Last Friday my brother (Sean) and I met up with a group of divers from meetup.com for a shore dive in Hollywood Florida. There were 6 of us in total. The two folks who organized the dive, two single divers, me and Sean.
The dive was a simple reef on a submerged water pipe about 25 feet deep. The plan was to walk/swim out to the swim buoy ~50 yards off the beach and drop there to find the "yellow brick road" and dive for about 45 minutes or so.
The surf was 1-3 foot waves and 2 of our party had some issues with getting through it. One was one of the single divers and the other was Sean. Sean just finished his OW and we'd done BHB and 4 boat dives in the 2 days previous but this was his first shore entry and he was getting tired from working through the surf so we slowed our pace a bit. The single diver was having a very hard time so we tried to help her into the rip to get through the surf. When she seemed to be making progress again we attempted to catch up to the other three divers. I was furthest out when I heard her start yelling. I turned around and she was throwing her hands up in the typical "I'm drowning" posture you see in movies and submerging occasionally. Sean and I swam back to her and got her BC inflated and her reg in her mouth. By the time we had gotten to her (perhaps a 20 foot swim for Sean and maybe 35 foot for me) she had lost her mask/snorkel and her fins. At the point we reached her, I was able to stand with shoulders and head above water. She could stand but just barely have her head out of water and waves were breaking over her head.
The lifeguards came out with a paddle board and got her back on the beach while Sean and I walked ourselves back. The lady and Sean both got O2 for about 15 minutes (Sean's heart rate had spiked to 160) and we talked about the incident a bit. I also signaled the other 3 divers that we were okay. They continued their dive.
Apparently the two single divers had different assumptions about being buddies. Our "subject" assumed she was buddying with the other single diver since the rest of us had "brought our own". The other single, however, seemed to assume it was a "group swim" and stuck with the dive organizers, rather than buddying up with her. She hadn't actually had a buddy check of any kind with anyone. (Sean and I didn't know that or would have just buddy-checked as a threesome.)
Sean and I talked about the dive organizer's responsibility in this situation. Sean and I agreed, legally he probably has no responsibility (even as a dive pro) because he wasn't acting in a professional capacity. Morally, however, we both faulted him, somewhat, for not calling the dive and coming back in to check on everyone. We both felt that's what we would have done despite me signaling that we were okay on the beach.
How would you have handled things? As the dive organizer or in our positions as divers helping someone we didn't know and missing our dive as a result?
As a postscript, it turned out we didn't miss too much. Viz on the dive was poor and they didn't see too much other than a few lobsters and a couple of fish. Certainly not the dive we all hoped to have.
EDIT: The original post said "solo" rather than "single" diver above, causing some confusion. I meant "single", like no pre-planned buddy, not someone intentionally planning to dive without a buddy. Sorry about any confusion.
The dive was a simple reef on a submerged water pipe about 25 feet deep. The plan was to walk/swim out to the swim buoy ~50 yards off the beach and drop there to find the "yellow brick road" and dive for about 45 minutes or so.
The surf was 1-3 foot waves and 2 of our party had some issues with getting through it. One was one of the single divers and the other was Sean. Sean just finished his OW and we'd done BHB and 4 boat dives in the 2 days previous but this was his first shore entry and he was getting tired from working through the surf so we slowed our pace a bit. The single diver was having a very hard time so we tried to help her into the rip to get through the surf. When she seemed to be making progress again we attempted to catch up to the other three divers. I was furthest out when I heard her start yelling. I turned around and she was throwing her hands up in the typical "I'm drowning" posture you see in movies and submerging occasionally. Sean and I swam back to her and got her BC inflated and her reg in her mouth. By the time we had gotten to her (perhaps a 20 foot swim for Sean and maybe 35 foot for me) she had lost her mask/snorkel and her fins. At the point we reached her, I was able to stand with shoulders and head above water. She could stand but just barely have her head out of water and waves were breaking over her head.
The lifeguards came out with a paddle board and got her back on the beach while Sean and I walked ourselves back. The lady and Sean both got O2 for about 15 minutes (Sean's heart rate had spiked to 160) and we talked about the incident a bit. I also signaled the other 3 divers that we were okay. They continued their dive.
Apparently the two single divers had different assumptions about being buddies. Our "subject" assumed she was buddying with the other single diver since the rest of us had "brought our own". The other single, however, seemed to assume it was a "group swim" and stuck with the dive organizers, rather than buddying up with her. She hadn't actually had a buddy check of any kind with anyone. (Sean and I didn't know that or would have just buddy-checked as a threesome.)
Sean and I talked about the dive organizer's responsibility in this situation. Sean and I agreed, legally he probably has no responsibility (even as a dive pro) because he wasn't acting in a professional capacity. Morally, however, we both faulted him, somewhat, for not calling the dive and coming back in to check on everyone. We both felt that's what we would have done despite me signaling that we were okay on the beach.
How would you have handled things? As the dive organizer or in our positions as divers helping someone we didn't know and missing our dive as a result?
As a postscript, it turned out we didn't miss too much. Viz on the dive was poor and they didn't see too much other than a few lobsters and a couple of fish. Certainly not the dive we all hoped to have.
EDIT: The original post said "solo" rather than "single" diver above, causing some confusion. I meant "single", like no pre-planned buddy, not someone intentionally planning to dive without a buddy. Sorry about any confusion.
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