kwinter
Contributor
We'll be happy to take you out. How you get back is up to you. 
What contingencies do you plan for?
- Thread starter kr2y5
- Start date
Please register or login
Garth
Contributor
I absolutely agree with you that one cannot possibly predict all kinds of situations that can arise during adive, and there's no way to compile a checklist that will be in any way exhaustive.
The specific question I posted, though, was: "what other contingencies do YOU PLAN FOR", with the emphasis on YOU and PLAN FOR.
The reason I ask is because the books I've had in my hands put a lot of emphasis on contingencies and planning. So, assuming that this is indeed what everyone routinely does... are there any contingencies not listed here yet, that are likely enough to dedicate any time in planning, skills practice, gear configuration, money in equipment, and so on, to protect against them? Sure, I can always speculate what could possibly happen while sitting in an armchair, but it's always good to hear other people's ideas, especially if they are based on 1000s of dives of personal experience...
---------- Post added February 15th, 2014 at 02:33 PM ----------
Unfortunate phrasing on my part... what I meant to say is: in the absence of a prepared table for the specific greater depth/time, or a working computer, know and follow some "rule of thumb" technique to approximate a proper deco schedule. What rule of thumb technique would you recommend? What else can be done to minimize the risk of DCS if a diver founds herself in this sort of situation? I'm assuming this situation is reallistic, since many apparently dive with only a bottom timer, and another emergency such as entanglement or wing failure could occur and potentially cause a diver to overstay, exceed depth, etc.
Garth
Contributor
I certainly don't plan for everything. I plan on being by myself at the end of the dive by carrying enough bailout to get me through all necessary decompression.
I'm sure my world will change once I take a CCR Cave course scheduled for April 2014. I'm very exited by understand that the game will likely change for me.
At this point I don't find myself have many failures that require much action a long as I spend the proper time preparing my gear.
Garth
I'm sure my world will change once I take a CCR Cave course scheduled for April 2014. I'm very exited by understand that the game will likely change for me.
At this point I don't find myself have many failures that require much action a long as I spend the proper time preparing my gear.
Garth
TONY CHANEY
Contributor
Sorry for the highjack...but Garth made me do it. Anyway to answer the question, I really do not get myself into a dive that I can't or will not do solo. Some of the situations I can plan for and do. Some you simply can't plan on ( getting stuck or wrapped up in line) other than if diving with a buddy, stay close.
I've opened this several times, and not posted, and it took me a while to figure out why.
I don't plan for contingencies -- at least, most of my planning is designed to AVOID them. I am trained to COPE with contingencies, but my PLAN is never to need to use that training.
In my various classes, we have run through a wide variety of scenarios . . . equipment failures, buddy separations, gas losses, failure to follow dive profiles. In every class, the instructor has succeeded in guiding us into (and I use that phrase because we are often quite complicit in it) a situation that simply doesn't fit neatly into any of the responses we've memorized. Those are the biggest learning experiences, because they require creative and independent though, and the debrief of what we come up with compared with what the instructor thinks is optimal is always educational (although I confess that, on occasion, I remain unconvinced). I know that, even in my brief career as a cave diver, the cave has taught me a lot . . . things we never thought about having happen have happened, and we have coped with them better or not so well, and learned from the experience, the debrief, and the reflections afterwards.
I don't PLAN for contingencies. I PLAN to avoid them. I cope the best I can when they occur.
I don't plan for contingencies -- at least, most of my planning is designed to AVOID them. I am trained to COPE with contingencies, but my PLAN is never to need to use that training.
In my various classes, we have run through a wide variety of scenarios . . . equipment failures, buddy separations, gas losses, failure to follow dive profiles. In every class, the instructor has succeeded in guiding us into (and I use that phrase because we are often quite complicit in it) a situation that simply doesn't fit neatly into any of the responses we've memorized. Those are the biggest learning experiences, because they require creative and independent though, and the debrief of what we come up with compared with what the instructor thinks is optimal is always educational (although I confess that, on occasion, I remain unconvinced). I know that, even in my brief career as a cave diver, the cave has taught me a lot . . . things we never thought about having happen have happened, and we have coped with them better or not so well, and learned from the experience, the debrief, and the reflections afterwards.
I don't PLAN for contingencies. I PLAN to avoid them. I cope the best I can when they occur.
Last edited:
dbulmer
Contributor
To the OP,
I'm not a techie but one thing! I would say that first and foremost I would not be doing any sort of difficult dive with an unknown/random dive buddy.
I'm not a techie but one thing! I would say that first and foremost I would not be doing any sort of difficult dive with an unknown/random dive buddy.
Thank you all for your replies. Let me approach this from a slightly different angle.
