Multiple Issues on a 4 Person Night Dive

[tony1263]

I want to share this diving experience with everyone as it shook each of the three of us up in different ways, as well as provided a multitude of lessons learned. Let me start by setting the stage.

My wife, myself and a good friend set out for a long weekend trip with at least two dives planned. The location is a salt water environment, cold water (53 degrees), about 45 feet of visibility and lots of kelp. For this dive we would be sporting 7 mm wetsuits, boots, gloves, hood and of course a BCD. Our BC’s are back filled travel BCs and while we had dove with the same water temps and other equipment, this was our first salt water venture with this equipment.

Recognizing none of us have refined our skills to the level we hope to eventually get to, we organized our dives through a dive shop at this location to ensure we had a Dive Master, one familiar with the surroundings.

Our first dive was great and we felt extremely comfortable with this Dive Master. We agreed to change our second dive with him from the next morning to our first ever night dive. While our friend had mentioned a few times she was nervous about doing a night dive, she agreed to try it out.

It is 9:00 at night and we met our Dive master. He advised we should use his masks as all three of us own masks with a tint (UV Glare Optics) and he advised they would be too dark under water. We tested his masks and while mine did not fit as well as my own, appeared it would work.

Our dive master handed each one of us a light, which worked as we turned them on for an initial test. He then added a light to each of our tanks. We made went over contingency plans where if one of us separated, wait for one minute to allow the group time to come back. After one minute, surface and we would regroup.

We started the dive and all was going as expected, good. About 10 minutes into the dive I had to clear my mask every few seconds. This rapidly got worse where I couldn’t keep water out. I stopped, felt around the outside thinking the seal rolled or was laying over my hood. Nothing seemed to work. I was basically moving along with a mask full of water. I attempted one more clearing so I could see the others to let them know of my mask issue. At that point my light went out and would not come back on. The group had moved on, likely assuming I was right behind. I waited a minute or so then surfaced. We were only about 20 feet deep so a controlled assent and I was on the surface. I inflated my BC and rolled over to my back, but also found myself now was completely tangled in the kelp. The kelp had a hold of my fins, legs and first stage. I remained calm as I was floating and figured I could eventually get free with, or without help.

Because my light was out, my primary concern was letting the others know I was okay. I remained extremely quiet to ensure I could hear the first person that surfaced. I feared without my light they would not know if I was still down there. I had a whistle but not a tank knocker or anything else to make underwater noise.

I heard some noise then my name being called out. I acknowledged back that I was fine but caught in the kelp and unable to move. For about two or three minutes I didn’t hear anything. No one came towards me nor did I hear anyone else talking. While I would have thought we would have all been fairly close together as 3 were together and not that much time had passed since I became separated; however, everyone sounded far apart. This is still a mystery.

The next thing I did hear is my wife yelling help in what I can only describe as the most horrifying thing I have ever hear come from her. I was still tangled, unable to break free. I yelled to her but she only replied she was caught, unable to stay afloat. I yelled for her to put her regulator back in mount and relax. She continued to yell for help.

I ended up dropping my weights and somehow got myself free. I was able to get over to my wife that was about 50 yards away. By this time, she had managed to get herself over to the large shore rocks. I helped her remove her weights and take off her fins. I could now hear our friend yelling for help. She was on the same shore rocks but about 200 feet away. My wife said she was okay and for me to go and help our friend.

I get to our friend and she is lying on her side, feet caught between some rocks and her tank wedged into another set of rocks. She is panicked. After letting her know she is okay and her fear the tide is rising and she will soon be under water is false, she calms down. She shares that she slipped on the rocks, fell and thinks she broke her hand. I help free her legs and get her out of her BC. I look over and see my wife working her way across the rocks to the parking area.

Now that all are okay, I start looking for our Dive Master. Where is he, why did he not assist anyone? I call out his name but no answer. Fearing he might be in trouble our friend informs me that her vest was not holding air and he had helped her remove her weight belt and said he would be back. I see his light under water and he is swimming to the shore exit.

We all get out and I find that he took our friends weights to an open spot on the bottom so he could reclaim them later. He had no idea of any of the problems any of us had. He apologizes for my mask and light. We call the dive.

