First-hand account of down current, with video footage

[boulderjohn]

I have to confess that I am still a bit confused about what happened. It sounded to me in the other posts that you were trapped in a down current and had to struggle to ascend. As I read this, it took you 30 seconds to go from 150 feet to 10 feet, an ascent rate of 280 feet per minute. Please correct any misunderstanding in that.

EDIT: In response to the next post below, I would say that my reading skills have deteriorated in my dotage. Carry on.

I believe that would be 20 ft per minute?
They made it "10 ft". Not TO 10 ft.

OK, so I looked at the video again, and it looks to me as if the first attempts to start an ascent begin at about 6 minutes, and the surface is reached at about 7:20. (Just rounding off.) So going from 150 feet to the surface took two minutes, or an ascent rate of about 75 feet per minute. Is that accurate?

 

[Splitlip]

The way I see it, once the pair of divers broke away from the down current, they were in a run away accent. Dad even brings them both back down. I've nothing negative to say about that. When I did my open water, the rule was 60 ft per minute and there was no such thing as a safety stop.

I'm quite certain I have exceeded 75 ft/min in my past and without a Safety stop. But then I was in my teens. In the vid, Dad did get them back down to be compliant with his computer.

 

[Valwood1]

Dad was a good buddy????? It seemed to me that he was waiting for some other divers and let the kid descend alone to a depth of over 100 feet.... Maybe he is a good diver, but he was not being very attentive to the kid on that dive.

It looked to me like DAD must have panicked a little too, since he did not arrest the ascent as they approached the surface. The kid was obviously in a blind panic on that ascent.

Dropping a kid like that in 400 feet of water seems like a really bad idea, maybe they drifted on the surface so long that they got pushed out over the ledge??? Allowing inexperienced tourists to drop down (on nitrox?) out past the wall is not good divemastering I think... .

Well, dad-as-buddy may have made the mistakes that have been pointed out, and perhaps the problem would not have arisen if dad had been more attentive, but he at least was good enough in the pinch that this is only a near-miss thread.

I've tried to stop a too-rapid ascent of another diver (not in a panic situation, but just due to too much inflation in the BCD, and only from 60'), and it's about impossible to do unless you have the person in a bear hug and can control the inflation of the person's BCD. Dealing with a panicked diver would be much more difficult, and the only real hope would be to get behind the person.

Great point about nitrox. I'd never considered the potentially-lethal combination of nitrox and downcurrent on a wall dive, but I sure will now.

 

[supergaijin]

Look, I get that you are an instructor and have a zillion dives under your belt, but, seriously, how is this comment helpful? Do you really want his young man to berate himself or do you want him to take some of your otherwise excellent advice, learn from the experience, and get back on the boat?

If people only took the advice that makes themselves feel all warm inside, they wouldn't learn much. My intention is not to whip the poor kid involved- it was in response to another poster who said not to feel bad about panicking. I hold the opinion that you should feel bad for panicking.

I don't really agree with this at all. If you are in a current you can be moving fast and have little indication of it without visual clues from stationary objects, there may be nothing to feel, except maybe pressure changes in your ears which are not going to do much for someone who is in a blind panic other than make them more uncomfortable.

Breathing, trim or using the ​

BCD

may not be enough to take care of all currents.​

In the currents that I have dived on reefs there were enough indicators to show how the current was changing- be it fish, soft coral, shimmering water layers etc. I'm not saying that I can react to each minute difference in current or depth, but I am saying that having control in the first place, makes you much more able to compensate when the current does do funky things. For example when the current is pushing one fin in one direction and the second in the other.

If you're out in the blue and being thrown around in current/washing machines etc there is really little you can do but be constantly checking depth gauges and your ears.

I remember one particular safety stop with a group of 4 where we were being pushed anywhere from 2m to 12m with an inflated SMB- there isn't much you can do in that situation but try to trim yourself horizontally so that you can easily change from kicking up to kicking down.

 

[Mike]

Well, dad-as-buddy may have made the mistakes that have been pointed out, and perhaps the problem would not have arisen if dad had been more attentive, but he at least was good enough in the pinch that this is only a near-miss thread.

