Lessons Most frightening moments

After seeing how the post I wrote about the reverse block resonated with people, I would like to make another post today, namely about the most frightening moments I've ever had.

It's easy, particularly for novice divers, to think that people like myself, with decades of experience, thousands of dives and a deck of c-cards have everything under control and nothing bad ever happens.

I wrote about the reverse block because of that. I wanted to show that I am still human and I can still make mistakes. On the internet there is a strong tendency for (technical) divers and instructors with a lot of experience to project an image of themselves as always solving problems correctly, always making the best decisions, and in the case of instructors in particular, having a monopoly on good ideas that lead to perfect students diving perfectly.

None of that, of course, reflects reality at all.

So I will start. I urge experienced divers to share their own stories.

-------
First
-------
1985. I was certified as AOW and we were making a deep dive along a wall. The bottom, for all intents and purposes, at the bottom of the wall was unsurvivable. A diver who diving with a group slightly ahead of us got caught in a large ball of discarded fishing line that he didn't see. He started sinking. The incident started at 42 meters. My buddy and I had just started our dive and we saw this happening. Nobody in his group did. We went after him. This was the first time I had dived deeper than 42 meters. I couldn't tell how deep we were when we caught him because the (analogue) depth gauge I was using was pinned at its maximum depth. This was also my first deco dive or at least my first dive where I was "off the tables" and unable to to know how to ascend. I was, at that time, unaware of oxygen toxicity, gas management and ascent protocols. We returned (at a rapid pace) to 30ft. (10m) and waited there until our tanks were empty on the assumption that any damage done by our deep incursion would be fixed by that. Upon surfacing we didn't know if we were going to get the bends or not. I was, frankly, scared. It still gives me the heebiejeebies to think about this incident more than 30 years later. We did something there that was completely out of control (also the rescue) and we got off easy.

-----------
Second
-----------
2002, I think. I was working as a DM. We temporarily lost a diver during a dive. The situation was that we were on a platform at 25m and doing some exercises for the AOW (deep) dive. A group of divers (maybe 6) descending LANDED on us and kicked up so much silt in their attempts to slow down before impacting the bottom that the visibility went from 5m to black-out in a matter of seconds. I grabbed the two divers right in front of me and dragged them out of the silt cloud. One of them turned out to be our diver and the other one turned out to be one of the idiots who landed on us. We were missing a diver. We surfaced. Naturally our divers were told to surface if they became separated but this diver did not. He remained where he was and waited to be rescued. On the surface we decided that I would search for the missing diver because I had the most experience of everyone (including the instructor). At that point I was a DM but I was already technically trained. I had very limited time. I went back down and eventually found him but it was luck. He survived and my beard got grayer overnight. If I couldn't have found him in the next 5 min his death would have been on my conscience until I died. This was so frightening to me that I nearly abandoned all plans I had to become an instructor.

-----------
Third
-----------
The accident. My team saved the life of a diver who ran out of air during an AOW training dive (by another group, not mine) and was left for dead on the bottom at 18m. We acted quickly and professionally and got him into the hands of paramedics within about 10 min. As an aside, the fact that the Dutch paramedics were able to be on scene so quickly was no small part of this! He looked dead when we retrieved him. He lay in coma for several weeks after the incident. Doctors had basically written him off when -- unexpectedly to all -- he woke up and subsequently made a reasonable (albeit not full) recovery.

The impact on myself and on the members of my team was substantial, particularly because of what we viewed as our 'mistakes'. One diver (the DM) stopped diving. He started hyperventilating during the descent to find the "body" and after that he started to hyperventilate on EVERY dive. He stopped diving.

To me it changed EVERYTHING about how I view training and my role as an instructor. I didn't organize things on the surface as well as I could have, if I had had a second run at it. Yes, I had the EMS on site in 10 min. Police, paramedics, trauma doctor, helicopter, fire department with a boat, a private boat.... all of that I had..... but I was overwhelmed and not communicating as well as I could.

