Sometime – It’s Just One Things After Another

[DandyDon]

Thanks, but believe me - most of this was unplanned. Like I said, some of the problems were from my mistakes. Always good to learn from them!

 

[Diver Denny]

Glad you made it out ok, sounds like you handled everything very well.

I just wanted to comment on buddy breathing and share one of my own experiences. Our club was diving a wreck in the St. Lawrence river called the Eastcliffe Hall (not far from Brockville where you recently dove, maybe you visited it?). This is a sizable wreck at 343' in length in 65' of water with 3 to 6 kt current. We did an air check at the end of our dive before starting our ascent up the mooring line, I was at 700psi and my buddy at 400 (we both had 80AL, there is another story here why our air got so low that probably should be told but I'll save that for another day). So by the time we got to our safety he was breathing off my octo. This wasn't the issue. The problem was the way we were orientated on the line. He was on my left which meant the octo, on my right, put us in close proximity. My console had come off the clip so it was dragging behind me in the current and I wasn't able to retrieve it (without risking falling off the line and/or ripping the octo out of my buddies mouth). This meant I had no idea how much air I had left or how much safety stop time was remaining (my console is a Suunto Cobra and is fairly conservative). My signals to my buddy to do an air check were not understood. It all turned out well as we completed the SS and ascended with around 450psi left in my tank.

The point is that when buddy breathing both divers should be keeping a watchful eye on remaining air.

Hey Don, if you enjoyed Brockville and happen to be in the SW Ontario area, look me up... there's a great drift dive off Sarnia I think you'd like!

 

[Northeastwrecks]

Wow.....

I'm glad that you're OK, but I don't think that you've identified the underlying cause of this Charlie Foxtrot.

I hope that you've taken a long, hard look at your dive planning, training, equipment configuration, equipment maintenance and attitude.

The most troublesome aspect of your "plan" is that you are putting other divers at serious risk. Specifically, you are relying upon divers who are not part of your team and who have no reason to plan for your needs to bail your butt out of trouble because you chose to dive without a buddy and with malfunctioning and inadequate equipment. To make matters worse, after you sucked down your rescuer's (make no mistake, this was a rescue) gas, you abandoned him. I would have had some fairly serious issues if you had done this to me.

Your actions are dangerous and show a rather callous disregard for the safety of the other divers on the boat. What would you have done if your rescuer's buddy had gone OOG or had a problem? Given a choice between one of my team members and a random diver, guess who is going to find themselves doing a CESA? Alternatively, what would you have done if the diver you abandoned had gone OOG because you sucked down his supply, then left?

The reaction to the original problem also seems seriously flawed. If the vis was bad, perhaps laying a line would have been appropriate? Or looking at a compass?

In addition, you need to assess your reaction to the low gas situation. I'm curious why didn't you simply didn't blow a bag when you realized that you were low on gas, off the line, lost and it was time to go. Drift hangs are no big deal and they don't require you to put others at risk. If you were too far away to swim once you surfaced, the boat could have tracked the bag while you ascended, then sent a chase boat or picked you up once they had recovered the other divers. Doing so would have kept you out of deco and allowed you to ascend on your existing gas without endangering other teams. If you had somehow managed to do an unplanned decompression dive, you could have dealt with the problem without putting others at risk.

Finally, it sounds like you violated a fairly important principle. Specifically, you didn't know how much gas needed to ascend while making all required stops or, if you did, you ignored it. If you had calculated this prior to the start of the dive, and had blown a bag and ascended when you hit it, you would not have placed you, or the other divers on your boat, in the serious, risky situation that you created.

Overall, it sounds like the plan for this dive was "Descend with no buddy, a risky "plan" and inadequate equipment. If a problem occurs, latch on to someone else and hope that they save me."

I hope that some of the things you've learned are that (1) your pony is inadequate for the dives you are going; (2) every piece of gear should be properly maintained and configured; (3) divers need to be properly equipped for the dives that they are performing; (4) there is a reason why decompression diving requires additional training and equipment; (5) there is a reason for having a buddy.

 

[Snowbear]

Glad you're OK Don!

I'm also glad to see you have recognized the root of the problems you had on that fateful dive:

Thanks, but believe me - most of this was unplanned.

I hope this incident provided the incentive for you to do as others have suggested as to further your training in the areas lacking?

 

[lamont]

I hope that some of the things you've learned are that (1) your pony is inadequate for the dives you are going; (2) every piece of gear should be properly maintained and configured; (3) divers need to be properly equipped for the dives that they are performing; (4) there is a reason why decompression diving requires additional training and equipment; (5) there is a reason for having a buddy.