Appears our friends integrated alternate air source screw down was loose on the BC and that is why her vest was not holding air. With the equipment she was wearing she was diving with 25 lbs of weight, likely more than she needed but no wonder she could stay afloat and needed to drop her weight.

We concluded that my wife removed her regulator from her mouth then her arms, legs, and first stage got tangled in the kelp. She felt she could not inflate her vest, get the regulator in her mouth and was sinking. She was panicked, she was struggling to float and swim to the shore.

The lesson learned is that while we had a contingency plan, there were several environmental and equipment issues that all happened as in a perfect storm scenario. My wife never thought about dropping her weight or making that short reach for her alternate air source to at least know she had air and could calmly think about her situation. Our dive master failed us in the way that while we know we are responsible for ourselves, we have no idea why he didn’t once at least make sure all were okay and in the process of regrouping.

Very strange and unfortunate dive.

 

[DandyDon]

Glad y'all came out of it ok. Good that you didn't panic but worked thru the problems one by one.

My first night dive was with a rental light but I've carried two of my own since and I know that the batteries are new, not just good. Buy LED lights when you're ready. I guess the DM was trying to help with the replacement masks, but I wonder if the Glare Optics would really be a problem. Diving with your own, known gear is best of course. I've had a BC connection come lose too and now check them well for every trip.

And I really like boat dives.

 

[vladimir]

A "perfect storm scenario," to me, is an unlikely confluence of events that combine to aggravate an already bad situation. The events that you describe were not unlikely, but were actually somewhat predictable, and familiar to divers as the "cascade" that turns small issues into catastrophes.

There was no adherence to the buddy system. Were buddies even assigned? A group of four should be broken in to two buddy teams, in my opinion. But if you considered yourselves a four-diver team, it seems nobody was adequately monitoring their team members.

If you need one light, you need a back-up light.

Was this your first or second kelp dive? At night? With new equipment? If so, that doesn't seem like a good strategy for introducing yourselves to kelp diving.

Edit: I am surprised Don didn't give you kudos for dropping your belt.

 

[TSandM]

I think the first lesson from this dive is that combining new conditions with an equipment change is asking for trouble. I question the wisdom of the DM insisting that you use a different mask -- far better that you have one that fits and is too dark, than that you try to do your first night dive with a leaking mask. In addition, if you do a dive where you need a light, you need two -- the time spent putting the ridiculous tank lights on you would have been far better spent on making sure each diver had at least two working lights. The first one fails, and you signal the group and abort the dive. If, as you experienced, you have only one light and it quits, you have no way to signal anyone to let them know you have a problem.

If you are used to using lights, you learn the situational awareness to watch the lights behind you, and become acutely aware of a light that disappears. But without that experience or training, no one will notice the light behind them is gone. The DM should have this awareness, but keeping track of three lights is very difficult.

If you are not used to kelp, it can be just downright scary. It isn't, really; you CAN move on the surface, although it's inefficient and slow, and you can move much faster about ten feet underwater. If you retain good gas reserves, you can always go back down to where you are free of the worst of it, and work your way to shore.

You had a group undertaking their first dive at night, in conditions to which no one was accustomed, without good team skills, and in an environment where, although a free ascent to the surface was okay from a decompression standpoint, surfacing in some areas was highly undesirable. This was an advanced dive and involved a number of conditions which were new to the divers in your group. I am very happy to hear that everyone came out of this dive okay, but I suspect you'll be more conservative about loading new variables in the future, and I have a feeling you won't do another night dive without two lights.

 

[spectrum]

tony1263,

First off I'm glad you all got out OK and I hope this won't be along term set-back to enjoying night dives. They are a lot of fun and here are some thoughts on the topic.

You've probably figured this out but I'll offer a few concerns.

A night dive wants to be very risk limited. It's not the time to try new gear (mask). It should be at a site you already know, preferably from a recent daytime dive. There shouldn't be any new elements such as kelp. Likewise if the conditions were poor, skies, seas, visibility, fog etc. it's best to bag the outing and go enjoy a nice meal.

