Missing diver.

[ggunn]

I had one experience in a strong downcurrent in Cozumel years ago.

My takeaway from that account is to a) not panic, b) not dump weights or fill BC, and c) swim out from the wall until I get out of the flow.

I had a friend who used to say, "Any story worth telling is worth embellishing." And, "I've told that story so many times I no longer know if it is true or not."

A group of friends I used to hang with a lot kept what we called "The Little Yellow Book of Profound Revelations". One entry I remember well was "just because it never happened doesn't mean it's not true".

 

[mediumone]

I heard somewhere that PADI dive shops (probably just some PADI shops) are requiring divers with only OW certs to stay above 60' regardless of their experience. Not sure how widespread that is, or even if it is true, but I would consider it just to be an attempt to extort more revenue from divers. Dive guides----just like most of us here--can tell know who is comfortable and who isn't.

If that is true, that would be a strong contender for most asinine statement/decision that I'll hear in 2023.

We're somewhat new; certified in 2008. At that time PADI had a useful and informative website. It has become nothing more than a self-serving plate of pablum.

At the time of our certification, the depth limitations were clearly and specifically stated, which I will share:

Open Water divers had a depth limit of 130 feet.
Junior Open Water divers, (12 yo - 15 yo), had a depth limit of 60 feet, unless accompanied by a divemaster, parent or guardian, in which case the limit was 130 feet.

I had a number of discussions and arguments with a number of people about this. I was able to provide the proof.

As an aside, it's my opinion that kids younger than 12, in general, should not be certified, but I acknowledge that reasonable minds might disagree.

 

[WillAlter]

I had one experience in a strong downcurrent in Cozumel years ago.

I've been diving Cozumel for about 35 years, with some long gaps between, about maybe 8 to 10 visits. First time diving there was I think, around 1988 and I went with Aqua Safari (they were good enough, I knew no better), did Dive With Martin on the next trip (I was not impressed). Next trip (years later, maybe early 2000s) I was with my wife and we decided to try a "boutique" dive op, and we went with Living Underwater based on recs from this board.

We loved diving with Jeremy. After meeting us at our hotel the night before our first dive, we chatted, handed over our gear, talked about our experience. At that point I had been diving for 10 years (not frequently, but I grew up with a snorkel in my mouth and am very comfortable in the water) and had more than a little experience. My wife had some post certification dives in Hawaii and Thailand, but was still pretty inexperienced. Jeremy told us we would need to do a checkout dive first the next day. I was fine with that, my wife got a little huffy, but eventually said OK (that's how she rolls sometime, and other resort dive ops she had been with never needed anything other than a glance at her C card and her signature on the liability waiver form).

So next day we did a checkout dive in a sandy shallow spot, demonstrating boyancy, remove-the-mask drills, regulator recovery, etc., really basic OW cert stuff. My wife did perfectly well, although extra-fine boyancy control was something she still needed to work on (even I could see this, certainly Jeremy did). I chuckled and went along (Hey, I was underwater in Cozumel, so happy enough). In fact, my wife did need to brush up on those basic skills. Jeremy was patient, supportive, helpful, and gave her the attention and time she needed to relax, get comfortable in the water again, and demonstrate/refresh her skills. He was absolutely right to require us (well, maybe her, but it was always referred to "us" together) to go through all that before we went diving the next day. We did, and my wife did just fine. We were having a blast.

A few days later in the week, we had an interesting experience on one dive.

I don't recall the location. There was some decent current, as is typical in Cozumel, but nothing that seemed extreme. We were diving along some wall, I think we had just 4 divers in the water, plus 2 DMs. One of them was Jeremy, he was with me and my wife - not hovering right on top of us, but nearby, pointing out critters.

We were cruising along a wall, probably around 70-80 feet, comfortable, enjoying the dive. All of a sudden, I noticed sharp pain in my ears, which immediately seemed wrong, since we had been moving along the wall laterally and my ears had cleared fine when we started the dive. Ouch, more ear pain, I cleared my ears again, then spun around to look for my wife, and did not see her - I was surprised to see I was densely surrounded by tiny bubbles, going up, or maybe down, I couldn't tell, maybe the bubbles and I were moving together. I felt quite disoriented, took a look at my depth gauge - I had just passed through 100 feet, and was sinking. And things were getting darker (literally, and now I realize, figuratively, too). Colder, too. Things were happening fast and I was getting way too deep. I started finning hard to try and stop sinking. With my right hand I reached for and was fumbling with my inflator hose, my left hand was fumbling with the weight-pocket release pull on my BCD.