My list of lesson from this dive would be:

1. deco (even minimal) requires training
2. pony bottles need to be checked for proper functioning
3. pony bottles should be slung like a stage so leaks are easier to detect
4. bubble checks should be performed prior to descent (one thing a buddy can really help you with on every dive)
5. pony bottles should not be included in gas planning or in gas management at any point in a dive, except a true emergency
6. rock bottom rules should be used and the dive should be thumbed when rock bottom is hit -- doing a free ascent if that is required (if a free ascent is not an option, then you should have been diving halves).
7. if redundancy is really required, then doubles should be used

 

[opiniongirl]

Thanks for being courageous and sharing the story. You obviously know what went wrong, came back safe and wiser.

Probably the stupidest thing I've ever done? Giant stride into 6 degree H20 with drysuit totally unzipped...forgot my mask for a pool session and attempted to teach with a kids "ducky mask". Another time forgot the mask again, attempted to use goggles..that didn't work so well, but at time was only option...didn't ascend when a local seal was getting "frisky"...still traumatized

boy oh boy Don...we've all done doozies...and thanks for sharing...

 

[DandyDon]

I hope that you've taken a long, hard look at your dive planning, training, equipment configuration, equipment maintenance and attitude.

Yes sir - all the above!

What would you have done if your rescuer's buddy had gone OOG or had a problem?

Well, I was still a bit mentally in shock when I typed the story, and I see now that my remarks about the air donor were cavalier - as well as inaccurate.
(1) In a shared air situation like that, I expect the donor to tell me to disengage for a free ascent if my use of his air is going to run him short;
(2) Yet there were several other divers on the same hang line to assist with the situation had he needed air.

But certainly true indeed - I know I need to learn from my mistakes and problems, in all of the areas you offered, so I can prepare better for dives to come.

I figured on getting some ridicule here, but as much as I've learned on SB, I still chose to share my story in hopes that others might pick up something from it.

Glad you made it out ok, sounds like you handled everything very well.

I think the one thing I did "well" was not panicking. I just kept focusing on what my next plan would be if something else went badly. My options ran short, though, as about all I had left was a free ascent and swim or pop the sausage, then apporach at minimizing damge to my body for not completing deco. Glad I didn't end up that far. :colgate:

The good news, I now realize that I'm not as good of a diver as I though I was and realize that I do need a lot of work!

 

[Northeastwrecks]

Yes sir I figured on getting some ridicule here....

I'm not ridiculing you. I'm concerned because, IMHO, (1) the planning and execution of the dive you described brought you periously close to becoming a statistic; and (2) it doesn't appear that you clearly understand the root cause of the problems.

The problems did not start when you couldn't find the line, when you blew the NDL or when you found out that your pony was leaking. At the latest, they started with the planning phase of the dive. Whether they are due to training or some other factor is unknown, but the attitude that caused them needs to be corrected.

I don't want to read about you on the TDS "Accidents and Incidents" forum. I also don't believe in mollycoddling. I'm glad that you and the other divers are OK, but you also need to understand that this is due to luck more than anything else.

 

[Diver Denny]

... I'm glad that you and the other divers are OK, but you also need to understand that this is due to luck more than anything else.

I have to respectfully disagree with you on this point. It wasn't luck at all but rather training and experience that got him through this. No one is arguing that some mistakes were made in the planning and execution, but once he found himself in a low-air situation he delt with it very competently. Most importantly, as it has been mentioned before, he did not panic.

Personally, I am not a proponent of solo diving but I've heard rational arguments for it. In the case of sharing air it does seem a bit of an imposition on the part of the solo diver. However, standard practice means coming out of the water with 500psi left in the tank. Sparing a couple hundred pounds of air to help out a fellow diver is no big deal. So it's really only a problem if the donor screwed up his dive plan as well.

I'm also curious about a comment you made earlier...

... there is a reason why decompression diving requires additional training and equipment ...

The certification I went through included decompression schedules for dives past the NDL. Of course this is in the context of a recreational dive within the 130' limit, we're not talking technical diving. Although it's our club's policy not to do deco dives, a prudent dive plan should include the deco schedule if there is a potential of breaching the NDL and make allowances for additional air requirements.

When it is practical to do so we have a hang tank near the safety stop for these situations. Between this and allowing for extra air on the ascent what other special equipment is required?

 

[ShakaZulu]

Riding the NDL curve, nice DandyDon, giving the computer users a bad name............welcome back. Dive safe.