In retrospect we all made some suspect decisions on this mostly uneventful dive. It all comes down to communications – or in this case, lack thereof. I'm sharing not to get chastised – I know the errors, or for advice. Again, I have a pretty good idea on that also. I'm sharing for awareness.
We were a dive group of three divers in a loose – not really buddy configuration. There was no expectation that we would all stay together during the dive, and we all often choose to dive solo. That was understood and accepted by all. It was also understood, and we often reiterate this, that any diver can abort for any reason with no questions asked. This dive was about ¼ mile offshore in a protected bay in 30M of water. We are all tech trained, with myself the least of the 3 (Tec40). I was the only one wearing 'tech' gear for the dive (SM with twin 72s) and also the only one diving AIR. The other two were on Nitrox 32. I had briefed that since I was on air, and had oodles of gas, that I might allow myself to 'touch' deco and accept a small deco obligation.
My standard kit includes: 2 SM tanks with independent 1st and 2nd stage regulators (one on long hose), 2 dive computers, and a Nautilus Lifeline. I almost always brief my boat mates on the Lifeline, but don't mention the dual computers often.
Dive plan was that diver A would photograph/video on his own, diver B would look for good stuff for me to photo. And I would photo and run a reel from the anchor. Diver B declined to be the reel runner. In spite of being tech trained, diver B was not comfortable running the reel. I run my reel and photo all the time, so accepted the dual role.
We all splashed and gathered at the anchor line, signaled OK, and descended together. Once at the bottom at 30M we again signaled we were all OK. There was a lot of (expected) surge and I found attaching the reel to the anchor chain a bit more challenging than normal. Once done I looked up and saw A looking at me, then swim off to do their dive. A minute or two later B came up to me and gestured at their wrist. I didn't understand what they were trying to say and gave the “I don't understand” universal sign. They tried again and I pointed at them and signaled “up” and they nodded. I waved “bye” and diver B waved back and ascended.
The remainder of my dive was uneventful, but I did notice diver A was staying closer to me than usual. We went up the anchor line together and I did my accrued 3 minutes of deco and another 5 minutes of SS at the usual 7M. (Note that 5M in our conditions with the heavy swell is too shallow for comfort.) FWIW I surfaced with about 30cuft in one tank and 55cuft in the other – so do NOT have any remorse about the deco.
I stowed my tanks and camera on the gear lines and boarded the boat. Diver B was there, as expected, and still in their drysuit. They were quite cold. Apparently their wrist seal had suffered a 10cm tear and their suit mostly flooded. They did not put on either of the two very visible (and warm) boat coats on board. Actually we had to convince them to put one on and that they weren't “taking something that either diver A and I needed”.
Diver A after getting on the boat admitted (sheepishly) that they had forgotten to start either of their two dive computers before descending. Apparently neither will turn itself on OR is able to turn on at depth. Diver A had stuck close to me because they were using me as a dive computer substitute along with their bottom timer. They had added an extra two minutes to their SS after I surfaced as an extra precaution. Please remember that diver A was on Nitrox 32 and I was on Air.
So what was the problem? COMMUNICATIONS, COMMUNICATIONS, COMMUNICATIONS – or lack thereof. We all made decisions on this dive that were not optimal, but were ones that we made apparently knowing that we were making a decision about our own personal safety.
First issue: Diver B suffered an equipment failure at depth. They recognized the failure and the need to abort their dive. They told me about the issue – which I failed to understand the actual problem, but did understand they wanted to surface. Had the leak been a small pinhole type I would not have any problem with diver B surfacing alone – again we were really diving independently in a loose group. However a full on wrist seal breakage at 30M in heavy swell is NOT a trivial problem.
It would have been much safer if:
So why the communication issues? We all are experienced and competent divers, but have been trained at different times and with different systems. Our common dive signals are pretty basic (turn dive, surface, OK, go this direction, out of air). More informative signals are not common among us. We were NOT diving as a team, but as independent divers in loose association, so we didn't do a formal 'do we all know the same signals' brief. It would have been better if we had done such a brief.
If diver B had waggled their hand (broken in my lexicon) and pointed to their seal I would have asked if it was 'little' (thumb and index finger close together) or 'large' (both hand moving away from each other). I would like to think in that case I would have escorted them to the surface before descending and continuing my dive.
If diver A had shown me their computers or waggled their hand and pointed to the computer then signaled they wanted to formally buddy with me (point to me and then to themself and put both index fingers together) I would have signaled 'no' (waggle index finger at them) I have a better idea and given them my spare computer.
So, we all made decisions about our own personal safety that we were comfortable with at the time, but with better communications they could have been safer ones and in retrospect I will always ask a surfacing diver if they want me to come up with them.
