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.

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First
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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.

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Second
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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.

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Third
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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.

 

[Knockneed Man]

What sort of calculation is this diver doing underwater to recognize that these two divers going lower than him will be out of air in a few minutes?

Brutal. Makes me wanna puke. Good on that guy… saved two kids. One day they’ll understand how lucky they were.

 

[Mrs. B]

I consider my self soooo lucky to always been diving with great divers (better than me). I took rescue diver course just for that - so in the event of emergency, hopefully, my training will give me some muscle memory to handle it. Even though I never plan to be an instructor, I want to do my DM, just for the same reason. My biggest fear is something I can't forsee, as being pulled by down current, encounter really panicked diver I can't calm or such...

Many benefits to being a DM even if you don’t work as one

 

[Jai Bar]

A friend and I have juat finished CMAS** certification on 1990, decided to dive The Canyon at Dahab, Egypt.

The canyon is actually a crack in the reef that has widened up with time, and goes down to 56m, perhaps more.

At the top, the Canyon narrows to a crack with only a few places wide enough to allow divers to get in and out of the Canyon into the open see. One of these is at something like 36meters.

So, we go down the canyon but instead of sticking to the bottom which is wider, we dove close to its upper side, which is so narrow we can't turn. Then we see opening at 36m, go out of the canyon. Instead of going back to shore on the outer reef, we decide to go back in

But being scared of being at 36m, I try keeping as much as I can to the canyon's roof. So narrow that at 30m the first stage got wedged into the narrow crack. I try to wiggle and get free, to no avail.

Buddy was behind me could not see what was going on, neither help me. I was hyperventilating and the crappy reg barely supplying air. After what seemed to.me eternity- place too narrow to look at watch and depth gauge, I feel buddy pushing the back of my tank with brute force until I got free.

We go down to a wider area, and I now realize I'm on less than 50bars, still breathing like a crazy locomotive and at 30 something meters (aye, capillary depth gauges are not so accurate at depths). We go out of the canyon as fast as possible trying not being faster than our own bubbles. Stop at 3m until we suck last breaths from our tanks.

All this panic, I forgot even to look at the watch and see how much we have deviated from the table at 36m, don't even know how long was the "safety stop" nor the actual dive profile: diving with tables it was assumed to be square at 36m throughout the duration of dive, so we were far far beyond NDL limit.

Anyway, we decided to rest three hours and we didn't feel any itching skin, so we went on to the nearest dive site, the Blue Hole.

Guess I was stupidier then, than I am now with gray beard...

 

[Miyaru]

Most instructors will agree that losing a student under water can quickly turn into a nightmare scenario.

This incident happened a few months ago. Course: cavern. One student, OW and AOW certified. He showed me that he had dived BatCave in Mexico, and looking at his video, I could tell that it was definitely beyond cavern, in the cave section.
Throughout the theory I explained how easy it is to dive in a cave and even easier to die in a cave. Cave(rn) diving is about procedures, procedures and procedures. And why you never ever deviate from these procedures or take shortcuts.

Day 2, first dive. I picked a divesite that starts in a pond, with a tunnel to the open sea. Boats can go through the tunnel, so it is not really overhead although the feeling of being in a cavern is the same. You can always see at least one exit.
Weather conditions: very windy at sea, calm in the sheltered pond. Visibility: 10m.
Student task: follow me down, watch how I demonstrate laying a line, and keep the light pointing at my hands. After laying the line, we return to the surface.

He had problems following me down. After some instruction at the surface, he followed. During the line work, his light was everywhere, not steady pointed at my line. I was not impressed and signaled him that I aborted the dive, which he acknowledged with a light signal.

I ascended along the rocks. Asked for an okay which the student acknowledged with a light signal. 3m further up, I look at the student. He is gone. No light anywhere. Crap.

I ascend to the surface, expecting him to be there. No diver, only a guy swimming towards to the tunnel.
After a couple of minutes I descend again, going back to the point where we aborted the dive, doing a quick search on the way up.
The tunnel is empty. I watch the waves rolling in from the sea side, which makes it easy to scan the whole tunnel for a head sticking out of the wave-top. Nothing.

