Leaving expensive equipment down.

[oldogre]

Recently, another buddy team found a gold wedding ring. About a year ago my O.W. Instructor lost her diamond engagement ring.

 

[robbcayman]

A story I just quoted on another thread, from Northern California this summer, was about a double fatality that began when a recreational diver dropped his camera and went deep to try to retrieve it. He ran out of gas deep and was rescued by a pair of technical divers. Although people made the best decisions they could, the result was that the OOG diver died, and so did one of the tech divers.

Deep is very subjective. If you don't mind me asking, how deep are we talking? I think more divers should use a simple camera strap around their wrist to prevent lost cameras, but that's another issue.

 

[Jax]

I use a carabiner that my finger goes through when I unclip and hand up. Only then do I let my finger out.

I also use insurance. 'nuff said.

 

[Jax]

Good stories, and good advice. How about a new "department" on scubaboard for lost and found. A diver can post what they lost and when and about where, and if another diver comes upon it and is willing to be a good person, they can check the department for a contact to arrange for the return (at the owners expense, of course). In this regard, see Bleeb's post on the camera reunited with its owner here in the basic scuba discussions! I have found the following items that I have found over the years: Sea and Sea wide angle lens (off Maui); a pair (really!) of yellow full foot fins, again off Maui, two masks with snorkels attached, both off Akumal Mexico, and a ton of stuff at the local reservoir (10 feet of viz on a good day), including 11 weight belts with lead, 2 masks, 7 snorkels, one knife, and three weight pockets with lead. I have lost a macro lens for an old film camera, but that is it. Not only safety, but good manners should limit your search- kind of like in golf. Look for the item for a set period- three to five minutes maybe, if air and ndl's permit, and if not found, play on. But no piece of equipment or set of equipment is worth endangering a life, let alone losing a life.
DivemasterDennis

You mean like, " Lost, Found and Stolen "?

 

[freewillie]

Most recently I lost my brand new Atomic subframe mask. I had it draped over the tank so it would get stepped on or lost on the dive boat. When we returned to dock the strap got caught and it dropped over the side of the boat. I had a sinking feeling literally as I watched it sink below the surface of the water.

The dock was in only 16 feet water, and after checking with the boat captain got an okay to gear back up and go after it. I had a spare mask in my dive bag. I didn't have any problems finding it under the boat as it pretty much sank straight down.

When I came back up I realized the exit steps on the back of the dive boat were pulled up so the boat could dock. As I was thinking about how I was going to get back up my buddy and a crew member grabbed the back of my BC and hauled my butt out of the water.

Other than my pride didn't lose anything that day.

 

[DevonDiver]

I know of at least one fatality caused by bad judgement regarding expensive equipment. A north-eastern UK diver dropped his reel after ascending from a 30m dive. He re-descended solo, minimal air, to chase/recover the reel. Was never seen again. It happened about 10 years ago.

I think it'd be hard to find categorical proof that defines the scope of this problem, as equipment/expense driven decision making is unlikely to be recorded as a cause within an incident report. Unless such issues are decided (and committed to) in advance, equipment/expense considerations must have an impact on a divers' decision making processes. In some cases they might cause outright dangers (re-descending to recover lost equipment or delaying exit from wreck to recover reel etc). In other cases they might just cause a delay in appropriate response (consideration/problem-solving/en-situ risk assessment) that can cause delays, further developing an incident spiral.

That said, I think it's relatively logical to apply an understanding of human nature and form a hypothesis that most divers would have some level of crisis with risk management when facing the temptation to veer from safe diving practices in order to recover/retain expensive dive gear.

 

[flots am]

An interesting post by DevonDiver made me think about this topic.

Do you remember stories (or even incidents or near misses threads) where it was necessary to leave equipment down or where the problem begun when going back to recover some left piece of equipment?

It's a little funny, but over the years, I've been diving with less and less stuff.

It's come to the point now where the only things I dive with that are worth more than $200 each are my computer, regs, tanks and BC. If I have to ditch any of those things to get back to the surface, I've screwed the pooch so badly that I'd consider the loss to be a bargain for the learning experience.

flots.

 

[dumpsterDiver]

It is really is an important consideration. The diver should realize that their camera, light, reel, speargun, even a scooter is expendable. The diver should realize that their expensive "thing" is quite likely going to flood or get broken eventually. I think it is important to mentally prepare for the loss of the gear so that you are less tempted to make too much of an effort to retrieve something. People do get in trouble this way.

I myself have made stupid decisions. Once after completing most of my 15 minutes of deco following a 185 ft dive, i dropped an expensive spear tip while at 20 feet and chased the damn thing all the way to 190 feet and then was totally out of breath and had little air and was getting some numbness as I completed my (second) deco and ran out of air. These kinds of stupid decisions can get a diver killed.

I remember one night dive that went south in a super bad current and I was contemplating abandoning my wife or ditching a $5,000 camera rig, that was becoming increasingly unmanageable. I never had to make the choice, but I was doing the analysis in my head.

If you can't afford to lose it, you shouldn't be taking it underwater in the first place.

 

[vladodessit]

I don't have any expensive equipment. And after reading these posts and what happened last Sunday I don't want to I am brand new, that was my 6th cold water dive after OW. I was getting to ladder and lost a fin with a brand new spring strap. By the time I realized it I just saw it sinking fast in 25-30' range, I already knew that buttom was in about 75-80 range (we had to surface swim to shallower end on our dive). I had about 700PSI in steel 80 tank so I didn't chase the fin. DM nicely offered spare fins and another tank, after asking about my profile (it was conservative, no issue) and asking to make it quick. Already had attached the tank to the gear. I told DM I planned for 5 min search, safety stop and surface. And there it hit me: I was about to go solo below my training depth (OW recommends no deeper then 60', right) after 3 dives with few minutes SI. Hell with that fin and spring. DM seemed relieved, actually And, couple of minutes later, two divers surface with my fin in hands. They found it sticking out of the kelp in 75FSW. Karma, I guess I was proud of not chasing that damn fin. I wonder if I'd feel different if it were few grands worth of equipment. But now I realize I'd probably offer a reward for it to DM or other more experienced diver

 

[SeaHorse81]

This past summer while diving a wall, I witnessed a friend dropping a piece of camera-related equipment (nothing professional grade, surely not worth more than $100 or so). I immediately thought, "Let it go, let it go, let it go!" but he lunged for it. Happily, he caught up to it in less than 20 feet of drop, so all ended well.

I imagine I, too, would make an effort, but only a very brief one. I hope I would have the good sense to give it up quickly if near-immediate success wasn't an obvious outcome. What we know in calm thought and what we do in the heat of the moment can be very different. I'm sure every single diver knows no piece of gear is worth dying for, yet I'll bet divers die every year in efforts to save gear that could easily have been replaced.