Stupid Question Alert

[EireDiver606]

A guy asked three of us to look for his phone in about 4-5m depth after two of my friends had done a deep dive. We came in post dive around the 20-25 mins mark about my friends had done a 35m (120’) for 40min dive and I had done a 25m for 40min.

We went down and the vis was very bad but doable, then when we reached bottom of course it was bad enough that we couldn’t see the bottom until our faces went into it....

So we were swimming around in confusion in no vis as the silty black soupie “stuff” floated around and we ended going up and repositioning ourselves about 3 times in the space of 7mins. We couldn’t find the phone.

Was this unsafe? Or any risks involved? They were breathing nitrox 32 and I was on air but after 35m dive?

 

[SleepySlipper]

I think that if you are questioning the safety of you and your buddies dive, it wasn’t a well put together dive.

 

[tbone1004]

@EireDiver606 what depth is your safety stop done at?
Nothing wrong with doing that, though it sounds like you could have benefited from some proper search pattern techniques

 

[RainPilot]

On Subsurface with GF 90/100 I get this for your friends dive to 35m for a 40min bottom time on 32% :

150 Cuft required and 23 min of deco at 6m

If the total runtime was 40 min then its 30 min bottom time and 6 min deco, not a safety stop. With 108 cuft of gas required.

With that in mind, if this was done as an "NDL" dive then it seems quite aggressive, dropping down again for any bounce dive may not be a great idea. Admittedly it is shallow but this is where you are likely to find out if anyone has a PFO.

I am VERY risk averse with this sort of stuff, doing a short-SI bounce after a longish 35m dive would have me thinking carefully.

If the 35m was a max depth and the average depth was substantially shallower ie a genuine NDL dive then I wouldn't have too much worry doing this.

 

[Scuba_Aaron]

Not necessarily "unsafe" but not being prepared for 0 vis might be something of concern. A guide I go with is, if you can't see the bottom from topside, prepare for braille diving.

 

[Compressor]

Agree with comments above.
Did you just look around or was there a systematic search to try to find the phone? Depending on viz, there are diff search patterns/technique one would deploy.

 

[Scuba_Aaron]

Considering the reasonable location of the loss an arc pattern would be appropriate in this circumstance.

 

[Bent Benny]

Other than taking a search and recovery type course, where is the best place to learn about search techniques?

 

[Scuba_Aaron]

Starting off, if you can't find a SAR team in you're area, you must be comfortable with 0 vis diving. Try to stay buoyant and trimmed relative to the bottom and pay attention to your ears, they will tell you if you are ascending or descending. Do not dive in this condition without surface support or a competent buddy. Comms and a rope and tender are essential, anything less is risking lives. Please understand this is can be a dangerous environment.

 

[Bent Benny]

I didn't necessarily mean in 0 vis conditions, I mean SAR in general. Someone had me looking for a lost pair of glasses yesterday and I couldn't find them. I tried just corn rowing the area but it was hard to stay on track.
I'm just wondering if there are any good books on the subject or anything like that.

Sorry for the hijack eriediver.