Someone tried to chase my (uncertified) OW students into the water to go search. He didn't know that they were uncertified and I ripped him a new one in a way that I regret, giving in to the emotion. An NOB (CMAS) instructor showed me by example how to control the dive site in a way I had never learned, I missed seeing a diver (the DM who caused the accident) displaying passive panic. It only became apparent to me when they had to take him away by ambulance when he collapsed.... it was MUCH more messy scene than I had ever imagined and I was not in control as well as I would expect from myself. At one point, once the EMS had control of the surface situation I grabbed another diver (a DM) and went searching myself. This was a mistake. I can't get over the mind set that drove me to ACT when I SHOULD have been coordinating! I'm like the guy who charges into a burning building because I can't fight the urge to DO SOMETHING! I HATE that about myself.

Since that time (it's been years) I've been replaying that event in my mind and thinking, "if I had only done XXXX then YYYY". It drives me CRAZY to think that if we were sharper we could have found him 30 seconds or a minute earlier and his recovery could have been better. The fact that he survived is utterly astounding. These things never end like that.... but I feel responsible for the fact that it took so long.

This was a formative moment in my diving. I considered stopping as well but eventually decided not not to. To this day I cannot -- and will not -- teach or participate in the Rescue course, even though I may be the one instructor in my circle who is most qualified to talk about the differences between theory and practice. It's just too intimidating.

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

Bob, thank you. Both for writing a post that does not "blame" me for not being better than I was and for suggesting that I should reconsider teaching Rescue.

On the second, I will not teach rescue, at least not now (or for the last 10 years or in the foreseeable future). I understand what you're saying about transferring knowledge and being in a privileged position... and I fully agree that people could benefit from my experience. The shop, however, wants to sell rescue courses, which is not the same as teaching people how to execute a rescue.

R..

I know ... it's why I chose for most of my career as a scuba instructor to teach independent of a dive shop. I understand why they prioritize the way they do, I just couldn't buy into that business model.

But we all know that class is an artificial environment, and the Rescue class is about more than just teaching people how to execute a rescue ... it's also about how to manage their own decisions in a way that helps them avoid being the subject of one. That's where the perspective of someone who's actually been involved in a rescue can lend some context to the curriculum ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[TMHeimer]

These are frightening stories in which you did excellent work. I have been fortunate in 12 years to have had only a handful of "uncomfortable" situations, and been able to follow my training to end them. Also was lucky my 4 years of assisting courses with nothing major occurring. Knock wood the same continues.
I've often said no one knows how they will react in a real crisis if they haven't had one. I certainly don't. That's the one good thing about not assisting anymore and diving mostly solo--I won't make a mistake that affects anyone else unless with a buddy the rare time.

 

[NorCalDM]

Adversity doesn’t build character it reveals it and you jumped in and helped when most will freeze up and do nothing. I’ve been involved in a couple rescues one in the mountains and one in the ocean and they didn’t go perfect but luckily they survived. When we teach a rescue class the message we try to get across is do something which is better than the alternative of doing nothing well you did something and they survived go easy on yourself!

 

[Diver0001]

This statement is crazy to me. Not that I don't believe you, of course I do. The part that seems crazy is that some dive instructor on AOW training dive left someone for dead in an out of air situation. So many questions come to mind ... was everybody low on air? Wouldn't there be other AOW students there who would already know how to share air? If nobody had enough air to share, why was the group still down? Are these dumb questions? I'm a newbie so I just don't know. What circumstances could have possibly led to this situation?

Thank goodness you were there!

What happened, according to witnesses, was the following. At this dive site there is a platform at 18m. A group of divers all went to the 18m platform for the PADI "deep dive". We saw them on the surface. There were a lot of them. My dive team even helped several of them get their gear sorted before the dive started.

Their group entered the water together and swam (I presume) to the 18m platform. At that point all the divers were "parked" at 18m with a couple of DM's while the instructor took students 2 by 2 into the depths beyond the platform to 24 or 25 meters in order to conform to the standards for the deep dive. This took several minutes per buddy-pair.

The diver who ran out of air was one of the last ones to still be on the platform. He had gained his OW in the tropics and was now doing his AOW in the Netherlands, in cold deep and dark conditions. His wife was his buddy.

According to eye-witnesses the diver in question indicated his air supply (50bar) on time. he also indicated "low on air" on time. The DM who was watching them indicated in both cases to "stay put" and "wait". The diver, lacking experience, did what he was told because he trusted the dive team.

