Spiegel Grove Incident

[anarekey2000]

Hi all,
New to the boards but thought I'd share an experience I had at the Grove last week. I am a native New Yorker and a new diver with 25 logged dives, mostly in cold water up north. I took a trip down to Florida to do a little diving on the reefs off Boynton Beach (I highly recommend Capt. Craig and the Starfish, btw) and also a couple of wrecks, one of which was The Spiegel Grove down in the Keys.(Other was the Captain Tony-great dive) I was diving with one of the better known outfits in the Largo/Travinier area who have always had positive reviews here. The weather was sunny and seas were calm. The boat was moderately crowded. I was without a buddy since I was alone so I informally paired up with the fellow seated next to me on the boat who had been diving for 5 years, although this was to be his 30th logged dive and his first wreck. The dive shop required him to pay for a guide since it was his first wreck dive. An instructor had a couple of students along who he was checking out for their AOW deep and wreck dives. This instructor was also my buddy's "guide". I decided to tag along with the instructor, his two students and my buddy. When we got to the Grove the current was ripping and we had to pull ourselves along a line, against the current to the mooring ball and then decend the line to the bridge of the ship at about 70'. Before we hit the water the instructor stated he would go down the rope first, followed by his two students, then me, then my buddy. He said we would all meet at the bottom and then swim around, etc. The current was very strong all the way to the bottom. Before entering the water me and my buddy did a BWRAF and everything *appeared* to be in order. Upon reaching the bridge of the ship I immediately noticed two things: 1. the instructor and his students were not waiting for us at the bottom and 2. my buddy's tank had fallen out of the strap on his BC and was dangling off in the current in the general direction of Miami. I was able to communicate to him that he had a problem and I turned him around and started wrking on the tank strap which had twisted round his first stage in a Houdini like series of knots. After about 10 minutes-no small amount of time at that depth and sucking air at the rate I was due to nervousness-I got the strap around the tank somewhat snugly-I was unable to tighten it to what I considered safe since, as I found out later, a plastc spacer piece had apparently floated off. We stayed down another 5 minutes or so, then started up since I had used a lot of air. Fortunately the strap held all the way up the line and back to the boat. I found out later that his regulator had also cracked and half the way up he was sucking water with each breath. (His equipment was pretty crappy)The instructor never re-materialized until we were back on the boat. All's well that ends well, but if I were my buddy I'd have been a little pissed that his "guide" wasn't around at the bottom to keep an eye on him. I was able to deal with the tank strap myself, but there was a period of time where I wasn't sure of I could get the thing untangled and could have used an extra set of hands. Considering the shop knew we were both relatively inexperienced, I wonder what you all think of the instructor's behavior and whether I handled the situation properly. Comments? Sorry this was so long.

 

[dherbman]

It sounds as though the instructor didn't follow his plan. What did he have to say for himself? As always, I'd like to hear the other side of the story.

As for how you handled it, what more could you have done? I'm sure you'll be looking at tank straps very closely after this. Given your experience level, I'd say you did fine from how you described it.

Welcome to SB.

 

[RJTY]

Why did you stay down 5 minutes after you tightened the strap and you considered it unsafe? Was your buddy sucking water at this point?

 

[HowardE]

anarekey2000 - Did you pay for the guide, or were you just "tagging along" ??

 

[NadMat]

I think that if I were your buddy, I would demand my money back from dive service for the 'guide' fee, since from your description of dive it was obvious he was not guiding y'all.

Otherwise, I think you did fine dealing with the situation as it occurred and made the correct decisions.
It would be nice to hear from the dive boat/instructor/guide side of the story.

 

[FFMDiver]

how did his regulator his crack?

 

[herman]

This seems to be a recurring theme on the Grove. For some reason the Grove seems to attract divers who are not up to diving it.
My regular buddy and I were diving the Grove last April and were asked to take an unknown diver with us....we refused. I hated to do it but there are some dives I refuse to be an insta buddy/unpaid DM on, the Grove being one of them. As it turned out the current was ripping that day and I got involved in an OOA on the way up, not my buddy or myself but an AOW student and his instructor (?). The instructor signaled he wanted me to hang with them in case his air ran low while sharing with his student. It was nice knowing exactly what to expect out of my buddy and not have to worry about an unknown buddy. As many near misses on the Grove as we hear about on this board it's a wonder more people don't get hurt there.

 

[TheRedHead]

I would place some of the blame on the buddy who apparently neglected his equipment maintenance, or if rented, the dive shop that owns it. Proper equipment maintenance is covered in basic OW. Part of the blame goes to the instructor as once you agree to form a team, it's inexcusable to abandon part of the team. Anareky, you did an excellent job rescuing your buddy from a potentially serious problem.

One lesson you might take away from this is that someone who has logged 30 dives in 5 years is an infrequent diver and is probably rusty. They may not think very much about diving in the interim. They may not even look at their equipment except for once per year and may not have it serviced. I would rather dive with a newbie who has made 30 dives in 5 months and is enthusiastic about diving.

 

[anarekey2000]

Thanks for all your feedback. In response to some of your questions: I stayed down the extra 5 minutes to ensure I was adequately rested before ascending. The strap wasn't going to get any better or worse since we really weren't moving around. I deferred to my buddy as to whether he wanted to get it on with the DM, he chose not to. So far as I know his reg must have had a hairline crack that was expanded due to the current. It wasn't cracked before the dive as far as I know. I'd rather not name the outfit I went with since most of these problems could have been resolved by making sure the gear was in good shape and able to withstand the current.

 

[RJTY]

Sounds to me like you did a good job and were a good buddy unlike the DM. If that was rental gear I would definately try to get some money back. It sucks paying for a dive you are not able to do because of bad rental gear, and bad DM. Good thing he only started sucking in water on the way up. It could have been worse.