I descend again to the same point, this time doing a full search pattern from side to side, ascending 1m per sweep. Nothing.
Being alone now without any other divers nearby, I decide to get out and call the emergency services.

And that is when your mind starts racing. How am I going to face his family? How can I explain all of this? Time somehow slows down, because waiting for EMS took ages.
Finally the rescue services, police and ambulance were on site, and a helicopter was in the sky searching the sea on the other side of the tunnel. 6 navy divers were en route for support.

40 minutes after losing the student, the EMS operator calls and asks me to describe to student's dive gear. The helicopter spotted a diver near the shore. It was the student.
He was thrown on the rocky shore by the rough sea, where bystanders helped him get out.

He was alive. Banged up, battered, some lacerations from the rocks, but alive. He was even angry and vocally aggressive towards me. Which I prefer to a dead diver that won't ever say anything again.

He refused to go to the hospital. He actually refused medical treatment on-site. After a discussion, the medic was finally allowed to put him on oxygen and treat his wounds.

Later that afternoon we were back at the divecenter. Several other instructors listened how he told us that he was dragged out to open sea by a current. And how he struggled to swim against the current towards a point where he could get out.

That might have been his perception, how he experienced his dive. It's subjective.
After having learned from previous incidents, I always give my students a second computer, so I have an objective dive registration. Two screenshots from the dive profile:

The dive profile shows something completely different, compared to the student's experience.
The 2 dips in the beginning were his attempts to follow me down. The 5 minutes at the surface were instruction on how to follow me. The next 8 minutes he was following me.

• The moment I lost him, he made an uncontrolled ascent to the surface. Uncontrolled because the computer shows a 34.2m/min ascent rate.
• The rule everybody learns during the Open Water course when you lose your buddy: search for 1 minute, then ascend and wait at the surface. That rule doesn't change in other courses. Instead of waiting, the student almost immediately descended again, to a deeper depth than where he lost me.
• He makes a second uncontrolled ascent to the surface. Uncontrolled because the computer shows a 52.8m/min ascent rate.
• After 3 minutes he descends again, and ascends. Likely because his tank was empty (2 bar left when checking his gear).
• There were no currents. The inland sea is too small and shallow to cause currents that can transport you along the entire tunnel.

To be honest, I have never seen such ascent rates before. It's pretty hard to believe what the computer is saying. The waves at the surface in the tunnel might have played a role in rapid pressure changes. But regardless of that: the pressure sensor registered a very rapid pressure change (which is translated to ascent rate) and the body experiences that same rapid pressure change. Which is not exactly desirable nor healthy.

What I learned from this incident:

• check the amount and total time of logged dives. If a student has less then 50 hours of diving experience, I'm not accepting the student.
• Before starting a cavern course, emphasise that this course is not a walk in the park like many other specialties.
• Before starting a cavern course, emphasise that you're not learning how to dive. You're learning procedures. You already know how to dive, you have excellent buoyancy control. Otherwise you have no business being in an overhead environment.

 

[VikingDives]

Most instructors will agree that losing a student under water can quickly turn into a nightmare scenario.

This incident happened a few months ago. Course: cavern. One student, OW and AOW certified. He showed me that he had dived BatCave in Mexico, and looking at his video, I could tell that it was definitely beyond cavern, in the cave section.
Throughout the theory I explained how easy it is to dive in a cave and even easier to die in a cave. Cave(rn) diving is about procedures, procedures and procedures. And why you never ever deviate from these procedures or take shortcuts.

Day 2, first dive. I picked a divesite that starts in a pond, with a tunnel to the open sea. Boats can go through the tunnel, so it is not really overhead although the feeling of being in a cavern is the same. You can always see at least one exit.
Weather conditions: very windy at sea, calm in the sheltered pond. Visibility: 10m.
Student task: follow me down, watch how I demonstrate laying a line, and keep the light pointing at my hands. After laying the line, we return to the surface.

He had problems following me down. After some instruction at the surface, he followed. During the line work, his light was everywhere, not steady pointed at my line. I was not impressed and signaled him that I aborted the dive, which he acknowledged with a light signal.

I ascended along the rocks. Asked for an okay which the student acknowledged with a light signal. 3m further up, I look at the student. He is gone. No light anywhere. Crap.

