My first dive incident (long)

[pasley]

First thank you for posting. It takes courage and others may learn from it.

Now to your question. Did you act correctly, absolutely! No doubt about it. Clearly the two divers in question were panicking, or near to it and getting them positive in the water was the first priority.

Was diving a group a problem? Not realy.

What was the root problem? IMHO 4 things
1. You had to add air to their BC. Why was there not air in their BC already? There should have been for the swim out. When I first get into the water there is a period of “adjustment” when air, trapped by the suit slowly is displaced by a thin film of water. They slowly went from positive to negative as they swam the 60 yards, hence the “near drowning” feeling.
2. Lack of physical conditioning on the part of the divers. It appears that fatigue played a role here. The exercise of putting on the wet suit and the short 60 yard swim tired them out. Note to self, exercise, run, ride a bike etc. Diving requires physical conditioning.
3. When switching to snorkel she did not clear it before inhaling, or else the end was caught on her gear and under water. I ocean dive every week or more often. I always swim out on my back, it is more efficient and you could not see anything anyway. The snorkel is a tube of say ¾ to 1 inch diameter. That does restrict your breathing a bit. Add to that the possibility of breathing rapid and shallow with the anticipation of the dive in limited visibility and you have the “I can’t breath” syndrome.
4. It does sound like the two divers were wearing a lot of weight. I can’t say for certain. But I salt water dive with 20 pounds of lead, 7 mm suit and hooded vest. I weigh 148 lbs. So in fresh water I would wear less weight. You will have to look at the weight issue yourself as I lack enough data to comment. Many dive instructors over weight the students to help them get down and stay down during instruction. New divers tend to take a big breath before trying to go down (which adds buoyancy) and then unconsciously move their feet in a bicycle motion (fin or swim up) when trying to go down.
5. This dive had potentially 4 inexperienced divers. Only one diver had any dives outside of the classroom environment. I would recommend diving for a short time with other dive buddies who have a lot more experience. At least until each of you had say 12 or more dives under your belt.

Now go find an experienced dive buddy, and get back in the water diving, all of you.

 

[alaity47]

My only comment is that it sucks you got charged for the weights! One of the shops that I dive with frequently has a policy that they'll replace your weight belt for you if you have to ditch it in an emergency, because too many people are willing to essentially risk their lives because they're worried about losing a few $$$. I can understand how not all shops can afford to go THAT far, but still.. charging people that much will make them think twice before dumping their weights next time, and that's unfortunate.

You absolutely did the right thing. Hope your friends didn't get scared off diving - I was a very nervous diver as a newbie, so I really sympathize, and I'm not going to bash anyone for just being new. Keep at it; it'll get easier for all of you with practice!

 

[AADiveRex]

Don't beat youreself up over this, it sounds to me like you did exactly what was necessary.

I crew on a popular North East dive boat, and I have done my fair share of rescues. Any time I have to swim out to someone who is in more than casual need of assistance, the first thing I do is ditch their weights. That's what they are there for. Better safe than sorry, and I never second guess the decision.

I once had a diver surface like a polaris missile, shoot completely clear of the water, splash down, then lay moaning on the surface of the water, unresponsive to commands and unwilling to answer. I ditched his weight, dragged him to and onto the boat, which was no small feat even without the heavy weight belt, given his size. Amazingly, he suffered no ill effects. In fact, he was feeling so good later that he saw fit to yell at me for ditching his weight and demanding I reimburse him for the cost of the replacements. I could only shake my head in wonder and hold my tongue.

It has been my experience that some people, after experiencing a situation as you described, where they were anxious or paniced and had to be rescued, go into a denial mode. They downplay the situation, and even continue on as if nothing happened. It is a coping mechanism, a bad one to be sure, but a way of putting off coming to terms with what happened. Some feel embarassed, and need to make out as if everything was okay. Don't take it personally, it has nothing to do with your actions or your decision. It is normal. In time, they will get past this. I wouldn't even be surprised if in a few days, they remember to thank you for saving their lives.