I've tried to stop a too-rapid ascent of another diver (not in a panic situation, but just due to too much inflation in the BCD, and only from 60'), and it's about impossible to do unless you have the person in a bear hug and can control the inflation of the person's BCD. Dealing with a panicked diver would be much more difficult, and the only real hope would be to get behind the person.

Great point about nitrox. I'd never considered the potentially-lethal combination of nitrox and downcurrent on a wall dive, but I sure will now.

Keep in mind that the dad created the run-a-way ascent by not having the knowledge available you have from advanced training on how to bring another diver to the surface. By his own admission he inflated both his sons and his BCD.

Also, the son ignored dad as dad waved the son to come to him at the beginning of the video, the son ignored him and began his rock like descent to the wall, never even looking at his depth gauge once during his descent. The son was very lucky dad was keeping an eye on him and was able to reach him.

 

[scurbswife]

I completely disagree. The kid did screw up, panicked, nearly killed himself, did not maintain buddy contact, endangered his father (and mother if she was left alone) and who knows what else.. Were they using nitrox at 150-175 ft? He SHOULD feel bad about it.

If he is mature enough to risk his life in 100 plus feet of water, he should be big enough to accept criticism. On the other hand, that whole incident must have been more painful than some weenie on the internet observing that he made serious mistakes on that very short dive.

Wow is what I have to say to this!!!! I will add he does feel real bad, but I don't think this kind of stuff is called for. What kind of criticism is this? sounds more like you telling us/him how he should feel.

If you watch the video the 2 that go down past my son is an INSTRUCTOR and her student, which needed help from the dm to reach the surface as well, she clung to the wall while the dm took her student to the surface and he (the dm) went back down to 165ft for the INSTRUCTOR!! So my comment is you were not there and have no idea what it was like, whatever was going on took down an INSTRUCTOR and why wasn't she able to help her student why did the dm have to go down and get them?

Also in the beginning of the video you can clearly see the diver swimming up from below my son and his bubbles are not going up! What happened with him, since you know so much?




No we weren't using Nitrox!

 

[DandyDon]

Great point about nitrox. I'd never considered the potentially-lethal combination of nitrox and downcurrent on a wall dive, but I sure will now.

Nitrox is great for NC & Florida Keys wreck dives where ships sit on the bottom, and many other sites, but for sites that have currents and walls to deep bottoms - nope. In Coz, save it for the second, shallower dive - except those are usually so shallow that I just skip Nitrox on Coz unless I plan a 4 dive day, and save it for the third dive, after lunch, that is often deeper than the second dive before lunch. This can vary of course.

 

[scurbswife]

If people only took the advice that makes themselves feel all warm inside, they wouldn't learn much. My intention is not to whip the poor kid involved- it was in response to another poster who said not to feel bad about panicking. I hold the opinion that you should feel bad for panicking.

I am his mother and I will tell you I went to 80ft before I even realized and then when I was told to go up by the DM I started to panic and I will not or tell my son he should feel bad for panicking. To me that is something that happens in different situations. Yes he did things wrong and maybe so did I and maybe my husband did also, maybe when we have as many dives as you we will be the perfect diver. Unfortunately this was a lesson learned in many ways! We hope the video can help others not make the same mistakes!

 

[MMM]

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A ScubaBoard Staff Message...

It is VERY hard for someone to make a post and then be "blame-stormed" which, is, by the way, against rules in this forum. We want to learn from posts of this sort....not drive people away from making them. Observations, questions and those that elicit more information are helpful. Overly harsh posts do not help with analysis and learning in any environment and that applies to this forum. Thank you.

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[supergaijin]

Unfortunately this was a lesson learned in many ways! We hope the video can help others not make the same mistakes!

As do we all.

I apologise if I seem to be playing the "Instructor Card" which trumps all other cards- this is not my intention. I do not think that any other posters on this thread have been overly critical or harsh in their responses. Nobody is giggling cruelly when listening to your son.

If I were face to face with you and your family, I would not be saying things like: DON'T PANIC!!! Herein lie the disadvantages of public internet forums which dehumanise conversation between people. I don't think that anyone here is trying to discourage your family from diving, and again I apologise if I have given this impression.

Sincerely...