I Still Get Nightmares!

[Marcosis]

A couple of years back I was on my AOW certification night dive and very new to diving. (Sit back-this is a pretty long story!) So without names here is my true story:

I couldn’t have been more excited. It was my first night dive. On the ride out to the 35' reef everyone was talking about how crazy this was going to be. None of us had actually ever done a night dive. During the ride the instructor gave his brief, which was hardly more than look out for fire coral. He then proceeded to hand out green light sticks to everyone. I buddied up with a friend, who was not in my class, but who I brought with me. He has over 10 years and countless dives/night dives. He told me the night before to pick up light sticks at the dive shop (2 of every color). I had no idea why but I did what I was told. As the DM was passing out the light sticks, my friend shook his head and told me to give him 2 red sticks and take out 2 red ones for myself. He said look for the RED sticks if you get in trouble. He also said, "This should be interesting."

Now here it is in August in Florida and I'm watching this older gentleman (who was not from our class but who came as a buddy to a classmate). The older gentleman was donning a 7mm full farmer john wetsuit and sweating hard while putting the suit on. I pointed it out to my friend and a couple of guys I made friends with in class. I know I'm not very experienced and don't even have my own wet suit but its 90 degrees out and why?

So here we are at the reef. I'm the fearless one so please allow me to be first in. The instructor said, “We'll all descend-meet on the bottom and have a night dive”. So all of us hang on the line, scared ****less, but down we go. Once on the bottom, some went this way some went that way. I am left wondering - now what? Let me remind, our only dive plan was to be cautious of the fire coral and to meet at the bottom. So here we are. Green lights everywhere. Which green light was the instructor? Who was who? I also realize that there had no been a head count. Anyway, I realize the reason for the RED light sticks. My friend shined his light on himself, smiled; put his 2 fingers to his mask then to himself. WATCH ME! It made perfect sense now.

So as I'm stuck to my friends RED sticks, I see A student whose tank came loose from his BCD. I grabbed my buddy and started over to help fix this guy's tank. This happened twice with his tank and even in my inexperience I'm wondering why didn't his buddy see this? Twice?

After we had been down 45 minutes half the class is gone. My friend makes the hand signal for "the boat" then signals "follow me". I am please and think “at least we'll be able to tell the captain and divemaster to make a head count”.

So as we all know, it is one up the ladder at a time. However, I’m shining my light looking for the rope to hang and wait my turn to step onto the ladder but there is no rope! Instead I see four divers hanging off the platform and a lightning storm going on at the surface. I stay down below 10 ft. waiting for the other divers to clear the platform, so that I am not struck. Once the platform was cleared, I surfaced to find the lightning is actually 2 Coastguard cutters.

My friend had boarded before me and is now on the boat screaming at me to move my ***! I board and find the diver with the wetsuit is having CPR performed on him (by a student), the diver is blue, and had an oxygen mask on. What the hell? I jump over this, get my gear off, and hear one of the coastguard guys ask, "Does anyone know how to take a pulse?" I almost threw up. I have no training in Rescue. I yelled at the Coastguard guys, "The oxygen is not helping because the guy isn't breathing! Get him on your boat and get him to shore!" I helped lift the guy on a backboard over to the cutter. What the hell?

So as it calmed down (as calm as it could get) this is what happened after we descended:

One of the students forgot his weight belt and couldn't get down so he swam back to the boat, got a belt, and jumped back in. Once the diver was back in he couldn't find the class and wasn't comfortable enough to search very long. He dumped his weight and swam against surface current to get back to the boat. It was then that this diver noticed a distress flashlight signal in the water. He alerted the divemaster and captain who had to untie the boat and swing around to find and pick up the distressed diver. The student said the diver was face down, unresponsive, with his regulator in his mouth when they got to him.

They pulled him on board but he never regained consciousness. The diver had been the buddy of the guy whose tank came out. We all speculated as to what could have happened. Maybe heat exhaustion? Maybe, a heart attack? Maybe his equipment failed?

Well we never did our second tank that night, as you can imagine. I later found, that it was said the diver had drowned. No heart attack. No equipment malfunction. There was plenty of air in his tank. Only God knows why!

Upon reflection, so many things should have been different! Especially on a night dive. HEAD COUNT - On deck, in the water, at the bottom, and back on deck! I feel buddy teams should each have a different light stick color! For example: Buddy team 1 both blue, Buddy team 2 both red, Buddy team 3 both green. The instructor should have 2 different colors and maybe as well.

That was a pretty sad night I'll never forget! Well thank you for listening to my story. I know it took forever. Thank you for your feedback. Please be careful.

 

[Damselfish]

just looking at that post with no paragraph breaks gives me nightmares ...

 

[radinator]

Worth the read, but very difficult to muddle through. Please edit into paragraphs if you get the chance.

I agree with some of your assessments:

Colored light sticks - certainly. Helps avoid mixups.

Better plan - without a doubt. "Meet on the bottom" is not a good plan. Buddies should be sticking together from the time they get in the water until they get out. This includes surface, descent and ascent. That guy should have never been alone to drown.

