Incident Yesterday

[do it easy]

Good job. You did the right thing. I think it's all too easy sometimes to sit back and watch and think, "he'll probably be alright," or "someone will help him." It sounds like you acted decisively and purposefully. Regardless of what his buddies or the diver himself, should or shouldn't have done, you saw a situation and handled it.

 

[lamont]

My guess on the breathing difficulty is CO2 buildup brought on by a combination of exertion (from the surface swim) and anxiety. Lamont did exactly the right thing by talking to the guy and calming him down. That's probably all that was needed. Once the guy stopped thrashing around and let someone tow him in, my guess is that his breathing problems resolved themselves ... probably before his feet even touched the bottom.

Yeah, as soon as I got him to stop trying to swim and just let me tow him, everything cleared right up. He still had some trouble getting his fins off and exiting the water -- he was still a bit loopy and had narrowed focus -- but he'd caught his breath.

In another case of where it was useful to have a buddy around, it was my buddy who caught the fact that he was trying to exit the water with his fins on and got him to crawl out of the water and helped get his fins off, while i was catching *my* breath from the tow. Might have prevented a concussion there.

 

[BigboyDan]

Again, three-man team. Wrong. Wrong. Wrong. EACH AND EVERY DIVER NEEDS A BUDDY.