Tourist, Left Behind On Fiji Dive Trip, Swims 12 Hours For Land

[diver 85]

Well........that's just dandy, Don........--bet it's an European thingy......

 

[DandyDon]

I wonder where his buddy was? It appears that it was a group dive which to some people negates the buddy system as everyone is together. It is situations like this that outline the need for buddies even in a group situation to prevent a single individual from losing the group.

If he was buddied up then the pair did a lousy job of keeping in close contact with each other.

Yep. When he had to surface alone to float alone, he was then buddyless - so I'd say he was buddyless even if there had been one assigned. I'd rather have a real buddy including descent/ascend together, or none. We don't know much about his details, but with the Stickied Rules of this forum - he as failed, but he survived.

I'm not the best on air and had an assigned bud in a travel group do that to me in Coz once. Clearly not as dangerous location, but it was like I was assigned a buddy to watch over until I needed a buddy - then Fail! I surfaced, boarded, blew her off, never saw her again. After lunch, she went out with some of the group for a third dive, I took a siesta, she ended up in the chamber for no apparent reason with an after dive hit back at the hotel, was med-evaced to Florida and survived there.

I'm grateful that it wasn't one of us taking the hit alone in the water, me or her, but it drove home the need for buddy pair members to support each other throughout the entire dive and debriefing - the more likely time for a hit, but without a gap.

I did one more trip with that group leader and she tried to assign me another inexperienced diver who didn't even want to discuss dive plans. I went solo after him.

 

[Tricia]

Yep. When he had to surface alone to float alone, he was then buddyless - so I'd say he was buddyless even if there had been one assigned. I'd rather have a real buddy including descent/ascend together, or none. We don't know much about his details, but with the Stickied Rules of this forum - he as failed, but he survived.

I'm not the best on air and had an assigned bud in a travel group do that to me in Coz once. Clearly not as dangerous location, but it was like I was assigned a buddy to watch over until I needed a buddy - then Fail! I surfaced, boarded, blew her off, never saw her again. After lunch, she went out with some of the group for a third dive, I took a siesta, she ended up in the chamber for no apparent reason with an after dive hit back at the hotel, was med-evaced to Florida and survived there.

I'm grateful that it wasn't one of us taking the hit alone in the water, me or her, but it drove home the need for buddy pair members to support each other throughout the entire dive and debriefing - the more likely time for a hit, but without a gap.

I did one more trip with that group leader and she tried to assign me another inexperienced diver who didn't even want to discuss dive plans. I went solo after him.

DD, the more I read of these stupidities (both this guy and your "buddy" above), the more I think scuba diving may be a modern manifestation of Darwin's Theory of Evolution...

Trish

 

[imasleeper]

I just got back from Taveuni last night. The only information I can give is secondhand. That which was relayed to me by my divemaster who is a good friend of the divemaster involved in the incident. Apparently a group of 6 boat divers went down. I have no idea if any buddy teams where formed. The diver involved, ran low on air after 20 minutes and signaled to the dive master he was heading up. The divemaster acknowledged and watched the diver ascend to the surface. Seeing that the diver was floating at the surface he stayed with the remainder of the group. The divemaster assumed the captain of the boat would see the diver on the surface and pick him up. The diver did not carry a safety tube, signal mirror, or whistle. Actually when the divemaster and the remaining group ascended, the boat was not in view and they apparently had to swim to a nearby resort where the divemaster used a phone to call the boat captain. Once back onboard it was discovered that that captain had not seen nor picked up the first diver and a missing diver search was instituted. It was nearing dark.

Those familiar with the Somosomo Strait will acknowledge the currents can be ripping at times. As it turned out the missing diver was quite lucky as the current pushed him north to south across the narrow portion of the strait and he was pushed into the northwest shore of Tavenui island and discovered at about 2 am.

If this account is true, clearly there is plenty of blame to go around. The good thing is no one died, and hopefully lessons were learned.

