First-hand account of down current, with video footage

[RubberDucky]

Video we took at Santa Rosa Wall 3/28/12 at 10:05a.m. Santa Rosa Wall 3-28-12 @ 10:10 a.m. on Vimeo​

It's hard for me to tell, as the last few minutes of the video are mostly bubbles, but what do you attribute to your success in ascending? Did you swim away from the wall + up?

 

[spector39]

Wow, that video is truly horrifying. I'm glad eveyrone was ok.

 

[scurbyduck]

Just a quick note so that people are not confused by terminology. There is no in-water recompression (IWR) in this video. The diver descends and does an omitted stop. There is a very big difference,which I do not have time to explain today. IWR is a major event that should only be attempted under extreme circumstances by people with proper equipment and the knowledge of how to do it.

Yes I did the omitted safety stop, according the the Suunto's manuel for my Zoop Computer it says you should do that.

 

[DandyDon]

I have some of the same concerns at Mike. Buddies stay together, not just same ocean - something to keep in mind next time, but then trio diving is challenging in its own. Got to wonder if he ever looked at his depth gauge/computer as the camera did not.

Here is how to embed a Vimeo on SB, in case anyone is wonder where the vid is above...

[vimeo]40699868[/vimeo]
​

 

[Craig66]

Okay, I'll be the bad guy. I'll give you my observations and please tell me where I'm incorrect.

Wow that looked horrific and it is a wonderful miracle that no one was hurt. As purely a learning tool for us all I do agree with #1 and #3 of Mikes. #2 I am not sure I know enough about seeing currents to comment - only know what they feel like.

I know it is easy sitting in an armchair to spot the issues and there is no judgement, but to add to the learning component, I would say that Dad (who granted was himself very worried and concerned) after surfacing did not inflate his BC and looks like he is struggling to stay on the surface I know he wants to get his son back down but son is panicking and Dad would have been in a better position to help if he was bouyant. Also his reg spends a lot of time out of his mouth and granted he is talking to his son but at one point he actually submerges without his reg. Aspirating water at that point would have not been a good thing.

Thank you for sharing this valuable learning tool

 

[scurbyduck]

It's hard for me to tell, as the last few minutes of the video are mostly bubbles, but what do you attribute to your success in ascending? Did you swim away from the wall + up?

Yes away from the wall and up, it took me 30 seconds to make it 10ft. I added air to both bcd's and kicked like hell, there were bubbles everywhere and I couldn't see anything, It felt like we weren't making it anywhere, checked my gauge and it read 80ft "oh **** time to put on brakes" spent the rest of the time trying to bleed both bcd's with one hand on the camera guy (my son) and one hand operating the bcds I couldn't keep up with bleeding the bcds down and was trying to flare but it seemed like all the bubbles were just pushing us up, then it got bright and we were on the surface way sooner than I wanted. All I could think about was we did that to fast and needed to go back and do a safety stop. We went back down to 30ft and I tried to make sense of what my computer was telling me, for some reason we had great difficulty maintaining buoyancy. I thought we were just jacked out of shape, after about 5 minutes of that, I decided to go to 15ft and complete the stop, things were so much easier then we just hovered at 15ft and my safety countdown meter said we needed 7 minute safety stop, I was a little puzzled by that but did the 7 minutes.

---------- Post added April 20th, 2012 at 11:39 AM ----------

Wow that looked horrific and it is a wonderful miracle that no one was hurt. As purely a learning tool for us all I do agree with #1 and #3 of Mikes. #2 I am not sure I know enough about seeing currents to comment - only know what they feel like.

I know it is easy sitting in an armchair to spot the issues and there is no judgement, but to add to the learning component, I would say that Dad (who granted was himself very worried and concerned) after surfacing did not inflate his BC and looks like he is struggling to stay on the surface I know he wants to get his son back down but son is panicking and Dad would have been in a better position to help if he was bouyant. Also his reg spends a lot of time out of his mouth and granted he is talking to his son but at one point he actually submerges without his reg. Aspirating water at that point would have not been a good thing.

Thank you for sharing this valuable learning tool

Yes that was me, I can see alot that could have been done differently.

---------- Post added April 20th, 2012 at 11:41 AM ----------

Is it common to start a wall dive 200-300ft out in the blue?

 

[DandyDon]

Is it common to start a wall dive 200-300ft out in the blue?

Nope. They try to drop you right on it or up current, depending. How much dive experience do you have S-duck?

 

[Craig66]

Is it common to start a wall dive 200-300ft out in the blue?

No it is not. Usually it is started on the reef side and when everyone is ready the reef is traversed and the wall started. It seems that there was a lot of drifting going on at the surface and right from the outset the group were very spread out.

 

[scurbyduck]

scurbyduck has about 30 dives in coz. first time i was droped out in the blue. thought it was wrong for the dm to tell us to go down when there was two still on the boat.

 

[DandyDon]

scurbyduck has about 30 dives in coz. first time i was droped out in the blue. thought it was wrong for the dm to tell us to go down when there was two still on the boat.

Yeah, I like a panga boat with 6 to 8 diver max. We're all supposed to roll back into the water at the same time but it's usually a domino thing. Still we all get in within a minute of each other for a fast drop together. Sounds like your boat mates were unprepared so the DM wanted to get y'all down before you missed the site even if the captain had to reposition to drop them. Really, back rolls could have been done from that boat, I've done them higher - but maybe too much for that much. Everyone being ready to go at the same time is not hard, but often fails.

Your son would do well to concentrate on strong buddy protocols, not just same ocean diving, or a 19 cf pony - but he is too new for that, needs to work on buddy diving.