I lost my buddy.

[kasdeva]

Another installment of my diving adventures.

...

I am flying by instruments only. The viz is less than a foot in an intense algae bloom currently holding our favourite diving hole hostage. The green pea soup leaves me sensory deprived and I am loving the calmness. I drop down a meter to find the guide line to a sunken school bus at 45 feet of water. I peer intensely through the murky water and find the white line.

...

James, a good friend of mine has not dived for about four years. We planned to go to the quarry this weekend to test some new gear he acquired, he is keen to take up diving again. After much negotiation with his wife and kids we loaded our cooler box and packed the little hatch-back Toyota to the roof with our diving gear and made a beeline for some water.

With him not diving for a while we went to the 15 foot training grid first to run through some mask drills, buoyancy checks and a bubble check. It went well, seems like scuba skills are a bit like riding a bicycle. As planned we surfaced at that stage. We were headed for the floating platform in the middle which had a line to a 30 foot platform and a line running to the sunken bus that we wanted to visit. We were to descend, I would find the line and then head to the bus.

...

Where is James! I cannot see anything and my dive buddy is nowhere. I can feel panic rising and I take a deep breath and to calm down. I am still looking around and there is nothing. No bubbles and definitely no diver. Damn. Is he drowning? Is he plummeting to the bottom of the hole narcd out of his mind?

I look around again, no bubble, no diver. I make my way back to the 30 foot platform hoping he is waiting for me there. Nothing. A minute passes, still nothing. I am now out of options and begin my ascent.

No diver at the top either. Damn. I am now swearing. I see some bubbles rising at the surface and try to swim down to it, no chance. Viz is so bad that I cannot follow the bubbles down. A minute passes. No diver. I am now in full blown panic. Do I raise the alarm? Start shouting for help? Did he faint? Is he unconscious under water? I can still see bubbles rising so I am assuming he is still breathing, if that is his bubbles. No way to be sure.

I had just left his house and hour earlier and waved goodbye to his wife and two kids. How on earth am I going to explain that I lost her husband and he drowned. I have no idea what to do. I bob at the surface in a stupor. Every possible disaster scenario is playing through my head and none of them are good.

To be very clear, I was not worried, I was freaking out!

James is a CMAS two star rescue diver with many dives behind him, not a beginner in any way. I am convinced he can take care of himself, but he knows buddy separation protocol and he is not at the surface.

Nearly paralyzed with fear I am scanning the surface and cursing, still no sign. Just bubbles, but there are several divers down below. After about ten minutes he surfaces.

According to him, he lost control of his buoyancy and lifted of from the platform while I was looking for the line. When he got back down, I was nowhere. I had surfaced in the meantime, he did not know this. So he carried on with the dive and visited the bus. All smiles and elated as if nothing untoward happened.

I am still trembling slightly. I did not say a word about what transpired on the way home. I am still not sure if I should broach the subject. He gave me the fright of my life.

Maybe I should just have been a bit more laid back? Worry less? Am I the only sucker that actually listened in my open water class?

I seem to be learning my diving lessons early on in my diving adventures.

 

[Fish in a Barrel]

I would have been right there freaking out with you. And I would have let him know it when he finally surfaced.

 

[TSandM]

This is one of the reasons that buddy separation procedure is part of my pre-dive discussion with anybody, if I don't know FOR SURE that they will follow the one I learned (search for a minute and then surface and regroup).

I think you should talk to him about it, not reproachfully (because, unless you guys discussed it, he didn't break any agreement between you) but just to let him know that being on the surface and not knowing what was going on with him was frightening to you. Especially if you guys intend to dive together often, having a solid agreement on protocol is something you should do.

The last time I forgot to talk about this beforehand, I was diving with two folks who, it turned out, were perfectly happy to get separated. When they did, I didn't know which one to go with, and the one I did was completely unperturbed, but I spent the whole rest of the dive worrying about the guy we lost. (He was fine, and also unperturbed. I don't dive that way.)

 

[redacted]

A great example about why discussing buddy separation protocol before the dive is important.

Unfortunately, I seldom do it either. I usually just assume we are going with the default protocol of a short search and then surface if unsuccessful. That aspect is probably worth discussing with him before the next dive.

 

[drdaddy]

I almost always talk about buddy separation before a dive. But I didn't when going off with a very experienced diver on a boatdive. I assumed that he would go with "standard protocol" which is: if separated, look for 1 minute and then come up.

We got into the water and the guy goes head first and starts going down. No regard for buddy procedures. I took out after him, but in the poor visibility I could not find him. I surfaced and signaled the boat that I was going solo. They were comfortable as both of us solo regularly and have redundant air supply. I had a great dive. The guy was, "yeah, poor vis." I was, "yeah, some buddy".

Even with my regular buddy, I try to discuss it regularly. If I don't and we get separated, you never know what someone is going to do - unless it's agreed on.

My buddy and I stayed together last Saturday and we got 7 nice dungeness crabs!!! If we had of agreed to separate - we would have probably got at least 10. But he did not feel comfortable with his knowledge of the layout at the Alsea Crab Hole, so we made a real effort to stay together. But, we had agreed, if separated (chasing a crab!) we would keep on hunting solo - but we would really try to stay together.

 

[kasdeva]

I am still wondering if I should have raised the alarm immediately. What if he was really drowning? This incident has left me shaken.

 

[fisheater]

I am still wondering if I should have raised the alarm immediately. What if he was really drowning? This incident has left me shaken.

Based upon the "standard, default" lost buddy procedure, you should have. No one could fault you. If there had been a problem, you'd have started the response in a timely manner. If there wasn't a problem, your buddy would have learned a important lesson on buddy protocols when he finally surfaced and came face-to-face with his would-be rescuers.

 

[jar546]

Great story. Should have been discussed prior to the dive. Lesson learned and a reminder to the rest of us. Thank you for sharing.

 

[gcs118]

Based upon the "standard, default" lost buddy procedure, you should have. No one could fault you. If there had been a problem, you'd have started the response in a timely manner. If there wasn't a problem, your buddy would have learned a important lesson on buddy protocols when he finally surfaced and came face-to-face with his would-be rescuers.

I could see it going either way. I understand the new divers fear of having something terrible happen to their buddy, but the OP said that this person was a rescue diver with many dives and still clearly had great basic skills (which they checked and also did equipment checks at 15ft.). Also, they were only at 30 ft. when separated. Just because a diver loses a buddy doesn't mean they're instantly going to start drowning or having issues. If it was an overhead area or somewhere with serious entanglement hazards, that's a different story, but being in a quarry (probably prepped for divers) is a bit different. I think the panic was just that - irrational fear, albeit very understandable in the moment. Setting off the alarm may have only caused further embarrassment for the OP in this case, especially when the buddy surfaced without a care in the world.

I fully agree with safety first - talk about these things prior to each dive. Also, understand each other's ability. If it were a brand new diver, I'd probably have worried just as much, but given the info. we have, I think not screaming for help may have been the better option here.

 

[fisheater]

No need for any embarassment for OP. Medical issues can hit anyone (experienced, inexperienced) at any time. 30' is sufficient depth to drown.

Really. No one should fault the OP for following the standard lost buddy procedure. If the buddy later surfaces without a care in the world, he's the one who should be embarrassed.