What and incredible story thanks for sharing it here so we can learn or reinforce our learning as the case may be.
First of all I am glad you seem to have stopped second guessing yourself arrowskier.
Nothing happened in your dive or decision making prior to and during the dive that was out of the norm except for one thing. First the one thing IMHO that was out of the norm was your determination and willpower in hanging on to Steve for all that time. :shocked2: What a heroic thing to do. I think the title of hero is overused now days so I seldom use it myself. To me a hero is someone who does something out of the ordinary (beyond their personal experience/training) in spite of fear and potential harm to self. It is wonderful to know there are people out there who care enough for others to do what you did for Steve and his loved ones.:worship:
It isn't uncommon for divers to have "glitches" descending or to get caught in currents. :doh: It is normal for divers to rely on the people they hire such as boat captains and crews to read the local conditions to determine the appropriate conditions for diving their sites. It is unfortunately common for people from middle age onward to be "taken" by previously unrecognized medical problems. :depressed: Steve's problem could have happened while he was out swimming or going about the rest of his normal life. You had no control over that
and certainly no responsibility that it just so happened that he was swimming to you when it happened. Please remember that if/when the second guessing comes back.. it is common to have that kinda come and go as you absorb and process the event.
This event sure illustrates how important it is to stay with your buddy, drop weights at the surface, have adequate signalling devices.
These are all spoken of so often it is hard to understand why so many people run into trouble because they fail to do them
The information that doesn't seem to come up as often is the importance of immediately obeying any signal to end a dive no matter how it is given or by whom! :shocked2:The other takeaway for me is the "mermaid line" Around here it is a common procedure when boat diving in an area subject to currents to throw a Mermaid line with a float out to determine surface current and provide something for surfacing divers to grab onto.:blinking: The other thing I've seen often here is to run a line from the boat to the mooring buoy for divers to follow. Not so common in other areas I guess. I suppose they would be something else the dive crew would have to deal with taking up if they need to move the boat to perform a pickup
I've surfaced to find no boat in view in daylight.
It was stressful even when we finally spotted the boat a long ways off. Turned out a group of divers got taken way off the drift dive path they were supposed to be on and the boat had to go pick them up. I had to focus on getting myself to calm down and relax telling myself the boat would come to us. I can't imagine how much harder it would be in the dark!
I've had to wait while a boat picked up their divers before they could come to our aid in a dive accident. It seemed to take forever and I wasn't holding a body on the surface at that point. The boat motor truly is the most beautiful music to the ears on those occasions.
Thanks to all of you for setting such a good example and providing us with information that may help save one of us
First of all I am glad you seem to have stopped second guessing yourself arrowskier.
Nothing happened in your dive or decision making prior to and during the dive that was out of the norm except for one thing. First the one thing IMHO that was out of the norm was your determination and willpower in hanging on to Steve for all that time. :shocked2: What a heroic thing to do. I think the title of hero is overused now days so I seldom use it myself. To me a hero is someone who does something out of the ordinary (beyond their personal experience/training) in spite of fear and potential harm to self. It is wonderful to know there are people out there who care enough for others to do what you did for Steve and his loved ones.:worship: It isn't uncommon for divers to have "glitches" descending or to get caught in currents. :doh: It is normal for divers to rely on the people they hire such as boat captains and crews to read the local conditions to determine the appropriate conditions for diving their sites. It is unfortunately common for people from middle age onward to be "taken" by previously unrecognized medical problems. :depressed: Steve's problem could have happened while he was out swimming or going about the rest of his normal life. You had no control over that
and certainly no responsibility that it just so happened that he was swimming to you when it happened. Please remember that if/when the second guessing comes back.. it is common to have that kinda come and go as you absorb and process the event.This event sure illustrates how important it is to stay with your buddy, drop weights at the surface, have adequate signalling devices.
These are all spoken of so often it is hard to understand why so many people run into trouble because they fail to do themThe information that doesn't seem to come up as often is the importance of immediately obeying any signal to end a dive no matter how it is given or by whom! :shocked2:The other takeaway for me is the "mermaid line" Around here it is a common procedure when boat diving in an area subject to currents to throw a Mermaid line with a float out to determine surface current and provide something for surfacing divers to grab onto.:blinking: The other thing I've seen often here is to run a line from the boat to the mooring buoy for divers to follow. Not so common in other areas I guess. I suppose they would be something else the dive crew would have to deal with taking up if they need to move the boat to perform a pickup
I've surfaced to find no boat in view in daylight.
It was stressful even when we finally spotted the boat a long ways off. Turned out a group of divers got taken way off the drift dive path they were supposed to be on and the boat had to go pick them up. I had to focus on getting myself to calm down and relax telling myself the boat would come to us. I can't imagine how much harder it would be in the dark!I've had to wait while a boat picked up their divers before they could come to our aid in a dive accident. It seemed to take forever and I wasn't holding a body on the surface at that point. The boat motor truly is the most beautiful music to the ears on those occasions.
Thanks to all of you for setting such a good example and providing us with information that may help save one of us
