Santa Barbra Island trip incident

[divenut2001]

I agree 100% on what scubapolly said. Your obligation was to your buddy and you did abandoned her. How would you have felt if she lost control of the rope before you resurfaced?

Always descend down the anchor line in heavy current.

Never ignore ascent rates, that will get you in serious trouble.

You've learned some valuable lessons on what not to do. Glad everything turned out ok...

 

[SteveDiver]

I agree as well. We all learn from our mistakes hopefully, it is not a life threatening mistake that one learns from... When I was in my open water class it was made very clear about diving with a buddy and NOT to leave your divebuddy, your buddy is to be at your side at all times. It does get frustrating especially when your divebuddy decides to go up when your are not ready! This has happened to me a couple times, I went up with my buddy, not happy but I went up... It appears that they may have not received a good dive briefing or were not paying attention maybe?

 

[Steve P]

About 15 years ago during a drift dive in Cozumel, I stopped briefly to take a photo on the lee side of a coral head. Currents were moving pretty strong and I became seperated from my buddy, who is also my wife. I didn't lose the entire group however so I decided to spend a few minutes looking for her before notifying the DM or surfacing to look for her. I did find her, all was well, it doesn't seem like a big deal - but she's never let me forget it. And I've never lost sight of her since.

I suspect many divers, myself included, primarily see the buddy system as a means to keep an eye on our buddy - to help them if things go wrong. We don't think of ouselves as being the one who might get into trouble. Of course the fact is it works both ways. Crestgel left his buddy with good intetions - to help others. However, not only did he leave his buddy, he compromised his personal safety (no buddy, low air, fatigued from current). I believe all Emergency Responder Courses such as First Aid/CPR (I completed refresher training yesteday) and the rescue diver class (I am planning on completing it this year) emphasize you must consider your safety first.

Me, I'm staying close to my buddy. I've got to live with her.

 

[slingshot]

Crestgel:

I'm glad that you like many other scubaboard members have posted incident reports like these. It takes some grit to open yourself to the scrutiny of others, but I'm glad to see the scubaboard community is, as usual, responding with constructive, if direct, input and not sniping from the sidelines. I'm glad that the situation had a safe conclusion. I'm wondering if people think it better to surface with your buddy, and swim like hell for a boat, or raft up with your buddy and deploy your safety sausage (I also believe in having these on all dives) and wait for assistance from the DM?

Slingshot

 

[crestgel]

I appreciate the comments, no need to be sorry in pointing out my mistake. I made my post so that I can learn from my mistakes.

scubapolly, good points!!!

To answer a few questions. I did have a SMB but trying to deploy it at depth would have been difficult in the current. On the surface they DM could see me waving for assistance.

Our BC's were inflated. Current was so strong that when we were holding onto the drift line, it push us so that we were floating horizontally. My wife's head would get hit by the choppy water at times.

Some ppl decided not to go into the water after seeing us float away. If another group went before us I think we would have aborted the dive too.

Thanx for all the comments.

 

[Saipanman]

We could not maintain our position in the current by kicking. Once we hit bottom we started to crawl back to the boat. It was quite a workout. I had never sucked air so hard underwater. .

Glad all ended well. A question about the underwater crawl. I wasn't there, but I suspect you may have made it tougher on yourselves than you had to. I've been in some fairly rippin currents, and am always amazed at how well you can scoot against the current with a finger or two on each hand.

That said, when you reached the bottom, did you immediately head (scramble) to the boat, or did you just hang on awhile on the bottom, to catch your breath, before you headed back? Not being there, I don't know if it would have helped, but I suspect it may have prevented most of the other problems.

 

[divenut2001]

Crestgel:

I'm wondering if people think it better to surface with your buddy, and swim like hell for a boat, or raft up with your buddy and deploy your safety sausage (I also believe in having these on all dives) and wait for assistance from the DM?

Slingshot

Doesn't sound like swimming against the current was an option. Deploy safety sausage? In those conditions, absolutely, no matter what!

A few of questions to crestgel:

(1) Did they advise you in the dive briefing that there was a current running and did you pay attention to the "whole" briefing?

(2) Was the current line in the water showing you how the current was running "before" you made your entry or "after"?

(3) Did you "all" tip the DMs well? They certainly earned it...