What if...? Lost Buddies

[Jewls]

Consider this scenario as well...you are shore diving and there is no one else around. You lose your buddy and go to the surface and wait for a while and then what? There is no boat.

You can get out of the water and call 911. You are safe but will this help your buddy in time? Do you go back down in case they are stuck somewhere? Do you end up endangering yourself? Would diving solo endanger yourself? Many questions to consider and many different variables.

It's a much easier question if you are on a dive charter and there are others around to help. Shore diving is where many of us do most of our diving and of course many others primarily do charter boat diving. Different scenarios different solutions perhaps?

I would stay as close to my buddy as possible. As mentioned in my previous post, I would stay arms length to 5 feet away. Discuss with buddy the 1 minute rule pre-dive.

If I lost my buddy, I would wait at the surface, inflate surface marker and look for a bubble trail (as another had mentioned and good idea!). Follow bubble trail with head, mask and reg in mouth while trying to locate the diver u/w. Find diver and descend if it looks as if a problem is occuring.

If unable to locate lost diver at the surface, remain at surface with surface marker inflated. Search around, continue looking for bubbles and probably occassionally stick my face back in the water to look for the diver. Blow whistle a couple times every few minutes in case the diver has surfaced and I can't see the diver and diver can't see me, at least the diver can try to swim to my direction.

If unable to locate diver after 20 minutes, continuously blow whistle hoping someone on shore will hear this and call for help or the other diver will hear me. I think at this point, I would slowly move towards shore but keeping an eye on the location where I had surfaced to see if my buddy surfaces.

After thinking about this, I hope that any buddy I have also has a surface marker. I'm thinking I might buy spare to let a buddy borrow, just in case..

 

[Jewls]

And for those who are diving in less than tropical conditions ... do you take a dive light with you on your dives, and if so, do you use it for buddy communication?

Some time ago I wrote an article specifically for newer divers addressing some of the issues of buddy separation ... you can find it here ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

The only time I dove non-tropical conditions with low viz was during my O/W training at Chatfield Res. This was not a good experience for me as it was the first time I lost a buddy and the whole team. Here's what happened. We descend to 20 feet in cold murkey water, dive instructor leads the way, I'm next, then buddy and the rest of the group. We are to follow the line on the bottom to find sunken objects (boat, refridgerator, comode, etc). We were all to hold onto each other SPG to keep close due to the conditions. I had hold of the dive instructors and buddy had hold of mine. After about 5 minutes, I did not feel buddy holding my SPG. I stopped, looked behind, kept going and looked again. I tugged on the dive instructors SPG to get his attention. He stopped and signaled to me to wait here. I am now on the line by myself....waiting. Then buddy is in sight and signals me to keep going. I didn't want to, but thought perhaps the dive instructor signaled him to do so. Together we now reach the first object, the boat, we explore around the small boat and move onto the next object, the refridgerator. We stop there. The team is not behind us. We decided to go back to the boat, the team is not there. Buddy signals me to wait at the boat and he will go back down the line to find the group. I wait for one minute and mind starts freeking out and I remember the one minute rule. I signal that I am going to ascend and surface. Team is not at the surface. I locate another team getting ready to descend and they see me. I surface swim to the new team and wait at the buoy. My team arrives 10 minutes later and asks me where I went...my buddy was with them.

What could I have done different? Stayed on the line where the Dive Instructor signaled me to wait and not follow buddy. Keep buddy with me and hope we all regroup.

After this experience, yes I will carry a light or glow stick with me if I ever dive in these conditions again. Do I want to dive in these conditions, after that experience No! Will I? Probably, if I'm iching for a dive this summer.

 

[SoccerJeni]

Also consider that if your buddy surfaced, and is waiting for you to join them on the surface, it's likely to be the longest five minutes of their life (especially if your dive buddy is a loved one).
... Bob (Grateful Diver)

This is what happened to me and I can tell you it was one of the most awful feelings because I was aware of her fear and apprehension of this particular spot before the dive.

The main guides suggestion was for one of the other guides to catch up to the other group to make sure our 2 divers were with them. He was going to have us continue on our dive and have the other guide catch up to us underwater with the news of where my buddy was. He was preparing us to descend and asked me if that was okay and I broke down in tears. That was one of my closest friends that was missing! I was very torn at that moment with the thoughts of "I'm ruining other people's time" and "Where is my friend!!! I'm too emotional to go underwater and now I'm a danger to myself". I said that I would stay on the surface with one other guide while they went ahead, but I was concerned about me being unsafe at that moment. The main guide decided we would all stay at the surface and wait, and luckily within 5 minutes someone came to tell me she was okay. But every moment waiting for word was gut wrenching!

