First-hand account of down current, with video footage

[Tigerman]

...
I can't find the quote but it was said for the 2 divers at 165 the DM brought them up separately?? Am I wrong in seeing an issue with leaving a lone diver at depth waiting while another is assisted to the surface? Especially when there was a 'situation' in progress? I would think leaving a diver clinging to a wall at depth in an unmanageable(?) current is a big no-no.... Maybe I read wrong or am ill-informed of particular emergency procedures.

I dont know how it happened in this instance, but;

If this had happened 40 minutes into a dive when people where getting low on air, instead of early in the dive, what would be the option to bringing one up, go down and bring the other up if youre unable to bring both up at once?
Sometimes even a very bad option can be the best one.

 

[t4e]

I wonder if people are just too reluctant to let the weight go--you know, it's inconvenient/expensive to replace the weight pockets (or belt)

IMO any diver with that state of mind needs to get their priorities right
is that what your life is worth, the cost of replacing weight pockets (or belt), or any piece of equipment for that matter?

 

[supergaijin]

That was pretty close!

The organisation at the start of the dive was bad IMO- dives in current need to be very coordinated and there was a lot of fluffing about at the surface. This seems to have led to a chain of events which almost ended in tragedy.

I saw Split-fins flapping at the surface for about 10secs which leads me to believe the diver hadn't deflated properly. Camera man also didn't seem to descend properly, and I think I saw a hand used to propel himself underwater.

The descent was pretty much out of control as has been described by other posters. Proper descents for beginners should be feet-first, one hand on the nose equalising and the other on the BCD inflating on descent to maintain control. Diving in current demands a lot of awareness and group control and the DM was nowhere to be seen. I heard tank-banging in the video (I think) which is usually ineffective in gaining the attention of the intended diver.

I have guided in a few currents- for example in Tiran/Ras Mo (Egypt), the Philippines, and the Maldives which range from small to freakish when even the fish are nowhere to be seen. From what I saw from that video, group control was pretty much non-existent and if I was the owner of the diveboat, I would be having a serious chat with the DM.

Dad- you did pretty well in the circumstances. I have had to do the same a few times (but with groups ) and it's no easy task. In shallow water, it is often very difficult to control yourself and you can be flipped and rolled all over the place. But you did the right thing in re-descending for your omitted safety stop. Your computer gave you a 7min obligation because of the fast ascent and no SS. If this would have been the second (or worse third) dive of the day, you would probably have been severely bent. What (probably) saved you was a short bottom time with only fast tissues absorbing (and releasing) Nitrogen.



Some of the comments of Mike have merit, but to over-analyse down currents vs. cross currents vs. strong currents vs. moderate currents is moot and ultimately only so much armchair criticising. Needless to say, this current was too strong for some of the divers' experience levels and nearly ended bad, bad, bad.

I have written in other threads that the reason many of the world's best sites are 'the best' because of the potential for strong currents. Those sites should be approached with a healthy regard for the strength of the ocean and a humble attitude to one's own ability and experience.




I feel for the divers involved, but posting on the internet does open a very personal matter to the world population and all their combined "wisdom" (mine included). Finally, I hope everyone gets in the water again soon and uses this scary experience as incentive to re-invest in proper training/ practice in shallower, calmer water and continues to enjoy their diving and progressing to the more 'advanced' sites slowly over time.

 

[WSOPFAN]

I can't find the quote but it was said for the 2 divers at 165 the DM brought them up separately?? Am I wrong in seeing an issue with leaving a lone diver at depth waiting while another is assisted to the surface? Especially when there was a 'situation' in progress? I would think leaving a diver clinging to a wall at depth in an unmanageable(?) current is a big no-no.... Maybe I read wrong or am ill-informed of particular emergency procedures.

Posts 22 and 28......The DM went to rescue an AOW student and the instructor. I doubt the instructor needed to be rescued I think he was assisting the instructor with the student. I don't remember it being stated as they were brought up separately.

You are right....post 28 does say he individually took them up......I would think with the current that bad, he would have a very hard time getting back to that point as he surely would have drifted ascending.

 

[Mike]

Scrubswife - please don't take anything as making fun of your situation. No light heartedness has been directed at you, your family or your situation. However, I apologize if seemed in anyway I was making light of your situation. I posted more than once with sympathy in regard to how you must have felt as a mother watching this video, I fully sympathize with that. This is the accidents and near misses forum and it's a learning forum, so people are going to analyze anything posted here, that's what this forum is for, it's to learn from situations or mistakes and become more aware and safer divers as a result.

