Personal Incident

[deepblueme]

Sounds like you both had a learning experience.

1. You should learn to be able to dump your BC with either hand so that shouldnt be a problem.

2. Have her start planning and leading your dives so she becomes less dependent on your experience.

3. Get some kind of device to be able to bang on your tank to be able to get that DM's attion so you don't have to leave your buddy. (I have a stainless ring I wear)

4. Work on those OOA accents even if you are not, you BOTH should randomly swim to each other and signal you are out of air, so it becomes second nature.

Good to hear she wanted to go back, I know of several buddy teams that were split over something like this.

 

[Gombessa]

I think it would help to know what she was thinking at each stage of the incident. Did she not understand your signal to ascend by herself? Did she know she was squeezing your hand, and what did she think when you tried to get her to let go? Why did she grab your octo at 500psi, and did she check her SPG at that point?

I hear a few stories about new divers feeling like they can't breathe when they get excited or start to panic, and if she thought she was actually OOA, that's an entirely different issue to deal with (it could happen at depth) than if she just did so to preserve her air supply.

Overall, it sounds like things were more or less under control - a little anxiety, but not bolt-to-the-surface panicking, no outright irrational behavior. Just something to talk about learn from, which is always good.

 

[Hannavas]

Gripping your hand, holding onto to you, grabbing your octo may have been signs of nerves, anxiety, or even slight panic by your wife. If so, it’s understandable – her first ocean dive trip, her husband/buddy leaves her while she’s low on air, she has difficulty maintaining neutral buoyancy at safety stop, she’s running out of air (or thought so), she wants to be within reach of her buddy’s octo, etc. Of course, just speculations based on the content of your original post. If you haven’t done so, at the right time, consider talking to your wife about the incident. You wrote that you think she panicked; but ask her to hear how she actually felt at that time and why.

A few suggestions specific to your situation for your consideration:

1) As others have stated, avoid intentional buddy separation in similar situations

2) Alternate looking at your depth gauge and your buddy/wife during ascent and safety stop

3) Gently suggest to her that next time, if necessary, to hold onto your BC strap instead of your hand. She’d still be within reach of your octo in case she runs out of air, and you’ll still have both hands free – one to vent air and the other to hold your computer/depth gauge

4) But work/practice with her so she will be able to do her own ascent and safety stop without holding onto you (or an anchor line). Consider practicing blue-water ascent and safety stop with her the next few local dives until she feels comfortable doing so on her own. Of course, she should not get into the habit of having to rely on a buddy for this or other scuba basics.

 

[b1gcountry]

First off, thanks for the replies.

To Clarify:
1. The regulator and SPG work well, but the reg is not as easy breathing as some are. I dove the second dive of the day with the same reg, and I also breathed from her rig once we were on the surface, and it seemed to be breathing okay. The IP (pressure from the first stage) does not drop appreciably until you are below 350psi.

2. She is slightly asthmatic, and I am guessing the stress, along with the drop in PPO2 caused her to feel out of breath. She did not say she could not get air, only that she felt it was harder to breath. She is now the owner of a new Scuba Pro, so hopefully that should help this part out.

3. This was a drift dive, so the protocol was to surface with your buddy when the first person reaches 700psi. The LOA point I mentioned was her being at 700psi.

4. At the point she signalled she was at 700psi, we were 15-20 feet above the DM. I swam a total of 20-30 feet to get to the DM. She has a quacker on her BC, but we didn't use it.

5. Holding hands at the safety stop isn't terrible, but grabbing onto someone to maintain buoyancy isn't good. It makes it much harder for either person to keep their depth.

6. The regulator she went for was on a short hose. I donate from my mouth, so she should have grabbed the one I was using. We have practiced this before, but she grabbed what she saw first.

 

[b1gcountry]

I guess a couple of my main questions were whether I should have taken her with me to tell the DM, or just went up to the safety stop? The Instructer I'm doing my DM with always wants me to let him know if I'm bringing a student up.

