scuba nube
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This past weekend I was assisting an advanced class, one of the last requirement to complete my DM internship. This was an altitude dive at an event with many divers participating, along with classes, so the visibility was lousy. We were doing the deep dive with a class of 5 students all in drysuits, many also completing their drysuit cert for the first time. There were two instructors with powerful lights and me as the DM who was buddied with the odd man. Descending the line there was a group doing a safety stop which was disorienting for the students. When we gathered at the bottom vis was maybe 10 feet. We proceeded along the top of a dam and at some point the group got separated. So myself, my buddy and one other guy followed one of the instructors over the edge of the dam and down. This was part of the dive plan. However, what wasn't part of the plan or known to me was the visibility was going to go from 5ft to 0. It went pitch black. I grabbed my buddy and I could feel him but couldn't see him at all. He also started pulling me down. Went from 72 feet to 86 feet in less than a minute with me inflating my BCD like crazy to stop us falling. After what seemed like an eternity but was only two minutes, according to my profile, the light from the instructor, who was on the other side of my buddy showed us a rock wall which we grabbed. I could feel myself starting to ascend quickly so I deflated my BCD and then we proceeded back up the wall to the top of the dam. The idea of going down was to do the skills but instructor decided to do them on top of the dam. At that point my buddy has 700 PSI. Did the skills and found our way to the ascent line and went up. There was stage bottle hanging in front of us at the 15 ft mark. At this point my buddy either indicated, or I checked but either way determined he had 50 PSI left. This is where I made a bad mistake. Instead of offering my alternate I indicated he should use the stage bottle. I had 500 PSI left and we still had 2 mins left on our safety stop. I didn't realize stage bottle are left off. Purged it and some air came out so buddy grabbed it , took two breaths, indicated he wasn't getting any air and at that point I offered him my alternate. Other instructor had been observing and offered him their long hose. Reasoning being he wanted him to be further away in case of a panicked diver situation.
So we finished stop and all went up together. At this point I am shaking but ok and after surface interval we do last two shallow dives to complete their skills.
So why am I reconsidering?
Who the hell looks out for the DM? Why are they doing advanced courses for people in such lousy conditions? why can you go straight from open water cert to advanced as these students did? Why did the instructor decide to go into the pitch black? Was my life in danger? For what? This was NO FUN! Should I mention that last summer and the summer before a student died doing an advanced class? Not with this shop but still was in the back of my mind, especially as I feel myself getting dragged down in the pitch black. Thoughts?
So we finished stop and all went up together. At this point I am shaking but ok and after surface interval we do last two shallow dives to complete their skills.
So why am I reconsidering?
Who the hell looks out for the DM? Why are they doing advanced courses for people in such lousy conditions? why can you go straight from open water cert to advanced as these students did? Why did the instructor decide to go into the pitch black? Was my life in danger? For what? This was NO FUN! Should I mention that last summer and the summer before a student died doing an advanced class? Not with this shop but still was in the back of my mind, especially as I feel myself getting dragged down in the pitch black. Thoughts?