What to do if you lose your buddy on a deep dive???

[gr8ful divr]

Okay. Here is a question I have. Say you are on a deep dive to 110 feet. You've been on the bottom for a few minutes. You turn to look for your buddy and he is nowhere to be found. According to proper procedure you should spend no more than one minute looking for your buddy before surfacing. I'm wondering if a safety stop is required in this situation before surfacing. In the event that your buddy had an emergency, doing a 3 minute safety stop before surfacing would prevent you from signaling for help that much longer. But you also wouldn't want to put yourself in danger either. So what should a diver do in this situation? What if this situation arises toward the end of a deep dive???

 

[JodiBB]

I would still do deco stops and a safety stop as required...you won't be any good to your buddy at the surface if you're needing to go to the chamber upon reaching the surface yourself.

 

[OE2X]

What are the other conditions?

Are you next to an anchor line?
Is there current?
Can you see the surface?
How long exactly have you been underwater?
Did you drop from the surface right down to 110' or did you start shallow from the shore?
What gas are you breathing? Are you on 21% or 32%?

All of these are factors that need to be assessed before you make your decision to go to the surface.

Whenever you are in a situation where you might need to rescue a victim, make sure that you don't turn yourself into a victim because of yours or the other persons actions.

 

[Cacia]

Do your stop, shoot your marker. The marker might attract attention of anyone on the boat and they may see a diver in distess on the surface, and render assistance until you can surface safely.

 

[H2Andy]

According to proper procedure you should spend no more than one minute looking for your buddy before surfacing.

what is the purpose of this rule?

your reaction/response should follow the intent of the rule.


my two cents:

the rule is there to protect YOU. you don't want to be underwater without
a buddy. if something were to happen, you'd be SOL.

your primary concern is your safety. thus, ascend with your safety in mind.
do whatever stops you need to do. get back to the line if you need to.
shoot a bag if you need to. do whatever it takes to ascend safely.

remember, the rule is there to keep YOU safe. there's not much you can do
for your buddy if they are in trouble and out of sight. don't get yourself
in trouble and on the road to becoming a second victim.

 

[OE2X]

I would still do deco stops and a safety stop as required...you won't be any good to your buddy at the surface if you're needing to go to the chamber upon reaching the surface yourself.

Technically this is inaccurate if you are in NDL. Just because you go to 110' doesn't mean that you need to do deco if you haven't exceeded your NDL. A safety stop is highly advised, but I can think of a couple of scenarios where I would blow it off.

 

[Rick Inman]

... You turn to look for your buddy and he is nowhere to be found.

This doesn't necessarily mean your buddy is in trouble (except to be without buddy). No reason to freak out. No reason to hurry. Be cool, look for a bit. Ascend safely This is what I would do, YMMV.

 

[pt40fathoms]

This may surprise a few people to read this, as the following will contain the raw facts about some of our diving practices.

First off, if you loose your buddy at 110 feet as in your scenario, staying is not an option. You surface just as you described. However, and this is the surprising part for some of you, the safety stop is not mandatory, and is only a preventative measure that was introduced to help prevent the less than 1 percent of DCS incidents that occurred to divers that dove the depth and or time limits of recreational diving. Your primary concern is your safety at all times, however, omitting the safety stop and doing a slow controlled ascent direct to the surface just may save the life of your buddy. If however you lost your buddy near the end of a long dive to 110 feet rather than the start of it as you described, where your NDL time is at or near its limit, then your risk to injury is much greater and your safety stop is less of an option and should not be avoided. If do blow by the safety stop in this instance, then you should call it a day when you find your buddy and stay out of the water for at least 6-8 hours.

Oh, and don't forget to impress upon your "buddy" just how bad it was for them to wander off!

 

[Torgo]

When in doubt look after number one.

 

[meekal]

with my regular buddy we BOTH use subDUCKS..... we've developed a very basic set of signals...

1 quack is simply getting his attention like "HEY COME LOOK AT THIS"

2 quick quacks means "WHARE ARE YOU?" if i hear 2 quick quacks i know he knows that i'm looking for him and the search is on. if i DON'T hear 2 quacks i know the poop has hit the fan and the search is on for 1 minute and THEN surface if needed. has saved a trip or two to the surface....

3 quacks in a row means come see the mermaid.

4 quacks in a row means i'm being eaten by a shark.....

yes, I know, but before anybody jumps in about how irritating subDucks are we use them extremely sparingly.