We were a dive group of three divers in a loose – not really buddy configuration. There was no expectation that we would all stay together during the dive, and we all often choose to dive solo. That was understood and accepted by all. It was also understood, and we often reiterate this, that any diver can abort for any reason with no questions asked. This dive was about ¼ mile offshore in a protected bay in 30M of water. We are all tech trained, with myself the least of the 3 (Tec40). I was the only one wearing 'tech' gear for the dive (SM with twin 72s) and also the only one diving AIR. The other two were on Nitrox 32. I had briefed that since I was on air, and had oodles of gas, that I might allow myself to 'touch' deco and accept a small deco obligation.
My standard kit includes: 2 SM tanks with independent 1st and 2nd stage regulators (one on long hose), 2 dive computers, and a Nautilus Lifeline. I almost always brief my boat mates on the Lifeline, but don't mention the dual computers often.
Dive plan was that diver A would photograph/video on his own, diver B would look for good stuff for me to photo. And I would photo and run a reel from the anchor. Diver B declined to be the reel runner. In spite of being tech trained, diver B was not comfortable running the reel. I run my reel and photo all the time, so accepted the dual role.
We all splashed and gathered at the anchor line, signaled OK, and descended together. Once at the bottom at 30M we again signaled we were all OK. There was a lot of (expected) surge and I found attaching the reel to the anchor chain a bit more challenging than normal. Once done I looked up and saw A looking at me, then swim off to do their dive. A minute or two later B came up to me and gestured at their wrist. I didn't understand what they were trying to say and gave the “I don't understand” universal sign. They tried again and I pointed at them and signaled “up” and they nodded. I waved “bye” and diver B waved back and ascended.
The remainder of my dive was uneventful, but I did notice diver A was staying closer to me than usual. We went up the anchor line together and I did my accrued 3 minutes of deco and another 5 minutes of SS at the usual 7M. (Note that 5M in our conditions with the heavy swell is too shallow for comfort.) FWIW I surfaced with about 30cuft in one tank and 55cuft in the other – so do NOT have any remorse about the deco.
I stowed my tanks and camera on the gear lines and boarded the boat. Diver B was there, as expected, and still in their drysuit. They were quite cold. Apparently their wrist seal had suffered a 10cm tear and their suit mostly flooded. They did not put on either of the two very visible (and warm) boat coats on board. Actually we had to convince them to put one on and that they weren't “taking something that either diver A and I needed”.
Diver A after getting on the boat admitted (sheepishly) that they had forgotten to start either of their two dive computers before descending. Apparently neither will turn itself on OR is able to turn on at depth. Diver A had stuck close to me because they were using me as a dive computer substitute along with their bottom timer. They had added an extra two minutes to their SS after I surfaced as an extra precaution. Please remember that diver A was on Nitrox 32 and I was on Air.
So what was the problem? COMMUNICATIONS, COMMUNICATIONS, COMMUNICATIONS – or lack thereof. We all made decisions on this dive that were not optimal, but were ones that we made apparently knowing that we were making a decision about our own personal safety.
First issue: Diver B suffered an equipment failure at depth. They recognized the failure and the need to abort their dive. They told me about the issue – which I failed to understand the actual problem, but did understand they wanted to surface. Had the leak been a small pinhole type I would not have any problem with diver B surfacing alone – again we were really diving independently in a loose group. However a full on wrist seal breakage at 30M in heavy swell is NOT a trivial problem.
It would have been much safer if:
- I had asked diver B if they wanted me to surface with them.
- Diver B had indicated that they would like me to surface with them.
- Diver B had borrowed one of the warm coats instead of sitting in the wind in a soaked drysuit for the remainder of our dive (30+ minutes)
So why the communication issues? We all are experienced and competent divers, but have been trained at different times and with different systems. Our common dive signals are pretty basic (turn dive, surface, OK, go this direction, out of air). More informative signals are not common among us. We were NOT diving as a team, but as independent divers in loose association, so we didn't do a formal 'do we all know the same signals' brief. It would have been better if we had done such a brief.
If diver B had waggled their hand (broken in my lexicon) and pointed to their seal I would have asked if it was 'little' (thumb and index finger close together) or 'large' (both hand moving away from each other). I would like to think in that case I would have escorted them to the surface before descending and continuing my dive.
If diver A had shown me their computers or waggled their hand and pointed to the computer then signaled they wanted to formally buddy with me (point to me and then to themself and put both index fingers together) I would have signaled 'no' (waggle index finger at them) I have a better idea and given them my spare computer.
So, we all made decisions about our own personal safety that we were comfortable with at the time, but with better communications they could have been safer ones and in retrospect I will always ask a surfacing diver if they want me to come up with them.