At a certain point the diver ran out of air. He gave the "OOA" sign and reached for the DM's octopus. As a response to this the DM panicked. He pushed the OOA diver away and the DM "bolted" to the surface (confirmed by his computer), leaving the OOA for dead.

The OOA diver then turned to his buddy (his wife) and tried to share air. She also had a very limited number of dives and her octopus was dangling. They were unable to find her octopus on time. At a given point he removed his mask and held it above his head and tried to breathe in and out in the upturned mask. This failed (and is the last thing he can remember) and he drowned.

His buddy/wife went to the surface. This is when our team noticed something unusual. The DM was already on the surface and when she surfaced she started screaming at him. My AI, who is a pit-bull for problems saw this and said, "Rob.... ". Our attention was drawn to the issue and we started getting our gear on. The woman (wife/buddy) then raised the alarm. She called for help and at the same point in time the DM descended under water again. I sent my AI and my DM into the water immediately. The buddy/wife swam towards them and they swam towards her. They spoke briefly to each other and my DM turned to me and said "ROB, CALL 112" (Dutch variant of 911). (oh God, I'm crying again... it's like I was there)

That's when I called the EMS and got the whole thing organized. The DM who had descended again subsequently testified in court that he did so in order to search for the victim. His computer ratted him out, however, because it was clear from the profile that he descended a few meters after being berated by the wife/buddy and returned to the surface after less than a minute. He had no intention to help the victim and he had no intention to follow up on the directives given to him by the buddy.

In the criminal case the DM came out Scott Free. He claimed that he sincerely believed that his own life was in danger and he returned to the surface in order to safe his life (well coached by his lawyer). In Dutch law an individual is NEVER required to endanger their own life in order to save that of another, even in in professional setting. The DM got off by saying (even if it is not true -- and it is not true) that he was "scared".

In the civil case he was found guilty and libel.

 

[Fibonacci]

Diver0001
Thanks for sharing your experiences... would have been very difficult not to keep churning it over in your mind, and wondering how you could have done things better. I'm glad you chose to continue instructing, I'm sure your students benefited from a more skills-based learning approach vs pushing the numbers through a shop.

For me, there have been a couple of rather frightening dive incidents over the years, most I guess can be put down to diver inexperience and misplaced confidence (despite certain impressive certification cards) leading to poor decision making.

There was a 'near-miss' on a night dive at Truk Lagoon in 2012 that is a good example of this... had Coroner's Report written all over it.

A female diver in her mid-50's (who I will call Ms X) supposedly quite experienced with lots of brand new expensive goodies takes similarly aged but VERY inexperienced OW partner to Truk Lagoon. He last dived in the 1990's... what could possibly go wrong?

During the day dives he was obviously struggling with basic techniques, bouyancy control, extremity awareness and air consumption... very unsure UW.

To help address his high air consumption the local DM just strapped a large pony bottle to him (mounted crosswise) which led to a repeated series of 'clangs' ringing out inside the wrecks as he was unsure of his new width when negotiating narrow spaces. He was also quite overweight and unfit, frequently red faced and huffing. The inexperienced diver was needlessly stressed and well out of his comfort zone at Truk.

His partner was the opposite... Ms X "knew the owner" of the dive shop organising the tour, was training to be a DM and obviously thought herself quite a dive legend despite not knowing how half her brand new gear worked. I had to show her how to turn on a Hollis torch.

A night dive on one of the larger wrecks was planned, we were told again and again NOT to penetrate the wreck under any circumstances

6 divers and one local DM... all with primary torches and backup torches. As no wreck penetration was planned and the dives were to be quite shallow no additional air was deemed necessary.

All divers into the water OK, assembled and descended without incident.

Followed DM along the wreck, I was toward the rear... however Ms X decided she liked the look of the bridge and entered it. Alone.
She then turned off her torch to 'feel the solitude' we found out later.

DM turns for routine headcount check, only sees 5 lights and circles back immediately to locate missing diver.
My buddy and I are outside the bridge and wave our torches, pointing to where Ms X entered the wreck.
DM enters wreck and is understandably rather agitated with Ms X who by this time has turned her torch back on, but can't seem to fathom why everyone is pissed off with her. She should be thankful no-one had UW comms...

Confusion reigns, rest of divers then follow DM into wreck, filling the fairly small wheelhouse, viz plummets due to careless finning in confined space.

