Team question

[b1gcountry]

I had a chance to dive with some really great guys while I was up in Puget Sound last week. We were diving on a barge at about 100' just near the Lake Washington Locks. I got in the water as a team of three divers. One had a lot more experience as I did, and could probably be considered as DIR. The other diver was a little less experienced than I was, but hadn't been diving in the sound in a while (I'm still not exactly sure how long), so might have been a little rusty with his drysuit.

Anyway, we started out our descent, and the more experienced diver was right on the shot line, doing a more or less text book descent. I was a little task loaded with the descent (deflate, equalize, unclip light, inflate, kick towards shot line, inflate Drysuit, equalize, etc.). The third diver was not as close to the line as we started descending, and I believed he would start to swim closer to the line as we got deeper, but he started getting farther away from the line. I swam next to him and signalled him to swim toward the line, but I'm not sure he understood, and continued dropping straight down. At this point, both divers are at the edge of my visibility, and I could no longer stay within sight of both divers (I'm sure they couldn't see each other at this point.) What do you do here?

Tom

 

[TSandM]

Man, that story reminds me of my Fundies class. Every descent, we'd have somebody who couldn't get down and somebody who hurtled down, and me in the middle trying to figure out how to lead a team when my teammates were separated by 20 vertical feet

It's really a bad situation, when the team gets separated on descent, and it's hard to salvage. You need to be on the upline if you are to have much hope of finding what you're going down there to see, but you have a teammmate whose skills have failed him, and he's off the line and not apparently aware of or fixing the problem. And your third team member is staying on the line, possibly in the hope of being a reference for the two of you, but also possibly because he hasn't grasped the situation.

The only solution I see in this case is to really take control of the third diver. If he doesn't answer your signal to move toward the upline and isn't taking action, GRAB his arm and SHOVE it in the direction you want him to go. Get him to look at and acknowledge you. Tell him to level off, using crisp, unambiguous signals. (This is one of my real weak points -- I'm not ASSERTIVE enough when somebody needs to take control and keep a problem from going from bad to worse.) At the same time, use your light to attract the attention of the supposedly better skilled diver, so that you know he is aware of the issue, because if you CAN'T return the third diver to the upline for whatever reason, your skilled buddy needs to come join you and assist. This may mean aborting the descent, going to the surface to regroup and retry, but that beats leaving one diver in the water alone, even if it's on the upline.

This is real example of why team-based diving is dependent on a certain minimum level of skill on the part of all team members.

 

[MBH]

In crappy or limited vis the initial descent seems to be where most seperations occur. I think that its critical to really plan out and discuss the descent pre-dive. I don't know what your exact plan was but a couple of solid ways to stay together is, single file with the trailing divers using their light beams for passive and active communication or three abreast with all divers staying within each others peripheral vision. I prefer lights because your beam tells me just about everything that I need to know.

 

[lamont]

What do you do here?

not knowing the exact details i'd suggest sticking with the less experienced diver while trying to get the attention of the more experienced one. you could try to focus on getting the less experienced diver back to the upline, but they're already task loaded and its going to be harder to communicate with them. at that point the person with the most bandwidth available is the more experienced diver who is on the upline (although you never know -- they could be sticking like glue to the upline and unaware of the buddy separation because they're dealing with a gear issue, equalization, etc...). of course if you're less experienced and task loaded as well it makes the whole thing more difficult. this is why teams of three are tough, and why everyone really needs to focus on keeping the team together as a primary goal.

 

[b1gcountry]

Well, what wound up happening was that I did stick with the less experienced guy. The more experienced one decided to stay on the line and swam to the edge of the barge, shining his light out as a beacon to us. We touched down on the sand, and after stopping his ascent with a hand on the sand, the other diver was able to get his buoyancy straightened out. I had managed to get a bearing on the line when we separated from it, and we swam about 25' before seeing the light coming from the top of the barge, and the third diver. We completed the dive without incident, but I did consciously position myself so that the less experienced guy was between me and the more experienced one. I also called the dive about 200psi short figuring buoyancy problems descending might be met with buoyancy problems ascending. There was a little hanging on the line during the ascent, but nothing overly serious.

Overall, it worked out fine, but I still didn't like that feeling of uneasiness when something starts to go wrong, but there isn't anything you can do about it yet. There is a certain point where your buddy isn't responding to you, but they are still in control enough to rule out you actually taking control and performing a rescue. I can handle it when I have a responsive buddy. I can also handle a buddy that's in trouble and needs my assistance, but I get mixed up all the time in these in-between situations. I think I'm in the same boat as you Lynne about being assertive.

Tom

 

[MBH]

I believe that it's very important for everyone to have a clear understanding of how the team will descend. Discuss it pre dive, and make it a point to have each team member verbally recite the descent plan out loud. You'd be amazed at how that one little thing helps ingrain something into a persons memory.

 

[Rick Inman]

Who was the team leader? Who had HID lights? In general, staying with the leader and flashing the 3rd divers seems prudent, IMO.

 

[TSandM]

Yeah, descents are one of the times with the highest likelihood of something going wrong -- That's where an equipment problem that wasn't caught in the pre-dive will show up (Yikes, I didn't turn on my argon!), or people may have problems equalizing and need to stop for a bit. Lots of us practice ascent drills, with careful stops, but I've found DESCENT drills, with the same stops, to be equally difficult and well worth doing. Being thrown a valve failure on descent and handling it poorly was a big education for me in the number of things you have to be able to juggle, and how much a dry suit hampers you in such a situation.

 

[KMD]

If the team isn't aware and sticking together, then just thumb the dive and discuss it on the surface. Its just not worth it to get separated like that.

If you cant get the person below attention and have him stop his descent, how is he going to help you with and out of air problem? If the person above you is so task loaded that he cant respond properly then he is equally useless for any emergency.

Since this is in a DIR forum we should be emphasizing team team team. Its very tough to have an effective team when spread out on different levels in the water column.

 

[dsteding]

If the team isn't aware and sticking together, then just thumb the dive and discuss it on the surface. Its just not worth it to get separated like that.

This is good advice, you are early in the dive, things are falling apart. Stop the snowball effect right there, get things straightened out. There are times to solve issues underwater, but there are also times, such as this, where if you can signal both divers to go up, you can get it straightened out. That might have been a bit difficult, but it should t least be an option to consider.