RogerAGrimes
Contributor
On 8/12, Friday last week, I was diving on a 6-pack boat out of Boynton Beach, FL. I was a last minute addition because my original charter got cancelled. On the boat, besides the captain and mate, was one other experienced diver and two inexperienced couples. I buddied with the experienced diver. One couple had just completed their OW dives in Lake Rawlings, VA, and one had done a resort dive or something like that...and maybe some other Caribbean diving, but not much. The captain decided he would take the inexperienced couples in his dive group and me and the other guy would take the dive flag and lead.
While we were getting our gear ready and waiting on tanks, I brought up the OOA situation that killed two divers in Marathon the week before. No one could believe how multiple divers ended up in an OOA situation and how preventable that accident was. I spent a lot of the ride out talking about how to prevent dive accidents...not breaking any rules, multi-systematic failures, etc. The couples included two doctors. Not dumb people.
Then in the very next dive, the two inexperienced men came up with 0 psi, coughing and hacking on the surface. At the time, I had finished my dive and was hanging out with the mate\captain on the top bridge. When we saw the first guy coughing on the surface and trying to make the back of the boat, the mate told him to put his now spit out reg back in his mouth, but he said he didn't have any air. I then told the guy to use his snorkel, but then noticed that he didn't have one. I was getting ready to tell the guy to drop his weights, which I made them practice before we left the dock, or throw a life ring, but he was only a few feet from the transom and going to make it. I was ready to dive in if needed. A few minutes later the second guy came up with the captain, air sharing.
The dive guide then went back down to be with the other three divers, and their dives were uneventful. Once on board, both OOA divers treated the event very casually, as if the whole thing was normal. The guy that was air sharing said that he didn't need the captain's help and could have made it to the surface just fine. They were all laughing, smiling, and acting normal.
I went into Mr. Mom mode and gave them the riot act. The captain talked to them about the event, re-explained appropriate procedures, following rules, checking air frequently, coming up with 500psi, etc. But I must say the captain was more calm about it than I was.
I even emailed one of the offenders today to reinterate how stupid it was, although in softer, non-insulting language. On reflection, there's lots of lessons learned and things that should have been done differently. I'm not sharing this event to get those. I'm sharing this because I'm still in awe of how we shared the OOA story, discussed following rules, and how 30 minutes later half the group was OOA and not overly concerned about it. Diving with strangers often leaves behind interesting stories.
While we were getting our gear ready and waiting on tanks, I brought up the OOA situation that killed two divers in Marathon the week before. No one could believe how multiple divers ended up in an OOA situation and how preventable that accident was. I spent a lot of the ride out talking about how to prevent dive accidents...not breaking any rules, multi-systematic failures, etc. The couples included two doctors. Not dumb people.
Then in the very next dive, the two inexperienced men came up with 0 psi, coughing and hacking on the surface. At the time, I had finished my dive and was hanging out with the mate\captain on the top bridge. When we saw the first guy coughing on the surface and trying to make the back of the boat, the mate told him to put his now spit out reg back in his mouth, but he said he didn't have any air. I then told the guy to use his snorkel, but then noticed that he didn't have one. I was getting ready to tell the guy to drop his weights, which I made them practice before we left the dock, or throw a life ring, but he was only a few feet from the transom and going to make it. I was ready to dive in if needed. A few minutes later the second guy came up with the captain, air sharing.
The dive guide then went back down to be with the other three divers, and their dives were uneventful. Once on board, both OOA divers treated the event very casually, as if the whole thing was normal. The guy that was air sharing said that he didn't need the captain's help and could have made it to the surface just fine. They were all laughing, smiling, and acting normal.
I went into Mr. Mom mode and gave them the riot act. The captain talked to them about the event, re-explained appropriate procedures, following rules, checking air frequently, coming up with 500psi, etc. But I must say the captain was more calm about it than I was.
I even emailed one of the offenders today to reinterate how stupid it was, although in softer, non-insulting language. On reflection, there's lots of lessons learned and things that should have been done differently. I'm not sharing this event to get those. I'm sharing this because I'm still in awe of how we shared the OOA story, discussed following rules, and how 30 minutes later half the group was OOA and not overly concerned about it. Diving with strangers often leaves behind interesting stories.
