Missing Diver

[Kriterian]

I'm glad everything turned out ok, and it sounds like every one did their best with the situation. I just had three things to add (or repeat what the others said):

1) I've gotten certified twice and both times did my 5 open water dives in a quarry. Every single time, some other group plowed through the platform and a diver from our group following the wrong one. Since there were usually two supervisors (instructor and assistant), this wasn't a problem. I think an identification tag of some kind would help tremendously in low vis situations. The quarries around here can get so silted up that they could be considered a night dive. I recommend a bumper sticker on the bottom of your tank that says, "If you can read this you're diving too close".

2) I also liked the idea of splitting the groups into smaller portions. It's really hard to do 3 person groups in some cases, and 5 would be a nightmare. Although you have to remember the ole divide and conquer theory too. If you split your two supervisors off and one of them has trouble, both buddies may be in trouble. Combining this option with number one and then having both groups stay near each other may be the best bet.

3) This one is just FYI and not meant to bust any chops. The best category for this one would be "Near Misses and Lessons Learned" under the accidents section, hehe. Or maybe even instructors. <shrug> I'm sure if it's necessary a mod can move it.

Anyway, good work and I'm really glad he was just "around the corner" instead of the worst alternative.

 

[Moose016]

Was this quarry in N. VA?

 

[toodive4]

Nice and they look good on you too... As a dive leader I wear bright yellow fins... which makes me easy to follow... but the other four divers in our group had typical dark fins... : )

Ken

Or any other distinctive bit of dive gear. I've never seen another diver with gloves like mine. I wonder why?

 

[jcm996]

Or any other distinctive bit of dive gear. I've never seen another diver with gloves like mine. I wonder why?

I have, but she didn't have as much facail hair and was eaier to look at
but at least you wear 2 gloves, would really have to wonder if you wore only one pink glove. :11:

 

[jcm996]

Ther are times we have dove with up to 11 divers. But we always paired up or one 3 person team. So if one pair was gone then nothing to panic about, but if one buddy was still with the rest and couldn't find his buddy. Time to start looking.

One time there were 5 of use and we split into 2 and 3, but pretty much stayed as a group and I was with the 3. I look around and can only count 4 divers. I grab my other buddy's fin and let him know we are missing one. so spread out and look around for a minute and surface. Here he ran low on air, surfaced and was snorkeling following our buubles, but didn't let any of us know he was going up, beacuse he didn't want to cut anyones dive short. We had been down about 40 min and all had like 1000 - 1500 PSI still since the dive was only 30-40 feet, anyway and there was not much to see or great vis anyway.

So any diver out there who does not want to "cut someone's dive short" don't worry about it. If you don't tell your buddy you will not only cut his dive short but might cause him to also worry unneededly.

 

[mstevens]

Just a thought after something simmilar a few weeks ago, how about a piece of flagging ribbon around the ankle of each diver in the group? Then you know which group your with. May be a good idea for crowded spots.

My wife and I recently did a nitrox training dive from a boat catering to DIR divers. Everyone except us had visually identical equipment - black exposure suits, hoods (in Cozumel), and fins, black bp/w, long hose primaries and bungied backups, canister lights, etc. By the time everyone was suited up our rather cute female instructor didn't look much different from a slim guy. We were supposed to meet up at 40 feet. Turns out we "met" and followed the wrong person to about 90 feet before noticing the instructor waving her light from about 40 feet. Our plan was to take us to about 125 and that diver was headed much lower. Not much of a problem as it turned out, but embarrasingly amusing. Later that trip, we saw the best method I've seen to date of a DM's effortlessly standing out. He had one pink and one white (or faded yellow) fin of the same size and model! I'll bet he had an identical backup pair at home...