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Was I Wrong? How to correct if so?
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Knight_of_Avalon
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A couple of quick points:
1) Did you have a specific dive buddy? Either your girlfriend, or one of the other divers? If so, then they screwed up - even if they missed the hand signs, they should have followed you up. Even without a hand sign, dive buddies are supposed to stick together - and when they saw you headed for the surface, they should have assumed something was wrong.
2) Calling the dive at 500 psi is perfectly respectable, particularly for a new diver. I've known a veteran or two who liked to push it to 300 psi or less, but 500 psi is the official guideline (at least for PADI)
3) So . . . they saw you ascend, the boat was right there, and they still scoured the bottom before checking the boat? That doesn't seem to make a lot of sense.
4) As the others pointed out, there's seems to have been a serious lack of a briefing. Next time, ask questions before getting in the water - I've known several veteran divers who've either forgotten what its like to be a new diver, or who are counting on their own skills to deal with any problems that crop up. Better to annoy him when you're dry, than be short critical information when you're wet.
5)So did the others have a lot more air left than you? Or did they empty their tanks searching for you?
Edit: Oh, and you did do your safety stop, right?
1) Did you have a specific dive buddy? Either your girlfriend, or one of the other divers? If so, then they screwed up - even if they missed the hand signs, they should have followed you up. Even without a hand sign, dive buddies are supposed to stick together - and when they saw you headed for the surface, they should have assumed something was wrong.
2) Calling the dive at 500 psi is perfectly respectable, particularly for a new diver. I've known a veteran or two who liked to push it to 300 psi or less, but 500 psi is the official guideline (at least for PADI)
3) So . . . they saw you ascend, the boat was right there, and they still scoured the bottom before checking the boat? That doesn't seem to make a lot of sense.
4) As the others pointed out, there's seems to have been a serious lack of a briefing. Next time, ask questions before getting in the water - I've known several veteran divers who've either forgotten what its like to be a new diver, or who are counting on their own skills to deal with any problems that crop up. Better to annoy him when you're dry, than be short critical information when you're wet.
5)So did the others have a lot more air left than you? Or did they empty their tanks searching for you?
Edit: Oh, and you did do your safety stop, right?
Well, first off, it sounds as though your decision to end the dive was precisely right. You should not stay down longer, if you are surfacing with 500 psi. Depending on the depth where you ended the dive, you may have been down longer than you should have been (read THIS article to hear more about that).
Letting the dive leader know you were heading up was right, too. One of the things we are all prone to do, is to make our signals too unclear and too fast. When I watch my cave instructors, they exaggerate everything like they're talking to an idiot (and perhaps they are
) and I think that's a really fine way to signal underwater. Make every motion exaggerated and slow and really emphatic. You're much more likely to get your message across.
"OK" is an awful signal to get back, because it really doesn't convey at all what message was received. I was trained that some signals are "command signals" and must be echoed -- OK, thumbs, and hold are command signals. But when someone doesn't echo your signal, the only thing you have to go on that they understood you is what they DO next. And in your case, you didn't expect them to do anything different, so you had no way to know the message wasn't received. Sometimes, if you have to communicate something that would be unexpected, it's good to write it down. Wetnotes or wrist slates can be useful for this. A written message is usually unambiguous.
I agree with everyone, though, who has talked about you surfacing alone. I believe in diving as a team; you go into the water together, and you come out together. What if you had been a little lower on gas, and had run out on ascent? It would have been awfully nice to have had your buddy, with your spare gas, where you could reach her. And if you had gotten to the surface and the boat had been far away -- or nowhere -- it would have been nice to have someone with you to help with anything that needed doing.
You shouldn't feel bad about this -- we all make mistakes, even people who have been diving a long time. The key to mistakes is to learn from them and not repeat them, and posting this here to get feedback and tips just shows you are thinking and intending to learn.
Letting the dive leader know you were heading up was right, too. One of the things we are all prone to do, is to make our signals too unclear and too fast. When I watch my cave instructors, they exaggerate everything like they're talking to an idiot (and perhaps they are
) and I think that's a really fine way to signal underwater. Make every motion exaggerated and slow and really emphatic. You're much more likely to get your message across. "OK" is an awful signal to get back, because it really doesn't convey at all what message was received. I was trained that some signals are "command signals" and must be echoed -- OK, thumbs, and hold are command signals. But when someone doesn't echo your signal, the only thing you have to go on that they understood you is what they DO next. And in your case, you didn't expect them to do anything different, so you had no way to know the message wasn't received. Sometimes, if you have to communicate something that would be unexpected, it's good to write it down. Wetnotes or wrist slates can be useful for this. A written message is usually unambiguous.
I agree with everyone, though, who has talked about you surfacing alone. I believe in diving as a team; you go into the water together, and you come out together. What if you had been a little lower on gas, and had run out on ascent? It would have been awfully nice to have had your buddy, with your spare gas, where you could reach her. And if you had gotten to the surface and the boat had been far away -- or nowhere -- it would have been nice to have someone with you to help with anything that needed doing.
