What should I have done?

[mdb]

... now, should we all go over to the solo forum and start telling the solo divers why we prefer to dive as a team?

Michael ... please read the rules for posting in this forum ...... Bob (Grateful Diver)

Bob: You are right. Sorry. I was just looking at "new posts" and did not check that this was on the DIR forum. You are trying to learn from each other and comments from the peanut [solo] gallery don't help.

 

[Tavi]

Queenie,
DIR or not, loosing your fins is no reason to leave your buddy without telling him.
If it was practice, you should have practiced your 20' hang without fins. If you're training for tec, practice dealing with the problems that come up at depth. in the real thing you won't be able to make that ascent.
It's tough to follow through when you're frustrated isn't it?

Peter,
If this was a training dive, and you had a problem (simulated or real) while solo, the Instructor's answer would be.....Your team killed you!!

I'm not throwing spears or claiming right or wrong...........just some random thoughts!!

PS. I didn't read the whole thread. so, sorry if this was already mentioned!

 

[KMD]

Rob -- You are right concerning what I think (in retrospect) I should have done -- that is, tell the two that the 4th is missing and I'm going up. I think (!) I was about to do that when I saw her light coming down and thus the dilemna was solved.

After thinking about this on the way home, I concluded I should have immediately signalled to the other two that the 4th was missing and that I was going after her.

As this was just training dive, another solution also might be: Signal to them that the drill is over and we are going up.

 

[limeyx]

Why do you guys think I'm going to say anything amusing here?

This dive pointed out how unworkable teams of four are, and how artificial skills dives are.
...

4's are something of a pain.

In my opinion, someone should have followed you to the surface -- no one down below knew if you were conscious or not. Being alone on the surface is just as dangerous as at depth.

Ideally, all three would have noticed you missing, and ascended to meet you.

Given that only Peter seemed to have noticed that, he could have signaled "drill over" with crossed arms and thumbed the dive, or a "question mark" and "two" to indicate where the heck is #2 ?

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

As this was just training dive, another solution also might be: Signal to them that the drill is over and we are going up.

I wouldn't treat the response any differently because it's a training dive ... the whole purpose of training dives is to ingrain the responses that you would use in a real situation.

Regardless of prior buddy team commitments, once two divers are connected to a common regulator, they ARE a buddy team. The "odd man out", must respond accordingly. In this case, Peter became Lynne's buddy by default. The most effective possibility would've been to adjust to that role, communicate it to the two linked divers, and respond to the need of his new buddy.

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[limeyx]

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

We did assign buddy teams at the beginning of the dive, but due to a lot of things, the lines got blurred. Lessons learned.

This was danny's point in cave1. There are no *real* dives and *pretend* dives (unless you can suddenly breathe water on a skills dive)

I *do* agree that canceling a drill might be the right thing to do on a skills dive, but someone really should have followed you up to make sure you weren't dying.

If you start honing in different reactions for skills dives compared to 'real' dives, you will be in bigger trouble.

 

[TSandM]

Tavi, I didn't voluntarily go up to fix my feet. I had lost buoyancy control and then lost my boots, and had no way to fix an involuntary feet-first ascent except dumping gas, which I couldn't do fast enough. If I had had a problem I wanted to deal with on the surface, I would have signalled the other divers to let them know.

 

[piikki]

Referring to posts #65 and 66, do you assign buddy ID-tags in DIR team, ie member # 1, 2, 3? I thought so - so then what are the hand signals for, say member #2? (eg, where is #2??)

Is Bob's description of team re-arrangement after some members hooking onto common reg the DIR way of understanding it? Ie, buddies will change even if dive plan had designated different teams? Thanks

 

[TSandM]

piikki, I don't know the answer to that question. I do know that one reorders the existing team, and that it is acceptable to pass the OOA diver off from one donor to another if it enhances the capabilities of the team. So I would assume that, in the case of a member of one team receiving gas from a member of another, you would either reassign teams or pass the OOA diver back to one of his own team members. But we've never done cross-team exercises in a class, so I don't know what the more experienced answer to this question would be.

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

piikki, I don't know the answer to that question. I do know that one reorders the existing team, and that it is acceptable to pass the OOA diver off from one donor to another if it enhances the capabilities of the team. So I would assume that, in the case of a member of one team receiving gas from a member of another, you would either reassign teams or pass the OOA diver back to one of his own team members. But we've never done cross-team exercises in a class, so I don't know what the more experienced answer to this question would be.

It would be an interesting question to bring up with Steve ... as well as other GUE instructors.

... Bob (Grateful Diver)