pvscuba
Contributor
On a dive at Los Arcos, one of my customer gave the biggest scare of my career as a diving instructor:
The dive: Los Arcos National Underwater Park south wall in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico.
Depth: average 70 ft
Divers: 8. Leader (instructor), 3 buddy pairs (customers), rear (instructor)
Viz: 20 ft viz down to 40 ft depth, 80-100 ft below that.
The dive started great and everything was well: good divers, disciplined buddies, etc. Our our way up at the end of the dive, at about 35 ft, one of the divers in the last buddy pair had an uncontrolled ascent all the way to the surface. Next thing, he decides to come back down to join us again, passes by us, dives almost vertically down, keeps going down and away to about 100 ft.
I was the rear instructor. I had a diving sausage clipped to my BCD, so after finally unclipping it, here I am chasing after him. He had a good head start and I had problems equalizing at about 60 ft and couldn't go down any further. So I'm diving parallel to him going crazy with my rattle and he does not respond, just keeps going. Is he narked? I think.
Take into account that about two months ago there was an accident in this area where 3 divers where lost and their bodies never found, so here I am with a search & rescue operation and having to explain a lost diver situation going on in my mind.
Finally, he decides to stop and look around. He see's me and finally starts coming towards me. We join and go to the surface after a safety stop. By this time he's virtually at ZERO psi.
So what happened? I ask. "My BCD inflator failed" Ok, that explains the uncontrolled ascent (after analyzing the inflator, everything seems to work well. The BCD is new - used 4 or 5 times - so my conclusion is that the inflator did not fail). "Then I went down to look for you". Right! we parted at 35 ft and were on our way up, and he goes to look for us at 100.
Lesson learned: Some people are unpredictable. We, as dive professionals, need to stay alert at all times, for even persons that appear to be disciplined and experienced divers (and have the log book to prove it) can make serious mistakes that could cost them their lives.
The dive: Los Arcos National Underwater Park south wall in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico.
Depth: average 70 ft
Divers: 8. Leader (instructor), 3 buddy pairs (customers), rear (instructor)
Viz: 20 ft viz down to 40 ft depth, 80-100 ft below that.
The dive started great and everything was well: good divers, disciplined buddies, etc. Our our way up at the end of the dive, at about 35 ft, one of the divers in the last buddy pair had an uncontrolled ascent all the way to the surface. Next thing, he decides to come back down to join us again, passes by us, dives almost vertically down, keeps going down and away to about 100 ft.
I was the rear instructor. I had a diving sausage clipped to my BCD, so after finally unclipping it, here I am chasing after him. He had a good head start and I had problems equalizing at about 60 ft and couldn't go down any further. So I'm diving parallel to him going crazy with my rattle and he does not respond, just keeps going. Is he narked? I think.
Take into account that about two months ago there was an accident in this area where 3 divers where lost and their bodies never found, so here I am with a search & rescue operation and having to explain a lost diver situation going on in my mind.
Finally, he decides to stop and look around. He see's me and finally starts coming towards me. We join and go to the surface after a safety stop. By this time he's virtually at ZERO psi.
So what happened? I ask. "My BCD inflator failed" Ok, that explains the uncontrolled ascent (after analyzing the inflator, everything seems to work well. The BCD is new - used 4 or 5 times - so my conclusion is that the inflator did not fail). "Then I went down to look for you". Right! we parted at 35 ft and were on our way up, and he goes to look for us at 100.
Lesson learned: Some people are unpredictable. We, as dive professionals, need to stay alert at all times, for even persons that appear to be disciplined and experienced divers (and have the log book to prove it) can make serious mistakes that could cost them their lives.
