scubafool
Contributor
I was thinking about this dive today, as I have many times. Truly, it has been the most important dive I have ever done. I have learned so many things from replaying this dive in my head. I think, that although I will NEVER stop learning from & improving because of this dive, I am ready to relate it openly now.
Background. This occurred just over 2 years ago. The two dives I did that day were #42 & #43. My buddy and I had been told that thermoclines were to be expected on this dive, that the bottom was very silty, & that the dive was kind of dark.
Dive # 42. Gear up & get in. I notice that the viz is not so great. Drop down aways, I notice that the viz kinda sucks & the sunlight from the surface is fading fast, so I switch on my light. Drop down further, I hit the thermocline and stop. There is a very dull glow from the surface, but not much. I shine my light around, but all I see is BLACK. I look down and can see my buddy about 10' deeper. At this time, I start to feel the stress level rise, to the point that I question whether or not I can continue the dive. After a short time, I convince myself to carry on. I descend to the depth that my buddy is at, and off we go. After we swim around a bit, and get a bit deeper, the light from the surface completely dissappears. I am not liking the situation very much, & I can tell that my buddy isn't too happy either. Somewhere around 60'-70' my buddy starts kicking for the top. I interpret this as a panic ascent, & grab my buddy's fin. Luckily, in short order I have my buddy back & paying attention to me. So we start to concentrate on each other to "make up" for the lack of an outside world, since in any direction we looked, there was nothing but BLACK. We get vertical, and started to fin in an attempt (I guess) to maintain a particular depth. It's weird, but to this day I can still remember looking at my computer one minute & seeing 63', and looking at it moments later & seeing 98'. Basically, here the two of us are, in a darkwater enviroment, scared, but both of us have too much ego to do the smart thing & call the dive. I SO wanted my buddy to call it, but NO WAY was I going to call it.
Well, to make a medium story short, we both lived through that one. It was the ego driven, "ain't no dive gonna frighten me away", second dive that nearly did in one of us.
We take a lunch break, & than head back in for dive #43. We did exactly one thing right this time, that is, we made a plan for this dive, discussed it in depth, made sure that we both understood it, etc. Plan was: get in water, descend to bottom, follow directions to bottom feature we wanted to see, return to line used on descent, my buddy was to control our ascent, while I was to keep track of depth on my computer. OK, the descent went rather well, the thermocline didn't bug me as much, and we got to the bottom just fine. At first, we were having trouble discerning the direction we needed to go, so my buddy kind of gave up & started goofing around. But I shortly figured it out, and signaled my buddy "Let's go". My buddy led off, I followed. The situation went to crap immediately.
At this point, I need to set the stage for this "drama" a little bit better. First, neither of us werre trimmed out properly, both of us were foot heavy. Both of us were using a large pattern flutter kick. We hadn't thought about, let alone practiced, signalling eachother with our lights. Just a few of about a dozen different mistakes that we made.
Anyhow, about 5 feet away from the descent line, I realized that my buddy was kicking up silt. A lot of silt. About 5' 6" away from the descent line, I decided that I didn't want to do this dive anymore. But my buddy was swimming at such a pace that I couldn't ever catch up to let them know. Kick, kick, kick, grab for a fin. Multiple times. Finally, in a state of near panic, I managed to catch a fin tip in my fingers. My buddy turned slightly to look, I pointed back in the direction of the ascent line & gave a thumbs up. Buddy looked slightly puzzled, but either gave me an "OK" or repeated my signals back, I don't recall which. I turned and headed back, and at that moment is when I nearly killed my buddy. When I turned & headed back, one of my fins knocked my buddy's regulator out, & mask off, in more than 100' of dark, silted out, uncaring feet of water. Since I was so intent on getting to the ascent line & heading up, I didn't notice that my buddy wasn't with me. Back behind me, my buddy was groping around for a reg & a mask. My buddy ended up going for their octo. But that is when my buddy's mistakes started to cause problems. My buddy had one of those handy dandy signalling whistles attached to their octo. When my buddy put the regulator in their mouth, the whistle went in also, but only just enough to let water in every time my buddy took a breath. Buddy decided to deal with the incoming water till they could catch up with me so I could sort it out. Buddy found mask on the side of their head, cleared it, and actually beat me back to the ascent line. This is where I blew it once again. I didn't notice that my buddy was breathing from their octupus, I didn't try to understand what my buddy was trying to communicate to me, I just figured that they were freaking out, that they weren't following "the plan", I thought that the best thing to do was to force my buddy back onto "the plan". I put my buddy onto the ascent line, & signalled "UP!".
Well,we both lived through it, no thanks to me. My thoughts of mistakes that were made are as follows.
First of all, we didn't get a clear briefing on the site. The briefing that we did get we pretty much disregarded anyway.
Both of us didn't call the first dive when it was obvious to both of us that both of us were uncomfortable with the dive.
Neither of us had any clue of how to control our bouyancy.
Both of us were not trimmed correctly weight wise.
Neither of us had the slightest clue how to move without disturbing the bottom.
