Scary dives in Coz last week

[coppermaus]

OK here it is as suggested - my report on what happened on some dives in Coz last week. I've learned some things already, but I'd like to see what other people say about how to avoid such madness and what to learn from it.

Me and My Buddy

I have AOW and am working on DM, mainly cuz living in Boulder, Colorado I'm landlocked and pretty broke from the high cost of living, so this was my first trip to the ocean since 2000.

My buddy is a good friend who got his OW 6 years ago when I convinced him to. He's logged maybe 20 dives since then but just isn't as passionate about diving as I am. However, he's very laid back, intelligent, and is someone I trust very much. Seems to do well thinking on his feet. We spent some time before the trip going over the PADI book, and we got into the pool together to practice mask clears, octopus breathing, reg retrievals, etc. He hadn't been in the ocean in 5-6 years but had done a semester in the pool 2 years ago working on AOW/DM stuff before he got bored and quit.

I talked him into going to Coz with me and diving. I wanted to dive all 5 possible days, but that was too much for him. We agreed to 4.

Cozumel Diving

We dove the first two days in Coz, 5 dives total including a night dive. Max depth 80 feet. It was great! The two DMs we had for those dives were great, very conscientious and obviously very good divers. They prepped us by giving the plan for the dive and asking us to stay behind them, let them know when we were down to 700 lbs, and come up for a 15'/3min safety stop, or that we'd all come up after a certain time.

Since my buddy always runs out of air long before anyone else, esp me, he and I always come up first. While keeping an eye on him I see that he seems very comfortable, though moving around too much, and is checking his gauges regularly. Also, he just bought a computer, so we've been using that and comparing with the dive tables every night and RTFM. This is my first experience diving with a computer.

Bad Day #1

We'd heard the Devil's Throat was very cool and talked to the operators about that. They said there was a group of 4 who also wanted to go, but since it's 130' and a swim-through they wanted to take us all for a deep check-out dive first, which we all went off to do on Columbia Wall with a different DM, who I'll call Gabriel to not protect the guilty.

Gabriel preps us by saying we'll go to 130' max, come up when you have 700 lbs or all together after 20 mins. Everyone in the group is diving on a computer. Since the PADI charts say 10 mins at 130' I'm trusting two things 1) that the computer will say when we need to come up 2) that my buddy's going to run out of air before then anyway.

Gabriel tells us to meet him at 130' and goes in. We all follow and my buddy and I are going down maybe 10-15' away from each other. I'm looking at my gauge and see that the DM has passed 130' and I'm already at 135' myself. My buddy is following the DM and not looking at me, so I started wailing away on my tank to get his attention. Gabriel looks up, but my buddy doesn't. I've slowed my descent, but that means he's going away from me even faster.

So I'm thinking, he's not only my buddy but my good friend, and I talked him into all of this. I'm also the more experienced diver, so this is all my responsibility. So I keep going down to get him. I get to 159' and finally get his attention. He's at 162'. I give the emphatic motions for 1 3 0 and point up. He says OK, and we start going up slowly.

BTW, the others in the group have done a variety of things. One couple is up higher, looks like 130-135'. The other buddy team is not together - one's maybe at 145', the other is down with my buddy and the DM.

A few seconds later I turn around to check on my buddy and find that he's not coming up with me. He has gone back down with the DM. OMG, what's he doing?? I'm thinking he must be narked, since he obviously understood what I was saying about 130'.

So again I go off on the tank banger, and again Gabriel notices. He finally points that out to my buddy, who then finally looks at his gauges, shows them to the DM and starts coming up. He lets me know he's low on air, so it's time to go up. Good!

We go up and are having to swim hard to get over the edge of the wall due to the current. He's holding my hand at this point, making it harder to swim, but then he shows my why. At 80' he's got about 50 lbs of air. I have 1500, so we're OK there. I make him run out competely, we share my air, then we start start the slowest ascent I've ever made, since I don't know what you're supposed to do after 160'/170'! His computer shows that we're fine. We stop at 15' for 3 mins and the computer is happy. I make us stay another 2 mins just for peace of mind.

