So a few weekends ago I had my 1st "this dive didn't go the way we planned" moment. There were a lot of things I took away from this dive, even though it was really short.
Here are the details.
New dive site, 7.5 hour drive from home.
Planned depth 80' (aka deep hole for this place)
Planned time: unknown, 1st time either of us have been there and the 1st dive of our trip, but it was assumed 5mins at depth, then come back up to 40' to see what else the site has to offer.
Now for the actual issue. We descended relatively quickly but with no issues. Around 40' vis went from 15' to around 5. By 60' vis was about 2'. By 80' we hit bottom, and I was starting to 2nd guess my 1200 lumen light. We were on the bottom, but near the buoy line and I was starting to get chilly and my head was starting to feel the effects of the 47deg water. I signaled that it was time to ascend back to 40' for better vis and temps. We start our ascent and at 75' his reg starts to free flow. He takes his reg out, shakes it violently and puts it back in his mouth for a few breaths. Then he takes it back out and tries to put his thumb on the mouth piece to try and stop it. That didn't work so I suggested we buddy breathe our way back up. He declines and says lets go up, im ok. We start to make our ascent, he's watching his computer and I've got my hand on my reg ready to donate. Surprisingly once we make it to 15' he says that he's bypassing the safety stop, so I let him go and he made his way up to the surface. I was 2mins into my safety when all of a sudden he comes up from behind me and gives me the OOA signal, so we buddy breathe for the remainder of my safety stop, so I signal that I'm ready to go up, but his computer is PO'ed that he blew his stop so he wants to stay for another 4mins. While looking at his computer i see that he's totally empty and that our depth is wavering between 15'-25'. Trying to achieve neutral buoyancy is rather difficult when hes fin kicking to keep us up and I'm also dumping air to not shoot up to the surface. Once his computer was pleased we hit the surface.
He said that he was just going to surface swim back to shore, but he didn't want to leave me, that's why he came back down for a safety stop. He was also struggling on the surface because he "couldn't add any air to his bc" I reminded him that he could in fact manually inflate it... It was kind of funny yet interesting to see the Light Bulb turn on when I told him that.
We made our long surface swim back to shore, and he tells me that its a known issue with his reg to free flow at depth.. I was not pleased about that, but he said that he had just had it serviced and wanted to see how it would do at depth as it works fine in <50'
He was telling an instructor what had happened. Naturally the instructor was upset that he didn't air share and he blew the safety stop. My buddies reply was to point at me and say proudly "he has is stress and rescue cert, so I knew i could take risks"
Things that I learned: Divers can be unpredictable. I have dove with my insta-buddy 5 times prior.
Safe 2nds are nice, until you're trying to buddy breathe and control your buoyancy, I can see why a true octo would have been good for this situation.
Here are the details.
New dive site, 7.5 hour drive from home.
Planned depth 80' (aka deep hole for this place)
Planned time: unknown, 1st time either of us have been there and the 1st dive of our trip, but it was assumed 5mins at depth, then come back up to 40' to see what else the site has to offer.
Now for the actual issue. We descended relatively quickly but with no issues. Around 40' vis went from 15' to around 5. By 60' vis was about 2'. By 80' we hit bottom, and I was starting to 2nd guess my 1200 lumen light. We were on the bottom, but near the buoy line and I was starting to get chilly and my head was starting to feel the effects of the 47deg water. I signaled that it was time to ascend back to 40' for better vis and temps. We start our ascent and at 75' his reg starts to free flow. He takes his reg out, shakes it violently and puts it back in his mouth for a few breaths. Then he takes it back out and tries to put his thumb on the mouth piece to try and stop it. That didn't work so I suggested we buddy breathe our way back up. He declines and says lets go up, im ok. We start to make our ascent, he's watching his computer and I've got my hand on my reg ready to donate. Surprisingly once we make it to 15' he says that he's bypassing the safety stop, so I let him go and he made his way up to the surface. I was 2mins into my safety when all of a sudden he comes up from behind me and gives me the OOA signal, so we buddy breathe for the remainder of my safety stop, so I signal that I'm ready to go up, but his computer is PO'ed that he blew his stop so he wants to stay for another 4mins. While looking at his computer i see that he's totally empty and that our depth is wavering between 15'-25'. Trying to achieve neutral buoyancy is rather difficult when hes fin kicking to keep us up and I'm also dumping air to not shoot up to the surface. Once his computer was pleased we hit the surface.
He said that he was just going to surface swim back to shore, but he didn't want to leave me, that's why he came back down for a safety stop. He was also struggling on the surface because he "couldn't add any air to his bc" I reminded him that he could in fact manually inflate it... It was kind of funny yet interesting to see the Light Bulb turn on when I told him that.
We made our long surface swim back to shore, and he tells me that its a known issue with his reg to free flow at depth.. I was not pleased about that, but he said that he had just had it serviced and wanted to see how it would do at depth as it works fine in <50'
He was telling an instructor what had happened. Naturally the instructor was upset that he didn't air share and he blew the safety stop. My buddies reply was to point at me and say proudly "he has is stress and rescue cert, so I knew i could take risks"
Things that I learned: Divers can be unpredictable. I have dove with my insta-buddy 5 times prior.
Safe 2nds are nice, until you're trying to buddy breathe and control your buoyancy, I can see why a true octo would have been good for this situation.
