Marcosis
Contributor
A couple of years back I was on my AOW certification night dive and very new to diving. (Sit back-this is a pretty long story!) So without names here is my true story:
I couldnt have been more excited. It was my first night dive. On the ride out to the 35' reef everyone was talking about how crazy this was going to be. None of us had actually ever done a night dive. During the ride the instructor gave his brief, which was hardly more than look out for fire coral. He then proceeded to hand out green light sticks to everyone. I buddied up with a friend, who was not in my class, but who I brought with me. He has over 10 years and countless dives/night dives. He told me the night before to pick up light sticks at the dive shop (2 of every color). I had no idea why but I did what I was told. As the DM was passing out the light sticks, my friend shook his head and told me to give him 2 red sticks and take out 2 red ones for myself. He said look for the RED sticks if you get in trouble. He also said, "This should be interesting."
Now here it is in August in Florida and I'm watching this older gentleman (who was not from our class but who came as a buddy to a classmate). The older gentleman was donning a 7mm full farmer john wetsuit and sweating hard while putting the suit on. I pointed it out to my friend and a couple of guys I made friends with in class. I know I'm not very experienced and don't even have my own wet suit but its 90 degrees out and why?
So here we are at the reef. I'm the fearless one so please allow me to be first in. The instructor said, We'll all descend-meet on the bottom and have a night dive. So all of us hang on the line, scared ****less, but down we go. Once on the bottom, some went this way some went that way. I am left wondering - now what? Let me remind, our only dive plan was to be cautious of the fire coral and to meet at the bottom. So here we are. Green lights everywhere. Which green light was the instructor? Who was who? I also realize that there had no been a head count. Anyway, I realize the reason for the RED light sticks. My friend shined his light on himself, smiled; put his 2 fingers to his mask then to himself. WATCH ME! It made perfect sense now.
So as I'm stuck to my friends RED sticks, I see A student whose tank came loose from his BCD. I grabbed my buddy and started over to help fix this guy's tank. This happened twice with his tank and even in my inexperience I'm wondering why didn't his buddy see this? Twice?
After we had been down 45 minutes half the class is gone. My friend makes the hand signal for "the boat" then signals "follow me". I am please and think at least we'll be able to tell the captain and divemaster to make a head count.
So as we all know, it is one up the ladder at a time. However, Im shining my light looking for the rope to hang and wait my turn to step onto the ladder but there is no rope! Instead I see four divers hanging off the platform and a lightning storm going on at the surface. I stay down below 10 ft. waiting for the other divers to clear the platform, so that I am not struck. Once the platform was cleared, I surfaced to find the lightning is actually 2 Coastguard cutters.
My friend had boarded before me and is now on the boat screaming at me to move my ***! I board and find the diver with the wetsuit is having CPR performed on him (by a student), the diver is blue, and had an oxygen mask on. What the hell? I jump over this, get my gear off, and hear one of the coastguard guys ask, "Does anyone know how to take a pulse?" I almost threw up. I have no training in Rescue. I yelled at the Coastguard guys, "The oxygen is not helping because the guy isn't breathing! Get him on your boat and get him to shore!" I helped lift the guy on a backboard over to the cutter. What the hell?
So as it calmed down (as calm as it could get) this is what happened after we descended:
One of the students forgot his weight belt and couldn't get down so he swam back to the boat, got a belt, and jumped back in. Once the diver was back in he couldn't find the class and wasn't comfortable enough to search very long. He dumped his weight and swam against surface current to get back to the boat. It was then that this diver noticed a distress flashlight signal in the water. He alerted the divemaster and captain who had to untie the boat and swing around to find and pick up the distressed diver. The student said the diver was face down, unresponsive, with his regulator in his mouth when they got to him.
They pulled him on board but he never regained consciousness. The diver had been the buddy of the guy whose tank came out. We all speculated as to what could have happened. Maybe heat exhaustion? Maybe, a heart attack? Maybe his equipment failed?
Well we never did our second tank that night, as you can imagine. I later found, that it was said the diver had drowned. No heart attack. No equipment malfunction. There was plenty of air in his tank. Only God knows why!
Upon reflection, so many things should have been different! Especially on a night dive. HEAD COUNT - On deck, in the water, at the bottom, and back on deck! I feel buddy teams should each have a different light stick color! For example: Buddy team 1 both blue, Buddy team 2 both red, Buddy team 3 both green. The instructor should have 2 different colors and maybe as well.
