What would you do?

[Walter]

What's the point of the question?

 

[grassyknoll]

What's the point of the question?

I think somethings' coming out of left field on this story, I smell a set up for everyone who answers today.

 

[Scared Silly]

No ... no set up here just trying to get people ideas without prejudicing anyone with what we did and what the DM did. I found it strange - not what we did but the DM reaction to it.

 

[do it easy]

My free opinion- you descend down to your buddy- you can either continue the dive or bring your buddy back to the surface. I suppose you could also unhook the anchor, but that might be a bit forward.

I suppose I would bring my buddy back to the surface to ask him why he didn't notice that I was missing. Then I would ask to continue the dive as planned. If the diver with the problem can get squared away and his wetsuit is still clean enough to dive in, then the more, the merrier.

 

[Matt_NJ]

Well when I have dove with opperations like this in the past, they usually had a plan for handling emergencies that they briefed everyone on prior to descending. So it would depend on what expectation there was from the DM and boat crue as to what you should do. If there was no briefing and you are comfortable that you could continue the dive and keep the anchor line in site to make sure you get back on the boat, then there is no reason not to. However if the Dive operation asked you to stay with the DM as a group due to it being a "Drift" dive and the boat having to switch anchor locations, then you should ascend with the DM and wait till everybody is ready to do the dive again.

I guess it's all a matter of circumstance - Personally I would have continued the dive with my buddy and clipped a slate to the anchor line saying "Back in 45 Minutes"

 

[Doc]

...on "drift" type, no current,..."drift" type as in start in one place and end in another with the boat following our bubbles.

Drift dive or maybe an "unmoored boat dive", okay, we get the idea.

DM gives the briefing of the above and says after we go down he will unhook the anchor.... The anchor is in rocks so instead...

Rocks... meaning what? The Coral ? So are you saying here that the DM was carrying the anchor and there was no boatsman? Sounds like you picked a third rate dive op.

...loses his reg but not the mouth piece. He is not sure what is going...

Been there, done that, yes sir- quite disconcerting. Mouthpiece disconnects from second stage, you're just sucking water. :11: Good that you were nearby to assist. One GOLD star

We three ascend and sort out the situation. ....the DM.... ascends.

And this fellow you call your "Buddy"... was he assisting from below?

I tell the DM what is going on

Meaning ? That this is what happened and then... what? Did you tell him that you are going to descend and get your buddy and do what?

and descend back down to my buddy.

If this means to 25 feet, not a real big deal in terms of sawtoothing- yet- all emergency (98%) ascents that are as described are usually a bit quick.

What's the point of the question?

At this point what would do?

An interesting way to phrase it. What would who do?

The diver, what would the diver (you) do?

Depends upon what you told the DM.

The DM, what would the DM do?

Depends upon what you told the DM.

(See? Same answer!)

If you told him about the incident and just slipped beneath the waves, the DM might have well descended and hauled you back aboard. If he was keyed up and lost his cool, well, shame on him, but he should have hauled you aboard the boat (if he had to)... or descended and rejoined you in the dive.

If he left the other buddy team safely aboard the drifting, unmanned boat (once again- a big hole in the story), it wouldn't seem like such a bad thing, but, it's his call.

Barring other information, that might have seemed reasonable.

The rest of the story tomorrow ...

If he went bull-goose looney and did the snatch and grab on you, okay- we all have bad days. Here some kid is in paradise, tying to keep it together and not lose his employers boat or any of the gringo divers and things go to puppy poop. If he went ballistic, there's no excuse, but there's a lot of reasons.

Good communication averts most disagreements and anguish.

btw- SS... I like your sig line, it reminds me of another TV quote: "A little song, a little dance, a little seltzer- down your pants" -Mary Tyler Moore

 

[Scared Silly]

Okay there have been enough people chiming in and as not to drag this out. Lack of communication is the key here.

This is what we did ...

The divemaster said nothing to me on the surface so I went to rejoin my buddy who I figured was looking for me. They did not come up but were watching from below. After rejoining my buddy we swim up to the other three divers who have moved well away from the anchor and basically doing the dive. I let them know that we are a party of 5. No one seems to be bothered so we continue the dive. The DM never rejoins. But we hear the boat behind us (which had a captain). So I am not worried. After about 40' 2 people go to the surface as they are done and are picked up. Three people, myself included continue for another 10 minutes when we surface in shallow water. At this point the boat is 200' a way. I figure from getting the other two divers. We get on board.

What the DM did after we got back to the boat ...

Said absolutely nothing, but got off the boat for lunch. We could tell he was pissed. But none of us knew why. After lunch, the DM said "please be patient with me" and then said he was leading the dive and no one else was and that we were to follow him. On the next dive also like the first, start in one place with the boat following, I asked him the general direction, he pointed and said "just follow me".

So my point of asking is that we felt the DMs were rather heavy handed, follow me for 40 minutes then we come up when I say so. This was the first time in hundreds of dives that I found an operation's DM so regimented.

It got to the point where when it pissed my buddy (my wife) for something that was really BS it was time to have chat with the owner. Which happened. When we dove with him later in the week the briefings were much better.

The odd part is that after talking to some other divers who were in another part of Belize they said the DM were similar. So I am trying to figure out is it a Belize thing or what. With the what being our expections.

 

[Doc]

So my point of asking is that we felt the DMs were rather heavy handed, follow me for 40 minutes then we come up when I say so. This was the first time in hundreds of dives that I found an operation's DM so regimented.

Next stop? Cayman, Freeport, Nassau, and Club Dread. All aboard!

 

[jonesbf]

I dove Belize in early April of this year and we had the no current drift dives. There were no buddy teams unless you brought you own. The dives went okay but I wasn't happy with the on-your-own diving style.

 

[Scared Silly]

I dove Belize in early April of this year and we had the no current drift dives. There were no buddy teams unless you brought you own. The dives went okay but I wasn't happy with the on-your-own diving style.

I too like having my own buddy. Was there a DM in the water? Could you have asked to dive the DM? We feel comfortable with this type of diving but certainly understand that it is not for everyone. But certainly every operation should understand that not every dive has to end when the first person runs out of air or at 40 minutes. Though there are always circumstances when this is required. This was not the case.