Cheers,

imasleeper

 

[wilde100]

Yep. When he had to surface alone to float alone, he was then buddyless - so I'd say he was buddyless even if there had been one assigned. I'd rather have a real buddy including descent/ascend together, or none. We don't know much about his details, but with the Stickied Rules of this forum - he as failed, but he survived.

I'm not the best on air and had an assigned bud in a travel group do that to me in Coz once. Clearly not as dangerous location, but it was like I was assigned a buddy to watch over until I needed a buddy - then Fail! I surfaced, boarded, blew her off, never saw her again. After lunch, she went out with some of the group for a third dive, I took a siesta, she ended up in the chamber for no apparent reason with an after dive hit back at the hotel, was med-evaced to Florida and survived there.

I'm grateful that it wasn't one of us taking the hit alone in the water, me or her, but it drove home the need for buddy pair members to support each other throughout the entire dive and debriefing - the more likely time for a hit, but without a gap.

I did one more trip with that group leader and she tried to assign me another inexperienced diver who didn't even want to discuss dive plans. I went solo after him.

Buddy pairs are essential. But I look back and suggest perhaps the pre-dive planning with the buddy wasn't as clear or the diver was too confident that he would not need a buddy's help?

I make it a point to emphasize to my buddy that if he notices my separation from the dive group (maybe to take pictures), he should stick with me.

I learnt this lesson from another incident, where a buddy pair got separated from their dive group and were clearly lost in waters with poor viz. By chance the pair crossed paths with my dive group and the tail buddy decided to follow us without tapping his buddy.

When we surfaced shortly after, he was shouting that he lost his buddy. I gave him the "DUH!" look. Better yet, his buddy didn't have an SMB, so we spent the next 5mins on the boat wondering whether his buddy was still underwater....

Waters then were abit choppy due to an approaching storm, so we had a helluva time trying to locate a bobbing head 150-200m away from the boat.

 

[Flightlead]

"oxygen tank"..... fortunately, scuba is the only area of which the papers lack the knowledge to accurately report... (where is the sarcasm smilie???)

yeah, and every light aircraft that crashes is a Piper Cub, including some twin engine ones

 

[scubadiver888]

So little detail in that report its useless.

"surfaced after running out of oxygen" is hint enough not a word of it can be believed without checking.

Why would he surface and wait for others "to return" ? Was it a boat dive? Was it a shore dive? Were they briefed to send up a DSMB or return to boat?

From what I read it was a night dive. Boat left port around 5pm. Four German tourists went out with a dive master for a drift dive in a strong current. Mr. Holz (the diver who got lost) surfaced first 100' from the boat. The current was too strong for him to reach the boat. The DM surfaced and told him to wait. The other divers ran out of air as well. The DM went to get the other divers. When the DM returned he could not find Mr. Holz.

Mr. Holz could see shore lights so he swam slowly towards the lights. He is quoted as saying "out of OXYGEN" and he "held on to his oxygen tank". Either the Fijian reporter didn't understand Mr. Holz (because he is German) or Mr. Holz was on a Discover Scuba and didn't really know what he was talking about.

I suspect it was a language barrier. I don't think they would have a been doing a Discover Scuba for a night dive.

 

[String]

Im not sure i can think of any operation mad enough to take a night time DSD in a strong current off a boat in a group of 4 so i hope its a language barrier.

Still doesnt mention what if any surface signal aids he had.

 

[JackConnick]

Just to point out that in this case having a buddy wouldn't of helped. There would of been two lost divers. The blame lies with the captain of the boat and the dive plan.

My .02
Jack

 

[DandyDon]

Just to point out that in this case having a buddy wouldn't of helped. There would of been two lost divers. The blame lies with the captain of the boat and the dive plan.

My .02
Jack

Unless the buddy was prepared for the dive with signaling aids, and not a backpacking diver with minimum rental gear.