I ascend to the surface, expecting him to be there. No diver, only a guy swimming towards to the tunnel.
After a couple of minutes I descend again, going back to the point where we aborted the dive, doing a quick search on the way up.
The tunnel is empty. I watch the waves rolling in from the sea side, which makes it easy to scan the whole tunnel for a head sticking out of the wave-top. Nothing.

I descend again to the same point, this time doing a full search pattern from side to side, ascending 1m per sweep. Nothing.
Being alone now without any other divers nearby, I decide to get out and call the emergency services.

And that is when your mind starts racing. How am I going to face his family? How can I explain all of this? Time somehow slows down, because waiting for EMS took ages.
Finally the rescue services, police and ambulance were on site, and a helicopter was in the sky searching the sea on the other side of the tunnel. 6 navy divers were en route for support.

40 minutes after losing the student, the EMS operator calls and asks me to describe to student's dive gear. The helicopter spotted a diver near the shore. It was the student.
He was thrown on the rocky shore by the rough sea, where bystanders helped him get out.

He was alive. Banged up, battered, some lacerations from the rocks, but alive. He was even angry and vocally aggressive towards me. Which I prefer to a dead diver that won't ever say anything again.

He refused to go to the hospital. He actually refused medical treatment on-site. After a discussion, the medic was finally allowed to put him on oxygen and treat his wounds.

Later that afternoon we were back at the divecenter. Several other instructors listened how he told us that he was dragged out to open sea by a current. And how he struggled to swim against the current towards a point where he could get out.

That might have been his perception, how he experienced his dive. It's subjective.
After having learned from previous incidents, I always give my students a second computer, so I have an objective dive registration. Two screenshots from the dive profile:

View attachment 808231
View attachment 808232

The dive profile shows something completely different, compared to the student's experience.
The 2 dips in the beginning were his attempts to follow me down. The 5 minutes at the surface were instruction on how to follow me. The next 8 minutes he was following me.

• The moment I lost him, he made an uncontrolled ascent to the surface. Uncontrolled because the computer shows a 34.2m/min ascent rate.
• The rule everybody learns during the Open Water course when you lose your buddy: search for 1 minute, then ascend and wait at the surface. That rule doesn't change in other courses. Instead of waiting, the student almost immediately descended again, to a deeper depth than where he lost me.
• He makes a second uncontrolled ascent to the surface. Uncontrolled because the computer shows a 52.8m/min ascent rate.
• After 3 minutes he descends again, and ascends. Likely because his tank was empty (2 bar left when checking his gear).
• There were no currents. The inland sea is too small and shallow to cause currents that can transport you along the entire tunnel.

To be honest, I have never seen such ascent rates before. It's pretty hard to believe what the computer is saying. The waves at the surface in the tunnel might have played a role in rapid pressure changes. But regardless of that: the pressure sensor registered a very rapid pressure change (which is translated to ascent rate) and the body experiences that same rapid pressure change. Which is not exactly desirable nor healthy.

What I learned from this incident:

• check the amount and total time of logged dives. If a student has less then 50 hours of diving experience, I'm not accepting the student.
• Before starting a cavern course, emphasise that this course is not a walk in the park like many other specialties.
• Before starting a cavern course, emphasise that you're not learning how to dive. You're learning procedures. You already know how to dive, you have excellent buoyancy control. Otherwise you have no business being in an overhead environment.

Ugh, that sucks. I could feel that in my gut.

Was the student using a single tank? How did he get to 2 bar so quickly?

 

[Oldmanmatt]

Most instructors will agree that losing a student under water can quickly turn into a nightmare scenario.

This incident happened a few months ago. Course: cavern. One student, OW and AOW certified. He showed me that he had dived BatCave in Mexico, and looking at his video, I could tell that it was definitely beyond cavern, in the cave section.
Throughout the theory I explained how easy it is to dive in a cave and even easier to die in a cave. Cave(rn) diving is about procedures, procedures and procedures. And why you never ever deviate from these procedures or take shortcuts.

