Riding Blind with your DSMB reel

[The Chairman]

I've been doing deco dives since the 80s, though we didn't call them that back then, and I've never had more than one failure happen during a dive... and those have been wonderfully few. It's important to not over dive your experience. With modern gear and training it's easy to put yourself in a place you aren't prepared to go mentally. I've done more than my share of deep and dark just to do deep and dark. It's embarrassing to admit, but at almost 60, I think I've finally outgrown that tendency.

No, I don't knot my lines. Not because I think they might break, but because I just don't see a need and I think they could hang on something as the spool pays out if I'm shooting an SMB. I wear a hat over my mask in OW and a helmet over my mask in a cave, so losing it seems moot. I have yet to meet the diver, cave or technical, that has lost their mask while wearing it. I just don't see a need to carry an extra mask. I also carry two PDCs, so I just don't see the scenario as being remotely possible.

 

[AJ]

The most likely source of loosing your mask is a buddy with bad skills. Otherwise I have never been in a situation where I was afraid of loosing my mask.

 

[The Chairman]

The most likely source of loosing your mask is a buddy with bad skills.

I disagree with this. the person who lets their mask get kicked off usually has little to no situational awareness. I've seen too many people swim into their buddy's fins and then blame the buddy. Hell, that's happened to me, and I've stopped mid kick when I felt my fin tips touch something. You can even mitigate attacks from above. When I feel any such disturbance, I cover my head with my hands and exhale completely so I can descend under them. I feel this way before contact and react before I get whacked. It's up to the diver to decide where they will be in the herd. I choose the route less traveled and avoid the herd and all those shenanigans.

 

[AJ]

I agree,vI know how to deal with it now. I have had buddys that were more a liability than a good buddy. Buddys who were afraid of losing sight of me or when I started myself losing sight of them in the murky Dutch waters.

 

[kensuf]

I was taught to memorize the plan, specialy from 30m and up, in case you lose your slate, and/or your buddy or mask's, you don't count on your DC only, , to my understanding the slate is #1, your DC is #2, in case you lose both you memorize the deco plan.

Your supposed scenario implies you can not read your bottom timer. Are you planning on counting each second?

"One-one thousand, Two-one thousand, Three one-thousand..."

Edited to add:

"specially from 30m and up in case you lose your masks" -- I really hate it when people instill fear of unrealistic events in their students because then they will start over agonizing about things that should never happen.

Let's break this down.

Losing a mask is a possibility. It's rare, but a possibility -- I know someone that had a lens pop out in a cave, and I've had the buckle on a mask break during a dive so I will say losing a mask can happen. However, losing two masks should never happen -- your backup should be in good shape and if it's a piece of crap that's ready to break on it's own then you need to fix that now.

Losing a buddy is also a possibility. Sadly, it's pretty common when you, or your buddy, have little global awareness. Usually, a buddy team that gets separated is a reflection of one (or both!) of the divers that are clueless about their surroundings. They probably need to step back and slow down on the dives they're planning to build up their awareness.

Losing two masks and your buddy should never happen on the same dive. If it does then you have a more serious underlying problem involving the maintenance of your gear, your awareness, and the selection of your dive partners.

 

[boulderjohn]

It takes more than a broken buckle to leave you maskless. I once had the buckle on my mask break at the very beginning of a dive when I was setting up a platform for later instruction. My spare mask was on shore, which was too far away for me to go back, get it, return, set up the platform, and go back to shore before the class was supposed to start. I did the dive without the strap. It was easy. I only had to clear a few times and sniff in to reestablish the seal a few more.

 

[Remy B.]

Do you also have a plan memorized for all possible dive times or just the planned bottom time?

Only for the original plan, if things change and you get to increase the bottom time with all those problems, then it will turn ugly, I can increment the times of the stops on bottom gas at 24m by double, and the ones on 50% by 1/3 at 12m, the ones on 80%, at 9m by 1/3 addicional time and double the time at 6m, taking in account that the dive shal be calculated to 40% CNS, so you don't go over the 100% CNS, then switch to the 21% as long as possible, then cross your fingers to not get a hit at surface.

I have heard about the ratio deco, that it can help you in these scenarios, but I don't know nothing about it, for me I think it will be easier to increase to calculate times taken in consideration the CNS exposure.

