Where's your buddy?

[bjf123]

Unlike many of the threads here, this one doesn't involve anyone dying or being seriously injured. My wife and I recently returned from a week of diving in Bonaire. One afternoon while following the line back to the pier at Capt. Don's, I came across a diver laying on the bottom in about 12" of water. I asked if he was OK and he rather frantically signaled me to come over. He showed me his dive computer which indicated he still had 24 minutes of deco time remaining. He then showed me his pressure gauge which indicated about 400 psi remaining. At 12', that should be enough air, but since he looked a little stressed, I wasn't sure. I motioned for my wife to come to the surface with me where I told her what was going on. She had more air remaining than me, so she went back down to share air with the diver while I went up to the dive shop to get a fresh tank and regulator. They seemed a little surprised when I told them why I needed a regulator. I took the regulator back to the diver and my wife stayed with him until he cleared his deco time. At that point, he just swam off, leaving the tank we had brought for him, so my wife brought it up with her.

While this was going on, someone else in our group had gotten out of the water and saw the diver's buddy on land in dry clothes. He told him about his buddy still being in the water doing a deco stop. The buddy's reply? "I wasn't sure what his computer was saying so I just went ahead and got out." What the....? I think the diver needs a new buddy!

Turns out it was the divers 3rd dive of the day and he had gone to 137 feet, which takes some effort on that shore dive. Sometimes you have to wonder if some people paid any attention in their scuba class. At least no one got hurt.

 

[BabyDuck]

so many things to say 'hmm...' about in this one! good for you & your buddy for helping.

 

[Texasdivechick]

Did you ever talk to the deco diver after he cleared his obligations (and didn't help to bring the tank back)? I think you and your wife should be commended on this good samaritan act. The "buddy" should have been stopped by the Scuba Police and had his card revoked!

 

[AfterDark]

Good job! Maybe you two are the reason nobody died in this incident.:cool2:

 

[ItsBruce]

I am just about speechless. ... The buddy did not understand what the computer said, so he surfaced and got dressed? ... I'm not going to do the calcs, but if the diver had 24 minutes of deco left, how long was he at 137 feet? How did he have enough gas to do a dive to that depth to incur an obligation of 24 minutes? ... If the buddy was with the guy who was doing his stop, at 137 feet, what about his obligation ... or will we read about him here.

 

[bane51031]

You two are to be commened for quick,rational thinking. However the diver you helped out and his buddy are obviously operating with at least one strand of inferior DNA!

 

[drdaddy]

WOW! Leaves me breathless! Reminds me of the rescue that was just posted:

http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/near-misses-lessons-learned/289924-bahamas-close-call-video.html

What are these divers doing? I do hope these near fatalities warn them (and others) of the risks of going beyond definite limits which will bring certain death, if their "guardian angel" (other alert divers) had not been watching out for them.

DrDaddy

 

[TSandM]

The diver may not have needed to be down long at all to incur that obligation, if it wasn't the first dive of the day. My husband ended up with a Suunto computer showing 20 minutes of deco on the third dive of the day, when the computers of everybody else on the trip showed no deco at all.

 

[openmindOW]

> . . He showed me his dive computer which indicated he still had 24 minutes of deco time remaining. He then showed me his pressure gauge which indicated about 400 psi remaining. At 12', that should be enough air, but since he looked a little stressed, I wasn't sure. . . . Turns out it was the divers 3rd dive of the day and he had gone to 137 feet, which takes some effort on that shore dive.

Wow.

I think I know the general dive area you are speaking of ner Cpt Don's. Yes, you can get pretty deep there, but it's not necessary. There is a lot to see at much shallower depths.

I don't want to be mean about this, but Deco Diver may be a candidate for a Darwin Award someday.

At least, he got scared. Maybe he learned something.

 

[Jan Kruger]

Amazing how they just left without even thanking you ,not to speak of the 'Buddy' already clothed ! The video also made my hair stand up seeing those inexperienced divers ,not even realising how close to a serious situation they were in !