NOW... for some reason DM decides to continue into wreck single file down narrow companionways where my shoulders are bumping the walls and the reg's yoke occasionally hits some overhead objects. I'm last in line and viz is down to about 3m in cave-silt conditions. At night.

My stress levels are rising, but at least we are making progress through the wreck... but we come to a T junction.
DM pauses obviously thinking "now was it LEFT or RIGHT?"
Stress levels through the roof now, air use increasing so only 80 BAR left and we are still inside the wreck!
We turned LEFT.
Suddenly we burst through the lower deck below the bridge and out into open water past the twisted gantries... heart pounding HARD.

I have never been so relieved to be underwater on a wreck in the moonlight... a close call.

When tackled after the dive Ms X couldn't understand all the anger and commotion... maintaining it was her call to enter the wreck and she would have caught up with the others very soon

The local DM could not speak very good English and so the explanation as to why he chose to go deeper into the wreck instead of leading the whole group out of the wheelhouse and back to the planned EXTERNAL night dive was unclear. Perhaps because the new divers arriving blocked the original two divers from exiting easily.

Unfortunately I heard of several similar incidents at Truk Lagoon... tech divers diving beyond their capabilities or people ticking off a lifetime Dive Truk Bucket List long after they should have hung up their fins.

I still get cold sweats just thinking about it...

 

[KatieMac]

(oh God, I'm crying again... it's like I was there)

I'm crying reading this. You saved that man's life! And as far as the DM, he may not have be found criminally responsible but at least I hope he has never had another job as a DM!

 

[DanielRJones]

It's hard not to cry here.....

His parents and loved ones called us "heroes". We met them and they were SO grateful..... so grateful.

Their son/husband/bother/cousin (etc) was still alive and after the accident his intelligence, personality and character were still fully intact. He *only* had some physical issues -- a reflex in his leg that was never there before.

I didn't feel like a hero. I felt like a failure.

You are a hero.
You are a lay responder. As the laws in your country say you did not have to do anything that endangered your life. Endangering your life is going underwater. You can have froze and stood in shock and nobody could have questioned your actions as nobody really knows how they will react all you can do is teach the skills that if a person does react they can so in a safer manner.

You took the lead you rang the emergency services you are the reason a man gets to see his family at night what else do you need to be a hero.

There are rescue divers out there and even dm and instructors that are going to freeze and not act and in the same hand there are open water divers with 5 dives who would have been racing into the water to help who will put themself at risk because to them not doing anything is the worst thing in the world they can think of.

3 men are walking around today because you saved them because they were unable to or did not save themselfs
You sir are a hero

 

[jlcnuke]

Diver0001
Thanks for sharing your experiences... would have been very difficult not to keep churning it over in your mind, and wondering how you could have done things better. I'm glad you chose to continue instructing, I'm sure your students benefited from a more skills-based learning approach vs pushing the numbers through a shop.

For me, there have been a couple of rather frightening dive incidents over the years, most I guess can be put down to diver inexperience and misplaced confidence despite certain impressive certification cards.

There was a 'near-miss' on a night dive at Truk Lagoon in 2012 that is a good example of this... had Coroner's Report written all over it.

A female diver in her mid-50's (who I will call Ms X) supposedly quite experienced with lots of brand new expensive goodies takes similarly aged but VERY inexperienced OW partner to Truk Lagoon. He last dived in the 1990's... what could possibly go wrong?

During the day dives he was obviously struggling with basic techniques, bouyancy control, extremity awareness and air consumption... very unsure UW.

To help address his high air consumption the local DM just strapped a large pony bottle to him (mounted crosswise) which led to a repeated series of 'clangs' ringing out inside the wrecks as he was unsure of his new width when negotiating narrow spaces. He was also quite overweight and unfit, frequently red faced and huffing. The inexperienced diver was needlessly stressed and well out of his comfort zone at Truk.

His partner was the opposite... Ms X "knew the owner" of the dive shop organising the tour, was training to be a DM and obviously thought herself quite a dive legend despite not knowing how half her brand new gear worked. I had to show her how to turn on a Hollis torch.

A night dive on one of the larger wrecks was planned, we were told again and again NOT to penetrate the wreck under any circumstances

6 divers and one local DM... all with primary torches and backup torches. As no wreck penetration was planned and the dives were to be quite shallow no additional air was deemed necessary.

