Uncontrolled ascent

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Steyr

Contributor
Messages
76
Reaction score
38
Location
Melbourne, Australia
# of dives
200 - 499
I'm rather disappointed in myself after this experience, but thought I would post to help others not make the same mistakes (plural).

I was diving off a boat with a regular buddy, down to 30m. Me in a 7mm wettie (11c/52f water - I was the only person on the boat without a dry suit, haha) with an i3 BCD (inflater lever near my left hip, rather than the standard inflator hose over the shoulder) and carrying a bulky camera; her in a brand new dry suit purchased the night before. She had dived in a different model of dry suit on several occasions before and did jump in the water at the pier for a weight check before boarding the boat.

The descent and bottom time was uneventful. On ascent I indicated for her to shoot the SMB as I had my hands full with the camera (I can let the camera hang to launch an SMB myself). She started unrolling the sausage at 24m, so I indicated for her to stop until we reached at least 15m (only 15m of line on the spool). We ascended at a normal rate... 20m... 17m... 14m. I dumped some air to get neutrally buoyant. Then my buddy seemed to be shoving the SMB at me and grabbing my arm. After a bit of confused "WTF" on my side I let my camera hang and took the SMB while she clutched my left arm. I fiddled with the SMB for a bit. 12m. Realising we're still ascending I tried to dump some air, but my buddy was clinging to my left arm which is the arm I use for my inflator. With my right hand I reached for the dump cord, but with the SMB reel in that hand it was difficult to find and grasp the cord. 7m. With my right hand I reached across and pressed my deflator lever (thankfully a lever is easier to push with your hands full than a button on a regular inflator hose). But it was all a bit too late, and suddenly we're at the surface!

What had happened? My buddy had got air trapped in the legs of her dry suit and couldn't dump it. She was not practiced at maneuvers to get her feet back down. The previous dry suit she had used fitted more tightly around her calves to prevent air trapping there, so she had never experienced this problem before. As we started ascending, the air expanded and kept increasing our rate of ascent. At around the 14m mark she became a passenger, unable to stop her own ascent and clutching on to me. I failed to realise what was going on. With average visibility, in midwater I could not tell we were ascending except by looking at my computer (coincidentally on the same arm that by buddy was holding). With the additional task loading of trying to inflate the SMB while juggling my camera I was not monitoring my computer frequently enough. Once I realised we were ascending I struggled to get access to my dump valves, and by the time I did we had already ascended to the point of no return.

In the end our ascent wasn't all that quick. With me as extra drag, only the last 5m of our ascent edged just slightly over PADI's stated maximum ascent rate (though it's the last 5m that matters the most). We missed our safety stop of course, but it was just a safety stop, not mandatory deco. Back on the boat they pulled out the oxygen as a precaution, but I don't think it was actually needed.

What could I have done better?
1. Before even getting in the water I should have been more conscious of any problems my buddy might face, discuss them and any planned solutions. Not being a dry suit user myself, I wasn't thinking about her buoyancy management.
2. I must monitor depth constantly during ascent. Normally I stay slightly negative and gently fin to ascend slowly (or just wind up an SMB reel). This was the first time that stopping finning didn't stop my ascent.
3. I should have been more aware of what her problem was, rather than fixating on the SMB that she handed off to me. If I had realised her problem I may have been able to pull her feet back down and solve our issues in an instant.
4. When struggling to dump air I could have flared myself out more or even inverted and finned downwards.

I know some people may also say I should have broken free and let her ascend alone rather than risking us both ascending too quickly. Honestly, that's a personal choice. Sticking with her risks us both, but it also slows her ascent and could save her from DCS.

I welcome any other constructive comments people may have on how to better handle such a situation. It galls me that I had a rare opportunity to help get my buddy out of a tricky situation and I blew it.
 
I still have occasional issues with DS buoyancy after 30some dive in it. It takes a while to gain the awareness that this is going on, it then takes a few more to learn to react appropriately and fast enough to stop. I still end up having to swim strongly down from time to time to regain control when I'm paying attention to something else and realize too late that things are not good.

My suit is set up so I can't be working the rear dump valve on the wing and also be effectively venting the DS, so I get to bounce between them on ascent. That might not be a problem for her.

But she should take a decent DS course, its worth the two days. It teaches you a couple of emergency drills, like getting your feet down, venting via the wrist or neck, etc.
 
I had a buddy once take a firm grip on my left arm. I have never forgotten the lesson that, if you immobilize someone's left arm, they can neither vent their BC nor their dry suit.

As far as your situation, my reaction is that stuff happens. It doesn't sound as though you made any errors -- you were in familiar equipment, and I assume were used to the camera. You knew your buddy was in a new dry suit, and you checked to make sure she had done a weight check. She got into a dry suit problem that is EXTREMELY difficult for a buddy to fix (I know this, because I dive with OW students in dry suits, and they do this, and you have to be a) incredibly fast to recognize what's happening; b) able to become VERY negative in order to pull the legs down or change the diver's attitude in the water, and c) absolutely and utterly in control of your own buoyancy in order to adjust it WAY outside the norm to fix this problem. I have no criticism at all for someone who can't get that done -- and what's more, past a certain point, you can't fix it, anyway.

