near messes....?

[herman]

When diving in an area with other divers that you do not know, be on the lookout...one of them will likely do something stupid..

A few years ago in Freeport Bahama, I was diving on a cattle boat and as I was on the boat by myself I just tagged along with the group lead by the DM. It quickly became appearant that the DM and myself were the only experienced divers in the group (guess the blue PADI temp C cards should have been a clue). The dive went OK but when we returned to the boat, the DM headed to the boat with the rest following. I lagged at the botton as I knew it would take a while for them to get on the boat and I hate to bob on the surface needlessly. As I watched the group at the surface, I began to look for the ascent line (and 10 lb lead ball that was on the end of it). After a few minutes of looking I saw it in the hands of one of the other divers at the surface, 40 ft or more above me. I quickly backed away from the area and did a free ascent under the end buoy. I never did see the diver release the weigh but I would bet he just turned it loose. Needless to say, if it had hit someone on the way back down, it would have done some damage.

Here is a useful hint, practice a free ascent every chance you get, even if there is an anchor line or ascent line available, you never know when you will have to do one.

 

[jmsdiver]

Originally posted by rebelrph


Example of near messes in my short diving "career"

1) While in Coz a couple of years ago another diver lagged behind on a drift dive at the Columbia Deep site. I happened to notice him descending far below the rest - obviously narced and unnoticed by DM - he was at 145 when I caught him to bring him up. No problems though.

Wow! That sounds just like an experience I had on that reef a couple of years ago! And, I don't think that you were there. A new diver and I were paired (new diver that I knew from my area). We descended and the current was rip roaring one, taking us for a ride. I hit 85 feet over the wall and my buddy kept descending. He had never been deeper than about 60 feet before and he was over the wall still going down. I opted to separate from the group and figure out what was going on. Caught up with him at 100 feet and looked at his depth gauge and showed it to him: it read 60 feet!!!! I showed him mine and his expression was precious. Needless to say the DM was not happy with us separating from the group, but I explained the situation to him afterwards. A member of our dive group replaced the gauge between dives.

Not really a near mess, but it is always good to make sure that if you have to turn on you computer at the surface before diving, do so; finding out at 70 feet is probably not the best thing. Thank goodness for automatic turn on computers for a back up!

And, three, which is a near mess: practice your basic skills that you learned in your OW class over and over and over until they are reflex. Some of you know that I have had a drysuit issue in the past: it would not dump. The company cut the dump valve hole wrong and have since replaced the suit. However, this summer I found out how bad that dump valve placement was while I was ascending from 100 feet off a L Superior wreck. As the suit would not dump very well (it would dump if orientated juuuust right), my hood kept getting bigger, flooding the mask; at one point during the ascent I inhaled water through my nose and coughed uncontrollably, spitting my regulator out of my mouth. The basic skills are what saved me: aside from flairing out, clearing the mask on demand, and putting that damn reg back in my mouth and clearing all without thinking about it. I was a lucky diver and am still hear to tell the story; I came out of it unscathed, physically, but the mental side is still wondering.

I have been diving dry for the past 6 years, but this was a new suit that didn't work right; I am happy that the company replaced it as the new suit works properly.

Cheers all

 

[DennisW]

Deep Sea,

Never enter any deep dark holes unless you have proper training, equipment, and a trained buddy. I never enter into deep dark holes in any case. I like diving too much to quit that way.

 

[Ber Rabbit]

Practice your emergency procedures on the surface, don't just fake through it, pretend you're in an actual situation. Two students on a checkout dive practiced their out of air situation but during practice the female couldn't get her octopus out of the pocket she put it in. They never practiced it the right way. Well, when we did the octopus breathing exercise underwater guess what? She couldn't get the octopus out of her pocket, same thing they had practiced! I was observing them while the instructor was grading me. I knew both buddies were comfortable in the water and could blow tiny bubbles for quite some time so I let them try to figure out the problem while keeping my octopus VERY close to the buddy without a regulator. After a LONG time the male realized he was in trouble and his eyes got HUGE (my cue to provide air)! He didn't take the reg I offered, he was scrambling for his own even though mine was nearly in his mouth. He grabbed his snorkel in error and put that in his mouth and started to breathe. By now I was smacking him in the face with my octopus to get him to take it. He realized what was in his mouth (we teach them to breathe gently on the first breath) when he got water instead of air. That was when he realized what had been hitting him in the face. He grabbed my octopus and sucked 200 psi off of my tank before we reached the surface from our depth of 15 feet! The instructor let me continue to manage the students under her supervision. I asked them what had happened and they told me when they practiced the skill the female couldn't get her octopus out of her pocket. That's when I pointed out that what had happened was exactly what they had practiced. The male then looks at me and says "You just saved my life didn't you?" I said, "Technically yes, at the rate you were going you probably would have drown without a third person in the buddy pair." That's when he asked if they could have used single regulator exchange. I told him that while we don't recommend it as your first option because there are safer alternatives we show you how to do it in case an emergency makes it the ONLY option. He said he thought about doing it when his buddy couldn't get the octopus out of her pocket but wasn't sure if he was allowed. I told him the only thing you are not allowed to do while I'm supervising you is DIE. Anyway, the buddy pair decided to practice their octopus breathing during their surface interval. They actually practiced over and over for an hour by their own choice. They got it right on the second dive!

Well, that's my long winded story!

Ber

 

[Stone]

My son and his new bride were honeymooning in Grand Cayman and diving at Stingray City (15 fsw). Both were newly certified. My son’s tank slipped loose from his BC, so he wrote “tank off” on his slate and showed it to his wife. . . She promptly turned his "tank off". Good thing they weren’t on a wall at 100 fsw.

 

[Ber Rabbit]

Would have loved to have seen the expression on his face!

Ber

 

[jmsdiver]

Hmmmm.....where is this relationship destined? I mean, solid relationships are built on good communications

I too would have loved to seen his expression as that is a pretty intense dive without the air problems