Could have been much worse.

[RandomGuy1]

We were wrapping up a trip to Florida Springs where we dove at Ginnie Springs, and Blue Grotto over the weekend. We woke up Sunday morning, and checked out of the cabin we had rented at Blue Grotto to head home. We had discussed several times over the weekend the possibility of hitting Troy springs as a quick side trip on the ride home, and decided it was worth a the quick detour to try and get one more dive in. As part of that nightly discussion, I mentioned that I felt we were being a bit lax in our buddy checks, and that my fundies instructor would not have been proud of me for being so complacent. I had gotten in the water that night and had forgotten to hook up my drysuit inflation hose, and knew it would have been caught on a good head to toe buddy check.

On the road to the Troy, I reviewed the GUE EDGE with my dive partners (They aren't GUE trained, but are interested in learning about the philosophy). This was probably my most through pre-dive I had done since completing fundies a year ago.
1. Goal: We will do a fun dive to explore Troy springs.
2. Unified Team: I nominated my teammate who had been there before to lead the dive, since he had been there before.
3. Equipment check: To be conducted at the dive site
4. Exposure: Max depth of 70ft - Gas limited, we discussed and decided 1/2 - hour dive time depending on conditions
5. Deco: Dive within NDL
6. Gas: everyone was on air, pressure checks to be done at the dive site
7. Environment: Typical spring, no real hazards a few small overhangs (This is where we messed up)

When we arrived at Troy springs, we walked down to the water to see what the vis was, and determine if we wanted to dive (I had only brought double HP100s and a dry suit as I have been working on my buoyancy in that configuration). One diver in our group had been there before, and had briefed us on the dive site, saying that there were several small overhangs, but no real cave system you could get in to. There was an open water class being conducted, and a freediving class being conducted as well. Visibility from the surface looked to be about 6-10 feet.

We suit up and go down to the springs. Make our way through the crowd on the platform and enter the water. Floating on the surface we proceed to do the equipment check. I am the only diver in a drysut and doubles. The other two divers are in singles, with traditional regulator setups. I have roughly 1500psi in my doubles, the other two divers are diving a AL63, and an AL80 respectively with no redundant air. We descent to roughly 20 feet and perform our bubble checks, along with my modified S drill, and the visibility was roughly 3 feet. So much for the 6-10 vis I was expecting, but hey, they are doing an open water class here. How bad could it be. All three divers are comfortable diving in low visibility conditions so the lead diver proceeds to follow the plan and we start to follow the left wall around as we descent, hoping visibility will improve. It doesn’t, it actually gets worse. At ~30 feet myself and one teammate signal OK, but I do not see the third teammate. I then lose visibility to the second teammate. By this time I am at about 45-50ft. Visibility is measured in inches and I have to hold my petrel 2 inches from my mask to see anything. Time to think.
Okay going to open water lost buddy procedure of search for one minute and then surface. Check time and we have been in the water for 4 minutes. I attempt to swim in a circle searching for any sign of my two teammates. My minute is up and I decide it is time to surface and suddenly a wall appears before me and bang, my manifold has hit the ceiling.
I look up to see a horizontal surface proceeding backwards over my head. I am now unintentionally in an overhead. Respiration increases and mind goes into overdrive. I go full stop and begin telling myself don’t panic, you have plenty of air, the dive just started. I think about checking my pressure gauge, but decide against it as being a waste of time, because I either have enough air or I don’t. I have the thought that I am going to be that dumb ass that you read about that drowns because of a 10 foot overhang. I push that thought from my head as I picture my wife and son. I keep telling myself I have plenty of air, there is no need to panic. I decide my best course of action was to back kick the direction I had come from. As I back kick I see the wall in front of me and the slanted overhead recede into the murk. I back kick for about 10 feet, hoping that I am going directly backwards. I begin a short ascent and I see the increase in ambient light and realize I am no longer under anything. I was probably under the overhang for about 10-20 seconds total, but it seemed an eternity.
I begin my ascent to the surface and for a moment I am ascending too fast. I realize I have inadvertently swam up and the air in my wing and drysuit has decided we are going to the surface. I immediately flair my body as much as I can, and dump all air from my wing, realizing that it would dump faster than my drysuit. Once it is empty I concentrate on dumping air from my drysuit, but the dump valve is already almost fully open anyway and I consider breaking a seal to let more air out, but manage to get the ascent under control at about 10 ft. I look back at my computer and see that my max depth hadn’t exceeded 60 feet and I had only been in the water for just over 5 minutes so I make the decision to forgo the safety stop and proceed to the surface to find my buddies. I surface to find buddy #1 on the surface and he had surfaced about 30 seconds before me. I will let buddy #2 tell his own story.