I rode an AOW student from 50 feet to the surface in a similar situation, as negative as I could get, having dumped her BC completely, and we still took a 50 foot ride.
 
So much for the "safety" of the buddy system. And dry-suit experience/training.
 
Someone here did a test and found that feet up, the average dry suit had up to about 140 pounds of lift. You, as the buddy, are simply not going to be able to counter that once it gets under way. The most you can do is slow them down. The dry suit diver needs to learn how to detect and react to floaty feet. And the way you do this is to experience it (either with or without an instructor). Practice close to an ascent line that they can grab, or under a platform that they can grab when they lose it.
 
sorry for experience...hope all is well with you and your buddy.... thanks for sharing.
 
Yoyodyne, why is this a condemnation of the buddy system? The OP stayed with his buddy, did what he could to help her, and was available on the surface in case she developed any symptoms or was panicked.

Dry suits take time to learn, and although one is taught recovery procedures from float feet in a dry suit class, in practice, unless you recognize the problem IMMEDIATELY, those maneuvers don't work. I would guess that a very large percentage of people who dive dry suits have had at least one feet-first ascent in their diving career, which is why one should keep one's dives very conservative until confident that one has a solid grasp on management of buoyancy and trim.

Kevin, why use the butt dump, if it's causing you problems? There is nothing at all wrong with using the inflator to vent, and in a dry suit, raising that left arm and getting very slightly out of trim head-up helps vent the suit, too.
 
I think the first mistake was taking a new piece of equipment, what more a drysuit, to 30m on the first dive.

I think a more prudent approach is to test out the drysuit in a pool, do a weight check, and practice inflating and dumping repeatedly. Then go for a shallow dive, 10m or so, but not exceeding 18m, and practice descents and ascents with it.

On the dive itself, when the emergency happened, I would have just let go of the SMB (buddy is supposed to have a spare). You can only worry about one problem at a time. If my buddy grabbed my left arm, which I need for dumping, I would grab the buddy's hand or arm, pull hard to release their grip while still holding on to them, go vertical and just dump everything in my wing and drysuit (if wearing one).

Your buddy should have gotten training on drysuit emergency procedures. I suggest fixing that immediately. I heard very good things from a friend who took the GUE Drysuit course. There are other emergencies your buddy needs to learn how to deal with, including a runaway inflator valve on her drysuit.

It is actually pretty difficult to get into a situation where you start floating feet up, it means there was just too much gas in the suit in the first place, and she wasn't paying attention. But if it happens, the course will teach you several methods to rescue yourself without grabbing your buddy (some methods work better than others).

If the worse case happened and your buddy could not right herself to dump, go spread-eagled to maximise surface area and slow the ascent.
 
I had a buddy once take a firm grip on my left arm. I have never forgotten the lesson that, if you immobilize someone's left arm, they can neither vent their BC nor their dry suit.

As far as your situation, my reaction is that stuff happens. It doesn't sound as though you made any errors -- you were in familiar equipment, and I assume were used to the camera. You knew your buddy was in a new dry suit, and you checked to make sure she had done a weight check. She got into a dry suit problem that is EXTREMELY difficult for a buddy to fix (I know this, because I dive with OW students in dry suits, and they do this, and you have to be a) incredibly fast to recognize what's happening; b) able to become VERY negative in order to pull the legs down or change the diver's attitude in the water, and c) absolutely and utterly in control of your own buoyancy in order to adjust it WAY outside the norm to fix this problem. I have no criticism at all for someone who can't get that done -- and what's more, past a certain point, you can't fix it, anyway.

I rode an AOW student from 50 feet to the surface in a similar situation, as negative as I could get, having dumped her BC completely, and we still took a 50 foot ride.

Why do you consider that the left arm immobilized will stop you from venting your suit or your BCD? I vent my left shoulder DS valve with my right hand and use my right hand more than my left to vent my BCD. Not that I want someone locking up one of my arms.
 
thanks for the info.

similar to the feedback noted above by whitesands, my first reaction was that you did not proactively simplify the first dive with some new equipment. from a buddy team perspective, my priority would be to ensure that the new dry suit was our focus. fish? what fish? the primary goal of that dive would be to ensure that my dive buddy was handling the new dry suit.

i am an avid vacation diver photographer and have always maintained a rule of NEVER taking my camera down on the first dive of each trip. it is a simpler dive without the camera. make each dive as simple as possible.

we used the same rule when my divebuddy purchased a new prescription mask. the next dive was all about the mask and nothing else. we discussed various options beforehand (wet swap to old mask, surface to swap to old mask, abort dive early and drink beer,...). no mask issues, so the dive was wonderful. but it was not deep, it was not long and i did not have my camera.

we dive for fun and enjoyment (not for the challenge) and this open attitude allows us to "make sacrifices" in order to maintain the fun.
 

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