WoodTurner
Registered
Normally I am not the person that complains, but if there is a lesson to be learned, I don’t mind sharing my experience.
September 25th 2022 Den Osse, The Netherlands.
Though the whole AOW course was of poor quality, the deep dive specialty was terrible and could have gone sideways.
Plan of the dive was to experience effects of nitrogen narcosis at depth by doing simple tasks such as recognizing number order on the wet notes. The group consisted of 4 students, 1 instructor and 2 DM’s (apparently still in training). The number exercise was conducted at the parking lot, each of us was timed how fast we could find all of the numbers in proper order. Signal was given to gear up and walk to the entry point on the shore. Water visibility was poor, at shallow about 2 meters tops. We were split into 2 teams, 2 students and 1 DM with birds eye view, let me name that team A and team B. Instructor was in the lead and teams followed, me, my buddy and DM (team B) were behind team A.
Swim to the designated depth was nice and slow, it took us about 16 minutes to get to 24m depth, visibility there was even worse, about 0,5-1m. All of the students dropped on the lake floor, silting up and making visibility closing to zero. In order to see the wet notes I used my primary torch, next to the poor visibility, the lake is pitch dark at that depth.
After successfully completing the exercise, a signal was given to swim further. Team A led by the instructor was gone and within a few seconds we couldn’t see them anymore due to poor visibility. I gave a rough direction to my buddy, as he looked confused, showing with body language, kind of, where is everyone? Our DM was also nowhere to be found, and I made sure my buddy was close to me and we swam the direction I thought team A went. At some point, our DM joined us from nowhere, and he also seemed confused with the situation. He was indicating that he doesn’t know where team A is, and was asking me whether I knew. In the corner of my eye I saw the flash light, and thought that must be team A, so I again indicated the direction and we continued swimming trying to catch the group with the light. After a brief moment I realised the group was diving doubles, and unfortunately were not team A. My buddy and DM were confused, as far as I could decipher their body language they didn’t know what to do next. I did try to give a hand signal to the DM, what to do now, he just shook his shoulders “I don’t know”.
I’m not sure how much gas I used by that point, and feeling confused myself, feeling task loaded, I started losing my buoyancy control. I started ascending quite fast, trying to deflate BCD and my dry suit simultaneously, but without success. My eardrums were vibrating like crazy and next to trying to deflate my buoyancy equipment all I could think of was, exhale, exhale…
I was at the surface, feeling extreme disappointment in myself not being able to control the situation I’ve found myself in. The shore was about 60-70 meters and I decided to swim slowly on my back and get out the water, observing the surface and waiting for my complete group to come out. I’m not sure how long the swim took, but I came out, and waited another 10 minutes before I could see my group surfacing. At that time, I suppose the instructor figured she was missing the diver, and they were all looking opposite of the shore and waiting for me to surface. That continued for 5-10 minutes, when the instructor finally looked at shore, I waved at them and they started swimming towards me. Group was relieved they didn’t lose me, especially the DM, he was really concerned about my wellbeing, asking me constantly if I’m okay…. I just wanted to be left alone, after being disappointed in myself, I was disappointed in the group as well, because of lack of awareness and the lost diver procedure wasn’t followed. Instructor though, never said anything.
After a while we gathered and I felt I needed to speak up, I told them I’m angry with myself for ascending too fast, but I’m also disappointed at the group as we’ve failed as a team to recognize potential incidents and react accordingly.
This was my dive number 15, and only 8th after 11 years of not diving.
In the attached dive log profile, you can clearly see my buoyancy issues started from 24th minute, and rapid ascend from 25,5 minute.
September 25th 2022 Den Osse, The Netherlands.
Though the whole AOW course was of poor quality, the deep dive specialty was terrible and could have gone sideways.
Plan of the dive was to experience effects of nitrogen narcosis at depth by doing simple tasks such as recognizing number order on the wet notes. The group consisted of 4 students, 1 instructor and 2 DM’s (apparently still in training). The number exercise was conducted at the parking lot, each of us was timed how fast we could find all of the numbers in proper order. Signal was given to gear up and walk to the entry point on the shore. Water visibility was poor, at shallow about 2 meters tops. We were split into 2 teams, 2 students and 1 DM with birds eye view, let me name that team A and team B. Instructor was in the lead and teams followed, me, my buddy and DM (team B) were behind team A.
Swim to the designated depth was nice and slow, it took us about 16 minutes to get to 24m depth, visibility there was even worse, about 0,5-1m. All of the students dropped on the lake floor, silting up and making visibility closing to zero. In order to see the wet notes I used my primary torch, next to the poor visibility, the lake is pitch dark at that depth.
After successfully completing the exercise, a signal was given to swim further. Team A led by the instructor was gone and within a few seconds we couldn’t see them anymore due to poor visibility. I gave a rough direction to my buddy, as he looked confused, showing with body language, kind of, where is everyone? Our DM was also nowhere to be found, and I made sure my buddy was close to me and we swam the direction I thought team A went. At some point, our DM joined us from nowhere, and he also seemed confused with the situation. He was indicating that he doesn’t know where team A is, and was asking me whether I knew. In the corner of my eye I saw the flash light, and thought that must be team A, so I again indicated the direction and we continued swimming trying to catch the group with the light. After a brief moment I realised the group was diving doubles, and unfortunately were not team A. My buddy and DM were confused, as far as I could decipher their body language they didn’t know what to do next. I did try to give a hand signal to the DM, what to do now, he just shook his shoulders “I don’t know”.
I’m not sure how much gas I used by that point, and feeling confused myself, feeling task loaded, I started losing my buoyancy control. I started ascending quite fast, trying to deflate BCD and my dry suit simultaneously, but without success. My eardrums were vibrating like crazy and next to trying to deflate my buoyancy equipment all I could think of was, exhale, exhale…
I was at the surface, feeling extreme disappointment in myself not being able to control the situation I’ve found myself in. The shore was about 60-70 meters and I decided to swim slowly on my back and get out the water, observing the surface and waiting for my complete group to come out. I’m not sure how long the swim took, but I came out, and waited another 10 minutes before I could see my group surfacing. At that time, I suppose the instructor figured she was missing the diver, and they were all looking opposite of the shore and waiting for me to surface. That continued for 5-10 minutes, when the instructor finally looked at shore, I waved at them and they started swimming towards me. Group was relieved they didn’t lose me, especially the DM, he was really concerned about my wellbeing, asking me constantly if I’m okay…. I just wanted to be left alone, after being disappointed in myself, I was disappointed in the group as well, because of lack of awareness and the lost diver procedure wasn’t followed. Instructor though, never said anything.
After a while we gathered and I felt I needed to speak up, I told them I’m angry with myself for ascending too fast, but I’m also disappointed at the group as we’ve failed as a team to recognize potential incidents and react accordingly.
This was my dive number 15, and only 8th after 11 years of not diving.
In the attached dive log profile, you can clearly see my buoyancy issues started from 24th minute, and rapid ascend from 25,5 minute.