Day 2, first dive. I picked a divesite that starts in a pond, with a tunnel to the open sea. Boats can go through the tunnel, so it is not really overhead although the feeling of being in a cavern is the same. You can always see at least one exit.
Weather conditions: very windy at sea, calm in the sheltered pond. Visibility: 10m.
Student task: follow me down, watch how I demonstrate laying a line, and keep the light pointing at my hands. After laying the line, we return to the surface.

He had problems following me down. After some instruction at the surface, he followed. During the line work, his light was everywhere, not steady pointed at my line. I was not impressed and signaled him that I aborted the dive, which he acknowledged with a light signal.

I ascended along the rocks. Asked for an okay which the student acknowledged with a light signal. 3m further up, I look at the student. He is gone. No light anywhere. Crap.

I ascend to the surface, expecting him to be there. No diver, only a guy swimming towards to the tunnel.
After a couple of minutes I descend again, going back to the point where we aborted the dive, doing a quick search on the way up.
The tunnel is empty. I watch the waves rolling in from the sea side, which makes it easy to scan the whole tunnel for a head sticking out of the wave-top. Nothing.

I descend again to the same point, this time doing a full search pattern from side to side, ascending 1m per sweep. Nothing.
Being alone now without any other divers nearby, I decide to get out and call the emergency services.

And that is when your mind starts racing. How am I going to face his family? How can I explain all of this? Time somehow slows down, because waiting for EMS took ages.
Finally the rescue services, police and ambulance were on site, and a helicopter was in the sky searching the sea on the other side of the tunnel. 6 navy divers were en route for support.

40 minutes after losing the student, the EMS operator calls and asks me to describe to student's dive gear. The helicopter spotted a diver near the shore. It was the student.
He was thrown on the rocky shore by the rough sea, where bystanders helped him get out.

He was alive. Banged up, battered, some lacerations from the rocks, but alive. He was even angry and vocally aggressive towards me. Which I prefer to a dead diver that won't ever say anything again.

He refused to go to the hospital. He actually refused medical treatment on-site. After a discussion, the medic was finally allowed to put him on oxygen and treat his wounds.

Later that afternoon we were back at the divecenter. Several other instructors listened how he told us that he was dragged out to open sea by a current. And how he struggled to swim against the current towards a point where he could get out.

That might have been his perception, how he experienced his dive. It's subjective.
After having learned from previous incidents, I always give my students a second computer, so I have an objective dive registration. Two screenshots from the dive profile:

View attachment 808231
View attachment 808232

The dive profile shows something completely different, compared to the student's experience.
The 2 dips in the beginning were his attempts to follow me down. The 5 minutes at the surface were instruction on how to follow me. The next 8 minutes he was following me.

• The moment I lost him, he made an uncontrolled ascent to the surface. Uncontrolled because the computer shows a 34.2m/min ascent rate.
• The rule everybody learns during the Open Water course when you lose your buddy: search for 1 minute, then ascend and wait at the surface. That rule doesn't change in other courses. Instead of waiting, the student almost immediately descended again, to a deeper depth than where he lost me.
• He makes a second uncontrolled ascent to the surface. Uncontrolled because the computer shows a 52.8m/min ascent rate.
• After 3 minutes he descends again, and ascends. Likely because his tank was empty (2 bar left when checking his gear).
• There were no currents. The inland sea is too small and shallow to cause currents that can transport you along the entire tunnel.

To be honest, I have never seen such ascent rates before. It's pretty hard to believe what the computer is saying. The waves at the surface in the tunnel might have played a role in rapid pressure changes. But regardless of that: the pressure sensor registered a very rapid pressure change (which is translated to ascent rate) and the body experiences that same rapid pressure change. Which is not exactly desirable nor healthy.

What I learned from this incident:

• check the amount and total time of logged dives. If a student has less then 50 hours of diving experience, I'm not accepting the student.
• Before starting a cavern course, emphasise that this course is not a walk in the park like many other specialties.
• Before starting a cavern course, emphasise that you're not learning how to dive. You're learning procedures. You already know how to dive, you have excellent buoyancy control. Otherwise you have no business being in an overhead environment.