Both of us were severely lacking in regards to buddy skills. I tend to think that this was our biggest screwup of this whole mess.
Background. This occurred just over 2 years ago. The two dives I did that day were #42 & #43. My buddy and I had been told that thermoclines were to be expected on this dive, that the bottom was very silty, & that the dive was kind of dark.
Dive # 42. Gear up & get in. I notice that the viz is not so great. Drop down aways, I notice that the viz kinda sucks & the sunlight from the surface is fading fast, so I switch on my light. Drop down further, I hit the thermocline and stop. There is a very dull glow from the surface, but not much. I shine my light around, but all I see is BLACK. I look down and can see my buddy about 10' deeper. At this time, I start to feel the stress level rise, to the point that I question whether or not I can continue the dive. After a short time, I convince myself to carry on. I descend to the depth that my buddy is at, and off we go. After we swim around a bit, and get a bit deeper, the light from the surface completely dissappears. I am not liking the situation very much, & I can tell that my buddy isn't too happy either. Somewhere around 60'-70' my buddy starts kicking for the top. I interpret this as a panic ascent, & grab my buddy's fin. Luckily, in short order I have my buddy back & paying attention to me. So we start to concentrate on each other to "make up" for the lack of an outside world, since in any direction we looked, there was nothing but BLACK. We get vertical, and started to fin in an attempt (I guess) to maintain a particular depth. It's weird, but to this day I can still remember looking at my computer one minute & seeing 63', and looking at it moments later & seeing 98'. Basically, here the two of us are, in a darkwater enviroment, scared, but both of us have too much ego to do the smart thing & call the dive. I SO wanted my buddy to call it, but NO WAY was I going to call it.
Well, to make a medium story short, we both lived through that one. It was the ego driven, "ain't no dive gonna frighten me away", second dive that nearly did in one of us.
We take a lunch break, & than head back in for dive #43. We did exactly one thing right this time, that is, we made a plan for this dive, discussed it in depth, made sure that we both understood it, etc. Plan was: get in water, descend to bottom, follow directions to bottom feature we wanted to see, return to line used on descent, my buddy was to control our ascent, while I was to keep track of depth on my computer. OK, the descent went rather well, the thermocline didn't bug me as much, and we got to the bottom just fine. At first, we were having trouble discerning the direction we needed to go, so my buddy kind of gave up & started goofing around. But I shortly figured it out, and signaled my buddy "Let's go". My buddy led off, I followed. The situation went to crap immediately.
At this point, I need to set the stage for this "drama" a little bit better. First, neither of us werre trimmed out properly, both of us were foot heavy. Both of us were using a large pattern flutter kick. We hadn't thought about, let alone practiced, signalling eachother with our lights. Just a few of about a dozen different mistakes that we made.
Anyhow, about 5 feet away from the descent line, I realized that my buddy was kicking up silt. A lot of silt. About 5' 6" away from the descent line, I decided that I didn't want to do this dive anymore. But my buddy was swimming at such a pace that I couldn't ever catch up to let them know. Kick, kick, kick, grab for a fin. Multiple times. Finally, in a state of near panic, I managed to catch a fin tip in my fingers. My buddy turned slightly to look, I pointed back in the direction of the ascent line & gave a thumbs up. Buddy looked slightly puzzled, but either gave me an "OK" or repeated my signals back, I don't recall which. I turned and headed back, and at that moment is when I nearly killed my buddy. When I turned & headed back, one of my fins knocked my buddy's regulator out, & mask off, in more than 100' of dark, silted out, uncaring feet of water. Since I was so intent on getting to the ascent line & heading up, I didn't notice that my buddy wasn't with me. Back behind me, my buddy was groping around for a reg & a mask. My buddy ended up going for their octo. But that is when my buddy's mistakes started to cause problems. My buddy had one of those handy dandy signalling whistles attached to their octo. When my buddy put the regulator in their mouth, the whistle went in also, but only just enough to let water in every time my buddy took a breath. Buddy decided to deal with the incoming water till they could catch up with me so I could sort it out. Buddy found mask on the side of their head, cleared it, and actually beat me back to the ascent line. This is where I blew it once again. I didn't notice that my buddy was breathing from their octupus, I didn't try to understand what my buddy was trying to communicate to me, I just figured that they were freaking out, that they weren't following "the plan", I thought that the best thing to do was to force my buddy back onto "the plan". I put my buddy onto the ascent line, & signalled "UP!".
Well,we both lived through it, no thanks to me. My thoughts of mistakes that were made are as follows.
First of all, we didn't get a clear briefing on the site. The briefing that we did get we pretty much disregarded anyway.
Both of us didn't call the first dive when it was obvious to both of us that both of us were uncomfortable with the dive.
Neither of us had any clue of how to control our bouyancy.
Both of us were not trimmed correctly weight wise.
Neither of us had the slightest clue how to move without disturbing the bottom.
Both of us were severely lacking in regards to buddy skills. I tend to think that this was our biggest screwup of this whole mess.
