My own little run in with "come to jesus"

[Blackwood]

I originally posted this in the DIR forum due to commentary on team diving, but I think there is some value in sharing it here as well.

Last night I had one of those moments. A few things went wrong in short order, and lead to a big f-up. If I believed in one, I'd thank god for my team mates.

Plan was a simple external wreck dive on the local Palawan. The boat left the harbor at little after 7:30PM, so it was pretty dark (as planned).

Anyone who's been reading socal boards is probably aware that we have a large contingent of blue whales in the area. Turns out that means there's also blue whale food.

On the wreck, our lights were like magnets to millions of krill. It was pretty crazy. They'd fill in the reflector on the head and black it out. It was cool for a while but soon got annoying.

Anyway, these little buggers were following us up the shotline on deco. At about 50 feet, my primary light died. Two nights before I had replaced the connectors on my battery. Guess I didn't do a good job. No big deal, I deployed a backup.

The krill made it very difficult to read one's gauge, and we bumped past our 20 foot switch depth by about 5 feet. We all noticed it and immediately swam down.

That's when the fun started.

On switching to O2, I manage to drop my backup light. Now, I see two intermittently bright lights (my buddies' HIDs being swarmed by krill). What I don't see is my depth or the upline. I go for my other backup, but somehow I'd twisted my harness gearing up and then clipped the deco bottle over it.

So I'm disoriented, holding a live O2 reg, don't know how deep I am, and can't unclip my light. Next thing I know, I'm next to a diver. I recognize the suit. It's not one of my team. In fact, it's Chris who is decoing on 50%.

I try to signal "give me a light," "my light is ****ed," "I'm ****ed." I try to read his gauge. I try to stick my hand in his light beam to read my gauge.

I imagine I looked like a crazy guy. With all the krill and darkness and whatever, I couldn't get my point across (later on the boat, he said he thought I was telling him he was on the wrong gas or something).

Anyway, as I'm resigning myself to using them as a reference, calming down, and riding out their deco schedule (or pulling out wetnotes and hoping they'd accommodate mine), one of my teammates (Christian) appears. I'm able to show him how I've trapped my light. Even looking at it from his perspective it took a while to free it. We go up to our other teammate. At this point the shotline is non-existent.

We all switch, I put my hand around Christian's bicep (as I would were I leading him blind), Tim flies a bag, and there we sit for the next 15 minutes or so. I had to take my hand off Christian to read my gauge, and with their 2 HIDs and the krill to contend with, I didn't want a repeat performance, so I didn't check it very often.

Christian was calling the deco and he considerately kept updating the stop time so I could keep track (I was counting in my head, but 8 minutes it a long time to count with no reference). After what seemed like an eternity, we go to 10 feet, hang, and then do a slow ascent to the surface. The boat is kinda far away, but they see us (luckily, the fog started rolling in soon after).

Really, all this CFery took place probably in about 30 seconds. But I'm going to put my tail between my legs and admit that I really freaked out and stressing - one more thing could have lead me to panic.

Upon surfacing, I declare "that's it, I'm sitting out the next dive." After calming down and relaxing, after Maciek brings up my dropped backup light (which fell right near the shot line), and after talking it out, I thought it may be better to splash again rather than beat myself up. I had a boat ride to think it through, and decided: yes, I'm diving.

Maciek was sitting out the second dive so I took his primary light. This time Chris and I teamed up on the Ammo Barge (a small upside down wreck about a mile out of King Harbor in Redondo Beach). We'd initially planned some (very) light penetration, but I nixed that. We each grab a stage of 32% and descend to... green. Kelp? Reef? This isn't ammo barge. We should be on sand at 80 feet, and that wreck is on its side, not upside down. Chris pulls out his wetnotes and writes "Where are we, Avalon?" I reply "Maybe. 65FSW?" Chris responds "Not Kansas." Heh.

So we pull out a reel and head northwest looking for a crane that sits on the stern section of Avalon. It's a long swim, but we find it. At least now we know where we are.

The viz was spectacular. The dive was warm and calm. No krill. No equipment or diver malfunctions. I'm really glad I opted to dive.

Anyway, I just thought I'd share. When the fit hits the shan, having a good team makes all the difference in the world.

Christian, Tim: thanks. I owe you.

Couple things:

Per Chris, I only lost about 5 feet, but since I had to equalize I was pretty stressing (knew I was descending). I assumed I hit them at their next stop, but they were actually coming up.

Biggest issue, as mentioned, is the loss of the line. Everyone was breathing, it was just a bit of CF.

I wish there was a good way to check the battery connectors. To Nicole's question above: maybe I'll shake the canister a bit and make sure the light fires continuously. And really, I've done tons of maskless/eyed closed/blind ascents. It shouldn't have been a big deal.

It's weird reading that first post. It was pretty much just a memory dump. I've written less to describe entire classes... this was probably 30 seconds (haven't checked the log yet). It wasn't the end of the world... it just felt like it.

There is a lot of good discussion in the original thread, so feel free to peruse: Things that make you appreciate the team

Comments are welcome.

 

[hudson]

Excellent thread, "little run in" maybe but the whole thing goes into the heart of staged deco too - MOD, running deco, buoyancy in no-vis while task loaded..Thanks for sharing, very enlightening.

