Hyperventilating at 110 feet

[boulderjohn]

Here is a current thread on a diver who disappeared during a drift dive the other day.

 

[xyrandomyx]

Let's remember that this dive took place in Cozumel. Telling the diver how he should dive in Palm Beach (or somewhere else) is not going to be a lot of help. In Cozumel, divers within the marine park are required by law to follow a DM. This is drift diving without a surface flag, so the divers have to stay together to be found by the boat at the end of the dive. I cannot even begin to estimate the number of divers over the years who have lost touch with the group on a dive in Cozumel, never to be seen again. I only knew two of them personally (RIP), but there have been many more. Ignoring the DM and doing whatever you like is not a god idea there, and it is against the law.

I have been in many places throughout the world where there is no DM in the water, and you just do what you want. I have been in many places where there is an optional DM. I have been in many places where the DM is mandatory--you are not allowed to do anything but follow the DM. I have been in some areas where what you did was based on a particular site--there are places where you are guaranteed to be lost if you don't follow the experienced DM. You don't do the same thing on every dive regardless of the situation. You do what is appropriate wherever you are.

I am also surprised by the idea of never deviating from a dive plan. One time I was in a group starting a dive with a clear plan off the big island in Hawai'i. We were still near the surface heading for our descent point when we looked below and saw a huger manta ray getting serviced in a cleaning station. We immediately abandoned our much more mundane plan and descended to take in that sight. Eventually the manta took off, and we were about to do the same when an eagle ray showed up for a cleaning. After a while we started our ascent up the reef, where we saw another great sight, and then another. It turned out to be one of the best dives of my life, a dive that we would have missed completely if we had insisted on our original plan. I don't see anything wrong with it, and you "plan your dive and dive your plan" purists can hurl all the insults you want at me--you will get no apology for it.

I will bet that the Cozumel DM had a specific dive plan in mind, leading divers to specific sites along the way. Columbia Deep is my favorite site in Cozumel--one of my favorite in the world, in fact. There are some great places to go. The last time I was there (this past September), it was an extremely disappointing dive because the DM was forced by circumstances to skip some of the best parts of the dive. The rest of the group was totally unaware of this--they only know where they went and thought it was a great dive. Because I knew the site well enough, I knew what we missed, and I was frustrated that the DM did not do a better job of manipulating the circumstances. I have often seen DMs in Cozumel take steps to avoid other dive groups--it is something I expect them to do. Consequently, I have no qualms with the concept of a DM making a change based on circumstances, although in this case he apparently expected too much of his dive group and should have done something different.

In cases where staying with a DM is required and/ or prudent, you must surely still have some sort of contingency plan in case of separation, though? Say, ascending immediately together with your buddy; shooting a DSMB off before you do or inflating a safety sausage as soon as you hit the surface. I mean, you can try your best to keep with the DM and, if the group's small enough, separation is probably quite unlikely, but it's bound to happen eventually. Either due to a poor/ inattentive DM or some unlikely and unfortunate external circumstances.

 

[boulderjohn]

In cases where staying with a DM is required and/ or prudent, you must surely still have some sort of contingency plan in case of separation, though? Say, ascending immediately together with your buddy; shooting a DSMB off before you do or inflating a safety sausage as soon as you hit the surface. I mean, you can try your best to keep with the DM and, if the group's small enough, separation is probably quite unlikely, but it's bound to happen eventually. Either due to a poor/ inattentive DM or some unlikely and unfortunate external circumstances.

In a word, yes.

I don't think anyone should ever be in a drift diving situation without the ability to deploy an SMB. If I were a dive operator in Cozumel, I would require that every diver carry at least a marker they can inflate at the surface. They could supply their own, or they could rent one from my shop at a very reasonable rate.

 

[TSandM]

We had a horrendous experience with a DM in Coz . . . We were a group of five, and had been diving all week with our own boat and the same DM, who was wonderful. On this one particular day, our DM had to be somewhere else, and we were given another, and a sixth diver joined us. We should have known there was trouble when one of our group approached him and asked him if he would like to buddy up with one of us, and he stared and said, "That's not necessary." The DM said he'd heard we were all advanced divers, and his only request was that we stay where he could see us. It didn't seem unreasonable.

Until we got in the water, and he and Mr. "I don't need a buddy" took off like scalded cats. It wasn't current; the current wasn't strong at that site on that day. We had three avid photographers among us, and we all liked to dive slowly, and we kept having to interrupt what we were doing and chase the DM, until my friend Bob swam up with his wetnotes rather profanely suggesting we ignore the DM, to which we all assented, and went back to doing our dive the way we wanted to do it. The DM ended up so far ahead of us that we couldn't see him (which is a long way, given Cozumel viz), but eventually figured out that we were NOT going to follow him, so he stopped and waited for us to catch up.

None of us was pleased. We didn't need a babysitter, and one doesn't really need a guide for navigation on most of the Coz dives. The only purpose of the DM for us was to point out interesting critters, which he wasn't doing -- and we felt that the pace of our dive was ours to set. We had what turned into a rather acrimonious discussion during surface interval about this.

So it happens.

 

[flots am]

None of us was pleased. We didn't need a babysitter, and one doesn't really need a guide for navigation on most of the Coz dives. The only purpose of the DM for us was to point out interesting critters, which he wasn't doing -- and we felt that the pace of our dive was ours to set. We had what turned into a rather acrimonious discussion during surface interval about this.

Sucks to be him. That's what middle fingers were invented for. For all the cheer-leading about how awesome Coz DMs are, I've found them to be pretty much a coin flip.

flots.

 

[billt4sf]

When carbon dioxide builds up inside us, it triggers a sense of panic..... Your body has no signal that it needs O2, but it has a very big signal that you have too much CO2.

When you are breathing shallow, rapid breaths, CO2 builds up, and you being to feel a sense of panic. When in a panic, you tend to breathe even more shallow and rapid, thus creating a bigger sense of panic.

The key is not just controlled breathing; it is controlled breathing that includes very significant exhaling to get the CO2 out.....I focused on blowing out the bad air more than on my inhaling and recovered pretty quickly.

I did not know this. Thanks, I'll keep it in mind.

- Bill

---------- Post added January 16th, 2013 at 06:13 PM ----------

dive operators need to get away from the "follow the dm" kind of diving, in my view.

hear ! Hear !!! Yes !!!