That was a pretty sad night I'll never forget! Well thank you for listening to my story. I know it took forever. Thank you for your feedback. Please be careful.
I couldnt have been more excited. It was my first night dive. On the ride out to the 35' reef everyone was talking about how crazy this was going to be. None of us had actually ever done a night dive. During the ride the instructor gave his brief, which was hardly more than look out for fire coral. He then proceeded to hand out green light sticks to everyone. I buddied up with a friend, who was not in my class, but who I brought with me. He has over 10 years and countless dives/night dives. He told me the night before to pick up light sticks at the dive shop (2 of every color). I had no idea why but I did what I was told. As the DM was passing out the light sticks, my friend shook his head and told me to give him 2 red sticks and take out 2 red ones for myself. He said look for the RED sticks if you get in trouble. He also said, "This should be interesting."
Now here it is in August in Florida and I'm watching this older gentleman (who was not from our class but who came as a buddy to a classmate). The older gentleman was donning a 7mm full farmer john wetsuit and sweating hard while putting the suit on. I pointed it out to my friend and a couple of guys I made friends with in class. I know I'm not very experienced and don't even have my own wet suit but its 90 degrees out and why?
So here we are at the reef. I'm the fearless one so please allow me to be first in. The instructor said, We'll all descend-meet on the bottom and have a night dive. So all of us hang on the line, scared ****less, but down we go. Once on the bottom, some went this way some went that way. I am left wondering - now what? Let me remind, our only dive plan was to be cautious of the fire coral and to meet at the bottom. So here we are. Green lights everywhere. Which green light was the instructor? Who was who? I also realize that there had no been a head count. Anyway, I realize the reason for the RED light sticks. My friend shined his light on himself, smiled; put his 2 fingers to his mask then to himself. WATCH ME! It made perfect sense now.
So as I'm stuck to my friends RED sticks, I see A student whose tank came loose from his BCD. I grabbed my buddy and started over to help fix this guy's tank. This happened twice with his tank and even in my inexperience I'm wondering why didn't his buddy see this? Twice?
After we had been down 45 minutes half the class is gone. My friend makes the hand signal for "the boat" then signals "follow me". I am please and think at least we'll be able to tell the captain and divemaster to make a head count.
So as we all know, it is one up the ladder at a time. However, Im shining my light looking for the rope to hang and wait my turn to step onto the ladder but there is no rope! Instead I see four divers hanging off the platform and a lightning storm going on at the surface. I stay down below 10 ft. waiting for the other divers to clear the platform, so that I am not struck. Once the platform was cleared, I surfaced to find the lightning is actually 2 Coastguard cutters.
My friend had boarded before me and is now on the boat screaming at me to move my ***! I board and find the diver with the wetsuit is having CPR performed on him (by a student), the diver is blue, and had an oxygen mask on. What the hell? I jump over this, get my gear off, and hear one of the coastguard guys ask, "Does anyone know how to take a pulse?" I almost threw up. I have no training in Rescue. I yelled at the Coastguard guys, "The oxygen is not helping because the guy isn't breathing! Get him on your boat and get him to shore!" I helped lift the guy on a backboard over to the cutter. What the hell?
So as it calmed down (as calm as it could get) this is what happened after we descended:
One of the students forgot his weight belt and couldn't get down so he swam back to the boat, got a belt, and jumped back in. Once the diver was back in he couldn't find the class and wasn't comfortable enough to search very long. He dumped his weight and swam against surface current to get back to the boat. It was then that this diver noticed a distress flashlight signal in the water. He alerted the divemaster and captain who had to untie the boat and swing around to find and pick up the distressed diver. The student said the diver was face down, unresponsive, with his regulator in his mouth when they got to him.
They pulled him on board but he never regained consciousness. The diver had been the buddy of the guy whose tank came out. We all speculated as to what could have happened. Maybe heat exhaustion? Maybe, a heart attack? Maybe his equipment failed?
Well we never did our second tank that night, as you can imagine. I later found, that it was said the diver had drowned. No heart attack. No equipment malfunction. There was plenty of air in his tank. Only God knows why!
Upon reflection, so many things should have been different! Especially on a night dive. HEAD COUNT - On deck, in the water, at the bottom, and back on deck! I feel buddy teams should each have a different light stick color! For example: Buddy team 1 both blue, Buddy team 2 both red, Buddy team 3 both green. The instructor should have 2 different colors and maybe as well.
That was a pretty sad night I'll never forget! Well thank you for listening to my story. I know it took forever. Thank you for your feedback. Please be careful.