What could I have done differently?

[60feet]

This past Sunday I dove with two other divers, whom I’ll pseudonym here as Alpha and Beta to keep their identities anynomous. Beta is my usual dive buddy. He is inexperienced, has only logged about 15 dives, and still has some challenge with buoyancy control, especially at the end of a dive. Alpha is a diver we met last week. He has 70 logged dives and has done more dives at the selected site than Beta or I. This was our first dive with Alpha. He seemed a solid and safety-conscious diver who looked back to us frequently and also asked if we’re okay (by flashing the OK sign) throughout the dive.

Before the dive, I suggested Alpha to lead, Beta to follow him, and me to anchor – linear formation as opposed to side-by-side or triangular. The rationale was that Beta was the least experienced, and I wanted to keep an eye on him from the rear. I’ve logged 40 dives.

This (long) story is not about my dive buddies, but rather about another diver that we came across while underwater.

We dove at a very popular shore dive site in Laguna Beach, California. Sat and Sun mornings usually see more than a dozen divers in the water, often more, and many are students taking their OW cert dives with instructors & DMs. During our dive, as usual, we saw a number of other divers underwater, either going out or coming back, nothing out of the norm.

After about 35-40 minutes and reaching max depth of 40 feet, we turned around and headed for shore underwater. At about 20 foot depth, we came across two outbound divers that were about 10-15 feet from each other. Both were without hoods (bottom temp was 64F) and seemed to me to be in their 50’s (age-wise). The diver in front was horizontal and swimming forward; nothing unusual. However, the one in the back (whom I assumed was the buddy to the other) was kneeling on the sandy bottom, next to the reef. His face seemed pale, but I didn’t know if that’s his normal skin tone or if he was cold. He was looking down and appeared to be fumbling/looking for something on his BCD.

Leaving our linear formation, I swam over to him and flashed the OK sign to ask if he was okay. He stared straight at me but did not flash an OK sign back. I flashed the OK sign again two more times, but each time was met with a blank stare, as if he was trying to see if he knew who I was. I also wondered if he understood what I was asking. Regardless, he seemed calm and not panicked. I didn’t know what else to do, and while I was trying to figure out what to do next, I noticed that my buddies were already beyond the viz range (20 feet). Then I saw a group of about 6 hooded divers, coming into range, and heading towards me in the outbound direction. Thinking that the still-kneeling diver and the approaching divers may be in the same class/group, and not wanting to become a solo diver, I left the diver and swam to catch up with my buddies. All the while, I was hoping that the 6 hooded divers will attend to the other diver if he needed help.

When I caught up with my buddies, Beta had gone positively buoyant and was struggling to get back down from about 7-8 fsw; Alpha did not notice. I dumped air from my BCD, swam up, pulled Beta back down, dumped all air from his BCD, and reestablished my own neutral buoyancy. Then we caught up with Alpha and continued swimming underwater toward shore. A couple of minutes later, we all surfaced from 6 feet sandy bottom depth because Beta’s tank reached 500 psi.

Since then, I’ve been thinking about that unhooded diver I came across and asking myself:

1) What could/should I have done differently? or
2) What should I do if something similar occurs in the future?

Any thoughts, comments, suggestions?

 

[OkieDiver]

Carry a slate with you. Maybe he would have responded to something written down.

 

[Charlie99]

There are lots of side comments that can be made about the various buddy separations, but ignoring all of that somewhat extraneous stuff, I have come to the conclusion that the right course of action in just about any situation is to STAY WITH THE DIVER HAVING THE PROBLEM.


Yes, by staying you have effectively become a solo diver. Yes, by staying you have voluntarily separated from you buddies. But unless and until the 6 oncoming divers have postively taken control of the somewhat unresponsive diver, you should really stay with him.

 

[Wildcard]

Always a judgment call. Leaving a distressed diver may not have been the best thing to do thou...

 

[TwoBitTxn]

You need have a way to signal the other divers in your group you are going somewhere else, or worse yet, something has gone wrong.

