Error What should I have done differently? Diving incident in Cozumel.

[Shawn C]

Wasn't his buddy. He spread out from his buddy to keep an eye on him.

Correct. The DM was his buddy, my wife was mine. My wife was 3 feet from the DM and I slowed my drift to attempt to keep shark guy and my wife and DM all in sight. It worked for awhile but I was eventually faced with a choice of staying in sight of him and not my wife and the DM or vice versa. I chose my wife/buddy.

 

[steinbil]

Wasn't his buddy. He spread out from his buddy to keep an eye on him.

Please read the post I quoted from. It was in reference to another situation.

 

[Pavao]

Thanks for your thoughts. To answer your questions, when we drifted out of sight of the boat I was, indeed, very happy that I choose the 6' version of the SMBs. I also outfitted my wife with her own and in a different colour as I wasn't sure if orange or yellow works best (or if they work about the same?). We both also have whistles and I always carry a dive light.

Perfect, I too always have a light with me, it lives on my BCD.
I think the visibility of a given color is greatly influenced by other factors like, rain/fog, whitecaps, onlookers relation to sun/glare, etc... I have heard some captains say they see one color better than the other, but I wonder if they weren't been subjected to these outside factors when they determined they see one better than the other.
My 6' one is a pink Halcyon closed SMB, seems pretty visible.

 

[Still Kicking]

Perfect, I too always have a light with me, it lives on my BCD.

From personal experience, a light gets noticed about 10x more than an SMB of any color even in broad daylight. On the other hand, SMBs don't run out of batteries

 

[Mike Walker]

Please, please, please - don't ever chase a solo diver.

(Fully acknowledging that it doesn't sound like the person you encountered was a qualified or competent solo diver....)

It's pretty common to have made arrangements with the captain/guide that you wouldn't be privy to as far as to how, when and where we'll surface, signalling, etc. Going after someone who is 'definitely not your buddy' is a sure way to complicate things for everyone.

The dead boat was a complicating factor but that was a boat failure. Dual engines (or other suitable redundancy - i.e. two boats out in the same area) is one thing I've started to look for when selecting operators. I started this after being on a boat with a single engine failure (shear pin)... in Cozumel....

 

[Shawn C]

Please, please, please - don't ever chase a solo diver.

(Fully acknowledging that it doesn't sound like the person you encountered was a qualified or competent solo diver....)

It's pretty common to have made arrangements with the captain/guide that you wouldn't be privy to as far as to how, when and where we'll surface, signalling, etc. Going after someone who is 'definitely not your buddy' is a sure way to complicate things for everyone.

The dead boat was a complicating factor but that was a boat failure. Dual engines (or other suitable redundancy - i.e. two boats out in the same area) is one thing I've started to look for when selecting operators. I started this after being on a boat with a single engine failure (shear pin)... in Cozumel....

He 100% was not a solo diver but I take your point. I see, from re-reading my original post, where you could think he was a solo diver as I did use that term. I should have said "the other diver was by himself and was the DM's buddy" or something along those lines vs 'solo diver'.

We only used the dead boat op that one trip as they had a larger boat with a head and allowed our pre-teen daughter to stay on board while we dove (and snorkel above us as we did our safety stops). It was working out pretty well until it wasn't. Pre that trip and post, we're on fast, dual engine, 6 or 8 packs and she dives with us now .

 

[ScubaSamScubaStevesFather]

This took place about seven years ago in Cozumel. My wife (150 dives over 20 years) and I (around 400 dives over 35 years) were diving one of the southern reefs, Francesca (I think), on our second of a two tank dive. We were with the DM plus one other diver we had just met. We were at around 70' max depth. It was a typical Cozumel drift dive with a mild current. Towards the middle of the dive the current picked up considerably. We weren't flying but it was significant. I believe that we ended up on Dalila for the last third of the dive.

The DM gave the gather together, we're heading up signal to all of us. Everyone acknowledges. As we were heading up for our safety stop, the DM shot his SMB. My wife and I were close to the DM but the other diver was no longer near us. He (solo diver) had spotted a couple of blacktip reef sharks down on the reef. I saw him look at us, look at the sharks, look at us and, in my head, I said "don't do it, bud". Yeah... he did. He turned and dove back down chasing the sharks.

I slowed myself down and I tried to split the distance between my wife & the DM and him, keeping everyone in sight. I was trying to act as a bridge between everyone. There was decent current and, since we were now at very different depths, the distance between him and I was rapidly increasing as was my distance from my wife and the DM. I was banging away on my tank trying to get the other guy's attention, but to no avail. I could tell my wife was not happy with me and was (strongly) signaling me to come back as I was now a decent distance from her and the DM and, effectively, had put myself in a no buddy situation. Since she, and the DM, were downcurrent, I was able to rejoin them reasonably quickly (couple of minutes). We did our safety stop and we surfaced... to no boat. I could see the DM looking in a particular direction and focused my gaze on where he was looking. Oh, yeah... there's our boat. But why is so far away that I can barely see it? Why isn't it moving? And, hmmm why can't I see it all now? I ask the DM and he says "I don't think it's coming". Ummmm.. what? He said that he thinks there's a problem with the boat. A long thirty minutes later, we are able to get the attention of another dive boat and they bring us aboard and then transport us to our boat (which had suffered an engine failure).

