bradshsi
Guest
I was at Redondo beach (near Tacoma WA) on Saturday.
1st dive was to be the deepest with a planned depth of 80' basically swimming west off the beach. The plan was to swim out to the bottle field at 80' and then turn an ascend up the bottom contour to 50'. Using the PADI RDP, I planned for 15 minutes at 80' followed by 25 minutes (maximum) at 50'.
We surface swam to level with the end of the pier there and then descended into about 40' of water and followed the bottom contour down. My buddy (who for the purposes of this narrative we'll call Buddy "A"), took the lead on this dive. The vis was about 15'. After some searching we eventually found our way to the bottle field at 92'
I was a bit annoyed with myself at this point as we'd planned for 80'. No problem though I thought. I just rechecked the RDP in my pocket and figured that we were still within the limits. So I signalled to turn around (which we did).
We started to follow the bottom contour back, but because it was taking too long for it to rise to 50' I decided to ascend to that depth midwater and continue eastward until we hit the bottom again.
I signalled that we were to ascend to 50' and hold level and he gave me the Ok sign. We started ascending and I had no problem getting to and holding 50'. Unfortunately my buddy started to struggle as we approached 50' and despite venting from his drysuit and BCD he continued to rise at quite a rapid rate, disappearing after a few seconds.
So at this point I'm alone midwater. Concerned about what happened to him, I started as quick an ascent as I felt safe with (probably about 60 ft/min). I surfaced to find that he was ok and none the worse for his trip.
Talking to him later I found that he had changed his undergarments for a thicker combination, but didn't recheck his weight. As a consequence he was probably underweighted by about 4 lbs by his estimation. He said that even with his BCD and drysuit fully vented he was still buoyant.
Lessons learned (and two questions)
1) We didn't follow the dive plan (not too serious in this instance but it did force a blue water ascent).
2) Changes were made to Buddy "A" gear configuration without checking them for functionality/safety first.
My first question is whether I could have done anything to prevent his uncontrolled ascent ? I suppose I could have grabbed hold of him (we were within 6' of each other for all of the dive), but the concern is that I might have not been able to make myself sufficiently negative to prevent myself being dragged to the surface as well.
My second is whether I have any responsibility for checking his weighting prior to the dive ? I do check my buddies gear, gas, hoses etc and to see that his weight system is properly attached. I have assumed up to now that everyone is responsible for determining their own weight requirements. Am I wrong, is there something else I could have done?
1st dive was to be the deepest with a planned depth of 80' basically swimming west off the beach. The plan was to swim out to the bottle field at 80' and then turn an ascend up the bottom contour to 50'. Using the PADI RDP, I planned for 15 minutes at 80' followed by 25 minutes (maximum) at 50'.
We surface swam to level with the end of the pier there and then descended into about 40' of water and followed the bottom contour down. My buddy (who for the purposes of this narrative we'll call Buddy "A"), took the lead on this dive. The vis was about 15'. After some searching we eventually found our way to the bottle field at 92'
I was a bit annoyed with myself at this point as we'd planned for 80'. No problem though I thought. I just rechecked the RDP in my pocket and figured that we were still within the limits. So I signalled to turn around (which we did).
We started to follow the bottom contour back, but because it was taking too long for it to rise to 50' I decided to ascend to that depth midwater and continue eastward until we hit the bottom again.
I signalled that we were to ascend to 50' and hold level and he gave me the Ok sign. We started ascending and I had no problem getting to and holding 50'. Unfortunately my buddy started to struggle as we approached 50' and despite venting from his drysuit and BCD he continued to rise at quite a rapid rate, disappearing after a few seconds.
So at this point I'm alone midwater. Concerned about what happened to him, I started as quick an ascent as I felt safe with (probably about 60 ft/min). I surfaced to find that he was ok and none the worse for his trip.
Talking to him later I found that he had changed his undergarments for a thicker combination, but didn't recheck his weight. As a consequence he was probably underweighted by about 4 lbs by his estimation. He said that even with his BCD and drysuit fully vented he was still buoyant.
Lessons learned (and two questions)
1) We didn't follow the dive plan (not too serious in this instance but it did force a blue water ascent).
2) Changes were made to Buddy "A" gear configuration without checking them for functionality/safety first.
My first question is whether I could have done anything to prevent his uncontrolled ascent ? I suppose I could have grabbed hold of him (we were within 6' of each other for all of the dive), but the concern is that I might have not been able to make myself sufficiently negative to prevent myself being dragged to the surface as well.
My second is whether I have any responsibility for checking his weighting prior to the dive ? I do check my buddies gear, gas, hoses etc and to see that his weight system is properly attached. I have assumed up to now that everyone is responsible for determining their own weight requirements. Am I wrong, is there something else I could have done?