How do you deal with a nervous buddy underwater? Esp when it's someone like girlfriend/wife? She is very independent, and doesn't let me help her with anything diving related, but she can become dependent in a heartbeat as I've noted. Are there any Husband/Wife dive teams listening? How did you develop your repore underwater? How long did it take? I was thinking about taking a course in ASL (sign Language) with her.

One of the problems I think is that she is trying to show me she can do it all herself, and doesn't listen when I tell her what we're going to do. Maybe diving with someone else until she doesn't feel this way would help.

 

[daniel f aleman]

At the first sign of distress, she stopped being a student - and no student should dive with a loved-one AS a DM or buddy. Sorry.

You may have to go to a different rig set-up that befits you and your wife's actual diving needs. I'd go with a 40" hose on your primary and/or secondary for added length, but you don't want it too long, as you should have been the one grabbing at her BC - YOU needed to be the one adjusting buoyancy for you BOTH.

Always practice air-sharing, SOP for all buddies - work on it, you'll each feel better about that next dive.

 

[TSandM]

Diver0001 taught me something a year and a half ago or so: The only true emergency is a lack of air. Everything else is an inconvenience.

Given that, a diver with a significantly limited air supply (especially a new diver, whose gas consumption rate is not known and can be assumed to be rather high) should never be sent up alone. (Not that I think that anybody should EVER be sent up alone, but somebody low on gas certainly shouldn't be by themselves).

It's not clear to me, as it apparently isn't to you, either, why your wife failed to communicate the message that she was out of air. But it also sounds as though she quite possibly WASN'T, but just low and scared. At any rate, something I learned in Fundies was that polite little hand signals just aren't in it when it comes to getting something as important as needing air across. You spit out your reg and you make HUGE VIGOROUS UNMISTAKABLE motions to your buddy, so there's no doubt in anybody's mind.

I think women tend to want to be polite, and wives often tend to be a bit deferential, and neither has any place in diving.

I second the suggestion to practice air-sharing as frequently as you can, until it's routine. But be aware that, if you do this at a tropical resort, you may bring a storm down upon your heads. BTDT.

 

[DandyDon]

Ok, not flaming you here, indeed - good on ya for handling it pretty well.

But like so many others, don't separate - especially from a newbie. Start your ascent, the DM will notice you. If you get his visual attention, wave bye-bye up&away, but take the newbie and start the gentle ascent.

And if there is a problem at the suggested safety stop, you can skip it too. If you can't maintain buoyancy, abort and get to the surface.

As far as the OOA signal, I encourage my buds - skip it. If you need air, grab either reg I'm not using with one hand and my BC with the other - I'll understand, but I have different feelings about my primary reg. I want my primary to stay in my mouth period - so I won't become the second person gasping, and will caution others to not try to fight me for it.

Perhaps she grabbed your octo because somebody has drilled it into her you NEVER come back on the boat with less than 500 psi.. (just a guess)

Yeah, I've wondered about that, too. Dive briefings all too often include that phrase, when it should be "back onboard with 500 psi, unless you unexpectedly need to use that reserve." I've used mine more than I care to admit.

 

[Bratface]

I have seen couples do the same where the female relies too much on the male. She just needs more confidence in her skills, monitoring her own air and depth. Also, I was a little disturbed by one statement you made where you say "I guess I never taught her that signal". Buddies should agree on the signals before the dive. She needs your reassurance and encouragement to be independant. Give her time, you have logged more than three times the dives she has. So glad that things turned out ok for you both.

 

[scubajoe]

And why your computer will indicate you're bent if you exit the water and then drop back to 10ft and come up.

I'll admit that I haven't seen every dive computer, probably not very many, but as of yet I have never seen one that will tell you that you are bent. Most I have seen will lock you out or advise you not to dive but not diagnose decompression sickness.

Joe