How those idiots (us) run out of air

[Lorenzoid]

. . . Inflated my smb and up we went. During our safetystop the dm finally turns around and notices us going up and signals us to come to him. . . .

Classic.

 

[danvolker]

Nonono. Don't spout Florida rules like they are the last word in diving. Let me emphasis, this is SOP for Atlantic diving where viz and current are always changing. We can have three or 4 different currents and viz at various depths during the same dive and the anchorline is your lifeline. We use the granny line/dragline system and it is a very safe system. No free drops and no free ascents. If you don't follow the rules, you're either dead because you've been swept away or put everyone else in jeopardy because the boat has to go save your A$$. Bet you never thought of carrying a Nautilus radio where you dive, but we do. Its a religion.

When I find a place I can't easily dive the way we do I will let you know. So far, it has worked optimally everywhere I have done it.

I will have to visit NC sometime and see what these vicious currents coming from all directions are like

 

[dumpsterDiver]

When I find a place I can't easily dive the way we do I will let you know. So far, it has worked optimally everywhere I have done it.

I will have to visit NC sometime and see what these vicious currents coming from all directions are like

You advice of letting go of the descent line and swimming straight down and then finding the desired dive site on your own... is fine if the diver is very skilled, the current is manageable, knowable, reasonably homogenous with depth, the depth is moderate, the diver can descend extremely rapidly and the visibility is OK...

It is NOT good advice for a novice who can't ascent from 60 feet without a guideline AND a dive guide.

 

[tomfcrist]

Danvolker, while I agree that NC and the Atlantic coast has some very strange conditions at times, I love your reply above. For what it's worth, the granny line system is very nessecary in NC and the northern east coast......however I have never seen an experienced wreck diver in NC carry a nautilus lifeline.....and from the reports I got from a few guys that have tried to use one.....they don't work.

I have also seen granny lines used in Florida, both in the Keys and in Pensacola due to uncertainty of the currents.

 

[Adobo]

Me and the missus had a teaching incident like a while ago. Doing a boat dive and dropping down to the bottom in heavy surge. The dm decides to swim against the prevailent surge to get back onto the reef. With 10 of us scattered all over the place and me and fiance chugging through 300bars of air at an inordinate rate I signalled to her to stop fighting,we are surfacing. Inflated my smb and up we went. During our safetystop the dm finally turns around and notices us going up and signals us to come to him. I signal for surge and we're heading to the boat. 12minutes underwater at 12m and the struggling left us with 100bar.

300bar + 100bar = 400bar.

What kind of tanks are these?

---------- Post added July 1st, 2013 at 05:04 PM ----------

Danvolker, while I agree that NC and the Atlantic coast has some very strange conditions at times, I love your reply above. For what it's worth, the granny line system is very nessecary in NC and the northern east coast......however I have never seen an experienced wreck diver in NC carry a nautilus lifeline.....and from the reports I got from a few guys that have tried to use one.....they don't work.

I have also seen granny lines used in Florida, both in the Keys and in Pensacola due to uncertainty of the currents.

We can all argue about the merits of using the downline to get to the dive site. However, the original poster's issues has little to do with downlines. If someone doesn't know when its time to call the dive, it doesn't really make a difference how they got to the dive site, does it?

 

[tomfcrist]

I am aware that my comment had no bearing on the OP scenario...... Merely commenting on a slightly off topic conversation.

 

[danvolker]

You advice of letting go of the descent line and swimming straight down and then finding the desired dive site on your own... is fine if the diver is very skilled, the current is manageable, knowable, reasonably homogenous with depth, the depth is moderate, the diver can descend extremely rapidly and the visibility is OK...

It is NOT good advice for a novice who can't ascent from 60 feet without a guideline AND a dive guide.

I get that it is less than ideal advice for someone that has never descended quickly....part of the reason I posted this, is that it seems like many have never been shown you can go down fast, and that it is much easier.

I have dived in many places where they anchor...and pretty much any time the recreational diver is strong enough to pull down on a line...there would have been an easier way to do a rapid descent to the bottom without missing the desired structure....all bets are off for people that can't equalize and have to go down feet first and slow...but I don't think this should factor into the equation for teaching diving to normal divers.

 

[tomfcrist]

You advice of letting go of the descent line and swimming straight down and then finding the desired dive site on your own... is fine if the diver is very skilled, the current is manageable, knowable, reasonably homogenous with depth, the depth is moderate, the diver can descend extremely rapidly and the visibility is OK...

It is NOT good advice for a novice who can't ascent from 60 feet without a guideline AND a dive guide.

I get that it is less than ideal advice for someone that has never descended quickly....part of the reason I posted this, is that it seems like many have never been shown you can go down fast, and that it is much easier.

I have dived in many places where they anchor...and pretty much any time the recreational diver is strong enough to pull down on a line...there would have been an easier way to do a rapid descent to the bottom without missing the desired structure....all bets are off for people that can't equalize and have to go down feet first and slow...but I don't think this should factor into the equation for teaching diving to normal divers.

If you think you can drop straight down in a 3kt current when the boat isn't sitting over the wreck and find anything but sand.........go for it. Ill drop fast on the anchor line and spare my backgas for diving on/in the wreck vice attempting to fight that same current for 200ft trying to get to the wreck in the first place.

 

[doctormike]

There is no way that I would bolt from a DM in an unfamiliar environment with currents and no line to go up. ....

But not bolt on our own. Egad, what a thought!

dumpsterDiver said it similarly, but I have the same reaction to this statement. It seems to me that you are putting things ahead of gas management, and that's really not good. By your own description of the event, your survival depended on your not losing the DMs, because you both had to share air with them (I'm not sure, but I think that's what you said).

So what would have happened if you had lost the DMs, and then ended up with 500 PSI at the anchor line?

Yes, you should learn to use an SMB, and have signaling devices in case of an unplanned free ascent in current. Yes, if you are in current and have not been close to your NDLs and are doing a free ascent with no SMB in the open ocean, you might skip the safety stop so as not to drift too far from the boat. Yes, no SMB makes boat traffic an issue.

But all of this is secondary to not having anything to breathe. You were the only ones who knew what your gas reserves were. You needed to make that call.

"Stick with your buddy" is a good rule (until you get your solo cert), but it doesn't beat "always have something to breathe".

However, it's great of you to post this and let others learn from this near accident.. That takes bravery. Now is the time to learn from some of these very experienced divers.

 

[billt4sf]

I have more time to post and to read more of the comments. The plan was to go down the anchor line and that was very helpful to keep us oriented when there was a good deal of current in the first 15'. (I burn through 500lbs of a 100cf tank to get down, even now, today. But much less than that to come up and do a safety stop. Hmmm..I wonder why?)

But after a few minutes at the bottom I could not have found my way reliably to the anchor line to ascend. Therefore I would not bolt from a DM that does know her way back and has more gas and more experience than I.

We have now made 5 dives in similar conditions with less current. It gets easier every time. I am glad we spent a week diving in the Keys before this where the depth was less -- no guides there. We got lost a few times but just came up from 15 - 25 ft and looked around. Can't do that here + surface current = stay with dive guide.

Lynn. Yeah, sure we should have more training. Should we not be here because we could not do the dive on our own? Possibly we should have called the dive due to current. But you can't spend all your time training, and real life dives that stretch you are fun and learning experiences. We made some mistakes and became better divers for it.

Bill