Forced descent in Blue Hole

[TheRedHead]

Our entire sport is risky!

How is a deco platform risky to a diver who has never used one? It is almost like buddy breathing (taught in basic OW) without the short leash of the buddy.

Because it is stationary and you are not. What if you need it before your get to 15 feet? I know PADI teaches this in AOW and I also encountered it in SSI deep class. It's just my personal preference, but I like to carry the gas required for the dive and the stage bottle. I think this would be a good dive for staged deco on 50 or 80% O2. That's how I would like to do it: plenty of gas and staged deco. Otherwise you are rushing not to exceed NDL (and/or go OOG) on an AL80.

 

[1RUSTYRIG]

Because it is stationary and you are not. What if you need it before your get to 15 feet? I know PADI teaches this in AOW and I also encountered it in SSI deep class. It's just my personal preference, but I like to carry the gas required for the dive and the stage bottle.

Now see, I would be more scared of a newer diver diving with an extra tank strapped on Can you imagine them getting off the boat :rofl:

 

[Cacia]

We have dives where there is not time to wait for someone to clear if they are having problems, due to surface conditions or surf zones where the boat moves in and drops you on a drift close to some lava walls. I am not sure what the surface is like at Blue Holes. Blue Holes In Palau however involves the group having to descend through a hole in single or double file and it is not a place where the leader can wait for a diver. They must drop straight down through the series of holes. Depending on the tide, the surface can have rocks sticking up, so the boat needs to boogie on out. I would tend to consider the surface conditions more of a factor than the money part but anytime a DM says something in a briefing, you can always ask "why" at any point and they usually have a reason that is very interesting and they never seem to mind giving the explanation. You can imagine, I am always asking "why are we doing it like this?"...and then they tell me what is usually a good reason.

 

[Fish_Whisperer]

If you're headed in and happen to see a giant flush handle on the outside, I recommend thumbing the dive.

 

[MikeFerrara]

There were a lot of other dive operators at the blue hole the day we went. All of them had multiple tanks submerged at the deco stop. Amigos Del Mar, our operator, had a platform at ~20 with 4 tanks and regs.

An indication that they expect to be taking divers who don't have the skills or equipment for the dive at hand...especially the platform.

This falls into basic deep dive planning. If you are going deep, have a deco station setup in the event that you need additional air.

Not really. While it doesn't hurt to stage extra gas and various types of decompression stations can make long hangs more confortable...In open water you carry everything that can reasonably forsee needing. When a dive goes wrong it very often means surfacing away from the boat. In that case you're on your own. If there's deco to do it'll be done in open water possibly with no reference at all and the boat crew won't even know where you are unless you can shoot a bag. That's what you need to be prepared for. Anything less is total foolishness, IMO.

 

[MikeFerrara]

I would love to see the response to this question from some of the people who are posting on this thread.
http://www.scubaboard.com/showthread.php?t=141651&page=6

From my very limited point of view it's the air management that must be a nightmare for the DM.

Scenario: Say 4 inexperienced divers (2 buddies pairs) in a new group of 12, There air consumption is high but have a few dives in this week already so can descend quickly. Fairly quick descent, maybe lost a minute waiting. 6/7 minutes or so at 135ft all looking good when 1 diver gives the signal for 500 psi, followed quickly by 2 others, (been 2 busy to look at their guages).
All 4 look at the DM, what do we do now?

How many spare octo's does the DM have?
How much air is on his back?
Even given a smooth ascent some of this group are going to be out of air before they hit the safety stop.
Can he get the more experienced divers together to support him on the ascent?

What should he do? and how can he accomplish it?

This is exactly the kind of fire drill I can see happening on such an illconceived dive such as this and you couldn't pay me enough to dive that site from a "recreational" boat.

However, I have a page in my wet notes with a note on it composed especially for a situation such as this. It says, in big bold letters, "I'll be back for your equipment"

 

[fairybasslet]

Awesome photos Catherine. That was in Palau?

 

[riguerin]

This is common practice in the West Palm area, where currents are very strong and drift diving is the primary type of diving. For safety reason it is important for the group to stay together. When the currents are ripping it is also important that no time is wasted descending ... especially when trying to hit a stationary object like a wreck. A few wasted seconds could mean getting blown off the site.

 

[Christi]

Our entire sport is risky!

How is a deco platform risky to a diver who has never used one? It is almost like buddy breathing (taught in basic OW) without the short leash of the buddy.

Lets take a look at a couple things from the thread starter:

1) All this information is second hand

2) The title is "forced descent" which, last time I checked, is impossible unless you are tied to the anchor when it goes over.

3) The divers were "experienced" yet question the boat ride time.

4) Being told to return to the boat if you cannot "get down" in the required time window isn't out of the ordinary but it appears everyone involved was "shocked" by this.

I highly doubt that they were told to go "straight down" to 135 feet. Everyone I talked to indicated they got the same treatment at the Blue Hole as I did when diving with Amigos Del Mar: Exit the boat into roughly 25' and group up to begin the descent to 135. If during the descent you cannot equalize you need to return to the boat. This is A) common sense for this kind of dive and B) common courtesy to your fellow divers so you don't ruin their dive.

I agree with everything you said!

Also, just to add to those that sais something like, "he could have said it nicer." We honestly have no idea of HOW he said it. Remember, as Rusty said, this is third/fourth hand info and stuff like this by divers that are upset/mad tend to exaggerate and/or take things out of proportion. I'm inclined to believe that these "experienced" divers weren't so experienced based on the fact that (1) they would find this stated in a briefing as unusual and (2) it doesn't appear that they knew what they were getting themselves into which would indicate that they asked no questions ahead of time.

 

[dherbman]

This is exactly the kind of fire drill I can see happening on such an illconceived dive such as this and you couldn't pay me enough to dive that site from a "recreational" boat.

However, I have a page in my wet notes with a note on it composed especially for a situation such as this. It says, in big bold letters, "I'll be back for your equipment"

These dives take place every day of the year. If Murphy never sleeps, what does this say?
I recognize the potential for disaster on these dives and I cringe when I hear the stories, but I'm baffled by the rarity of casulties. Any ideas? (10 words or less... )