What else could I have done?

[Deep South Divers]

First I would like to thank all of you for your input.
(snip)

Great post, Gdaaym8z... A great thread and a great discussion. Looks like you're getting a ton of great advice, too.

In your initial post, you mentioned a LOT of issues with the dive... Yet, thanks to you, the dive ended up without catastrophic incident. Clearly, the other diver was VERY lucky to have you there.

Your post clearly implies that you felt that there was an issue or a series of issues with this dive. I agree, but not everyone I know would - many would say that, if nobody got hurt, then there is no issue. Like other posters here, I believe that there IS an issue, and I think you do, too.

In trying to understand what that issue was and how to prevent it in the future, can you do an assessment? Can you define what were the symptoms, and what were the problems? For example:

SYMPTOM:
Encountered lone diver at tieoff.

PROBLEM:
Dive buddies careless or unaware.

SYMPTOM:
Diver went over the edge of the wreck and disappeared.

PROBLEM:
Diver careless or unaware.

SYMPTOM:
No or inadequate response to clear question.

PROBLEM:
Diver either unclear or unable to communicate.

Can you identify and differentiate between the symptoms and the problems that you had with the dive?

...Only then will you be able to provide a solution for the problems... Which I suspect may all really be the same problem.

 

[idocsteve]

If I got down on a wreck, and a lone diver showed up.. I assume they are solo diving, or where is their buddy? At that point if they want to swim to the bottom and my plan was to stay on the wreck, I hope they enjoy themselves. If they get lost doing that..run out of air...and something terrible happens to them, I will feel really bad that a diver did something really stupid.. and that is about it. If they stay near me, and need any help, they have it. (that is what buddy's do).

Exactly.

You are not responsible for another diver just because they happen to show up at your end of the anchor line.

In fact this could have easily become a huge liability and threatened your very life if it had proceeded further. A careless, inexperienced, out of air diver and their only salvation is...your gas supply.

No thanks

 

[Bubbletrubble]

Where did you read that the Op was diving in California?

@idocsteve: To clarify, I was the one who explicitly stated the dive site. I based this on the information contained in the initial post:

• OP was on a boat dive with a group from his LDS.
• For some people on the trip, it was their first open ocean dive.
• OP resides in Arizona.
• Dive site was a wreck.
• Vis was 3-5 ft.
• At the dive site, a sandy bottom existed at about 110 fsw.
• Multiple dive boats were moored at the wreck site.
• At least two mooring lines existed at the dive site.

Combining all of this information, I deduced that the dive site was the Yukon located in San Diego's Wreck Alley. Give me three guesses and I could probably even name the dive boat.

At this point in time, the OP has not confirmed or denied that the dive site was the Yukon.

 

[idocsteve]

@idocsteve: To clarify, I was the one who explicitly stated the dive site. I based this on the information contained in the initial post:

• OP was on a boat dive with a group from his LDS.
• For some people on the trip, it was their first open ocean dive.
• OP resides in Arizona.
• Dive site was a wreck.
• Vis was 3-5 ft.
• At the dive site, a sandy bottom existed at about 110 fsw.
• Multiple dive boats were moored at the wreck site.
• At least two mooring lines existed at the dive site.

Combining all of this information, I deduced that the dive site was the Yukon located in San Diego's Wreck Alley. Give me three guesses and I could probably even name the dive boat.

At this point in time, the OP has not confirmed or denied that the dive site was the Yukon.

I dived with a local dive shop a few years back. I went on two trips. On each trip there were about 20 of us, some were more experienced than others, some were in various stages of training, lots of instruction was being given, at least one diver was trying to get OW certified but they couldn't get past the mask clearing, the poor dude.

On some of the dives the visibility was good, on other dives it was not so good. On some dives there were wrecks, on others there were reefs. Sometimes there was no current, other times there was a slight current, at other times there was a lot of current. Some of the dives were as shallow as 25-30 feet, others were as deep as 100+ feet. I recall one wreck having a mooring line and buoy attached to it. That was the one artificial wreck in Cozumel, I believe it's the "Hermes"

The dive shop was in NY, which is where all of us were from.

One dive trip was to the state of Florida, the other was to Mexico.

