for keeping a clear head and knowing what to do after feeding the fish ( or in this case the deck bugs!) to feel better. I see a lifelong diver there.

 

[cgvmer]

Thanks to all, I appreciate the comments. We have dove since this trip and my daughter has become more comfortable with her equipment. She's still not too happy when we see large fish with teeth, but that too will pass.

 

[Cajuncru Diver]

cgvmer: I echo all the earlier post made, but one more point I would like to make. You are to be lauded for your instruction to your daughter and the follow through on her right to "call" a dive at any time for any reason. This is probably the best fatherly and dive buddie advice you could give especially with one so young who would generally be hesitant to express any anxiety or reservation about making a dive. I am sure you will keep her safe and comfortable in her diving for years to come.

 

[TheScubaBOB]

As a father who also had the pleasure of watching his daughter get certified this year I share your joy of diving with our children.

I completed Rescue the same weekend my daughter did OW Dives 1 & 2. I was with her & the instructor for OW Dive #3 and all of her AOW Dives.

I've only had the pleasure of diving with her twice after that but look forward to next summer when we will have more time to dive as a family.

It sounds like you've got a level head about it and your whole family is very comfortable in the water.

Congratulations on the success...

 

[openmindOW]

CGVMER, thank you for your post. I agree that you did everything well. Like Jim, I have also trained a lot of kids. Some can get frustrated or inattentive more easily than adults; that's just part of being a kid.

I agree with DandyDon; people can accidentally mistake the inflate button for the deflate button.

Also, some divers use the inflate button as a crutch. That's a training and skill issue. Instructors need to make sure that people don't misuse the inflate button during pool training. Divers who don't have good buoyancy control need to learn it.

My advice:

1) Keep the dives shallow and in warm clear water for now. With experience, your daughter will get more comfortable in the water.

2) Consider encouraging your daughter to take a buoyancy course. Today's OW classes really don't give divers super buoyancy skills. With better buoyancy skills, your daughter will have more fun and be more comfortable. She'll also be less likely to use her inflate button as an elevator button.

It sounds like you had a good boat captain. I dive Key Largo and have been happy with the boat operators there. (There was one bad operator/captain; he went out of business.) Just out of curiousity, what operation did you go out with?

 

[cgvmer]

When I dive with my daughter we do stay shallow, deepest so far is 35fsw, as for additional classes I think that would be a good idea, just finding the time to schedule her.

The operator was Silent World. The captain was surprised how quick my daughter "recovered" from her seasick, but since she competes for a local YMCA swim-team I knew her most comfortable place was hanging out in the water.

As for calling any dive for any reason, the hardest part was to make sure they understood that because I paid for the dives, doesn't mean they must dive it.