Lessons learned.
1. I will not dive a new dive site in low vis conditions.
2. I began my dive with about 1500 psi in my doubles, treating them like a single. While I was under the overhang, one of the million thoughts I had was that I sure wished these were full.
3. Pre-dive briefing was insufficient. More on this when Buddy #2 tells his story.
4. Dive should have been call at 20ft when doing the S drill and bubble check. Should have realized vis wasn’t going to get better and we couldn’t see anything anyway.

 

[Bubblesong]

So has the other diver posted yet?

 

[KevinNM]

Wow, we dove Troy in July in a fundamentals course. and vis wasn't bad at all, like 20+ feet. The current and depth made it more interesting to dive than blue grotto, but it was pretty nice.

 

[DevonDiver]

In regards to your GUE EDGE protocol (or any other pre-dive planning acronym used)... it seems like you went through the motions... ticked the boxes.... but didn't diligently and prudently use that checklist to address all contingencies and factors applicable to the dive.

The point of checklists is to ensure that all points are satisfactorily covered, thus ensuring mission success and mitigation for all foreseeable contingencies. Ticking checklist boxes, or adding non-descriptive, token, answers without the application of real risk analysis and planning considerations isn't really succeeding in the aim that the checklist is intended to achieve.

No matter how prestigious the training agency and how fancy their protocol acronyms might be - if you don't apply those protocols diligently they aren't effective in their intentions.

Complacency is, indeed, an insidious spectre for divers as they experience and confidence. When divers do reach a stage where complacency starts to creep in.... it's the 'simplest' dives that pose the most risk.

If you ever find that a dive seems 'so easy, routine or straightforward' that the proper procedures - diligently applied seems to be over-kill and/or unnecessary .... then take that as a serious red alarm warning..... and honestly evaluate your mindset and thought processes.

 

[RandomGuy1]

Diver #2 has not posted yet but he plans to in the next day or two.
I completely agree with you Devon that the predive was insufficient. If you look at the environment step you can see I think that was where the main mistake was made. Over confidence in our abilities to dive in low visibility conditions and, at least on my part, the lack of understanding that we could potentially end up under an overhead bit us.

 

[RandomGuy1]

In regards to your GUE EDGE protocol (or any other pre-dive planning acronym used)... it seems like you went through the motions... ticked the boxes.... but didn't diligently and prudently use that checklist to address all contingencies and factors applicable to the dive.
.

Please don't take this as me being defensive, I honestly want to know. Where in the pre-dive breif, outside of the Environment, do you see just checking the boxes? Maybe it is just my writing skills, or maybe I am deficient somewhere that I am not seeing it. Remember though, this was suppose to be an open water dive, as none of the divers involved are overhead / tech trained. I know we messed up BIG on the environment check, but if there is something else I missed I want to know, which is why I posted here.

Thanks

 

[RyanT]

To the OP: thanks for sharing! Again, this is precisely the kind of thing we can all learn from. Your description of what your brain does when things go wrong, and talking yourself down, is an especially enlightening topic for any diver who hasn't been there before!

