Why you never dive alone...

[RICoder]

I just got back from Nassau, where I witnessed my first diver rescue. The story goes like this:

It was my second day out with the the dive shop I went with all week. I was with an instructor doing my deep dive for an AOW, so we hit the 15 ft. safety stop long before anyone else on the dive. While we were there, we heard the sound of banging on the hull of the boat, and I got a thumb from my instructor. We hit the surface and got out of our gear. About 30 seconds later he was in the water (choppy water at that) heading towards the last sighting of the diver in distress we had been told about on getting on the boat. For my part, I sat back and got the hell out of the way.
Of course, being a vacation spot with pleanty of the proverbial shabby divers, it took about 3 more attempts at signaling before everyone got on the boat. Next thing, we where heading towards my instructor. When he climbed aboard alone, we all knew something bad was going on.
The crew started a spiral search with the boat, spotters on all sides. We came upon a lifeless looking body, face down, floating on the surface within a minute. They dragged him on board and put him on oxygen. The boat kicked in, and we hauled *** back to port.
When we got there, the questions started. Who was his dive buddy? No one answered...

Everyone on the boat heard the divemaster ask if we all had buddies. Indeed, they asked that question more than once on every dive I made with them...

I dove with the same shop the rest of the week, and got pleanty of information. Turns out the guy sucked in some seawater at depth, popped to the surface and tried to swim against the current back to the boat. This, of course, whiped him out, and caused yet more sea-water ingestion. When we found him, he had his BC pumped up, but still had a reg in his mouth...probably because he didn't have a snorkle. The good news is, he was only hospitalized for three days due to the water in his lungs. No hyperbaric chamber necessary.

Sound like a newbie diver to you? This guy had been diving for 8 years with 300+ logged dives. When they asked if everyone had a buddy, he just didn't answer, and no one noticed.

The site of this guy bobbing up and down in the water, lifeless, will stick with me for a long time, I am sure. I had to share it with someone, so I figured this was the place to do it.

Dive Safe

[edited for content. I mean no insult to pro solo divers. The title should be "never dive alone unless you know wtf you are doing"]

 

[MechDiver]

Sound like a newbie diver to you? This guy had been diving for 8 years with 300+ logged dives. When they asked if everyone had a buddy, he just didn't answer, and no one noticed.

Dive Safe

All this proves is that the guy was stupid. You know the first significant thing you do when learning how to fly? You solo. And, you don't even have a snorkle

Just because you don't have the experience to dive solo, doesn't mean others don't.

 

[LazyKevin]

Sound like a newbie diver to you? This guy had been diving for 8 years with 300+ logged dives. When they asked if everyone had a buddy, he just didn't answer, and no one noticed.

Would you really want to buddy with someone like this?

 

[Mako Mark]

Thanks for sharing RICoder, as you say, there in nothing worse than the image of a lifeless body in the water.


Perhaps this is more appropriate in the incidents and accidents forum rather than DIR..

It is certainly a good lesson for the recreational divers on the board, and should not degenerate into the pros and cons of technical solo diving, that can and has been covered many times.. (mechdiver!!!)

 

[RICoder]

You know guys, I should probably ammend my post. I've read about technical solo diving, and I understand its allure. There is no doubt that some people have the skills to do it. For my part, I do not, nor do I have the desire to. Having said that, if he had on a pony bottle, multiple cutting tools, and other such solo stuff, I guess it wouldn't have been so bad...maybe even if he had TOLD someone he was going it alone. Either way, it was still enough to stick with me and remind me that diving is all about the fun and excitement within the context of safety.

I'll go trim my post now...

Anyone with mod-powers may want to move this...I did put it in the wrong forum.

 

[ShakaZulu]

Thanks for the info, maybe this shopuld be moved to the incidents forum............

 

[MikeFerrara]

Regardless which forum you put it in, all incedents are worth looking at IMO.

This one falls under the "don't suck water and if you do just spit it out instead of popping to the surface to fight the current and suck more water" catagory.

 

[Mako Mark]

No need to apologise RICoder, but thanks for the added information, as you know solo diving is one of those topics that makes peoples blood boil, no matter what side of the fence they are on, so we do have to kinda tiptoe around the topic.

I agree with you though it was irresponsable of him not to let the crew know that he was going it alone, and perhaps it was an oversight of the crew not to notice.

A good diver acounting proceedure would have definately avoided this confusion before the guy even hit the water, the crew should have known that he was diving alone..