Was that the Inland Sea, Gozo? If so, just snorkelling out through the arch gives you vertigo on a good vis day. At least, so my mother tells me (she’s part Maltese, which means I am too I suppose. I haven’t actually visited, even though I have a load of cousins, aunts and uncles in Valletta).
That’s one hell of a bad day for you, but I don’t see how you could have prevented it. The computer doesn’t lie and you aborted quickly; as soon as you realised he was a liability. I would look for 50 or more good dives, in varied conditions/places, post AOW; rather than hours, myself. Dark and scary is a character test.
I don’t know the course parameters, but is an OW night dive, in sheltered water, a good place to start? Evening of the first day?

 

[Miyaru]

Ugh, that sucks. I could feel that in my gut.

Was the student using a single tank? How did he get to 2 bar so quickly?

Yes, single tank. Panic and freeflows are excellent ways to quickly empty a tank.

Was that the Inland Sea, Gozo?

Yes, Inland Sea, Gozo. The sea flushed him eventually into the blue hole, over the rocks.

That’s one hell of a bad day for you, but I don’t see how you could have prevented it. The computer doesn’t lie and you aborted quickly; as soon as you realised he was a liability. I would look for 50 or more good dives, in varied conditions/places, post AOW; rather than hours, myself. Dark and scary is a character test.
I don’t know the course parameters, but is an OW night dive, in sheltered water, a good place to start? Evening of the first day?

I want to see 50 hours. Which means more dives if you did a lot of 20-minute dives.
"Dark and scary" is indeed a character test, and cave diving is a mindfcuk.

 

[lermontov]

40 minutes after losing the student, the EMS operator calls and asks me to describe to student's dive gear. The helicopter spotted a diver near the shore. It was the student.
He was thrown on the rocky shore by the rough sea, where bystanders helped him get out.

Later that afternoon we were back at the divecenter. Several other instructors listened how he told us that he was dragged out to open sea by a current. And how he struggled to swim against the current towards a point where he could get out.

so was he inland or seaward when he was spotted by the helicopter? My recollection is that the cliffs are pretty sheer on the seaward side so Im assuming he was found inland by bystanders or were the bystanders also on the seaward side?

which dive centre was it?

 

[Miyaru]

so was he inland or seaward when he was spotted by the helicopter? My recollection is that the cliffs are pretty sheer on the seaward side so Im assuming he was found inland by bystanders or were the bystanders also on the seaward side?

Seaward. Yes, the cliffs make an exit impossible, the nearest place to get in/out is the blue hole. Fortunately the wind and waves pushed him there.
No idea why he chose the north exit. Blue sea and sky in the north versus rocks and vegetation visible through the south exit.

 

[lermontov]

Seaward. Yes, the cliffs make an exit impossible, the nearest place to get in/out is the blue hole. Fortunately the wind and waves pushed him there.
No idea why he chose the north exit. Blue sea and sky in the north versus rocks and vegetation visible through the south exit.

My friend and I had a rather unpleasant experience in that area we went through the keyhole and turned left and headed south down the coast to a cavern took just under an hour I think.
There was four of us three customers and dive guide and on the way back the one of the clients went missing so when we got to the keyhole the guide told us to go through the keyhole back into the lagoon and he would wait, so we entered the keyhole but after a few minutes we realised it was a dead end so we turned around and said that’s not the right way.

So the guide told us to keep swimming North along the coast as he thought we hadnt gone far enough, he led the way . However looking at the time i was sure we had already passed it but thought surely he must know the turn off.

On reflection at this point we should have surfaced to see where we where-but wed been down to 40 m to have a look at some stuff and had a bit of deco so we didnt and after another 15 minute of swimming I stopped him and wrote in my notes that we hadnt heard any tourist boats overhead. He indicated to keep going!

After what was now 2 1/4 hours we lost our dive guide - he had swam on ahead out of view, ascended slightly and turned around and was swimming back.

I indicated to my friend we need to surface and to my horror we saw sheer cliffs stretching left to right as far as the eye could see and no sign of the guide.

Way way in the distance I spotted a fishing boat -we shot an smb and I whistled until he heard us and came over and asked him to give us a tow back to the slot

We eventually arrived back at the keyhole and saw our guide on the surface - we got through the keyhole and found the 4th person already on the shore dressed and waiting for us - run time a little over 2 and half hours -we were all on ccr- not impressed