Also, keep in mind that the accident report for a lot of divers states 'drowning' as the cause of death. That's because a lot of the things that can do in a diver are not looked for by a coroner unless they have some scuba-specific knowledge. They see the end result (dead guy in water with water in lungs) and draw the conculsion. In this case I am puzzled, since you said that his reg was in his mouth. There should have been no water aspirated in that case. I'm by no means an expert, though, and may be wrong.

I've been lucky to have never been on the scene of an accident like this. I'm sure it's something you don't forget.

Ray

 

[Marcosis]

I'm sorry. I don't type much. I'll figure it out and repair it. Thank you.

 

[*Floater*]

One of the students forgot his weight belt and couldn't get down so he swam back to the boat -got a belt on-jumped back in. He couldn't find the class and wasn't comfortable enough to search very long. He dumped his weight and swam against surface current to get back to the boat.

Why did he dump his weights? Seems like a waste of equipment unless he didn't have enough lift in his BC to ascend with the weights on.

 

[Doc]

A well told story.

I really hope the part about it giving youy nightmares was "writer's license". If not, and this really does give you trouble, get help. If not, I do get the reference.

Things like this happen all the time, unfortunately. To a great extent, it goes back to rule #1, you are in charge of your own dive. I don't care if you're diving with the ghost of Jacques F Cousteau, you yourself with your buddy, must take charge. Diving by its nature makes it all but possible to communicate in advance, thus your chat should have consisted of more than using two red sticks. But, obviously, you understand that well, now.

In terms of the Xyalume sticks, placing one in an unusual location (ankle, wrist, side of mask strap) is preferable to using two. Red ones are all but invisible. They must be carried home from any Caribbean destination- it's only right. For post dive celebration, cut one open and slather your body with it before hitting the bar. The local "exotic dancers" stop in our LDS and buy them all the time for this use. Better still, use one of those battery operated ones. Jeeze-louise... NO personal strobe lights! People will follow you around all night thinking you're the boat ladder These are for emergency signalling.

Lest anyone be misled: Night dives when well done are the greatest joy found in diving. There are more cool critters out to spot than any other time. The colors are simply fantaastic, and once one gets past the initial and understandable pangs of claustraphobia, having that spotlighted patch to concentrate upon, illuminated in brilliant daylight color... that is so very cool.

Quite often, I just drift along in the darkness on a moonlit night, looking at the bioluminescent critters. It is very easy to do a night dive with the lights of others. I mention that because of your reference to not being able to find others. The easisest way to find other night divers is to turn your own light off. Pretty much so the only way!

Your demonstrated abilities to adjust and replace another's tank is remarkable. It is very hard in the daylight to maintain depth not to consider this in the dark. Usually such assistance results in all bobbing to the surface or crashing to the "floor". If your buddy holds the light while you do the work, he should also be in charge of "depth control". All the kinds of things that you are obviously on the road to getting, what with your apt descriptions.

I especially like the reference to the lightning. I have been u/w in many situations, but lightning (and the same intensity offered by an arc light) will be noticable u/w. At the same time, I have been at shallown depth with arial explosions going off just above me and you really couldn't tell. Lightning? Get yer @ss back on the boat. You aint gonna wait it out if your down to 500 psi.

Sounds like you did just fine. There are many, many better dive ops out there.

 

[Marcosis]

Floater- This student dumped his weight belt because he said he was having trouble swimming back to the anchored boat in the surface current and wasn't confident enough to navigate back below surface.

 

[radinator]

The easisest way to find other night divers is to turn your own light off. Pretty much so the only way!

[HIJACK]
A lot of good points in your post, but I have to disagree with this in the details. I don't think someone should turn their light off on a night dive. If you want darkness (which I do, frequently), then hold the light against your chest.

I think there are two reasons not to turn your light off. First, any operation of the switch has a chance that the light will not go back on. Usually when light bulbs fail it is when they are first turned on because of the initial burst of current. Also, the switch may leak, which has the most chance of happening when it is being operated.

Second, if I do get into some situation/emergency, even to the point of suddenly going unconscious, I want that light to be on so I can easily be seen/found by my buddies/teammates. If the light is off, turning it on is a positive action requiring effort. If it is merely covered, it will fall away from my chest and already be on.
[/HIJACK]

 

[Willie]

Thanks for posting this. It was informative. Sorry it turned out as it did. I hope you give yourself the opportunity to do another well-planned night dive. I love night dives.

My first blue water trip, to Cozumel last October, included one night dive. I was quite nervous thinking that it was going to be like being in a cave when all the lights are turned off and you cant see your hand in front of your face. Boy, was I pleasantly surprised how well I could see. I enjoyed it so much I did 2 more that week.

I never used the light sticks until my AOW class in a Texas lake and vis was very poor. I didnt find it that useful, we had them on the tank strap. I like the idea of strapping one to an arm or leg.

One of my favorite dives of all time was a planned night dive in poor vis to do some navigation practice in a local lake. It was quite satisfying to nail one target after the other. I had a good buddy and we had a very specific plan though.

Willie

 

[Missdirected]

pm sent with edited version of your story