OOA Buddy starts to drag you up by your octo - What would you do?

[ReefHound]

Regardless of all this, I'm still not sure why you would do the dive in the first place. I personally will not do 100' dives with people I'm A) not willing to ride to the surface with, and B) not confident in their abilities to not only save them self but me if things get out of hand.

~ Jason

As someone mentioned the person OOA may not be your buddy. If you dive a popular site like the Oriskany or Spiegel there will likely be several boats tied off with perhaps dozens of other divers in the water, any one of whom may be the panicked diver that comes up behind you and yanks your primary away.

 

[Diver Dennis]

Good point Reefhound. In the 2 OOA incidents I was involved with in the last year, neither we my buddy.

 

[mikerault]

Sometimes OOA isn't...like your primary gets jerked out at 70 feet in such a way as you can't quickly locate it...of course just as you exhaled...so you grab your backup and find it breathing shallow and wet so you can't get a complete breath (ever seen an asthmatic in full arrest? It is like that.) then you look around and realize your two buddies didn't see a thing and are just disappearing at the limit of visibility...

 

[in_cavediver]

To say that you would yank your reg back if the diver didn't stop panicking is crazy. Either you are a buddy who will risk your life for someone or you are not a worthwhile buddy. (Are you only gonna help if they don't really need it?)

First, to setup the situation the OP posted. Already sharing air. Buddy bolts for the surface from 100'. When I say bolts, I mean bolts kicking hard and doing whatever to get there. IE, panic. A miscommunication would be solved when he got to end of my reg hose and noticed it didn't go up with him. That would result in controlled ascent etc.

I agree with you, having seen two divers panic underwater, the timeframe is very small to act. Also, once a diver hits panic - they are out of control. They are on instinct - period and instincts are bad things underwater with scuba.

Now reactions. I would guess many divers would ride the escalator simply because they didn't react fast enough to prevent it. Most of the actions mentioned - grabbing the inflator, going for the tank etc merely put you in a different position for the ride. and the surface. Only radically getting negative will stop this from the get-go, assuming you can hold them at the same time as getting negative. (steel doubles help here). At this point, depending on your skills, you may be able to control an ascent (best case) or more likely, loose them to a solo ride to the surface.

Me and my reaction of sending them up solo is based on a simple premise. I have already done my best for you under the situation. You ALREADY HAVE MY REG AND AIR and you still panicked and bolted? At this point, I need to look out for me so I can be of assistance later (or at least not another victim). Call it selfish call it whatever. I subscribe to the notion that you do what you can when you can but this case, they are already beyond help until they get to the surface. (panic causes that).

At 30' I'd go to the surface and skip a stop. I wouldn't necessarly ride them up but I would be very close behind. From 100' I want a short stop along the way ( 1 minute or so). Rapid ascent from a deep depth coupled to exertion helping the paniced diver is not a good combination for avoiding the bends. I would only risk that for a loved one (child, wife brother, basically someone I would die for)

As I said, call me evil, callous whatever. I just realize there are times in diving that you can't 'save' your buddy.

 

[Thalassamania]

These scenarios remind me of some of the stupidity I was presented with back in days of the two week instructor courses. I was told to conduct an open water session on entries. I asked, “What dive is this?” I was told, “Fourth open water dive.” So I took my group, which included an evaluator from headquarters, out on the dock and ran through giant strides and short steps and forward rolls and then I get them lined up facing backwards to do seat drops. Well … the headquarters evaluator goes off the dock, splash into the water and disappears beneath the surface. I secure the class and go get her. I bring her to the surface and she says, “You fail, you lost control of your class.” So I said, “The rules are that you can’t do anything that you’ve not actually had happen during a class. Are you telling me that on their fourth open water dive you actually had a student pull a bonehead stunt like that?” She solemnly assured me, that she had. So I told her sternly, “Then you clearly lack the judgment to be teaching diving, I for one would never trust anyone who is that poor a judge of students to teach my loved ones to dive.” And I turned on my heel (if booties have a heel) and walked off.

When I check the board that evening I had passed the exercise, and you know what? She had an emergency and had to leave, she was no longer staffing the course. Will coincidences never cease?

But I see the same kind of thinking going on here. The problems that are being presented are problems that you solve in a hundred different ways a hundred different times … LONG BEFORE THEY OCCUR. Getting yourself into such a spot is almost proof positive that you really are a stroke of the first order. Maybe I'm way off base and sticking to my Ivory Tower too much. Do these sorts of things really happen?

 

[Web Monkey]

If I run out of gas, it will almost certainly be because I had an equipment failure. I have been taught gas planning to the degree that "losing track" of my gas is simply inexcusable on my part.

That's all great, but my point was that the OOA diver is just as likely to be someone you never met before, coming out of left field and grabbing whichever reg you have that looks like it's making bubbles.

Terry

 

[darkpup]

As someone mentioned the person OOA may not be your buddy. If you dive a popular site like the Oriskany or Spiegel there will likely be several boats tied off with perhaps dozens of other divers in the water, any one of whom may be the panicked diver that comes up behind you and yanks your primary away.

I don't see how that would change things for me. It just means I'd have my buddy to help with the diver in distress, which should make slowing them down a bit easier.

~ Jason

 

[caseybird]

So this 7 foot hose, it's wrapped around your neck, Correct? So this panicing diver is dragging you to the surface wih the primary hose wrapped around YOUR neck,getting tighter? And you"re going to get control of the diver, vent his BC, maintain eye contact, AND get your secondary into your mouth? And you think poor old Nemrod is the troll?

 

[in_cavediver]

I don't see how that would change things for me. It just means I'd have my buddy to help with the diver in distress, which should make slowing them down a bit easier.

~ Jason

I disagree. Unless you can stop them before panic - then you still have the same problem. Diver totally out of control of themselves, working on instinct, trying to get to the surface and dragging whoever they have to on the way. If your buddy doesn't immediately notice this, he may not be able to get there in time to lend assistance.

He at least could ascend slowly and help those who needed it on the surface though. (which would eliminate the potential exertion for you after the rapid ascent and reduce your risk for DCS)

 

[darkpup]

So this 7 foot hose, it's wrapped around your neck, Correct? So this panicing diver is dragging you to the surface wih the primary hose wrapped around YOUR neck,getting tighter? And you"re going to get control of the diver, vent his BC, maintain eye contact, AND get your secondary into your mouth? And you think poor old Nemrod is the troll?

Yeah, good try. It doesn't work that way, but thanks for playing.

And yes, Nemrod is a troll.

~ Jason