As for how you felt during the situation, that was adrenaline. It happens even when you are used to these types of situations. Ask any cop or firefighter, they will confirm. You never get "used" to doing a rescue. That you were able to get the job done with so little experience and without panicing yourself is a credit to your resolve and your levelheadedness.

Do some diving. Find an experienced diver to take you to a few local sites. After some experience, you will appreciate the rescue course more.

Dive Safe
Adam

 

[Uncle Pug]

You did great Robert. Kudos.

 

[Wijbrandus]

Thanks for all the support. I certainly do feel better after having read all these replies. Posting this incident has been quite therapeutic.

I have not talked to my friends since the incident. They are co workers, and I'm positive my buddy will be coming to talk to me Monday morning. His wife works in another building, so I don't see her nearly as much.

We did do weight checks. I feel fairly confident in my weighting. I'm a big guy, and not in the best of shape, but I'm making improvements in this as each day goes by. I used 24 pounds of lead, and a 7 pound backplate. Between the two of them, they were carrying 52 pounds of lead. I don't know how it was split up.

My friends inflated their bcds on their own, but because they had cheap rental gear, they experienced a bad squeeze. I didn't even think about it at the time, I've used a backplate since completing OW (thanks to SB!). That would also help explain the panic and the inability to breath.

I did not think about the wetsuits trapping air that would leak out. I appreciate this tip. That would easily explain part of their problems. I was in about 5' of water waiting on them and I make a habit of flooding my suit to get acclimated faster. Perhaps that's why I'm fairly confident in my weighting level, though I can probably shave a few more pounds off over time.

We had intended to practice our basic skills - signs, air share, and bouyancy - on the first dive, and then to have "fun" on the second. We wanted to become more confident in our abilities. Everyone says to get out and dive more before going too far, to get more experience. This is what we thought we were doing. I just wish we'd gathered a different experience than what we did get.

 

[Cards90]

KUDOS

Great job, I wish the best on your friendships and future dives

 

[mikswi]

Regardless, I do thank you for posting. It could NOT have been easy, in light of the fact that they both work with/near you.


Be well...............

 

[Web Monkey]

Here's the story. I actually have reservations about posting this, for a few reasons.

You did great. You saved 2 panicing divers and it cost them a total of $50 each.

That's less than the cost of a couple of boat dives, and it's sure as hell cheaper than a ride in an ambulance or helicopter.

I'll bet when they were panicing, they would have offered you anything they had in in this world in order to save them. Now that they're safe, they're grumbling about the cost.

Don't sweat it. You made the right choice.

If they're angry at losing $50, they should have picked a cheaper hobby. There are only a few things you can buy at a dive shop for less than $50, and a rescue certainly isn't one of them.

Terry

 

[Wijbrandus]

They aren't mad about losing the belts, at least I don't think so. They weren't really mad about it Friday anyway. I think we were all taken aback by the cost of replacement since the lead was rental. At the time, we thought the LDS was overcharging us for the lead. After checking around, the price is retail. Can't really find fault with that I guess. I knew it would have to be paid for the moment they dropped them. I just didn't expect it to be so much.

I think it will be an interesting conversation come Monday morning though.

 

[Seabear70]

We had intended to practice our basic skills - signs, air share, and bouyancy - on the first dive, and then to have "fun" on the second. We wanted to become more confident in our abilities. Everyone says to get out and dive more before going too far, to get more experience. This is what we thought we were doing. I just wish we'd gathered a different experience than what we did get.

Some people will no doubt disagree with what I am about to say, but....

You got the best experience of all, you just can't simulate a real crisis in a drill, and so you got some real solid experience with stress management, crisis control, emergency procedures, equipment problems... the list goes on and on. If I were you I wouldn't trade that experience for anything.

And best of all, everybody lived.

Except for the blown afternoon and the weightbelts, everybody came out a winner in this one.



Ok, not getting to dive would suck, too.