 

[Amphiprion]

Flying blind on an O2 deco at night. Scary. I never unclip my backup lights during a dive. I'm guessing that if you posted this in the DIR forum earlier that you are not computer friendly, but it might be a good idea to have a computer with a backlight at least in guage mode for night dives.

Glad you are ok.

 

[Blackwood]

Amphiprion -

Yah, I've since revisited my thoughts on unclipping backup lights. Due to the poor visibility, I really wanted a light in my hand for signaling purposes as well as making my position more obvious. One suggestion has been to clip it to the bungees on my gauge mount. That way if I drop it, it doesn't go to the bottom. In better viz, I'd just leave it clipped off.

Regarding the gauge, I use a Uwatec Tec2g. Since I use it in gauge mode, I never bothered to read the manual, and thus wasn't aware that the backlight works. Lesson learned: RTFM.

 

[dumpsterDiver]

I've not had ANY tech training, but when I dive solo and do drifting deco on oxygen, if I have a problem with sinking, I am going to be going to backgas, before screwing around with anything like looking for a light. Glad you are OK.

 

[Blow.Fish]

Sounds like a scary moment. Glad you're OK. Do you think your reaction to the situation would have been different had you been using a different deco gas; say 50% like other people in your group? Out of curiosity, why such drastically different deco gas strategies on same dive ?

 

[DevonDiver]

Is there a GUE/DIR protocol for when you are unaware/concerned about your depth when conducting deco?

My personal reaction would have been to immediately switch to backgas if I was in your situation.

 

[Kevrumbo]

A "Krill Blizzard" that happened to me (in the Daytime). . .

Never occurred to me how treacherous & stressful that condition could be during a Nightdive with cascading contingencies: primary & secondary light failures/problems; holding depth on O2 deco; difficulty reading gauges --as well as your buddies' light beams being totally enveloped and essentially blacked-out by sheer density of the krill swarm. Good job Marc, glad it turned out okay and belated Happy B-day!

And glad the Unified Dive Teams in your original DIR thread now appreciate & consider the utility of "hanging on the upline" as an option (preferably on an anchorline/mooring line): If there's a low visibility and/or high current dive condition on ascent to your deco stops, then by all means hold onto the upline to begin with as you start your ascent.

Maintaining Depth Without a Reference Point - Unified Team Diving
Jon Line - Unified Team Diving

 

[Blackwood]

I've not had ANY tech training, but when I dive solo and do drifting deco on oxygen, if I have a problem with sinking, I am going to be going to backgas, before screwing around with anything like looking for a light. Glad you are OK.

Is there a GUE/DIR protocol for when you are unaware/concerned about your depth when conducting deco?

My personal reaction would have been to immediately switch to backgas if I was in your situation.

Me too. I had not yet switched. The O2 regulator was going into my mouth as I dropped the light. I pulled it back over to the left and eventually dropped it to let it hang from the bottle until everything got sorted out.

Is there a GUE/DIR protocol for when you are unaware/concerned about your depth when conducting deco?

I doubt it's spelled out anywhere since DIR is predicated on having a team as your backup. Realistically, shoot a bag. My spools have knots in 10 foot intervals, so I can count them for depth. Time would have been interesting though.

Sounds like a scary moment. Glad you're OK. Do you think your reaction to the situation would have been different had you been using a different deco gas; say 50% like other people in your group?

I don't know for sure, but I doubt it. I'd certainly have been less concerned about PO2 - even blind I doubt I'd drop 50 feet before recovering buoyancy. But the rest of it (where's my team, where's the line, and how am I going to deco without a depth and time reference) would still apply.

Out of curiosity, why such drastically different deco gas strategies on same dive ?

Charles' training was almost exclusively using EAN50 for deco (GUE T1), so he and Christopher elected to use that. I prefer O2 for these shallower dives (Palawan sits in about 130 feet). Of the 8 people diving (two teams of three and one pair), only Chris and Charles were using EAN50.

A "Krill Blizzard" that happened to me (in the Daytime). . .

Nice.

Never occurred to me how treacherous & stressful that condition could be during a Nightdive with cascading contingencies: primary & secondary light failures/problems; holding depth on O2 deco; difficulty reading gauges --as well as your buddies' light beams being totally enveloped and essentially blacked-out by sheer density of the krill swarm. Good job Marc, glad it turned out okay and belated Happy B-day

!

Thanks Kevin. The big 3-0. Sigh.

If there's a low visibility and/or high current dive condition on ascent to your deco stops, then by all means hold onto the upline to begin with as you start your ascent.

Definitely. In poor viz with current, I'll often hook a finger around the shot line just to be sure not to lose it. Hard to do while you're switching gas (a two handed affair with my switch protocol) AND you have a stupid backup light in your hand though

All in all I think I learned some good lessons, and have started considering new procedures.

 

[Blow.Fish]

I'd certainly have been less concerned about PO2 - even blind I doubt I'd drop 50 feet before recovering buoyancy. But the rest of it (where's my team, where's the line, and how am I going to deco without a depth and time reference) would still apply.

I think this is where I was going. Looking at it from the perspective of the typical stress-panic cycle - all other things equal, do you agree that there's a physiological difference between suddenly finding yourself blind using EAN50 than with 100% O2 ? As you suggested, from a PO2 perspective one is certainly much more tolerant of target depth discrepancies.

Do you think you're perception of the event(s) might have been different had you been using EAN50 for deco under these conditions ? In other words, do you feel that it might have just felt like a sucky dive versus a "come to Jesus" moment ?