Meanwhile, no sign of the other diver. After another hour, we hear on the radio, that another boat has found our missing diver and they were bringing him to us. What a relief! I'm sure it was the longest 90 minutes of his life. It felt like forever for us sitting on the broken down boat waiting for any news of his being found. As we were being towed back to the marina, he came up to me and apologised profusely. He knew he'd made a bad decision and put himself in jeopardy. He said he saw me hanging back for him and was trying to get some shots of the sharks and, when he looked back again, he looked he couldn't see anyone. He'd never practiced shooting his SMB and when he tried to shoot it during his safety stop, he ending up losing it. There went his best chance and being spotted on the surface. He had no other signaling device.

Why am I posting this? To ask if there's anything I should have done differently. Should I have just let him go right at the outset, when he dove back down to the reef, and stayed with my wife? Should I have stayed with him and allowed my wife and DM out of my sight? Anything else that I can use as a lesson for the future?

As someone who is recently solo certified, next time just let them do what they want. They are supposed to be trained on how to handle themselves without anyone around, which includes getting back to the boat. Your priority is your wife, dive buddy, and dm in that order

 

[Shawn C]

As someone who is recently solo certified, next time just let them do what they want. They are supposed to be trained on how to handle themselves without anyone around, which includes getting back to the boat. Your priority is your wife, dive buddy, and dm in that order

Right. Except he was not solo certed. See the post directly above yours for the explanation.

 

[SlugLife]

I saw him look at us, look at the sharks, look at us and, in my head, I said "don't do it, bud". Yeah... he did. He turned and dove back down chasing the sharks. I slowed myself down and I tried to split the distance between my wife & the DM and him, keeping everyone in sight. I was trying to act as a bridge between everyone.

There's the first obvious mistake. This is a close variation of "don't endanger yourself to rescue another diver."

Next, as someone who normally dives solo, I'm inclined to say if a (intentional) solo-diver decides to behave "like a solo diver" then you should let them do their thing. They're probably not expecting anyone to follow or rescue them, especially if their behavior is intentional. If anything, someone following the solo-diver could become a liability. For example, if I'm confident diving in zero-vis, and another diver follows me, there is a good chance they're endangering themselves while I'm just fine.

. As we were being towed back to the marina, he came up to me and apologised profusely. He knew he'd made a bad decision and put himself in jeopardy.

To be fair, his situation was little different than yours, other than there being a group of 3 (or more?), while he was alone. Your group was lucky the other boat found you first, but with random chance they may have found him first.

Should I have stayed with him and allowed my wife and DM out of my sight?

Absolutely not. Someone who intentionally dives solo should be prepared to dive solo, and if not, they're a darwin award waiting to happen. He shouldn't need you for redundant air or anything else. If he wants a buddy, he'll get a buddy or stick with the group.

Meanwhile, your wife and DM, who are supposed to be sticking with you will be increasingly stressed (or even endangered) because you're supposed to be with them. The solo-diver on the other hand, may be separated from the group, but that's expected. There's even a risk you could have gotten separated from everyone (the solo-diver, your wife, and the DM) in the process of chasing after the solo-diver.

Right. Except he was not solo certed. See the post directly above yours for the explanation.

I only read the OP and this comment (I'll catch up), but it's somewhat irrelevant whether they were certified or not, my advice stays the same.

 

[SlugLife]

He wasn't the most experienced diver but he certainly wasn't new either. I did not see him check his gauges but he likely had already done so when the DM gave us the thumbs up

How do you know his experience level? Did he tell you?

Not seeing someone check their gauge means little. If someone has AI (Air Integration) or is fairly experienced, you may not notice them checking their gauges, because it can be done with a glance. He didn't run OOA, so it's almost a little off-topic.

The DM was his buddy, my wife was mine.

If they were buddies, there's not much you can do about someone who intentionally swims off. Given this was a drift-dive, and assuming he wasn't actually solo but rather buddied with the DM, that looks a lot more like a "team" dive.

A more challenging question would be, what should the DM do? The DM chose to stick with you and your wife when the other guy swam off to look at sharks. The DM may have been buddied with him, but was responsible for everyone. He can only herd so many cats at once, and chose to herd the two he could, and not the one that literally swam off.

He 100% was not a solo diver but I take your point.

You described him as a solo-diver in the OP, but now aren't which means a percentage of the responses are only applicable to what you initially wrote. It's hard to give advice or commentary when the story changes. Was he intentionally diving solo?