While it can be easier to keep track of buddies at night due to beam projection I would not dive as a foursome. 2 buddy pairs working as dedicated buddies trying to dive as a group are OK but the pairs should be focused. Diving as a threesome is manageable and can be very effective if tuned. When you get to 4 there is no need to diffuse the buddy relationship.

I don't want to dismiss diving with a DM. it's an accepted practice for mentoring or just finding the cool stuff. In this case it seems like the DM was facilitating an ad hoc night dive / salt water orientation event and that's pushing the envelope.

Reliable lighting is paramount. You should have at least 2. They need not be ballistic canister lights but one should be enough to make the dive enjoyable and the back-up at least enough to let you safely end. As pairs that's 4 lights for 2 divers so you really are probably 3l lights deep if crap happens. The lights should be known to you, in good condition with fresh batteries or known usage.

Weighting and general issues should all be under control before diving at night. Sometimes, some-how no matter how much you check something can be loose or fail in the dive. If that happens being in pairs with limited risks goes a long way towards having a happy ending.

I like to say that a good dive is one where 1) nobody got hurt, 2) all of the gear came back, 3) you learned something. it sounds like once the weights got retrieved you all did OK.

Take what you learned and go have some more fun.

Pete

 

[dumpsterDiver]

I would be most worried about the wife. She couldn't remember to drop her weights or stick a regualtor in her mouth? If there is any question about these abilities, she should NOT be diving at night and probably shouldn't be deeper than 12 feet. She is an accident waiting to happen. You and her both have ample warning now that she can not be trusted and needs remediation. All the other issues are minor. Lights fail, masks leak and Bc connections come loose, all these things should not result in near death experiences.

As TSM said, you really need 2 lights per person for a night dive. I don't carry a cyalume unless a charter boat requires it. For a night dive in the open ocean, I will probably make my kid wear three lights and I will grab 3 if they are handy. The DM sounds like retard with making you switch masks and not having everyone carry two lights. Failure to ascend when everyone is gone is kinda bad form too.

What did you pay this DM? $12/ hour???? Do you really expect great service from someone who is probably paid 1/3 or 1/5 what you pay for somebody to fix your lawnmower?

 

[GrumpyOldGuy]

The others pretty much covered everything that went wrong. What I would attempt to contribute is that the "perfect storm" scenario happens a lot more often than anyone thinks it will. It not that fate willed all these problems to happen at once, but that its so easy to dive with multiple risk factors and most of the time it never matters, breeding complacence. We are blissfully ignorant with the risk and then one bad thing happens and it starts a cascade of failures due to the multiple preexisting risk factors involved. You and your group was very lucky, time for a total reevaluation of your diving, next time the cost of failure could be quite a bit more.

 

[tony1263]

Hello Don,
Thank you for the reply. I am going to say that your hunch is absolutely correct that our Glare Optics would not have been a problem. I say this based on a simple test and that was diving in our pool (9 ft) on a very dark night and using a pocket mag light. While I know this no way compares to OW, I figured the pocket light gave off way less light than an UW dive light would. I had no problem reading the date on coins or finding a couple stones I threw into the pool. Either way, I now pack both my favorite Glare Optic mask and a clear one (good to have a back up anyway)!

 

[tony1263]

Vladimir, you are absolutely right, this perfect storm can be linked back to a poor use of the buddy system, especially due to the fact this was our second ever kelp dive but first ever night dive. We had a plan if a light went out but it required us to be aware of our buddies. While my buddy (buddies) lost track of me, I failed by stopping to try and fix my mask with out ensuring they were in the know. After all, effective communication is two way....

 

[tony1263]

As I would like to personally reply to each comment, as I started to, I am clearly see the theme everyone is sharing. In this reply, I would like to thank everyone for their advice/suggestions, and sharing of experiences. I also want to share I am a new member to this site and the above was my first post. I am extremely impressed with the number and quality of the replies. I look forward to my next post which I am confident will be sharing great experiences from some Caribbean dives.

On a side note, my wife and I will be signing up for Rescue Diver certification as well as looking at a Live aboard as we feel both will allow us to gain some great experience as well as learn from others (not being pests, but learning from general conversation and observation!).