You shouldn't feel bad about this -- we all make mistakes, even people who have been diving a long time. The key to mistakes is to learn from them and not repeat them, and posting this here to get feedback and tips just shows you are thinking and intending to learn.
ThomasScherrer
Contributor
you are smart to ask here, and to try to get to the bottom of this,
keep up this attitude and you will be much smarter very fast.
we use the goodbye hand wave, when we slowly leave another group, for whatver reason not needing their help or assistance,
and we expect them to wave good bye back, or give OK.
I prefer the wave back, since OK can mean alot of things.
you NEWER leave anyone alone, including your self,
so stay closer to your assigned buddy !
REALL CLOSE !
if you leave, your buddy leave..
another little trick:
if you get away or get lost, your buddy will also miss you as lost,
and the default time if nothing else is negotiated, is 1 minute search, then normal assent, to reunite at surface.
so if anyone tell they searched for any one down there for over 1min, they reveal not following the rules.
keep up this attitude and you will be much smarter very fast.
we use the goodbye hand wave, when we slowly leave another group, for whatver reason not needing their help or assistance,
and we expect them to wave good bye back, or give OK.
I prefer the wave back, since OK can mean alot of things.
you NEWER leave anyone alone, including your self,
so stay closer to your assigned buddy !
REALL CLOSE !
if you leave, your buddy leave..
another little trick:
if you get away or get lost, your buddy will also miss you as lost,
and the default time if nothing else is negotiated, is 1 minute search, then normal assent, to reunite at surface.
so if anyone tell they searched for any one down there for over 1min, they reveal not following the rules.
Bubbletrubble
Contributor
In my mind, the dive briefing wasn't the issue here.
It sounds to me like the buddy team didn't have a set plan.
In this scenario, an inexperienced diver who was low on air performed a solo ascent. This is a buddy separation. Period. The diver ascending to the surface didn't have a redundant gas supply. Moreover, his buddy, who presumably remained at depth, did not have a redundant gas supply during the buddy separation either. (This assumes that the DM didn't ask your buddy to join another buddy team.) Think of all the bad things that could have happened to either diver during the buddy separation...and I'm not just referring to out-of-gas emergencies.
I make it a rule not to exit the water without my buddy. Exceptions to this rule include situations involving a medical emergency or the need to escape some life-threatening danger.
Have a talk with your buddy and make sure that you guys are on the same page.
It sounds to me like the buddy team didn't have a set plan.
In this scenario, an inexperienced diver who was low on air performed a solo ascent. This is a buddy separation. Period. The diver ascending to the surface didn't have a redundant gas supply. Moreover, his buddy, who presumably remained at depth, did not have a redundant gas supply during the buddy separation either. (This assumes that the DM didn't ask your buddy to join another buddy team.) Think of all the bad things that could have happened to either diver during the buddy separation...and I'm not just referring to out-of-gas emergencies.
I make it a rule not to exit the water without my buddy. Exceptions to this rule include situations involving a medical emergency or the need to escape some life-threatening danger.
Have a talk with your buddy and make sure that you guys are on the same page.
Well it's pretty clear that you needed to end your dive so that decision was sound and there can be no question that you did the right thing by surfacing when you did. That's all good.
I would like to ask a couple of questions. First, the way this is written it sounds like you were diving alone but you started out saying that you and your S.O. were paired up with another buddy-team. What was, precisely, the arrangement and how did that work for you underwater? What did "paired up" mean to you? What did it mean to them?
In my mind, in most cases it's a mistake to surface alone (without your buddy) but it sounds like you did. what was your motivation for doing that? Also, didn't your buddy know that you had surfaced and/or why didn't they communicate that to the dive-leader when they thought you were lost?
Third question in my mind is why you decided to signal "everybody" that you were leaving the group? In most cases the people who *really* need that information are your buddy and the dive-leader. Somehow in the process of saying you were leaving, the message apparently didn't dawn on anyone (even though you *thought* you had signaled "everyone") How do you think that happened?
That leads me to the signals themselves. How, exactly, did you try to communicate that you were leaving the group? In that situation would tend to chain some signals together something like "ME" ""BUDDY" "Ascend" "LOW-ON-AIR" and then wave goodbye in order to communicate that myself and my buddy were leaving the group. Also, I would be sure to communicate that to the dive-leader so he/she knew where you had gone. Finally, I would make eye-contact with the person I was communicating with and be clear (based largely on body language) that the message had gotten across. Did you do anything along those lines?
And finally, when making a drift dive, it's customary to brief procedures for ending the dive early. It happens ALL THE TIME so it's in the best interests of divers and dive-leaders to know that everyone is on the same page with respect to ascending early. HOW you decide to approach it may change depending on context but the most important thing is that it's CLEAR.... so that makes me curious about the briefing. Were these things briefed and if so, did you do what you had agreed to do?
In terms of avoiding a repeat I think communication before the dive will turn out to be a key AND so will slowing down, exaggerating and communicating the right signals clearly to the right people.
Either way, don't get too down about this. It's a learning experience that most (if not all) of us have gone through as well.
R..
