Considering THIS thread, I'd thought I'd post this event, which happened yesterday afternoon.
Second dive, about 17 minutes into the dive, diving with a three man team. We're at about forty some-odd feet deep. Buddy #1 is in on my right, and buddy #2 is behind and to the left.
I feel something hit my leg, turn and look, and see buddy number #2 kicking for all it's worth toward the surface. In a flash he's gone into the gloom above. What the heck???
Something has spooked him, something has happened, something not good. Of course, I can't chase him and abandon my other buddy, and he's long gone now anyway. So I get diver #1's attention, point to where buddy #2 used to be, and give buddy #1 the thumb.
He returns the thumb and we make a slow ascent and do our safety stops on our backs looking up for buddy #1.
When we surface, buddy #1 is nowhere to be found. We look for his bubbles but don't find them. There is a mild current that we have to swim against to stay in the area we lost #2, so buddy #1 has us swim over to some pilings for us to hang on to. About ten to twelve minuets have passed now, and still no sign of buddy #2. This is not good.
I dive with the missing buddy frequently, and he knows that, if separated, we search for one minute and then ascend. No impromptu solo diving, period. So even if he went back down, searched for us for a minute, did a nice slow ascent with safety stop, be should be well up by now.
I tell this to buddy #1, who says, "Time to get on the phone."
The irony of this is, we're diving a site where, about two years ago, a young man got separated from his buddy and died. In fact, there's a memorial underwater, and the three of us had just visited it.
As we're heading toward the exit point, buddy #2 surfaces near shore. He is fine.
Here's what happened to him. He says that he got too close and someone (I'm guessing me) kicked the reg from his mouth. He reached for his backup reg (which is bungeed around his neck) and couldn't find it. He made a frantic dash toward the surface.
Just before he surfaced, he located the backup reg, put it in his mouth, and stopped his ascent. He decided to go back down to look for us. Unfortunately, we were already on our way up to look for him, and with the mild current and limited vis, he didn't run into us. He searched for a while, then decided to make a very long, slow ascent up toward shore, following the bottom. He didn't want to go right back up, but rather try to avoid possible DCS from the rapid ascent by taking his time re-ascending.
We came very close to calling 911 before he surfaced.
Anyway, everyone OK.
The only casualty was, my camera flooded (bummer!).
Second dive, about 17 minutes into the dive, diving with a three man team. We're at about forty some-odd feet deep. Buddy #1 is in on my right, and buddy #2 is behind and to the left.
I feel something hit my leg, turn and look, and see buddy number #2 kicking for all it's worth toward the surface. In a flash he's gone into the gloom above. What the heck???
Something has spooked him, something has happened, something not good. Of course, I can't chase him and abandon my other buddy, and he's long gone now anyway. So I get diver #1's attention, point to where buddy #2 used to be, and give buddy #1 the thumb.
He returns the thumb and we make a slow ascent and do our safety stops on our backs looking up for buddy #1.
When we surface, buddy #1 is nowhere to be found. We look for his bubbles but don't find them. There is a mild current that we have to swim against to stay in the area we lost #2, so buddy #1 has us swim over to some pilings for us to hang on to. About ten to twelve minuets have passed now, and still no sign of buddy #2. This is not good.
I dive with the missing buddy frequently, and he knows that, if separated, we search for one minute and then ascend. No impromptu solo diving, period. So even if he went back down, searched for us for a minute, did a nice slow ascent with safety stop, be should be well up by now.
I tell this to buddy #1, who says, "Time to get on the phone."
The irony of this is, we're diving a site where, about two years ago, a young man got separated from his buddy and died. In fact, there's a memorial underwater, and the three of us had just visited it.
As we're heading toward the exit point, buddy #2 surfaces near shore. He is fine.
Here's what happened to him. He says that he got too close and someone (I'm guessing me) kicked the reg from his mouth. He reached for his backup reg (which is bungeed around his neck) and couldn't find it. He made a frantic dash toward the surface.
Just before he surfaced, he located the backup reg, put it in his mouth, and stopped his ascent. He decided to go back down to look for us. Unfortunately, we were already on our way up to look for him, and with the mild current and limited vis, he didn't run into us. He searched for a while, then decided to make a very long, slow ascent up toward shore, following the bottom. He didn't want to go right back up, but rather try to avoid possible DCS from the rapid ascent by taking his time re-ascending.
We came very close to calling 911 before he surfaced.
Anyway, everyone OK.
The only casualty was, my camera flooded (bummer!).
