Small incident, but wondering....

[love2godeep]

I just returned from a boat dive, and would really like the feedback from you experts out there....

History:
I'm in Hawaii working on my AOW certification (which I realize is simply "advanced beginners" cert.)

I did the first two dives for the cert a week ago; on the second dive, my ears felt funny, and afterwards they were plugged up for over a day, so I stayed out of the water for the last week to give them a chance to normalize. (Never any pain.)

The dive:
Today there were six of us on the dive: The divemaster, 2 fairly experienced divers, 2 newbies and yours truly. One of the newbies got her cert a year ago and hasn't dived since her check-out dive. The other had a few more dives under his belt, but nothing more recent than a year ago.

It was raining, the sea was choppy, and there was an unusually strong current. The divemaster and captain made the decision to go ahead and do the dive without a line, although I was a little concerned about the two newbies. (Turned out they did fine!)

This was supposed to be my "Deep Dive," although the divemaster was so preoccupied that she gave me no briefing; didn't do the pre-dive puzzle; didn't assign me a buddy (I assumed it was her, since I had been promised a "private divemaster" for the entire course); didn't take any of the little props for the deep dive (e.g. the color chart, the bottle). I've been to 80-85' on several dives already, but I was looking forward to going a little deeper and discovering more about the effects of depth on diving and divers, etc.

When we descended, I was about #3 in line, but my ears weren't clearing, and I had to nurse them along, so I was very slow. In the meantime, everyone else went to the bottom. I tried to keep my eyes on them, but viz was poor and they all disappeared. I thought I'd find them when I reached the bottom, but they were gone. I swam around maybe a minute, then followed the current (very strong) for a couple of minutes. (I didn't want to have to go through the equalizing ordeal again, and I was hoping I'd catch them.) I was at 80', and was very tempted to go ahead and go deeper, but felt it would be foolhardy, if I should get narced or have another problem. After about 3 minutes on the bottom, I went ahead and made a regular slow ascent. My computer wanted me to do a safety stop, which I did at 17 feet. When I surfaced, I could see the boat, but they didn't see me, as the sea was quite rough. I deployed the safety sausage and waited. The boat disappeared, meanwhile. Apparently it was picking up the other divers. The eventually found me, and we went to calmer waters and finished up our air.

The divemaster of course was nearly a nervous wreck by the time they found me, imagining the worst. She later chided me for two things:

1. For not going ahead and going deeper while I was down there. (Apparently so that I would be satisfied that I got my "deep dive.")

2. For wasting time doing the safety stop. She said it wasn't necessary since I was down only a short time.

Were these, in fact, errors on my part?

Here are some things I believe I could/should have done:

1. I should have reminded the divemaster that I might have trouble with my ears, and might have to take it slow.

2. I should have followed my better judgment and gone up after one minute.

3. Even though the divemistress was preoccupied, I should have clarified with her that she was my buddy. (Although I don't think this would have made much difference in this case, because by my observations of this girl, who really is very sweet, probably wouldn't have noticed that I wasn't keeping up.)

I'll write more about my whole AOW experience somewhere else; but just would like to hear your take on this experience.

Cheers!

 

[cdiver2]

If it were me once I lost the group back to the boat or your diving alone.
The DM, find another there are good ones and bad ones, they are not gods.

 

[DMDC01]

I agree with cdiver2, but with one question, you said you were working on your advanced open water, where was the Instructor??

 

[TwoBitTxn]

This was supposed to be my "Deep Dive," although the divemaster was so preoccupied that she gave me no briefing; didn't do the pre-dive puzzle; didn't assign me a buddy (I assumed it was her...

Bad assumption as you already know. Don't assume who your buddy is. You should know who your buddy is.

When we descended, I was about #3 in line, but my ears weren't clearing, and I had to nurse them along, so I was very slow. In the meantime, everyone else went to the bottom. I tried to keep my eyes on them, but viz was poor and they all disappeared.

Let's make the assumption that the DM is your instructor. You were abandoned by your instructor. This was the DM's first mistake.

You are at this point diving solo

I was at 80', and was very tempted to go ahead and go deeper, but felt it would be foolhardy, if I should get narced or have another problem. After about 3 minutes on the bottom, I went ahead and made a regular slow ascent. My computer wanted me to do a safety stop, which I did at 17 feet. When I surfaced, I could see the boat, but they didn't see me, as the sea was quite rough. I deployed the safety sausage and waited. The boat disappeared, meanwhile. Apparently it was picking up the other divers. The eventually found me, and we went to calmer waters and finished up our air.

You made a series of good decisions here. You didn't go any deeper. You made a slow ascent. You made your safety stop. You had a sausage and you used it. Good job.

The divemaster of course was nearly a nervous wreck by the time they found me, imagining the worst. She later chided me for two things:

1. For not going ahead and going deeper while I was down there. (Apparently so that I would be satisfied that I got my "deep dive.")