This thread presents a good lesson in not just a boat wide briefing, but a clear pre-dive plan with your buddy or buddy group. If we are separated we will meeet where? Boat, buoy. On a drift dive it's harder to specify. Also, if one of us is low on air we will (both ascend) ascend alone and hook up somewhere later). Guess which is a better idea. I think that new divers I( in fact all divers) on a drift dive should always be with a buddy.
As to air consumption, it's not just a newby thing. Proper weighting, trimming your buoyancy regularly, moving less, and chilling out all improve consumption. As you work on it, stay a couple meters above other divers and the difference in depth will also compensate for the consumption difference. Learn from every dive, as you did from this one, and you won't be a "newbie for much longer.
DivemasterDennis scubasnobs.com
As to air consumption, it's not just a newby thing. Proper weighting, trimming your buoyancy regularly, moving less, and chilling out all improve consumption. As you work on it, stay a couple meters above other divers and the difference in depth will also compensate for the consumption difference. Learn from every dive, as you did from this one, and you won't be a "newbie for much longer.
DivemasterDennis scubasnobs.com
PatW
Contributor
The whole thing sounds as if people made assumptions.
Your going up was fine. When you are low on air, it is time to go and you don't have a whole bunch of choice. It sure beats staying down and running out of air and manufacturing an emergency.
Even in cases where one person goes up first, unless you are pretty deep, you can see them do their safety stop and see them enter the boat. I am surprised that no one kept an eye on you. It isn't a hard thing to do.
The critical point is that they seemed to assume that you had the duty to hang by the flag until they got up. I rather doubt that anyone told you that "rule" beforehand. I also bet that you failed or never took Mind Reading 101.
I see the main party as making at least 4 basic mistakes. They did not tell you the procedure when you ran out of air first (a common thing with new divers). They did not keep tabs on you when you went up. As I said, it is not hard to glance over and see a diver do a safety stop and enter the boat (that is assuming decent visibility). If they did not like that procedure, you should have surfaced with your buddy. It seems to me that the majority of the onus is on the dive leader for messing up on the dive plan. However, I can understand that they were upset. They surfaced and assumed that you had difficulty and then scoured the ocean for you.
A productive response to your being OK would have been to realize that the solution was not blaming you, the rookie, but realizing that they had not covered the situation in the dive plan. Again, it is easy to spot that sitting here at my key board. It is a totally different thing to be calm and collected and rational when you are upset and on a dive boat.
Your going up was fine. When you are low on air, it is time to go and you don't have a whole bunch of choice. It sure beats staying down and running out of air and manufacturing an emergency.
Even in cases where one person goes up first, unless you are pretty deep, you can see them do their safety stop and see them enter the boat. I am surprised that no one kept an eye on you. It isn't a hard thing to do.
The critical point is that they seemed to assume that you had the duty to hang by the flag until they got up. I rather doubt that anyone told you that "rule" beforehand. I also bet that you failed or never took Mind Reading 101.
I see the main party as making at least 4 basic mistakes. They did not tell you the procedure when you ran out of air first (a common thing with new divers). They did not keep tabs on you when you went up. As I said, it is not hard to glance over and see a diver do a safety stop and enter the boat (that is assuming decent visibility). If they did not like that procedure, you should have surfaced with your buddy. It seems to me that the majority of the onus is on the dive leader for messing up on the dive plan. However, I can understand that they were upset. They surfaced and assumed that you had difficulty and then scoured the ocean for you.
A productive response to your being OK would have been to realize that the solution was not blaming you, the rookie, but realizing that they had not covered the situation in the dive plan. Again, it is easy to spot that sitting here at my key board. It is a totally different thing to be calm and collected and rational when you are upset and on a dive boat.
To whom did you initially make the sign? I presumed in reading your post that it was to your dive buddy, aka 'girlfriend'. If so, did you make the same 'boat' sign to her?
This doesn't compute. OK, if the group leader didn't see your signal, that is a small problem. But, did your girlfriend not see your signal either? If so, you are at fault for not a) making a clear, unambiguous signal, and b) making sure she responded and understood. If she did, she should have been able to tell the group what you did.
Now, one issue, of course, is whether everyone saw your signal that byou were going to the surface, but then panicked when you were not on the surface, at the float. If this truly was a drift dive, then the procedure for surfacing should have been covered in the pre-dive briefing, BY THE LEADER. Either, divers surface and the boat poicks them up as they surface (usual practice), or they surface and follow the submerged group on the surface, until the boat picks everyone up together (less common, but not unheard of). Did the leader brief the group about what to do if you needed to surface early? If so, did you listen, carefully, to the briefing? If the leader briefed that you should surface and stay near the flag, then it was your error, and I would have been pissed as well. But, if the leader did not brief that procedure, and if your girlfriend saw and understood your signal, then you need to a) get a new dive buddy (possibly a new girlfriend as well), and give the leader a quarter (or whatever coin works for pay phones where you were), and tell him/her to call someone who cares.
"But, if the leader did not brief that procedure, and if your girlfriend saw and understood your signal, then you need to a) get a new dive buddy (possibly a new girlfriend as well), and give the leader a quarter (or whatever coin works for pay phones where you were), and tell him/her to call someone who cares."
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