Before I managed to either press the inflator button or dump weights, I felt a very sharp tug on my leg. WTF?! My guage was showing 120 feet and dropping. I looked down, and saw Jeremy below me, reaching up with his hand around my ankle - he then pulled himself up (or pulled me down) and grabbed my BCD sternum strap across my chest - tightly (this wasn't a gentle tug, this was "the deathgrip of authority"). Very confused, I looked at him and then saw his other hand was firmly gripping my wife's tank strap, as she was below him (she was still attached to her tank). So he had me in one hand above him, and her in his other hand, below. He had apparently grabbed her and hauled her up to where I was (around 120 feet), she was dangling below him. He looked very busy.

His hands full, he locked eyes on me, gave me a hard look, nodded his head upward - and away from the wall, out towards the open water. I also saw his eyes flash to my hand on the weight pocket dump string and then to my other hand over the inflator hose button. He shook his head gently side-to-side, and looked at me again. I nodded back firmly to acknowledge. All this transpired in just a couple seconds, but the messages seemed pretty clear. I took my hand off my weight dump string, kept the other one off (but near) the inflator button. We all finned up and outward, away from the wall. In a few seconds, it seemed we popped out of it, in relatively calm water, slowly finning upward and away from the wall. Depth gauge showed about 110 feet. Jeremy let go of me first, turned to my wife, she signaled OK, then let go of her (but kept his eyes on her and stayed close, I noticed). We all slowly and calmly finned up to 90, 80, 70 feet. We stopped there and settled down for a moment, checked air, boyancy (and heart rate...), all good, everyone OK.

We could see the other pair of divers with the other DM in the distance, they were still happily cruising along the wall, had not been sucked down, and had not even noticed us. Jeremy, me, and my wife began a gradual ascent while drifting laterally along the wall, we went up to 30-ish feet and continued the dive just for a short while, before heading up for a long safety stop.

We get back on the boat, Jeremy is all business, all matter-of-fact, quietly handing out dry towels and water bottles, helping us stow our gear. Me: "Well, THAT was certainly interesting, wasn't it?" My wife: "That was crazy! What happened?" Jeremy just smiled, paused, and quietly said, "Yes, it was interesting. Mother nature was testing us today. We passed." Then he handed us some snacks, and went back to tidying the boat.

I'll dive with that guy forever.

My wife and I had a similar Jeremy experience several years ago. That day we had a third diver on the boat who was making his first dive of the trip. His dive bag hadn't arrived and so he was using LUW rental gear. He was very anxious to get wet. The group encountered a downswell along a wall at about 70 foot. My wife and I quickly finned away from the wall, but the new diver got pushed down 50 ft in a matter of seconds. Jeremy went down and slowly helped him fin away from the wall. They then made a gradual ascent, and we eventually continued on with the dive. That gentlemen was fortunate that day.

 

[nwflyboy]

I had one experience in a strong downcurrent in Cozumel years ago.

My takeaway from that account is to a) not panic, b) not dump weights or fill BC, and c) swim out from the wall until I get out of the flow.

To clarify a few details of my experience described above... I still have pretty vivid memories of this incident (despite it having occurred roughly 15 years ago).

I don't think I ever panicked, and I don't think "panic" was really imminent (and I don't think I'm in denial about that). What I definitely did experience was (in this order):

1. Surprise, curiosity, then confusion - My initial impression was that something quite strange, new (to me) and "different" was happening. I considered myself a fairly experienced diver (at that point, I had probably 200-300 dives), had been to Cozumel a few times and had done dive trips to Hawaii and several other countries from Thailand to Costa Rica previously; I was quite comfortable in strong currents, loved drift diving, and felt confident in even pretty strong current.

First thing I noticed: Sharp ear pain. Cruising along, suddenly my ears hurt, which seemed a bit weird (I don't have trouble equalizing when dropping; I rarely have to equalize once at depth, if maintaining consistent depth). I equalized quickly without giving it a thought, then a couple seconds later, more ear pain. That got my attention, and surprised me. Then I found myself surrounded by lots of tiny bubbles, so dense that I could not easily see past/through them - all I saw was bubbles. I felt cold, too. "This is new, what's going on?" I recall feeling slightly disoriented for an instant (which I ascribed to being surrounded by the bubbles), similar to the feeling I (and maybe you) get when I'm upside down underwater, momentarily unsure which way is up - this disorientation was fleeting, lasted no more than a second or two at most.

I had never experienced anything like that (the bubbles) before. In retrospect, those could have been bubbles from my spouse and/or the divemaster who (I later saw) would probably have been right below me, but the bubbles did not seem to be rising, they just seemed to swirl around me, which I recall thinking was so strange (I'm now speculating that the bubbles, and the three of us, were all getting sucked down together so the bubbles didn't appear to rise like I had always seen bubbles do). This all happened very quickly, so it's not like I went through some analysis there in real time. It just struck me that things were getting weird, and my first reaction was just "hmmm, this is odd". For a moment, I was just curious and wondering what was happening. Then I looked at my depth gauge: 100 feet. Next reaction...

