I was at Monastery Beach today to TA for the Basic OW's second skin dive.
We had 2 instructors, 4 Divemasters in Training (myself included), 12 Rescue Students, and 17 Basic Students.
We arrived at Monastery around 8:15 and spent the day practicing rescue carries and skin skills in the surf zone and waters. The waves were low for Monastery but still enough to send you in a tumble, as I experienced for the first time.
We got everything done without a hitch and were dried and dressed, eating lunch and debriefing around 12:30.
The beach was occupied by the usual crowd, tourists and divers. Besided us, there were at least 2 other dive teams out on the beach by the time we were dried and dressed.
Half way through our debrief we noticed a team of 3 divers entering on south side; we were sitting at the halfway mark on the beach.
We stopped our debrief to watch, as we wanted our Basic Students to get an example of a bad entry.
The team entered during a set in the waves, fins in hand, and began kicking out fins STILL IN HAND.
For the sake of simplicity I'll call
Diver 1: Alpha
Diver 2: Beta
Diver 3: Kappa
Alpha made it out of the surf zone, Beta was halfway when Kappa got smashed by a wave and was sent sprawling up the incline. Immediately he was pounded by a few more waves. Alpha stayed beyond the surf zone while Beta crawled up to Kappa to assist.
We stayed in place and watched the pair get swamped some more until we saw Beta toss his weight belt and fins up the incline. (Both pieces of equipment were immediately engulfed and spit back out into the ocean.)
Immediately myself, our instructors, a few Rescue students and another DIT ran to assist (around 6 of us). The rest of our class was about to follow suit, but one of our DIT's stopped them from going, and instead sent a pair to retrieve our O2 and First Aid. (We didn't need 35 people going to assist 2 divers)
By the time our "rescue" party had arrived to the scene, Beta had abandoned his gear and was trying to get Kappa to crawl up the incline. They were still getting pounded by the waves and I could hear Kappa yelling for help, eyes closed, no mask, no fins.
One of our DIT's grabbed him and immediately shoved the reg back in the diver's mouth, then ran back as another wave came crashing over the pair of divers. Once the wave cleared 3 of us ran to the pair of divers, grabbing Kappa by his BC and literally dragged him out of the surf zone.
Kappa layed in the sand for a few solid minutes, eyes closed, breathing heavy from his reg. We eventually took off his BC and encouraged him to walk even further past the drift kelp line on the beach. He got up fine, but a little shaken
We ended up staying there and watching the team as Beta went to collect his gear and Alpha. A few other divers were on scene, some in street clothes, others swim suits, and another set up as a skin diver in case she needed to go in. I heard her mention to her friend that she probably wouldn't even be able to make the surf exit if she had to go in.
The remaining 2 divers came out minus 2 masks and 1 fin from their group of 3.
This time Alpha crawled out but Beta walked out, fins in hand.
We ended up putting Kappa on O2 as a precautionary measure and told him and his family to go to CHOMP to rule out secondary drowning.
Here's the kicker:
Alpha is the uncle or dad of Kappa
Beta is a friend or relative of the two.
Kappa is 15 years old.
Another relative was there, I assumed the mother (non-diver in street clothes).
Alpha, Kappa, and the "mother" were planning on flying to Seattle the very next day.
The reasoning was, because it was shallow short dive it'd be fine.
What I learned from this event was:
1) Don't ever enter/exit Monastery without being fully geared up (this INCLUDES FINS AND MASK)
2) Always, ALWAYS have your reg in your mouth until you're out of the surf zone
3) Commit to your exit and entry
4) If you don't respect the ocean, it won't hesitate to destroy you
5) Learn crowd control even during the act of a rescue (35 people going to assist 2 divers would have been such a cluster f***)
6) If going to a scene for a rescue, call out for O2 and First Aid Kits before you leave.
Having such a large tight knit group for a class, we were able to cover each other for parts 5 & 6