2. For wasting time doing the safety stop. She said it wasn't necessary since I was down only a short time.

Your divemaster should not have chided you at all. She screwed up. Point one would have accomplished nothing. 80' is a deep dive. Point two... I don't think the safety stop was wasted time. She undoubtedly was scared that her mistake was going to cost someone else their life. She took that out on you.

Here are some things I believe I could/should have done:

1. I should have reminded the divemaster that I might have trouble with my ears, and might have to take it slow.

2. I should have followed my better judgment and gone up after one minute.

3. Even though the divemistress was preoccupied, I should have clarified with her that she was my buddy. (Although I don't think this would have made much difference in this case, because by my observations of this girl, who really is very sweet, probably wouldn't have noticed that I wasn't keeping up.)

I agree with your three points. The second half of three I can't comment on, I wasn't there, but her actions do seem to support it.

This is ment to be my analysis of the incident. It is not intended to slam on anyone.

TwoBit

 

[glbirch]

Having lost the group, continuing to go deeper alone just to get your 'deep dive' wouldn't be the best idea. How far away from the boat might you have been if you'd stayed down longer?

Safety stop is rarely a bad idea if you have the air for it.

I personally agree with your points on what you could/should have done.

Where was your instructor? If the divemaster was also your instructor I'd say she failed on a number of points from what you have described.

Question. You say you were at 80' and that after a few minutes you ascended from the bottom. You also say your instructor wanted you to go deeper. Was the actual bottom 80', or was that just your max depth for the dive?

 

[love2godeep]

Having lost the group, continuing to go deeper alone just to get your 'deep dive' wouldn't be the best idea. How far away from the boat might you have been if you'd stayed down longer?

Safety stop is rarely a bad idea if you have the air for it.

I personally agree with your points on what you could/should have done.

Where was your instructor? If the divemaster was also your instructor I'd say she failed on a number of points from what you have described.

Question. You say you were at 80' and that after a few minutes you ascended from the bottom. You also say your instructor wanted you to go deeper. Was the actual bottom 80', or was that just your max depth for the dive?

I was near the bottom, but it sloped down and I could have gone quite a bit deeper.

The divemaster was supposed to be my instructor. (She had been on previous dives.) She also had the other four people to look after, and of course could not do much with me.

For the record, I did speak with the dive op; told them I had been promised a private instructor, and that the deep dive had not been anywhere near what PADI requires. First response: "What did you expect? That we would take you out all by yourself on the boat?"

argggh! But I explained that I expected to have a private dive instructor, with someone else to take out the rest of the divers.

They agreed to take me out again, no extra charge. And this time to do the deep dive properly.

Shall I go????

 

[love2godeep]

I thought of something else I could/should have done. I should have asked how much experience this gal had. I really liked her; that's not the issue. I just wonder if she had ever done an AOW cert program before. If so, how many; and exactly what she planned to do. If they were a quality op, they wouldn't mind the questions.

 

[H2Andy]

you made some good decisions there, and others have commented on other issues, but i wanted to bring out three things as well:

1. when diving with a strong current, start your dive INTO the current. if you drift
with the current as you did, you are going to have a heck of a time getting back
to the anchor line.

2. when diving in low vis, it is vital that you at all times know your relationship to
the anchor line. visualize your relationship to the line from the very start, and keep
in mind that it won't take you much to lose the line. i like to keep a "string" of
references points i follow, each in visual range of the last (for example, if i need to
get back to the anchor line NOW, i know i need to swim to the twin sponges, from
there, I'll swim over to the edge of the ledge where the "bushy white thing" is,
and from there to the square rock with the urchins.... or whatever... the point is,
they are like a trail of crumbs for me... the closer to each other the worse the viz is).

3. keep in mind that the longer you spend floating on a current without a line, the
further you are going to get from the boat. the further you are from the boat, the
harder it will be for them to find you. i will prioritize surfacing and deploying my sausage to doing a safety stop, especially if the safety stop is not "mandatory."
if it is mandatory, i would cut it down. sorry, that's just me. i don't want to get lost
at sea, and in a strong current, it doesn't take much.

and remember... keep on diving!

 

[Padiwan]

Was this a drift dive as well? If it wasn't, you should have been briefed on the rules of currents with a boat dive. You are supposed to swim into the current at the start of the dive so that you end up closer to the boat or even ahead of it. The rest of the divers may have known this rule, that may be why you got separated. The divemaster really dropped the ball on that one.

 

[love2godeep]

It was a drift dive. One of the divers didn't want to swim into the current (and it did turn out to be too strong to swim into), so they decided the boat captain would follow our bubbles.

There was no anchor line.

I think both the captain and the divemaster learned a bit from that one.