 

[Lorenzoid]

Diver #2 has not posted yet but he plans to in the next day or two.
I completely agree with you Devon that the predive was insufficient. If you look at the environment step you can see I think that was where the main mistake was made. Over confidence in our abilities to dive in low visibility conditions and, at least on my part, the lack of understanding that we could potentially end up under an overhead bit us.

Great post. Thank you. Every time I have done the GUE EDGE for an OW dive in a spring, the "Environment" item tends to get glossed over. I mean, it's just a spring run, right? We usually mention that we should watch out for other divers, as springs have been crowded when I have been there. I vaguely recall my instructor mentioning overhead as an environmental factor, yet when I have done such dives post-Fundies I have forgotten about that very important hazard. Thanks to this thread, I am reminded that Environment includes visibility and any overhead and what the plan is with respect to those items.

 

[Dizzi Lizzi]

Thank you for posting. Unfortunately I can see this happening to me. Well, not now as I will learn from you. The things that would have put me at a false sense of ease would be:
There was a ow class being done
There was a free diving class
There were no "cave systems " but just a few overhangs.
Someone knew the site.
The vis was "ok" on the surface.

I like to think that as the vis got worse I would have thumbed the dive, it's not fun for me if I can't see good, but boy it sure got bad fast. Scary!

 

[DevonDiver]

Please don't take this as me being defensive, I honestly want to know. Where in the pre-dive breif, outside of the Environment, do you see just checking the boxes?

I;; make suggestions using the GUE EDGE format, but I'm not familiar with the specific issues you are/aren't taught to include under each heading. But you'll get the general idea...

1. Goal: We will do a fun dive to explore Troy springs.

This can be expanded to reflect specific outcomes or sub-objectives. If there's a training value, then it can be included, for instance, are there specific experience acquisitions issues your team want to focus upon.

How will you 'explore'? That's a 'big' goal.... perhaps consider specificity and break the 'big' goal into achievable and measurable sub-goals?

2. Unified Team: I nominated my teammate who had been there before to lead the dive, since he had been there before.

For me, I'd include other roles... deco captain, navigation etc. Every diver can have a primary responsibility within the team. The leader takes overall responsibility, but is supported by team-mates who have specific taskings. Team supports leader. Leader supports team.

This could also include formations, positioning, spacing.... stuff that matters in low-viz diving.

Communication... especially if visibility degrades.

3. Equipment check: To be conducted at the dive site

I'd include contigencies in that. What happens if there's issues presented at the team equipment check?

What equipment will be checked? What is needed?

4. Exposure: Max depth of 70ft - Gas limited, we discussed and decided 1/2 - hour dive time depending on conditions

"Depending on conditions" isn't a plan.

What's the gas plan? Do team-mates know the consumption of other team members? What's the prediction at 70ft? How will conditions affect that? If conditions affect that, what are the contigencies?

5. Deco: Dive within NDL

What is that NDL? What if the NDL is exceeded? What methods/equipment are deciding the NDL? What factors might influence an earlier, or later end to the dive?

Does any diver wish to set a margin within the NDL? How is the team influenced by DCS pre-disposing factors? Well rested? Injuries? Good nights sleep? Properly hydrated? Should the team set a margin of conservatism based on prudent conservatism for one, or more, team members. Encourage the team to speak up... to discuss openly and honestly their physical and psychological preparedness for the dive.

What in-water factors might provoke the team to spontaneously add conservatism to the 'withing NDL' plan? Is there a course of action/contingency that can be agreed if those factors prove relevant?

6. Gas: everyone was on air, pressure checks to be done at the dive site

What happens if pressure checks reveal a deficit of gas, compared to expectations/plans?
What other gasses are relevant to team contingency planning? Emergency O2? Emergency deco gas?

7. Environment: Typical spring, no real hazards a few small overhangs (This is where we messed up)

It's been recognized that assumptions were made with this. There's no dive that has zero hazards. A swimming pool has hazards.