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

[gcbryan]

I think that you should do whatever you agreed to before the dive. I don't think it matters what that is.

I do know that if I thought my buddy was really in trouble I'd seach underwater until my air was low. Searching for 1 minute is not enough. Once I'm on the surface nothing I do in all likelihood will help my buddy.

Your life isn't suddenly in danger just because your buddy left.

 

[Walter]

Does anyone know the background of the " search for one minute" protocol? I mean we know where our CPR recommendations come from... research, international medical recusitation commitees anylizing the data, etc.
Is this rule based on actual numbers (how could it be?) or is it just our "best practice" educated guess? When a training agency makes protocol do they have a standard they have to meet before making a recomendation?

If you're going to find your buddy, chances are it'll be within a minute. Searching longer doesn't usually increase your chances of finding your buddy. If you both surface, you can find each other on the surface.

On a deep dive, you've often gone down a line. Go back to the up line instead of surfacing. If you both go back to the up line, you'll find each other there.

When you make your search, don't look for your buddy, look for traces of your buddy - bubbles, silt, etc. In good viz, ascend 10 or 15 feet and circle, you'll have a better chance of seeing traces, if you don't ascend, you could easily miss your buddy just on the other side of a coral head.

If you were ahead of you buddy when you last saw him, head back to where you last saw him. If you were behind, head in the direction he was going. Depending on the situation, you may want to extend the search time. Use common sense.

 

[Jafo123]

What happened to your dive plan? Seperation and the time spent serching for each other should have been discussed in the dive plan. Plan your dive and dive your plan.

 

[Walter]

What happened to your dive plan? Seperation and the time spent serching for each other should have been discussed in the dive plan. Plan your dive and dive your plan.

I assumed this discussion was for dive planning.

 

[Dutchman]

So seems to be a lot of concern for a loss buddy. I agree with everyone about pre-dive communications. That makes a big difference. I wonder if anyone has tried to tether their buddy. Using a bungee cord like system. I have never tried this but have spoken to several divers that have done this with excellent results. One said they actually hooked up to each other with a 10’ cord. Another mentioned just holding on to the cord worked as well and less risk of getting tangled up. Any thoughts on the process?

 

[DA Aquamaster]

I have never been inclined to do things just because that is the way they have always been done. What made ense 30 years ago in a general situation does not always make sense today in a specific situation. I prefer brains and critical thinking to dogmatic adhearance to indoctrinated rules.

If you or your buddy are swimming along a general course line, remaining at a specific depth on a sloped bottom or following a particular terrain feature, all those things will tend to limit the possible search areas and funnel you into the same space if you follow a protocol ahat creats that possibility.

So if you were leading, just stop for a minute to see if the buddy catches up, then reverse course to see if you can find them along your route. If you were the trailing diver and stopped to look at something, stay the course and see if you can rejoin your buddy who most likely continued swimming ahead.

The worst thing you can do is to have both of you start swimming in circles being where you are not expected to be and consequently increasing the likely hood that you will miss each other in your respective searches.

The 1 minute rule may have made some sense in the days when recommended ascent rates were higher, 60 fpm, (and real world rates were closer to 100 fpm) but when recommended rates went to 30 fpm the time factor involved in terms of locating a non breathing diver on the bottom got much less surviveable.

Given:

1. that a rapid ascent and no safety stop does increase your risk of DCS,
2. that your buddy is most likely lost and not entangeld in a fishing net (meaning their is propably no benefit to increasing your DCS risk making it a bad idea from a cost benefit analysis or risk management perspective),
3. and that if your buddy were entangled on the bottom, a longer more extensive search may be more time effective than a 4 minute ascent and then a re-decent down the trail of bubbles (which is optimistically assuming you can even see them on the surface - unlikely in rough seas or a current where you drift off the last known location during ascent.)

Your best option if leading is to wait a minute, then back track to the last known location where you saw your buddy and then start a search from that location. If you are trailing it makes sense to continue on course for a minute, wait a minute then return to the location where you noticed you lost your buddy and begin a search.

And this protocol gets more effective if the two of you discuss it and agree on it before hand as then both of you pretty much know how the other will react if you are separated. This surface discussion is also where you can assess things like sea state, current, the general dive plan, each others redundant equipment, experience levels and gas supply, all of which should impact your specific plan if you become separated that day.

 

[fairybasslet]

I do know that if I thought my buddy was really in trouble I'd seach underwater until my air was low. Searching for 1 minute is not enough. Once I'm on the surface nothing I do in all likelihood will help my buddy.

The only problem with this scenario is that your buddy may think that YOU'RE the one who is lost. He goes to the surface after 1 minute, and you're not there. Then he mounts a rescue operation to look for you, and in the meantime, you're ok looking for him on the bottom. This is not a dig at you or your plan, just a reiteration of the importance of having a plan before starting your dive.

That being said, on my recent trip to Thailand, during the dive briefing, the DM mentioned the 1 minute rule, but honestly, we didn't really follow it. My buddy was always leaving me (I like to go slow and take photos) and a few times I found myself alone. Sometimes I would look around for bubbles, not see any, and start a very slow ascent. One of a few things would happen: I would see bubbles, join the group and it would turn out not to be my group. LOL. But then a little bit later, I would see my group. Once, the DM came and found me. Another time, a DM from another group would signal to me which way my group went. Towards the end of our trip, another photographer and me would buddy up because we were the slowest and our consumption was the same. Sometimes it would be a little disconcerting to find myself alone because I didn't have my own SMB to shoot and neither did my buddy. We borrowed one from the boat for our buddy team. I have since bought my own. But honestly, I have no idea how long I was "missing" from the group because I was so engaged in the marine life and taking photos of it. Yeah, I'm one of "those" divers. LOL
BTW, these dives were not to 110fsw. I think the deepest was 85 or so. Most of the time, we were at 60 fsw or so. Vis was not the greatest on some times. Maybe 30 feet, so it was kind of easy to loose sight of the group. You would stop and take maybe 5 or 6 shots of something, look up, and the group was gone. To me, taking 5 or 6 shots is not a long time to spend on one subject.

 

[Web Monkey]

So seems to be a lot of concern for a loss buddy. I agree with everyone about pre-dive communications. That makes a big difference. I wonder if anyone has tried to tether their buddy. Using a bungee cord like system. I have never tried this but have spoken to several divers that have done this with excellent results. One said they actually hooked up to each other with a 10’ cord. Another mentioned just holding on to the cord worked as well and less risk of getting tangled up. Any thoughts on the process?

Being clipped to your buddy is a Bad Idea. If your buddy starts rocketing towards the surface, you don't want to go along for the ride. This is also why you don't want to be clipped to any kind of movable buoy. Boaters have been known to come by and grab dive floats and SMBs.

Also, if you're in an ecologically fragile area, the line can cause a lot of damage.

Terry

 

[String]

Cant see the issue with this - you go with the agreed plan which is normally 60 seconds to look around then surface following all the mandatory stops if any.

 

[redacted]

I know my buddy. We rarely, if ever, lose contact without prior arrangement. And when we do, it is just one of us that momentarily can't locate the other. When it does happen, she is usually above & behind me and headed toward me as she watches me look around. It lasts maybe 10 seconds. So if I can't find her, I'd be pretty sure there is a problem. I'd search & backtrack to last known location. Then head safely but quickly to the surface as I continued to search. I would not plan to do a rest stop.