A guy who hadn't dove for more than 20 years, with basic diving skill issues, was penetrating wrecks and clanging on stuff inside them?? That alone scares the hell out of me...

I'd love to do wreck penetration someday, and consider myself moderately skilled for my (limited) experience level. That said, I wouldn't consider entering a wreck that I wasn't 100% sure I could safely navigate and get out of (i.e. wide open, huge opening, that I could quickly return to a clear overhead without any issue even if it became blackout conditions).

I went ~20 ft into the cave at Vortex Springs and looked at some eels there with my instructor during my AOW dives.. but that was only AFTER going 2 ft in to get below 60 ft, seeing that silt wasn't a problem, waiting for the instructor to move in, seeing that it was "wide open" (relatively), and recognizing that neither the overhead nor the bottom were a hazard likely to cause visual problems. Probably not the most conservative choice I've ever made, but still a very calculated risk made only after observing the conditions and their apparent lack of any current hazard (instructor did "fin up" the ground a couple times in to show it wasn't going to affect visibility back to the entrance where he was at). I can't imagine someone with significant problems with the basics considering entering any kind of tight overhead space.

 

[PatW]

Diver0001

Like others, I think you performed well above any reasonable expectations in your several emergencies. And you, like every other hero I have ever known, do not think of yourself as a hero. You just did what needed to be done.

I think you should reconsider Rescue courses. You do not have to teach the course. You could just go in. Tell them about the incidents. Tell them what you did. You could discuss what should have been done. Your contribution would add considerable depth and gravity to the course.

You know there are three people out there who were very lucky that you were there and that you did what you did. I bet that none of them feels like second guessing what you should have done. They are happy with what you did do.

 

[KatieMac]

The DM who was watching them indicated in both cases to "stay put" and "wait". The diver, lacking experience, did what he was told because he trusted the dive team.

This is exactly why I will not go dive with another DM until I feel confident to make these kinds of decisions on my own. As you can see by my number of dives, I am new to diving but I have people I trust around me. All my dives have been with the same DI who knows me, my skills and my history. I want to go dive other places but if I ever end up diving with a DM like the one in your story, I want to know enough to make decisions. I know it will be a while before I get there though.

So I have my own story - not anywhere near as scary as yours - and some on this board may laugh at my silly newbie experience. But it was my first real lesson in safety.

I was on my 4th dive for my OW. I was the only person in the group who wasn't at least AOW. That was my husband. Everybody else on the boat was rescue, DM or DI. My husband and I were the only ones on the boat with less than hundreds of dives - a very seasoned group who all had their eyes on us.

My husband/buddy was having problems with his regs during the dive - occasional wet breath. He wasn't phased by it. Towards the end of the dive, we were at about 20 feet just coming up for our safety stop when his regs started failing intermittently. He was only a few feet from me and I pointed to my octo. He reached for it and tried to pull it towards him but couldn't.

There is this thing some people/dive ops do where they bend the octo hose and put it in a D ring on a BC. I'm not fond of the practice but there was no keeper on my rental BC so that's the way I set up my gear. The group descended to the sandy patch, and as people started to swim away for our dive, my husband approached me and gave me a carabiner as a tank banger - at a point when nobody else in the group could possibly have noticed. I clipped it in the first spot I found. Turns out it was in the loop in the octo hose. This is why my husband couldn't grab it later when his regs were failing. He ended up doing a CESA and was fine.

But I have huge guilt about that. Should I have know better than to clip it where I did? Should my husband have know better than to give a newbie a carabiner? We talk about this a lot. Our last dive trip (my second) didn't give us the opportunity to buddy - he got sick and we had only one dive together. But this next trip, we will be working with our DI on things like buddy breathing (I'm better on air than he is ) and other things we should be able to do as buddies. I am also doing my AOW on our next trip.

I would appreciate any advice from you and the other seasoned divers on this board about things we should be working on together on our next trip.

What I have done since that dive (lessons learned)
- bought a dozen octo keepers to make sure I will have a supply just in case the one on my BC is missing
- realized that underwater is not the best place to add something to my gear
- bought my own BC so I will be super familiar with it
- bought my husband his own regs mostly because he will never trust rental regs again