We surface and back on the boat I start talking to him about it. He was never upset at any point under water nor afterwards. It's good that he remains cool in bad situations, but not that cool. The boat captain says, Always dive your plan. Everyone else comes up and says, Stay with your buddy. I say, Screw the DM, he'll kill you - stay with your buddy. He seems to get it.

After the SI we do the shallower dive. My buddy is following the DM who is all over the place, sort of circling the group. I tell him to follow me, and give the international sign for screw the DM. He shakes his head and says I follow him. I say no follow ME, since I know how he follows the DM and forgets all about his buddy. He says no and swims off to follow the DM.

Since this is getting so long, I'll post day 2 in another msg.

 

[coppermaus]

So I'm thinking it's an ego thing, or a guy thing. He trusts the DM more cuz he's a guy, a figure of authority, he knows the area, he should be reliable and care about his clients. But of course he's proven himself very unreliable, so what's with my buddy??

We talk about it some that night, carefully, since I don't want to turn a fun vacation into a big argument. And after all, I took him on this trip and to that depth. But we talk and he seems to get it: stay with your buddy, and dive your plan.

Bad Day #2

Next day, we're all on the boat, checked out the day before (BTW, Gabriel told the op that we all did fine - doesn't mention the fiasco at all. Oh, key info I forgot to mention: DM says the reason he went so deep is a broken depth guage. It showed 120 the whole time, which is why he kept going down to find 130. Duh).

We're all ready to go in, and DM gives the plan: descend to 130', enter the tunnel single-file, go slowly and use hands on bottom rather than fins to not kick up sand for those in back; then come out of tunnel and go into the other tunnel. Several of us say, What? Another tunnel? He says yes, there are two tunnels, see you at 130' and flips over the edge.

We all go in, and my buddy and I end up the last two. I take the rear to keep an eye on him. Of course everyone is flying through the tunnel at an absurd ascent rate, kicking up the sand like crazy, so we're basically in a cloud. My buddy slows down cuz his computer's not liking the ascent rate, plus it's impossible to see. We come out of the tunnel... and... uh, where is everyone? They're all gone.

We look for bubbles - nothing. Look around the corner - nobody. Hmm...

We check air, he's got about 1200, so I say let's go up slowly, looking at the cool reef formations on the way. We see some cool stuff, including a HYOOGE eagle ray that goes right by us. Awesome!! Maybe 7-8 minutes after coming out of the tunnel he's at 700 lbs, so we start our ascent proper and do the SS. Everything's groovy.

Takes the boat captain a while to see us since we're nowhere near where we're supposed to be, but even that's not a huge deal.

What's NOT okay

We're in the boat before everyone else comes up. The captain isn't happy that we were so far away and don't have the DM. I'm not happy about that either. Then when the rest come up, they ALL went into deco. They were in that 2nd tunnel for 10 more minutes which was, I guess, also at 130'. 10 mins at that depth and my buddy would have been out of air. Inside a tunnel. Not wide enough for two across. Maybe one of us having to swim backwards? Sharing my air, which with both of us on it would not have lasted very long, esp with racing heartbeats. I know I would've been less than calm about all this.

THEN to add deco to that! If the DM and others would've been there when we came out, if we had come out, would they have had enough air to share with us for the deco stops?
:drown:
All I can say is thanks be to the gods that the group ditched us after the first tunnel.

Lessons learned

Yeah, I've learned a lot from these experiences. One is, my God, you really have to be able to trust your buddy and communicate well under water. Obviously talking more at the surface would've helped us, but you can't think of every what-if.

Obviously I shouldn't have let the DM go down before saying HOW MUCH AIR SHOULD WE HAVE before going into the 2nd tunnel? How long is it? How much time? Etc etc etc.

Plus a lot more, but I'd like to hear what others would have done in these situations.

Thanks!

 

[Walter]

Several things come to mind.

1. Neither of you were ready for a dive to that depth. It's been over 3 years since you were in the ocean and he only has 20 dives total. You should have passed this one by. Do it when you are ready.

