Karl_in_Calif
Banned
I use my old yellow octo for my pony bottle.
Dont mind if anyone grabs for that one.
Dont mind if anyone grabs for that one.
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I was buddied with inexperienced diver.
He claimed he was experienced enough but without recent dives. He took a video camera with himself "to shoot a few sequences". Divemaster asked me to keep an eye on him because he surfaced from 10m without safety stop on dive day before. Plan was to dive at 20m for 30min (two of us) and the rest of divers were supposed to go to 35m
He wasn't able to maintain buoyancy and I trimmed him and calm him down and warned him about air consumption (which was enormous - we started with 200bar, after 10min he was at 100bar).
Suddenly he emptied his jacket and descended to 40m "to shoot from the other angle". I descended also and brought him slowly back to 25m. Than I realized he would be OOA in few minutes. I informed DM we were going out and we started to ascend. I knew that we had a deco obligation because of his trip to 40m but I had enough air. As we reached 18m he signalized he was OOA. I was little surprised because I expected this would happen in few minutes but I took my primary (long hose) and tried to put in his mouth. At the same time I emptied a little bit my jacket, grab him and made us neutral.
He grabbed regulator and then left it floating and tried to grab my bungeed octo. Of course he couldn't reach it and then he panicked. I tried to calm him down but he started to strangle me. All that time I was trying to put my primary to his mouth and he was refusing it trying to get my octo. After one long minute of struggle I succeeded and I finally grab my octo and started to breath.
At that moment I thought "Everything is under control, again". But it wasn't. He kicked and went up. I emptied my jacket completely and grab his camera (attached to his jacket) and tired to descend. But he was fining up. When we reached 5m (in less then 30s) I let him go because I couldn't stop him any more. He surfaced immediately and boat crew lifted him up
Where did I get wrong ? Before this dive I was sure I could handle such situation because I had similar case before and solved it with no problems.
I looked at my Mosquito - 5 min of deco. After I finished it (I added 2min more at 3m and last 3m 1min), I surfaced - he was on O2. Captain contacted DAN and they advised O2, hydration and observing. After two hours no DCS signs were shown and he seemed OK.
Probably he thought I was able to handle unexpected situations.Scuba once bubbled...
You don't state the reason why the DM entrusted this inexperienced diver to you.
He had two dives three weeks ago and one dive day before. Before that he hasn't dived for several years.Diver admitted to being a little rusty from inactivity. The dive plan to 20m for 30 min. suitably conforms to get some of the rust out of a diver who claims experience enough. What kind of experience? Under what conditions? How long ago?
He dived with that camera three weeks ago. On a dive day before he didn't carry it.Is the camera a new gear addition or part of his normal past experience?
Because he wasn't able to maintain his buoyancy.Why did he skip "safety stop"? Answer could provide much valuable information.
I'm going to assume you immediately went after him in order to stop his descent and start surfacing, and caught him at 40m. Here you probably saved him from injury, and quite possibly his life.
I don't know if this buddy thanked you afterwards.
MonkSeal once bubbled...
Yesterday I was buddied with inexperienced diver. He claimed he was experienced enough but without recent dives. He took a video camera with himself "to shoot a few sequences". Divemaster asked me to keep an eye on him because he surfaced from 10m without safety stop on dive day before. Plan was to dive at 20m for 30min (two of us) and the rest of divers were supposed to go to 35m. He wasn't able to maintain buoyancy and I trimmed him and calm him down and warned him about air consumption (which was enormous - we started with 200bar, after 10min he was at 100bar). Suddenly he emptied his jacket and descended to 40m "to shoot from the other angle". I descended also and brought him slowly back to 25m. Than I realized he would be OOA in few minutes. I informed DM we were going out and we started to ascend. I knew that we had a deco obligation because of his trip to 40m but I had enough air. As we reached 18m he signalized he was OOA. I was little surprised because I expected this would happen in few minutes but I took my primary (long hose) and tried to put in his mouth. At the same time I emptied a little bit my jacket, grab him and made us neutral. He grabbed regulator and then left it floating and tried to grab my bungeed octo. Of course he couldn't reach it and then he panicked. I tried to calm him down but he started to strangle me. All that time I was trying to put my primary to his mouth and he was refusing it trying to get my octo. After one long minute of struggle I succeeded and I finally grab my octo and started to breath. At that moment I thought "Everything is under control, again". But it wasn't. He kicked and went up. I emptied my jacket completely and grab his camera (attached to his jacket) and tired to descend. But he was fining up. When we reached 5m (in less then 30s) I let him go because I couldn't stop him any more. He surfaced immediately and boat crew lifted him up. I looked at my Mosquito - 5 min of deco. After I finished it (I added 2min more at 3m and last 3m 1min), I surfaced - he was on O2. Captain contacted DAN and they advised O2, hydration and observing. After two hours no DCS signs were shown and he seemed OK. Where did I get wrong ? Before this dive I was sure I could handle such situation because I had similar case before and solved it with no problems.
USMC Diver once bubbled...
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I would have left him at 40m myself. Dumbass broke the dive plan. That is not your fault. I guess he was DIW to your DIR.
CincyBengalsFan once bubbled...
Well, I'm an instructor and the few times over 7+ yrs. that I've had a student panic in the open water they grabbed my Octo. I've never had my primary grabbed at. But it's Nice of DIR guys to reinforce grabbing it in the rec world!
USMC Diver once bubbled...
He was refusing your primary because he was trained to use an octo. Therein lies the danger of you DIR guys infiltrating into the world of rec. This guy was trying to get to the octo and, while in panic mode, was focused on your back up octo around your neck.
Did you go over this in your pre-dive? Isn't that part of pre-dive, orient to your buddies gear? You should have communicated your gear confuguration to this idiot. Proper buddy communication may have alleviated that problem.
is where the danger lies. Looking at your board name one would reason that you are a Marine. I know that the Marines train better than that. What happened? Marines aren't trained to leave a "man" behind. RI would have left him at 40m myself. Dumbass broke the dive plan. That is not your fault. I guess he was DIW to your DIR.