As a diver who aspires to be safe, I need to recognize what situations are a real possibility, and are either known to be dangerous on their own, or can lead to, or aggravate other problems. As often noted, here and elsewhere, we "don't know what we don't know". Running through scenarios in my head isn't sufficient, since for example, I would never have guessed that a regulator free-flow is such a real and common occurrence that it's not a matter of if, but when it happens, especially in cold water, and expecting this has some concrete implications, such as never using 2nd stage to fill a lift bag, training for valve shutdowns, etc. Although I'm generally aware of how scuba regulators are constructed, all that knowledge somehow hasn't automatically transpired into a realization that a free-flow is a big deal, and something to really worry about. I first learned about it while reading online articles, like those on ScubaBoard.
I wish this kind of knowledge was more accessible to divers, outside the realm of expensive cave trainings. I've run into various discussions of contingencies and what-if analyses in random places, like TDI manuals, but almost always as a comment in-passing, and I haven't had in my hands a source where this would be discussed a bit more in full. In general, the idea seems to be that each diver would run risk analysis on her own and come up with more evil scenarios. That's great, but it doesn't address the "don't know what we don't know" aspect. Experienced divers often comment that in their early days, they made dives that now, in retrospect, send a shiver down their spines, because they now realize how unprepared they were to deal with the potential risks. It's only after accumulating much experience that they gained this awareness. What's the best way for a less experienced diver to get there faster?
I recognize the difference, I can imagine that you can be "trained to cope with contingencies", as you say, without necessarily planning what actions to take when each particular contingency occurs, although the books I've had in my hands rather emphasized the idea that there should be a single response we commit to for such scenarios, to ensure that the response is quick and decisive. What you describe sounds more like a general proficiency at real-time problem solving, and being adequately equipped for a range of scenarios. This sounds enviable, but how do I get there? I suspect it comes with 1000s of dives under my belt, but I also suspect it could be done faster with focused and deliberate practice, much in the same way that playing violin can be learned faster through targeted exercise rather than playing random songs in no particular order. Is there a way to break this down into a set of skills?
As a diver who aspires to be safe, I need to recognize what situations are a real possibility, and are either known to be dangerous on their own, or can lead to, or aggravate other problems. As often noted, here and elsewhere, we "don't know what we don't know". Running through scenarios in my head isn't sufficient, since for example, I would never have guessed that a regulator free-flow is such a real and common occurrence that it's not a matter of if, but when it happens, especially in cold water, and expecting this has some concrete implications, such as never using 2nd stage to fill a lift bag, training for valve shutdowns, etc. Although I'm generally aware of how scuba regulators are constructed, all that knowledge somehow hasn't automatically transpired into a realization that a free-flow is a big deal, and something to really worry about. I first learned about it while reading online articles, like those on ScubaBoard.
I wish this kind of knowledge was more accessible to divers, outside the realm of expensive cave trainings. I've run into various discussions of contingencies and what-if analyses in random places, like TDI manuals, but almost always as a comment in-passing, and I haven't had in my hands a source where this would be discussed a bit more in full. In general, the idea seems to be that each diver would run risk analysis on her own and come up with more evil scenarios. That's great, but it doesn't address the "don't know what we don't know" aspect. Experienced divers often comment that in their early days, they made dives that now, in retrospect, send a shiver down their spines, because they now realize how unprepared they were to deal with the potential risks. It's only after accumulating much experience that they gained this awareness. What's the best way for a less experienced diver to get there faster?
I recognize the difference, I can imagine that you can be "trained to cope with contingencies", as you say, without necessarily planning what actions to take when each particular contingency occurs, although the books I've had in my hands rather emphasized the idea that there should be a single response we commit to for such scenarios, to ensure that the response is quick and decisive. What you describe sounds more like a general proficiency at real-time problem solving, and being adequately equipped for a range of scenarios. This sounds enviable, but how do I get there? I suspect it comes with 1000s of dives under my belt, but I also suspect it could be done faster with focused and deliberate practice, much in the same way that playing violin can be learned faster through targeted exercise rather than playing random songs in no particular order. Is there a way to break this down into a set of skills?
flots am
Contributor
- Messages
- 3,226
- Reaction score
- 1,861
- # of dives
- I just don't log dives
Surface and the boat is gone. Far from shore. Deploy SMB and strobe and wait for wife to call authorities because I didn't come home on time.
Surface and the boat is gone. Near shore. Swim to shore. Find bar. Order nice lunch and a beer or two. Keep Driver's licence, cash and credit card in wetsuit/drysuit pocket because when things go badly, everything is harder when you're broke.
Garth
Contributor