2. Concern, shock - Yikes. OK, this isn't good, I shouldn't be so deep, time to take corrective action. I started finning up. That didn't seem to be helping much. I started reaching for my inflator, tried to remember where my weight pocket dump string was. I started fumbling for both, "just in case I need to use them." Glanced quickly at my gauge again, I was still getting deeper, I recall seeing 120 feet, feeling cold, and thinking I need to do something different because just trying to swim up isn't working. I believe I was still thinking clearly, mostly rationally, not panicking, and probably not narced (though I could have been); I think I was just a bit confused.

This all transpired pretty quickly, in something like 15 to 30 seconds. I wasn't feeling overwhelmed, but I could sense that I was now "along for the ride" (in something powerful that I did not understand), rather than being completely in control of my own fate. Although I did not know what was happening, I was conscious that it was dangerous (and knowing that I did not understand what was happening was even more dangerous), and I knew I needed to take charge rather than passively ride along. So I was trying to swim up (and failing), was fumbling for the two tools I thought I might have available (dump weights, add air to the BCD). That's when I felt something grab my ankle.

I'd guess the whole experience, from start (first sharp ear pain) to finish (popping out of it into calm, blue water), happened in no more than 60 seconds.

I was glad that it turned out to be Jeremy who had grabbed me from below, and not the giant squid that attacked the Nautilus in 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea.

 

[Bob DBF]

...a full blown panic attack will simply not allow common sense or the training instinct to prevail.

When one panics, it is a matter of luck, or devine intervention, that there is a positive outcome.

The way I was trained to avoid, or more to the point would be to put off until later, panic, is to work on solving the issue by working through emergency procedures and any solution that can be dreamed up on the spot. Focus on the solution, the outcome is not predetermined until I quit.

I have not panicked yet, but I have seen when it was going to happen.

 

[ggunn]

To clarify a few details of my experience described above... I still have pretty vivid memories of this incident (despite it having occurred roughly 15 years ago).

I don't think I ever panicked, and I don't think "panic" was really imminent (and I don't think I'm in denial about that)...

I did not mean to imply that I thought that you panicked; I apologize if something I said gave you that impression.

I experienced a moment of panic a few years ago when I got separated from my group and saw what I mistakenly thought was them a significant distance upcurrent from me. That other group was in the lee of a coral formation but I wasn't, so no matter how hard I kicked I couldn't get any closer to them. I ended up hyperventilating and although I had plenty of air I felt like I couldn't get enough of it. I had a nearly irresistible urge to pull my regulator from my mouth and bolt for the surface. Getting myself to relax and catch my breath was incredibly difficult. That was the scariest moment I have ever had diving, and several lessons learned that day.

 

[nwflyboy]

I heard somewhere that PADI dive shops (probably just some PADI shops) are requiring divers with only OW certs to stay above 60' regardless of their experience. Not sure how widespread that is, or even if it is true...

I have run into this, or seen something like it, a few times. (No comment on what's motivating that policy.)

Me and my diving spouse only have basic PADI OW certification (though I have a shipload of dives over my 35+ years of diving).

I've seen dive ops that state you need to show AOW certification or you will be limited to something like 60' depth. I have been told this is the norm in French Polynesia (haven't been there yet), and also may be common for European dive ops (Tahiti, etc., being part of France, they generally follow EU standards). Lots of things are different in different places; some places are more restrictive, others seem to have few rules that are followed. And PADI is certainly not the dominant certification standard everywhere.

We went on a liveaboard in the Maldives. Once we were on the boat, they mentioned that unless you had PADI AOW, you would not be able to dive most of the locations. They didn't stick to that very long (we dove every location, had no trouble whatsoever). Shrug.

 

[nwflyboy]

I did not mean to imply that I thought that you panicked; I apologize if something I said gave you that impression.

No worries, no offense taken at all (it's the internet, keep your expectations in check). Play on.

 

[ReefHound]

deleted

 

[ReefHound]

I heard somewhere that PADI dive shops (probably just some PADI shops) are requiring divers with only OW certs to stay above 60' regardless of their experience. Not sure how widespread that is, or even if it is true, but I would consider it just to be an attempt to extort more revenue from divers. Dive guides----just like most of us here--can tell know who is comfortable and who isn't.

In general, I would suggest ignoring anything you "heard somewhere". I do. Maybe we've expanded the discussion beyond Cozumel but I've never seen this in Coz.