Thinking of getting pickier on conditions

[boulderjohn]

Back when I first moved to Colorado, if I had a ski day planned, I skied, no matter the conditions. Bitter cold, wind--it didn't matter. I toughed it out, by God! Then I got older and that dedication began to wane. Eventually, if it wasn't a reasonably nice day, I wasn't going. I think I am feeling that transition with technical diving.

A few days ago I was chatting with a member of a boat crew, and he talked about being top side while divers are in the water. He said if it is a tech dive, the divers always go in, no matter the conditions, and it can be a tough period for them on board when things got rough. Well, things got that way Saturday afternoon. We set off for a very popular Florida wreck, the Hydro Atlantic, and things were already starting to get sporty, with higher winds expected for later. By the time we splashed, things were very rough. I was working with a student,and we had no thought of backing out. I had dived many times in such conditions. The dive itself was great, but problems started with the ascent.

The normal procedure for this dive operator is to attach a descent/ascent line and then disconnect it once everyone has started the ascent, and that was what we were expecting. By doing that, we all do our deco drifting comfortably next to the dangling ascent line. For some reason, they did not do that this time. (There was no briefing before the dive, so we were confused about a number of things.) As a consequence, we were all hanging onto the ascent line in a big cluster in heavy current, a very unpleasant experience. About half of the divers did what we should have done--left the line, shot bags, and drifted.

When we got to the surface, it was very rough. The boat was well off, checking on the drifters. The came back and picked people up as they surfaced, a very slow process. Hanging on the ladder to pull off the fins as the waves slammed against the boat was pure Hell. There was no thought off handing up any deco bottles; we climbed the ladder with all our gear except the fins. Once those of us from the ascent line were on board, they had to go to get the drifters, who had traveled about a mile. It was not a pleasant ride, and it was not pleasant on the boat while they were maneuvering to pick them up. Then they had to go back to untie the ascent line.

By then I was thoroughly beaten up. There was another tech dive scheduled for the next day, and I made sure we were not going to be on it. My student had finished her requirements, and I had no desire to dive again. The next day I felt as if I had been pummeled by a mob. My shoulder was in a lot of pain, probably wrenched while trying to hold on to the ladder, and three days later is only now beginning to feel better.

So contrary to what that boat crew member said in paragraph #2, this is one tech diver who is going to be very choosy about future tech dives. Maybe I'm just too old now, but I'm not going to go through that sort of thing again if I can help it.

Anyone else feeling that way?

 

[LiteHedded]

Yea. I don't go out in conditions like that if I can avoid it. But sometimes you get tricked

 

[KevinNM]

There was no briefing before the dive, so we were confused about a number of things.

I'm thinking this was probably not the first sign, but it's a biggie.

 

[RyanT]

I'm the same way. I think it comes with a body that is no longer twenty-something and made of rubber!

 

[dumpsterDiver]

I am surprised that a technical dive instructor did not discuss the ascent strategy with the boat operator. If they did n

/...
The normal procedure for this dive operator is to attach a descent/ascent line and then disconnect it once everyone has started the ascent, and that was what we were expecting. By doing that, we all do our deco drifting comfortably next to the dangling ascent line. For some reason, they did not do that this time. (There was no briefing before the dive, so we were confused about a number of things.) As a consequence, we were all hanging onto the ascent line in a big cluster in heavy current, a very unpleasant experience. About half of the divers did what we should have done--left the line, shot bags, and drifted.other tech dive scheduled for the next day, and I made sure we were not going to be on it. ?

Rather than try to pick better weather to go diving, i would think a more important lesson would be to have a dive briefing for a technical dive. If i were diving that wreck, even if I was not responsible for a student, I would have demanded a briefing and there is absolutely no way in the world I would be doing a tech dive without an understanding about the most basic parameters of the ascent. I have dove that wreck several times over the last 25 years or so, but i have never taken any of those technical dive classes, so i'm not sure if something like an ascent plan is emphasized in technical dive classes.

You indicated that the failure to let go of the line and drift with the remaining divers resulted in a separation of over a mile between the boat and other divers and possibly yourself. In rough conditions and close to shore (like this wreck is) it would be very easy for a diver to get run over and killed while on the surface by a vessel in this heavy traffic area running for home in high winds and whitecaps.

