What should I have done?

[jeckyll]

Are you sure that's your rule? Sounds like Maverick's to me.

You say that like it's a bad thing...

 

[Diver0001]

(Note -- as it turned out her ascent was NOT deliberate -- she was trying something out and lost control and corked.)

I don't know what you should have done but I sure know what *I* would have done.

It's pretty obvious that you should have signed to the other two divers that TBQ surfaced. In this case, because it's DIR divers, I would have probably first signed to TBQ's buddy and asked him where his buddy was.....

The main thing, Peter, is this: The *one* thing you knew for sure at that moment is that the other two divers were ok. You were not sure about the other one. So what has the priority?

R..

 

[Dan Gibson]

I'd say you seem to be paying more attention then some of the other divers.

Since it turned out ok in the end, I'll bet it made your day. Have fun with it and rub it in

What say y'all?

 

[Blitz]

I would stay with my primary and establish to the other diver that their buddy has gone missing. But then, it was firmly ingrained into me to never, under any circumstances, leave your buddy(providing you have one).

 

[Diver0001]

As I said, on a "real dive" we would not have operated this way.

.

Lynne,

It *was* a real dive and you *did* operate that way.

R..

 

[TSandM]

I've got to address the buoyancy with fins loose issue . . . I was trying to speed up my transitions from one depth to the next stop, because that's something I got dinged on in class (and I've heard it before). So I was experimenting with changing the way I sequenced the inhale to start the ascent and the venting. I was pretty sure that, at some point, I was going to blow a stop doing that. So, in this case, when I blew through 20 feet, I had seen it coming and was already doing something to stop it, which was venting like mad, and turning a little head down to kick downward. When I kicked out of the boots, I lost the downward driving force, and I hadn't vented enough to stop my momentum yet, so I was in the classic dry suit mess of feet up with air in them, but I didn't have access to either of the righting maneuvers, because both require fins.

Under normal circumstances, I think I could maintain my buoyancy without fins just fine.

 

[TSandM]

It *was* a real dive and you *did* operate that way.

You're quite right, and one of the insights I got from this dive was a danger inherent in doing "training" dives. We set them up, make them shallow, and sequence a bunch of drills, but as a consequence, I think it's easy not to take them seriously, and all diving is at root serious. We breached protocol and procedures because we were thinking of this as a classroom exercise. To an extent, it was, but not entirely -- If I had panicked when I lost buoyancy control and held my breath, I had plenty of time to embolize and I could have been in distress on the surface. Losing a buddy needs to be taken seriously, no matter when it occurs. And cross-team drills blur the lines of buddy monitoring and responsibility.

Good lesson out of this one -- Actually, several.

 

[rjack321]

Try it next time (no feet) :14: See how it goes, I'm curious.

Doug and I have chatted about the foot thing off and on (little lateral foot movements). Trying to work towards the kick and gliiiide (with no movement during the glide). Only in the past 6 months have I been getting stiller myself. I admit its tough.

 

[piikki]

As I said, on a "real dive" we would not have operated this way.

This does not make sense to me at all. Something's blurrying if drills allow one to skip basics of 'real diving'??? Or did I understand this wrong?

There is a danger in: "Let's finish the drill and see if by then she has decided to stop interrupting it"

I'd ask should not both the air-sharers have dropped what they were doing too since they did not know that Lynne was throwing a drill at them (her vanishing was not pre-arranged)? The buddy naturally but also the T1 who was not really needing any air but should have seen someone was in possible "real" trouble? Drill after all is only a drill. Don't get sucked into it anymore than what is required for not losing control, no?

I am not DIR though.

 

[piikki]

Well bugger, I was writing it when you responded... doh...