 

[Jewls]

Now I'm wondering a question.

If you're on a boat dive, you get seperated from your buddy and your buddy doesn't surface, how long should you wait to blow the whistle for the boat? I'm nervous that the boat might be overhead while the other diver is in the process of surfacing, especially if surfacing without a SMB on a reel. Usually you can hear the boat, but the direction can't be determined unless visiable overhead.

Normally I listen for the boat at my safety stop and ascend looking up with my hand overhead, but my buddy may not follow this procedure....

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

This is what happened to me and I can tell you it was one of the most awful feelings because I was aware of her fear and apprehension of this particular spot before the dive.

The main guides suggestion was for one of the other guides to catch up to the other group to make sure our 2 divers were with them. He was going to have us continue on our dive and have the other guide catch up to us underwater with the news of where my buddy was. He was preparing us to descend and asked me if that was okay and I broke down in tears. That was one of my closest friends that was missing! I was very torn at that moment with the thoughts of "I'm ruining other people's time" and "Where is my friend!!! I'm too emotional to go underwater and now I'm a danger to myself". I said that I would stay on the surface with one other guide while they went ahead, but I was concerned about me being unsafe at that moment. The main guide decided we would all stay at the surface and wait, and luckily within 5 minutes someone came to tell me she was okay. But every moment waiting for word was gut wrenching!

Boy howdy ... I can relate. I lost my (then) wife on her second post-OW dive. We were separated in low vis, and she spent way too long looking around before beginning her ascent. By the time she surfaced, she was so far away that there was no way I could possibly have seen her. Meanwhile, I'm on the surface thinking she was laying dead on the bottom somewhere. This was at a popular dive park, in June, and there were dozens of other divers in the area ... not to mention a ferry terminal right next door. After a tense few minutes I decided to get some help out there, so I started waving my arms and shouting "LOST DIVER" at the top of my lungs. It was like kicking an anthill ... within minutes there were search parties in the water, the ferry launched a search boat, the police, fire, and emergency response team showed up ... and hundreds of people were lining the beach hoping for something exciting to talk about. Meanwhile, my wife was calmly surface swimming toward shore wondering what all the fuss was about.

That was the day I earned my title as "the loudest man in Western Washington" ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[gcbryan]

I just want to make the point that in non-tropical conditions you can't usually stay at the surface, stick your face in the water, and hope to find your buddy due to the limited viz.

Also, if you get out of the water and call for help in most cases the help will most likely be for body recovery (or a surface medical emergency). If you leave the water and your buddy actually needs help 911 isn't likely to come in time or with properly equipped rescuers (divers).

In most cases of course your buddy will come up on his/her own.

Bubbles, if you can see them, at least tell you someone is breathing and can sometimes allow you to find them but it's not as easy to drop down from the surface and find someone via their bubbles as you might think. Particularly if they are moving, there is current, and/or they are in deeper waters.

I think there are solutions to this scenario that sometimes depend on what everyone is comfortable doing and that in part depends on your experience level.

When the rule applied is the one to stay at the surface this can prevent there being two casualties rather than one. On the other hand if someone is caught up in kelp, a gill net or fishing leaders staying on the surface isn't going to help them.

Going down and having them surface seconds later isn't a good scenario either. The correct solution is the one that you've thought through for you and your buddy.

With charter boat diving however the answer is usually going to be to surface after 1 minute and then contact the boat. It's not so easy in other scenarios.

 

[jhayes75]

I am going to throw a monkey wrench in the works here. Lets say you and your buddy are beach diving towing a dive flag. This area has heavy boat traffic. Now you get separated from your buddy and your not carrying the Flag. How then would you answer the question?

What would you do if you lost sight of your buddy underwater and couldn't find him/her?
Think back to our pre-dive discussion as to what we determined we would do if this were to happen. If we did not discuss this possibility or for some reason I could not recall it, I would check on my amount of remaining air. Assuming I had sufficient air, I would spend a few minutes turning 360 degrees looking straight ahead, above and below my current location to see if I could spot my buddy. If I was unsuccessful in spotting my buddy I would surface.

* What would you do if you lost sight of your buddy underwater and couldn't find him/her?

Look for him/her for one minute and then surface. We should meet again up there if he/she does the same thing.

We use the look around for 5 mins. then surface rule.

* What would you do if you lost sight of your buddy underwater and couldn't find him/her?

If plans were not discussed begin "recommended lost buddy procedure" return to known area, search for one minute, ascend a few feet, look for one minute, fully ascend, keeping an eye out.

