What do you do when donating to a panicked diver who initiates a buoyant ascent?

[John C. Ratliff]

All this stuff about avoiding the situation is good, but that is not the question. Something to consider- once the victim takes your regulator, you really, really do not want him cranking on the hose. He could tear the hose from your first stage. IF that were to happen the situation becomes very serious.
So for that reason, you don't want a tug of war, certainly don't plan on it. It is to your benefit to try to control the victim especially once they "got you by your hose".

If the diver grabs the reg and bolts, I would do my best to match his ascent speed, grab his harness, if they don't calm down, you are going for a ride. I would wrap my legs around their midsection in a scissor hold. This will lock you into a perpendicular position which allows you then to lean back a little, and extend legs and feet/fins and create as much drag as possible.

Then, if we are arising in a cloud of bubbles, you know the ascent rate is excessive and I would use one hand to hold the victim and the other to dump from my BC - I don't use a dry suit. I would concentrate on taking shallow breaths, so as to hopefully avoid a lung injury. If possible, I might also grab their BC inflator and try to dump on the ascent if it seems too fast and if you have access to it.

Once on the surface after a rapid ascent, you might want to snatch the reg and re-descend to 20 feet if you feel like nitrogen is an issue. Hopefully the victim won't die on the surface with a full BC.

I have actually done something very similar, ridding a diver up in a very buoyant situation. Doing the scissor hold keeps your body still and is not that strenuous.

No, he couldn’t “tear the hose from your first stage…” if you have your first stage properly threaded and tightened down. When single hose regulators first came out, one of the LDSs took a LP hose, cut it half in two, then tied it between two autos. Both autos pulling could not break that hose. Unless something has happened in the intervening 40 or so years, these hoses are too tough to be pulled off the first stage underwater.

SeaRat

 

[John C. Ratliff]

CMDR,
I am not a fan of longer hoses (except in cave diving mode for secondary) 'cause the long loop of the hose is a potential snag source. But, your sharing mode seems viable.

and, for me, as a limited vis, extreme current diver, one of my prime concerns is snagging.

I whole heatedly agree that many basic skills are lost post training.

Here is a rather interesting story about air sharing that was told to me:

Couple Communication

The exact protocol, to me, is not that important, as long as buddy divers agree to their practiced emergency behavior.

and

protocols may be different in different environments.

Usually, I don’t dive a long hose on my primary or octopus (yes, I still use that term). But I can say that if it is routed correctly, there is no loop to snag. I set up my U.S. Divers Company original Calypso regulator, with a second generation Calypso second stage on it. My primary hose goes straight down, then across my chest and around my back, where it hangs off my right shoulder. There is not “loop” at all. But I’d like to see the face of the DIR diver I would dive it with when he saw a 1962 regulator being used in this manner.

Now, if this “parasite” diver tried to get what was in my mouth, that diver would be surprised to see a double hose loop in my mouth. How would a “parasite” diver respond to a diver using a double hose regulator?

SeaRat

 

[Catito]

Nah my ex instructor mate, instructor not mate he's an amazing diver, a cross between a frog and a fish
little guy, I carried him across the threshold into reception at a resort we were diving at on my shoulder
and he still thanks me for ducking, well him and a student having spent a bit of time at eighteen metres
were going ballistic up a whoops not panic just accidentally up ballistically anyway it was only a shop BC

Stab slash hack, back to the boat off to the pub

What?

 

[johndiver999]

No, he couldn’t “tear the hose from your first stage…” if you have your first stage properly threaded and tightened down. When single hose regulators first came out, one of the LDSs took a LP hose, cut it half in two, then tied it between two autos. Both autos pulling could not break that hose. Unless something has happened in the intervening 40 or so years, these hoses are too tough to be pulled off the first stage underwater.

SeaRat

yeah I normally carry my scuba outfit by the low pressure hose. Just drag it down the dock, that is what the tank boot is for anyway.

 

[Adamastor]

What do you do?

Do you grab your buddy, and try to hold him/her back?
Try to grab the inflator to deflate the BC?
Empty your own BC to try to get negative to offset buddy's lift?
Try to pull your primary back and hope buddy makes it to the surface?
Follow your buddy in a quick ascent from depth and make sure to exhale?

You pull his upper dump valve and stop the ascent.
Then you hold his BCD, inflate both yours and his and control the ascent to 5m, not exceeding 15m/min.
At 5 m, you stop and check your deco, do the required stop, then ascend to the surface, not exceeding 6m/min.

Once the buddy has your secondary, he should calm down and you perform the above.
On the other hand, if the buddy panicks and is not cooperative, you are in no way obligated to die with him.

 

[rongoodman]

You pull his upper dump valve and stop the ascent.

You're assuming the presence of a pull dump on his BC, which is not necessarily the case.

 

[Adamastor]

Yes, I'm assuming standard recreational diving equipment.
The OP didn't specify it wasn't the case.

 

[Seaweed Doc]

I watched an instructor punch a guy in the stomach to get an individual to breathe when the guy "locked up"....

Done that. Twice. (Mask remove/replace skill both times.)

 

[Angelo Farina]

Done that. Twice. (Mask remove/replace skill both times.)

I inserted my fingers in the student mouth for forcing exhalation during a panic ascent...
It worked!

 

[chechr]

This might be hard to believe but I dealt with a panicked buddy on the first dive of my life. My wife and I took a class with some of her work friends, including her boss (the OOG diver). At the end of the course, we are in the lovely (sarcasm) St-Lawrence river for the final in water 33ft tests. Once completed, we are all certified and the instructor decides to bring us for a quick tour around the area. We're at the bottom, no more than a minute under way and I feel a tug on my fin. I turn and he's looking at me with huge eyes and no reg in his mouth. I completely forgot about my spare reg, I grabbed his shoulder strap and put my reg in his mouth. Thankfully he didn't bolt, we just slowly ascended and shared the one reg back and forth. He later explained that he couldn't get any air from his reg, but I don't see how that could be.