So you could be right, for all I know you pegged it right down to the name of the boat. But from the information presented, they could have been diving anywhere in the world.

 

[TSandM]

I don't think it matters what wreck they were diving -- the issues of diving wrecks off anchored boats, in low viz, are pretty much the same the world around.

Gdaym8zz, please don't be discouraged at the responses you have gotten. Any time you have an incident, it's overwhelmingly likely that there were mistakes made. Once you post the story, people are going to zero in on those mistakes, sometimes in diplomatic language and sometimes not. Still, if one can park one's ego and read, a lot can be learned. (I've been the subject of some butt-chewing here myself, on occasion, so I know!)

I dive in groups, from time to time; our whole Cozumel trip was a group of five, and in the Red Sea, we'd put five or six divers in the water with a single guide. But we went in in teams of two or three, because I believe that three divers is the maximum you can reasonably expect to keep together in open water. That way, each diver has an identified buddy or pair of buddies for whom he is responsible.

Your point, that had you stayed with a member of your original group, is a good one -- a breakdown of buddy awareness and communication allowed you to "rescue" another diver. Although the outcome was definitely positive for him, I'm not sure we can use that serendipity as an argument for the original decisions that allowed that separation.

 

[RJP]

Gdaaym8z, I think you were very nice to adopt a diver...

You are not responsible for another diver just because they happen to show up at your end of the anchor line.

If I got down on a wreck, and a lone diver showed up.. .

thanks to you, the dive ended up without catastrophic incident. Clearly, the other diver was VERY lucky to have you there.

I am in no way trying to put blame on the other diver or infer that he did anything wrong, I am glad that I was there to buddy up with him and get us back to the surface.

However, had I not looked up and seen the last diver still dropping the last few feet, and not waited for him, the entire group would have left him, then he's without anyone.....what would have happened then?

would hope that he would have realized he didn't have anyone with him and ascended imidiatley but have my doubts.

Gdaaym8z - don't take my tone or "criticism" (in the intellectual sense of "critique") the wrong way. You're a stronger man (woman?) than most for posting your story here. Thanks for taking the time and effort to share it with us - it's a valuable lesson for newb and experienced divers alike. Seriously.

That said, is anyone else waiting for another thread by some other guy who went on a dive recently and...

"...as I was coming down the line I found a lone diver looking up at me. I was trying to catch up with my buddies but this lone diver started making wild hand signals I didn't understand. I went over the side of the wreck to get away from him, but by then I lost my buddies entirely. There was current so I ended up blowing through most of my gas, so I started to ascend, and wouldn't you know, there's mister solo-diver waving his light like a nut and he's way off the wreck and obviously lost. At this point I'm down to about 1,000psi but I'm thinking I can't leave this poor soul, so he and I do a free ascent and a good stop. Damn, I was down to about 400psi by the time we surfaced! Man I hate insta-buddies!"



The point is, from a situational-awareness/buddy-seperation standpoint the OP was just as much in the weeds by himself as the guy coming down the line alone; he may well be lucky that THE OTHER DIVER ADOPTED HIM!

 

[Deep South Divers]

Hahahaahaaa... No way. This is from another diver on another thread?

Would that not be, like, the most "Seinfield" dive, or what?

 

[idocsteve]

"...as I was coming down the line I found a lone diver looking up at me. I was trying to catch up with my buddies but this lone diver started making wild hand signals I didn't understand. I went over the side of the wreck to get away from him, but by then I lost my buddies entirely. There was current so I ended up blowing through most of my gas, so I started to ascend, and wouldn't you know, there's mister solo-diver waving his light like a nut and he's way off the wreck and obviously lost. At this point I'm down to about 1,000psi but I'm thinking I can't leave this poor soul, so he and I do a free ascent and a good stop. Damn, I was down to about 400psi by the time we surfaced! Man I hate insta-buddies!"

This was pretty damn funny...and the more I think about it, the more I realize it could have actually happened in just this way. Not that it did...

But you know the old saying

"There's two sides to every story"

 

[RJP]

"There's two sides to every story"

Actually, there are three sides to every story:

1. Your side
2. My side
3. The truth

 

[idocsteve]

Actually, there are three sides to every story:

1. Your side
2. My side
3. The truth

Try telling that to my exwife.

Then duck