2. The DM should never have allowed you to go on the deep checkout dive, as you were obviously not ready.

3. The DM should have noticed as he went deeper that his depth gauge wasn't working. An excellent example of narcosis.

4. Your buddy should have stayed with you. More narcosis.

5. Never blindly follow anyone.

6. Start up with more air. Your buddy is an air hog, start up when he reaches 1200 PSI, 2000 on a dive to those depths.

7. Your buddy failed the deep check out dive.

8. The DM failed the deep check out dive.

9. You buddy needed his rear end kicked for following the DM on the second (shallower) dive.

10. Most divers aren't skilled enough to not kick up clouds of silt. Expect it.

11. Carry a safety sausage when diving the ocean, especially when live boating.

12. When live boating, deploy the sausage from your safety stop.

13. Were there 2 tunnels or 3? You said, "come out of tunnel and go into the other tunnel. Several of us say, What? Another tunnel? He says yes, there are two tunnels, see you at 130' and flips over the edge.

We all go in, and my buddy and I end up the last two." then you said, "thanks be to the gods that the group ditched us after the first tunnel."

14. It's good that you are thinking about what went wrong and why. Evaluation makes you a better diver.

 

[coppermaus]

13. Were there 2 tunnels or 3? You said, "come out of tunnel and go into the other tunnel. Several of us say, What? Another tunnel? He says yes, there are two tunnels, see you at 130' and flips over the edge.

We all go in, and my buddy and I end up the last two." then you said, "thanks be to the gods that the group ditched us after the first tunnel."

My buddy and I end up the last two people to enter the first tunnel. There were only two tunnels, but we never saw the second one.

Sorry for the confusing writing. Trying to make a long story shorter makes it less clear, I guess!

 

[Walter]

Thanks for sharing, there are important lessons to be learned.

 

[crispos]

Well, coppermaus,

Obviously you are smart, have a good sense of humour, love diving, and are cute too...welcome to Scuba Board.

I think the overall problem is, you are kind of in that "inbetween" space between AOW and DM, diver and leader, where your enthusiasm exceeds your experience. That is abit of a dangerous area, like probably in most adventure sports. By the way, you didn't say how many dives you have, but whatever you have, you did pretty well in the water. Above water....hmmm.

You are definitely going to be a good DM, and I thought you did very well under the circumstances, and Mr. Too Bored to Finish the AOW Diver your buddy, probably owes you bigtime.

A couple of things. Sounds like you were mainly communicating via ESP before the dives. It is common, on the boat, people are too proud or insecure or just not aware of how important it is, to actually sit down with their buddy and do a dive plan, review signals, check who is leading, dive turn times, air consumption planning, the list goes on and on.

You two kind of still thought (because the other previous DM's were actually Dive Mamas) that you were equipped to dive to 130 feet plus in an overhead environment. That is where the lack of dive planning almost snuffed you.

I dove Devils' Throat twice a few years ago, and I believe it has more than 2 tunnels, I think it is more like 4, and the last one ends at 150 feet. Others will tell you exactly. You didn't have enough air to do that dive safely. How did you go back and do it again? Next time, tell the DiveOp the truth about the dive disaster. And did I note you were sharing your bud's computer! Bad!

I found the Coz divemasters really good when I went down there last month, much more professional than the first time. One was named Gabriel, and skinny guy with a French Canadian wife. I hope it wasn't him. The first time I dove Maracaibo, the DM went to 220 ft because he "saw something" down there. Our dive leader had to go get him. They are quite lean some of those guys, and I think they often get more narked than you might realize.

It is quite possible your DM had a bad guage and give him a break, the season hasn't been that great at least up to Jan, those guys often don't get breaks on equipment.

Did I hear that you let your buddy draw down his air to zero before giving him your Octopus? No. Don't let it get there, because if you screwed up the exchange, he might bolt and do a rapid ascent! Switch as soon as he is low.

You get points for extending the safety stop, but none for not knowing the tables to know you exceeded your NDL at 160 feet.

I am wishing you the best, finish your DM course. You realized, that diving can go from fun to frightening in a matter of seconds, and you are going to make sure you communicate (over communicate) with buddy and dive guide.

OK, you are going to get alot of tips here after your brave and honest post.

