Surfacing...then descending again??

[GregA2k6]

Hello all,

I have a question about coming to the surface then continuring your dive. Say you happen to lose your buddy and you follow your plan of looking for 1 minute then coming to the surface. Is it considered safe to descend and complete your dive plan once you find your buddy again? Obviously the depth you were at and were heading back down to would be an important factor as well as your current pressure group. Say you were around the 60 feet (or shallower) mark. That is pretty much the deepest I go as I am a new diver and am curious as to the safety of this practice.

Thanks for any info!

Greg A

 

[dherbman]

Hey Greg,

It's not ideal, but it's not likely that it would cause a problem for a healthy diver. We used to do multiple ascents from 60' when working with students for AOW and never had an issue. Sometimes as many as 12 over the course of two dives.
Other factors that could make this more dangerous:

smoking
obesity
time at depth
ascent rate
residual nitrogen

 

[utdivermatt]

Just be careful with you ears. I had an incident a few weeks ago where we had to surface during a dive multiple times, and it killed both of our ears. The only thing we can link it to is the mulitple dives and surfacing. Hopefully this would not happen to you, but we got the point where neither could equalize.

 

[PerroneFord]

If you do this... on your second ascent, TAKE YOUR TIME COMING UP! If you go to 60ft, stay there a while, on ascent, come up 10ft at a time, and stay there 2-3 minutes, and do that all the way up to 10ft if you can...

Give your body PLENTY of time to get rid of those bubbles.

That said, this is a type 2 hit waiting to happen. This is why I hate this advice about looking for a buddy.

 

[Goose75]

Instructors do it all the time with students. Of coarse it is usually not over 20ft.

 

[bogrady]

If you do this... on your second ascent, TAKE YOUR TIME COMING UP! If you go to 60ft, stay there a while, on ascent, come up 10ft at a time, and stay there 2-3 minutes, and do that all the way up to 10ft if you can...

Give your body PLENTY of time to get rid of those bubbles.

That said, this is a type 2 hit waiting to happen. This is why I hate this advice about looking for a buddy.

I'm curious about what advice you would give about looking for a lost buddy. I'm a newbie, and dive Lake Travis low viz regularly. My buddy is my son, and if I lose him, if looking for him doesn't kill me, my wife will. I'm always looking for any advice/alternatives for (1) not losing him in the first place - ie stay close enough to touch, or a buddy line, and (2) what are the alternatives if I do lose him and we have to somehow find each other. Do flasher lights work in low viz? How about some sort of sound signal?

 

[PerroneFord]

Low vis conditions are certainly a challenge. But I'd suggest having some sort of both audible and visual way to contact each other underwater. As well as a plan to rendezvous at a certain depth at a certain spot.

I don't see why diver seperation should be a problem at all in open water. Especially with only two divers. If you find this a problem, I'd suggest more training or a serious conversation about team protocol. The idea of a buddy line is probably a good one if you don't have entanglement threats.

Best thing in my opinion is two HID lights. I know on the dive I did in 3-4ft vis, I was WISHING I had mine.

 

[bogrady]

BorgMan -
Thanks for the advice. We're learning fast that you're right about two divers in open water and we're working on developing our own team protocol. We're finding that nothing beats physical contact right now.

I've actually only "lost" him once - we were with another buddy team and we had finally found "the Pinto" at 70 feet down in Travis. In all the excitement, the buddys got switched and he disappered into the silt cloud on the other side of the Pinto. He found me again when I started to sweep my HID back and forth. I think we'll give the buddy line a try next time we get wet.

 

[dumpsterDiver]

If diving in bad vis you need to stay very close, move very slowly, always know who is the leader and the moment you become separated, SCREAM into your regulator. If the diver is less than 15 feet away they should easily hear this and then the protocol should be something like stop and slowly look back from the direction you came. If you are moving together slowly as a team, you should not get separated more than 15 feet without realizing it.

If you don't immediately establish visual contact (using lights is very helpful) another long scream can help and will confirm that the diver has not initiated a lost buddy ascent. Well that's what I do anyway.

 

[TSandM]

Yes, HID lights are visible a surprising distance through murk, even when you can't make out anything of the diver wielding them.

Keeping in contact in poor visibility requires a fair amount of discipline, and can be quite difficult to manage, particularly on descents. This is the one place where I have experienced buddy separation on several occasions. We've always used the "search one minute and surface" rule, and that's worked fine.