* What would you do if you lost sight of your buddy underwater and couldn't find him/her?
Search for one minute, then ascend still looking out for bubbles on the way up.

* What would you do if you lost sight of your buddy underwater and couldn't find him/her?
I would look left, right, up, down, behind and do this once again. If I could not find my buddy I would follow the rules given by PADI to look for my buddy for 1 minute, signal that I am going to ascend, and begin a slow ascent at 30 feet per minute with a 3 minute safety stop at 15 feet. Hopefully my buddy will see me, ascend and we could meet at the surface, inflate Surface Marker, determine air supply and if we can continue the dive or whistle for dive boat.
If I don’t see my buddy follow while ascending and if my buddy did not surface I would inflate my surface signal and blow my whistle to call the boat. I will let the boat captain know I got separated from my buddy to keep an eye out for him/her. (even though that’s pretty obvious to the captain)
To prevent this I would discuss the buddy separation plan with my buddy pre-dive. Also, discuss how often we should look for each and to stay within arms length to 5 feet away from each other at all times in case of an emergency.

Revert to training, quick look for them and then up and report. This would, of course, have been agreed upon before diving. If they don't want to do it that way, so be it, and I won't expect anything else from them.

 

[Bubbletrubble]

A common theme we see in many of the responses is: do what you and your buddy discussed prior to the dive. If that discussion never takes place, you can see the range of responses that people might have.
Lesson learned: discuss this stuff with your buddy.

How do most of you talk about "lost buddy" protocol with your buddy during pre-dive planning? Most agencies teach the search-for-one-minute rule then surface. Personally, when discussing things with my buddy before the dive, I like to talk about specific, very common scenarios -- the exact ones we are touching upon in this thread. Great discussion so far about looking for the buddy, making noise, talking about how divers within a buddy team will dive (side-by-side, lead-follow, number of divers per dive team, whether independent buddy teams can continue a dive, etc.).

In this thread, lots of people have talked about surfacing...but no one has mentioned how the ascent should be managed. Nowadays instructors teach the importance of conducting safety stops on every dive. During a "lost buddy" scenario, should you conduct a safety stop or not? What is the thinking process one might use to help guide that choice? Would this impact how long you would wait before raising the alarm to activate emergency services?

 

[Kenny13]

A common theme we see in many of the responses is: do what you and your buddy discussed prior to the dive. If that discussion never takes place, you can see the range of responses that people might have.
Lesson learned: discuss this stuff with your buddy.

How do most of you talk about "lost buddy" protocol with your buddy during pre-dive planning? Most agencies teach the search-for-one-minute rule then surface. Personally, when discussing things with my buddy before the dive, I like to talk about specific, very common scenarios -- the exact ones we are touching upon in this thread. Great discussion so far about looking for the buddy, making noise, talking about how divers within a buddy team will dive (side-by-side, lead-follow, number of divers per dive team, whether independent buddy teams can continue a dive, etc.).

In this thread, lots of people have talked about surfacing...but no one has mentioned how the ascent should be managed. Nowadays instructors teach the importance of conducting safety stops on every dive. During a "lost buddy" scenario, should you conduct a safety stop or not? What is the thinking process one might use to help guide that choice? Would this impact how long you would wait before raising the alarm to activate emergency services?

I think that things such as current, air reserves, visibility, etc. should be taken into consideration when deciding whether or not to do a safety stop in these scenarios. And it also goes back to you doing 3 minutes at 15' while that lost buddy is at the surface, then he decides to go back down or go for help while you're holding that depth. I think that as long as I've made a good controlled ascent by my computer that I would rather skip the safety stop not knowing where a missing buddy is located. JMO.

 

[Jewls]

I am going to throw a monkey wrench in the works here. Lets say you and your buddy are beach diving towing a dive flag. This area has heavy boat traffic. Now you get separated from your buddy and your not carrying the Flag. How then would you answer the question?

I would follow the 1 minute rule, ascend, safety stop, surface, and blow the whistle attached to my BCD so boats and my buddy, if surfaced, can hear me. I would do a suface check and locate the flag. Swim to flag while watching boat traffic and blowing my whistle if needed until I reached the diver with the flag. Then I would tug on the flag to get their attention and hope they come up to the surface with me.

If I can't locate the flag or bubbles from diver, then I guess I would just have to blow the whistle so the boats don't run me over and my dive buddy can locate me. If I don't have a whistle, can't locate the flag, then I'd be waving my arms and shouting if I thought I was in sort of danger