I also think you should have stayed with the distressed diver.

In my opinion you were a solo diver, as was diver alpha, as was diver beta.

TwoBit

 

[Adobo]

Aside the decision making process involved in figuring out whether or not to intervene, the one thing that clearly stands out to me is lack of communication between you and your buddies. I would tend to think that if you are going to do something that is neither predictable nor part of the dive plan, you have to tell your buddies what your up to.

As an aside, I dunno about this adjusting your BCD business either.

I have never been in a situation like yours and hope never to be. But the thing that I imagine I would ask myself is, "do I have the training, the ability and the right situation to intervene?" And regardless what happens and what you decide, communicate your intention to your buddies.

 

[Knight1989]

People can always what if a situation. The good point is that you had the initiative and observation to recognize a possable issue and then do something about it. In the future, I would say stay with the other diver, but dont beat yourself up or worry about what you did. You already did more than probably 80% of the rest of the world would have done.

 

[Adobo]

There are lots of side comments that can be made about the various buddy separations, but ignoring all of that somewhat extraneous stuff, I have come to the conclusion that the right course of action in just about any situation is to STAY WITH THE DIVER HAVING THE PROBLEM.


Yes, by staying you have effectively become a solo diver. Yes, by staying you have voluntarily separated from you buddies. But unless and until the 6 oncoming divers have postively taken control of the somewhat unresponsive diver, you should really stay with him.

I dive with several people who would tend to agree with you though I myself see things a little differently. (One of the guys is in the service so I think it is in his nature to respond heroically - probably run into a burning building to save a cat kind of a guy.)

It seems that behaving in a heroic fashion has many consequences. As you know, there are the inherent risks that one would be assuming. In addition to that, there comes a point where liabilities come into play. There are lots of instructors in this forum that can elaborate on all the details about duty and reasonable care.

Another question in my mind is, what are you able to do to help? Do you know how to assess the situation to see if it is reasonably safe for you to intervene? Do you know how to handle that diver if he panics? Do you know how to bring that diver up to the surface in a fashion that minimizes the risk to embolism if he goes unconscious?

I'm sure all of us would want to help in that situation. I guess in my mind, not everyone is capable of assessing whether or not they may just be adding to the number of victims should they decide to "help".

 

[herman]

I think you did the right thing helping the other diver. What I would have changed was how you handled your group. Unless "A" diver was really moving along, which he should not be, I would have caught up to him, got his attention and we ALL would have gone back to the "distressed" diver. That way you have more support if needed, no one is solo and your inexperienced buddy would still have his dive team. "A" could buddy with "B" while you attended to the other diver. As lead in a straight formation "A" did need to look back more often. I check every minute or 2 depending on conditions, a quick glance between your legs is all thats necessary to check the team.

 

[Oriskany Divemaster]

Never leave your wingman, Maverick.

But don't beat yourself over it. You've got to draw the line somewhere. Your responsiblity is to yourself, your buddy, then any other diver you come across where someone hasn't already taken the rescue lead.

Was the diver in distress? Confused, maybe. Irritated, perhaps. But he wasn't unconscious nor panicked. How was his air? Did you manage to sneak a peak without reaching for the SPG? (People don't like strangers reaching for their gear.)

If you were concerned, you could've taken a compass heading, kick ahead to your guys, then get them all to turn around and head back to the diver. With only twenty feet of viz, you should've almost been in physical contact with each other.

Text book says you three should always be in constant communication. Real world situation suggests the lead guy keeps checking back from time to time, then when he doesn't see you, he pauses for a bit, then retraces his path to locate you. Leading the dive means more than just going first.

On a human nature note, you're going to come across divers who don't flash the okay sign back to you if they're not in your group.

To me it sounds like the the guy was just finishing a nice pee. Sometimes I find it easier if I kneel and unzip. And I'm not sure if I'd respond to someone flashing the Okay sign as I'm zipping up. Unless it was a she, and she was hot. And she wanted to buy me a beer.