 

[RICHinNC]

copper.....if you dont want to type it here....pls pm me...im going to coz and i dont want to get near that dive op
thanks

 

[melissalv29]

So I'm thinking it's an ego thing, or a guy thing. He trusts the DM more cuz he's a guy, a figure of authority, he knows the area, he should be reliable and care about his clients. But of course he's proven himself very unreliable, so what's with my buddy??

We talk about it some that night, carefully, since I don't want to turn a fun vacation into a big argument. And after all, I took him on this trip and to that depth. But we talk and he seems to get it: stay with your buddy, and dive your plan.

Bad Day #2

Next day, we're all on the boat, checked out the day before (BTW, Gabriel told the op that we all did fine - doesn't mention the fiasco at all. Oh, key info I forgot to mention: DM says the reason he went so deep is a broken depth guage. It showed 120 the whole time, which is why he kept going down to find 130. Duh).

We're all ready to go in, and DM gives the plan: descend to 130', enter the tunnel single-file, go slowly and use hands on bottom rather than fins to not kick up sand for those in back; then come out of tunnel and go into the other tunnel. Several of us say, What? Another tunnel? He says yes, there are two tunnels, see you at 130' and flips over the edge.

We all go in, and my buddy and I end up the last two. I take the rear to keep an eye on him. Of course everyone is flying through the tunnel at an absurd ascent rate, kicking up the sand like crazy, so we're basically in a cloud. My buddy slows down cuz his computer's not liking the ascent rate, plus it's impossible to see. We come out of the tunnel... and... uh, where is everyone? They're all gone.

We look for bubbles - nothing. Look around the corner - nobody. Hmm...

We check air, he's got about 1200, so I say let's go up slowly, looking at the cool reef formations on the way. We see some cool stuff, including a HYOOGE eagle ray that goes right by us. Awesome!! Maybe 7-8 minutes after coming out of the tunnel he's at 700 lbs, so we start our ascent proper and do the SS. Everything's groovy.

Takes the boat captain a while to see us since we're nowhere near where we're supposed to be, but even that's not a huge deal.

What's NOT okay

We're in the boat before everyone else comes up. The captain isn't happy that we were so far away and don't have the DM. I'm not happy about that either. Then when the rest come up, they ALL went into deco. They were in that 2nd tunnel for 10 more minutes which was, I guess, also at 130'. 10 mins at that depth and my buddy would have been out of air. Inside a tunnel. Not wide enough for two across. Maybe one of us having to swim backwards? Sharing my air, which with both of us on it would not have lasted very long, esp with racing heartbeats. I know I would've been less than calm about all this.

THEN to add deco to that! If the DM and others would've been there when we came out, if we had come out, would they have had enough air to share with us for the deco stops?
:drown:
All I can say is thanks be to the gods that the group ditched us after the first tunnel.

Lessons learned

Yeah, I've learned a lot from these experiences. One is, my God, you really have to be able to trust your buddy and communicate well under water. Obviously talking more at the surface would've helped us, but you can't think of every what-if.

Obviously I shouldn't have let the DM go down before saying HOW MUCH AIR SHOULD WE HAVE before going into the 2nd tunnel? How long is it? How much time? Etc etc etc.

Plus a lot more, but I'd like to hear what others would have done in these situations.

Thanks!

wow....i dive in Cozumel about 5 times a year.....with LivingUnderwater.....excellent dive op....may i ask which dive op you went with?

 

[knives]

Coppermaus,

Sounds like you will make an excellent diver. That fact that you stayed calm during your dive disaster is excellent, unfortunately your lack of experience and buddies experience and your misguided trust in the dive operator almost got you injured or worse. In this sport it is important to rely on yourself for your safety. Make choices based on knowledge and experience, if you do not have the skills yet learn them, till they are second nature and task loading will be less likely to cause a problem.Do not dive under any dive operators wing, dive your own skills and experience...I hope this makes sense...I am not good with words...
If you come my way....I would be happy to show you our shipwrecks ...safe diving

 

[Tim Ingersoll]

Good job handling what would have surely unnerved most divers. I hope I would do as well. You certainl;y can only rely on yourself in most situations. I think that most people rely too much on the DM rather than their own skills. By the way . . do yourself a favor. . .buy a computer.