Rescued the Out of Air Newby today

[SC_Hoaty]

Great job on helping the newbie live to dive another day, and make more creative mistakes. It seems Bratface is filling in where the training may have fallen a bit short (watching gages, hand signals, ...)

One minor nit to pick:

Remember the first rule of scuba: Never do anything stupid. Live to dive another day.

I thought the first rule was "never hold your breath." Do we now have multiple first rules?

Again - good job!

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

From 38 ft he should have done a CESA, but he was not thinking well obviously.

I'm gonna disagree with that one, Don.

Why do a CESA, which implicitly means you're coming up faster than recommended and skipping your safety stop, when you can share air with someone and do those things?

A controlled ascent sharing air is the preferred way to deal with an OOA/LOA diver. CESA is for when you don't have that option available ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[beaverdivers]

Excellent Job Bratface!

 

[merxlin]

Bratface- thanks for the clarification on the air situation. I agree that if the gauge was at 200-300 psi, not 500 (and where it can in reality be 100 or 500), why risk a full OOA situation. And it is much easier handing someone a working air source than having them take one from you.

I will say that although there have been some sarcastic responses, the pint is well taken and I do have to agree that if this was your second round with this diver, someone should have a heart to heart with them and hopefully get them to understand how lucky they have been so far.

 

[ScubaSteve1962]

Great job on helping the newbie live to dive another day, and make more creative mistakes. It seems Bratface is filling in where the training may have fallen a bit short (watching gages, hand signals, ...)

Did the training fall a bit short, or did the trainee just not take these things serious enough?

I like the way bratface cleared things up because it seams some didn't fully understand the orginal post. Some do get caught up in the "I" syndrome IE: if I was there, you weren't she was and did what she thought was appropriate for the situation, when things happen you don't have time to go through every possible scenario before reacting.

I was in a low air situation, and let the DM know I was at 500 psi at about 40ft and was going to do my safety stop, she gave the share air, I gave the I'm okay signal, again she gave the share air signal and I complied. I could have did my safety stop and made it to the boat as I had done many times before. But underwater is not the place to debate, lets get to the boat and then we can discuss the situation.

I'm relatively new to diving, and I take a camera with me sometimes, but I keep a very close eye on my computer because I know I'm still learning to control my air. When I get to less than 1000 psi, time to put the camera away.

 

[SC_Hoaty]

Did the training fall a bit short, or did the trainee just not take these things serious enough?

Fair question - who can say? Does one not take things seriously if the fact they ARE serious is not conveyed? (Or not conveyed well enough, often enough, ...)

Like you, I have a limited amount of dives in my logbook. I'm not as good in the water as I would like to be, but thanks to resources like those here on SB, I hope that I'm not the source of someone else's bad day. I generally dive with my wife, so we have a bit of incentive to look out for each other! (I hope!)

 

[luckydays]

Great job Bratface. I am happy to see this thread in the near misses side of this section of the forum. You did what you felt was right in the situation and I can only hope that I would, if put in the same scenario, do the same thing.

 

[ScubaSteve1962]

Fair question - who can say? Does one not take things seriously if the fact they ARE serious is not conveyed? (Or not conveyed well enough, often enough, ...)

That all depends on the the students there are some that are there because they want to learn, and then there are those that already know everything because I read the book so just give me my card so I can go diving. And from bratface experience with this diver he my fit in the later, seems as if he may have learned from the second incident because he was willing to sit down and listen. How seriously do you need to convey that man CAN NOT breath underwater, if you give out of air you can die, so watch your air!!

 

[Jim Lapenta]

Crass. By far better to help him learn from his mistake, so he can make more creative ones in the future.

Diving is not for every one. When a diver seems to have a pattern of doing things that get him in trouble that he cannot handle and it puts others at risk it may be an indication that he at a minimum should rethink what it is he's doing. He put the OP in a situation for the second time where her risk was increased. That is not someone who is learning from mistakes. That is someone who is creating them. One mistake usually results in a diver doing a reassessment of all of his skills and knowldege and working on them. Two mistakes in this vein is lucky. The third may kill him and, worse, maybe someone else.

 

[Bratface]

First off, it has been pointed out to me in a PM the I came off sounding somewhat irritated in my second post. I truly apologize for that. I'll admit that a few replies irritated me and some greatly amused me. For the most part, the posts were informative and thought out.

Secondly, my internet connection went down three times while I was trying to compose a post that answered all of the questions. It's part of island living along with power failures and hurricanes--irritating when you are trying to concentrate, so I probably came off sounding short. Texting and web posts miss some of the subtleties of face to face conversation.

As far as the training falling short vs the diver being a student who missed the lesson, diver is a very bright book smart person. I had long conversations over lunch with him both times he had a mishap diving. He is willing to listen to improve his diving and polite and respectful. He is not an arrogant know-it all type. He was trained in a lake and he really wants to be a good diver. I have suggested rescue diving and AOW. So who knows, let's hope with more experience and education he can become the diver he aspires to be.