I am however, surprised you chose to take a student out that afternoon, the forecast was very clear about rapidly deteriorating conditions, but it was wonderful in the morning. We ripped off a few dives and headed in before any seas developed. This video shows the conditions in that general area in the morning.

 

[cool_hardware52]

For me it's a balance. It's entirely proper to pass on a dive when the conditions suck, but.........

Keep in mind that it could very well be your last chance to do these dives ever. Not to sound melodramatic, but diving, particularly team based tech diving, is a *very* perishable thing. It's easy to discount todays easy availability of all the varied elements required for (semi) serious tech dives. You need qualified, fit, current, available, trust worthy team mates, transport (read boat) that is tech friendly, access to the gases you need, conditions that allow the boat out of the harbor, top side crew that is available and trust worthy. The disposable income to fund the gas, gear, transport and time away from work.

*Any* of these things can and do disappear in a heart beat. This painful reality is often recognized only after it's happened. (You don't know what you've got 'till it's gone)
The guy with the boat sells it. The guy with the fill station moves. The diver who always ram rodded project dives gets married, divorced, has a kid, or all three!

I'm not advocating diving when it's unsafe. I am advocating exploiting every opportunity *TO DIVE* because tomorrow offers no guarantees.

Tobin

 

[Bennno]

(There was no briefing before the dive, so we were confused about a number of things.)

I really don't wanna get into yet another argument with you John. However, IMHO it's the instructors responsibility to sort this stuff out before the dive. In the end of the day your the one in the water, not the crew.
Don't you usually talk things through with the skipper/crew? If they don't do a briefing or something is not clear to you, asked them.
As long as you are 'confused about a number of things', you shouldn't enter the water.

 

[shoredivr]

Never understand why all dive boats don't have x-mas tree ladders, no need to take off your fins, just walk up the ladder with fins on. Crew can help take them off when you're on the
Deck or help you to your seat and take them off there even in rough weather IME.

To answer the OP's question: sometimes it's just too rough.

 

[boulderjohn]

Just to be clear...

As we prepared to jump in, I was quite sure we knew the procedures. Every diver on the boat had been with the boat many times before, and they always did the same thing. I was thus surprised when they did not disconnect the line, as was everyone else. The prevailing theory after the dive was that the team doing the longest run time (all our run times were established prior to the dive) was expected to untie the line, but they did not get the message somehow. (That team included someone who was normally a member of the crew.)

 

[boulderjohn]

Keep in mind that it could very well be your last chance to do these dives ever. Not to sound melodramatic, but diving, particularly team based tech diving, is a *very* perishable thing. It's easy to discount todays easy availability of all the varied elements required for (semi) serious tech dives.

I am all too aware of that these days.

I live most of the year in Colorado, and the only place we can do this kind of diving is in a large, 280 foot deep sinkhole on private property in New Mexico, a 6+ hour drive from my home. There is no infrastructure for tech diving nearby--no trimix to be had, and the only nitrox is hours away in Albuquerque. The market for tech diving in the area is very small, so there aren't many such divers or students. Consequently, an instructor/shop who pours in the resources needed to establish a real tech program is probably making a financial mistake. This creates a chicken-egg situation--you don't have tech resources because you don't have the divers to make it pay off, and you don't have the divers to make it pay off because you don't have tech resources.

So this year I said the Hell with it all. In my old age I was going to make this work, even if it would be a money-losing proposition designed to do little more than give me people with whom I could dive. I bought a powerful booster so I could make trimix fills on location. I bought a portable filter so I could hook it up to a local compressor and get hyper pure air. I bought a large van to carry everything. By the end of the year, things were going great. I made the trips with the van filled with equipment, including 4 300-cubic foot bottles of helium and 2 bottles of oxygen. I had students meeting me from all over the place, including south Texas. I would never break even on my purchases, but I could do the dives I wanted.

Then I scheduled the December trip with the property owner, and she informed me that to meet some financial obligations, she would be selling the lake to the nearby Fish and Game department, which already uses the water for a trout hatchery. They would absolutely not allow any diving on the site. That would be the end of everything. There is no other real technical diving site that I know of in the Rocky Mountain region. We discussed our options, and the nearest one was 10+ hours away from my home. I began to make plans to sell that equipment for anything I could get for it, and I figured I would stop instructing altogether.

Yesterday I got the good news--she had made different arrangements, and the lake will still be available to us, at least for now. If, on the other hand, she decides to sell again, it will be all over.