What do you suggest will be a better way, or how do you do it ?

 

[Remy B.]

Your supposed scenario implies you can not read your bottom timer. Are you planning on counting each second?

"One-one thousand, Two-one thousand, Three one-thousand..."

Edited to add:

"specially from 30m and up in case you lose your masks" -- I really hate it when people instill fear of unrealistic events in their students because then they will start over agonizing about things that should never happen.

Let's break this down.

Losing a mask is a possibility. It's rare, but a possibility -- I know someone that had a lens pop out in a cave, and I've had the buckle on a mask break during a dive so I will say losing a mask can happen. However, losing two masks should never happen -- your backup should be in good shape and if it's a piece of crap that's ready to break on it's own then you need to fix that now.

Losing a buddy is also a possibility. Sadly, it's pretty common when you, or your buddy, have little global awareness. Usually, a buddy team that gets separated is a reflection of one (or both!) of the divers that are clueless about their surroundings. They probably need to step back and slow down on the dives they're planning to build up their awareness.

Losing two masks and your buddy should never happen on the same dive. If it does then you have a more serious underlying problem involving the maintenance of your gear, your awareness, and the selection of your dive partners.

I agree with you, I just put a worse case scenario which is very unlikely to happen, I don't do caves and I'm not interested plus I will not pass a cave training for sure with my little knowledge and experience, I like wreck diving ( which I do most of the time window shopping and no penetration, because I'm far from a descent diver ) where currents is a common thing and never know it can change and get very bad I guess, I really don't know, I have a lot to learn first to get to a point of wreck penetration.

 

[Remy B.]

I have penetrated very easy wrecks that are small, with two entri/exit points at shallow waters and good visibilty

But one time and the only time in the North Sea in Nederland on a Liveabord with a group of divers that just are dedicated to that and some other ones that were new to the North Sea conditions like my self.

That time in the North Sea the visibility was maybe 2 feet, and heavy seas that were present as well at 25m where the wreck was , my buddy for that dive was leading and setting the line, while I follow him with the line and trying to not lose contact with him, which I did two times as the visibility was bad, but I know he was in front of me, but several times his fins got out of nowhere and got very close to my mask and touch them in two ocations, inside the wreck visibility was as bad or worse, we enter in one part and got out in another part of the wreck, I only got to see shadows and the blured deck inside, at the other side of the wreck I signaled I wanted to finish the dive ( for me there was no point for the dive as I could see a fuc...thing and it was a dangerous situation ), so now I was first following the line all the way to the tie in point where the boat was attached to, he told me that he was going to stay and continue the dive, I ascended on the mooring line and got out.

That was a stressful dive and pointless, for the most experience divers that do that constantly was a normal event, but they acknowledge it was very bad visibility as everybody was out after 30min I think , others did not even made it to the wreck and returned.

I found it unneccesarly dangerous, and out of my league by far, I like to try it again, but after a lot more of training and experience, if I get in the water and it is as bad as it was that time I will not even attempt to continue down.

Bad visibilty in open water no problem for me it is very normal in Nederland, but in a overhead enviroment no thanks, no point of diving like that.

I expect some good as.. chewing from Andy and others, but I learn from your comments.

 

[DevonDiver]

It takes more than a broken buckle to leave you mask less... I did the dive without the strap. It was easy. I only had to clear a few times and sniff in to reestablish the seal a few more.

+1

I once fixed a broken mask buckle mid-dive using a zip-tie.

I use velcro/neoprene straps on all my masks... and these don't really ever break. The buckle is the weak point. Where masks have permitted it, I also removed the buckle and threaded the velcro directly through the hole where the buckle normally attaches.

With the strap/buckle sorted out, the only potential failure remaining is around the frame/glass. That's pretty rare, but I've seen it.

In reality it'd be very hard to lose a mask in the bottom phase of a dive. Even though I carry a backup mask much of the time, I generally consider it hyper-safety. My spool has knots for other reasons, it just seemed like a fun challenge to run no-mask ascents using the line. I wouldn't ever expect to use it.

Its probably more beneficial only to recreational divers who wear a dive watch. It gives them a backup ascent option for the ease of trying a few knots and saves the expense of a backup computer/depth gauge... for otherwise forgiving dives and easy ascents.