As I said there was definitely a good strong current running on the wall in your video, and as I said it was running downward along the wall. However, nothing I've said would I change in regard to the causes of what happened. The video clearly shows huge lapses in judgement and basic dive safety protocols. It shows exactly the consequences that can happen from being lax in safety and procedure when one new element gets introduced. Deaths in diving often are the result of task loading. When divers have bad habits or are lax in their techniques they can get away with it for years, but add one stressful new element and suddenly the weakness are exploited and the diver becomes task overloaded and it can be dangerous. There were many divers in the water, all experiencing similar conditions however only the one diver had the panic situation, this illustrates it wasn't the conditions as the rest of the divers didn't have panic emergency ascents, but the diver himself who created his problems. Hopefully this becomes a great learning experience for all in your family. All the things that showed up on that dive should be topics of discussion with your son to make him a better and safer diver - becoming neutral earlier, checking his gauges, air and depth, buddies staying together from start to finish, how to stop a panicked ascent....

As I said my heart goes out to you, it's got to be very difficult to watch that video and hear your sons panic. But this is a learning forum and the facts need to be stated, that was not a deadly down current running straight down the wall, it was a great learning example for everyone of how little mistakes can add up to create a dangerous situation during diving.

 

[WSOPFAN]

S-wife, I am sure you will be a better diver for all of this. Don't fear the walls as they are very, very rarely what you got into.

This is very poor advice and is totally incorrect....As a matter of fact practically every dive shop on that island knows these type of currents and worse happen at the northern dive sites and very far south, just about daily and they will NOT take you there without demonstrating your abilities first. There are also varying currents from time to time at all of the other walls to INCLUDE down currents to some degree. To make a statement that they are very rare is patently false and encouraging you to return to wall diving without fear absent the proper training, certification, experience, and dive briefing is bad advice. Should you choose to wall dive after those, you should still expect anything at any time and NEVER think this type of dive is so rare it couldn't possibly happen again, always stay prepared.

 

[DandyDon]

This is very poor advice and is totally incorrect....As a matter of fact practically every dive shop on that island knows these type of currents and worse happen at the northern dive sites and very far south, just about daily and they will NOT take you there without demonstrating your abilities first. There are also varying currents from time to time at all of the other walls to INCLUDE down currents to some degree. To make a statement that they are very rare is patently false and encouraging you to return to wall diving without fear absent the proper training, certification, experience, and dive briefing is bad advice. Should you choose to wall dive after those, you should still expect anything at any time and NEVER think this type of dive is so rare it couldn't possibly happen again, always stay prepared.

Yeah yeah, and the sky is falling - except that meteor shower was pretty harmless...

As I said: "...they are very, very rarely what you got into." By that I was referencing the park sites, not the more advanced northern sites. Jeeze. I do take my 19 cf pony on every wall dive as I usually travel alone and don't know the insta-buds I may get. For most divers, stick with you bud - even if the DM tells you to go ahead without him.

 

[Splitlip]

Maybe you should watch the video again, mike. At about 4:40 when it starts to hit the fan note the exhaust bubbles of the pair of hand holding divers.
Fact is there were reports and warnings of extreme down currents, a woman died. Someone posts a telling video and some how you feel it necessary to criticize the family in the video.
I was not there that day nor were you. The family in the video was.

 

[Mike]

Maybe you should watch the video again, mike. At about 4:40 when it starts to hit the fan note the exhaust bubbles of the pair of hand holding divers.
Fact is there were reports and warnings of extreme down currents, a woman died. Someone posts a telling video and some how you feel it necessary to criticize the family in the video.
I was not there that day nor were you. The family in the video was.

I agree with you, at that point the divers in front of the camera diver and the camera diver are entering into the main channel of the current. They started compensating for it just before that.

Nowhere have I said that the current didn't have a downward direction to it. It's clearly running at about a 15% downward angle laterally along the face of the wall. Those divers and their bubbles are being pushed directly at the camera diver's face. If if was possible to magically move a camera out perpendicular from the face of the wall you'd clearly see the bubbles being pushed laterally, their shape is clearly oblong. All of these details can be seen by watching that clip and looking to the left portion of the frame at 4:25 and 4:27 you can clearly see the bubbles from the hand holding divers doing what I just described.

 

[WSOPFAN]

As I said: "...they are very, very rarely what you got into." By that I was referencing the park sites, not the more advanced northern sites.

Oh well in that case I will will sternly reiterate:

There are also varying currents from time to time at all of the other walls to INCLUDE down currents to some degree. To make a statement that they are very rare is patently false and encouraging [-]you[/-] any diver to return to wall diving without fear absent the proper training, certification, experience, and dive briefing is bad advice.​