Down Draft and Inattentive Buddy

[designbysue]

This past weekend I went on a trip to The Bahamas with our dive shop and did 10 dives with Stuart Cove’s. (Including their shark dives – which I strongly recommend!!!) Over that past month I have been reading this board and learning so very much. One of the things that had stuck in my mind was about down drafts, and currents pulling a diver over a cliff. It was one of those things that just stuck with me of all the items that I had read. Here’s my experience (sorry its so long).
It was the 9th dive of the trip. I am relatively new to diving (this was my 23rd dive) and have not conquered my breathing yet. If the dive is deep, I’m one of the first ones up. This dive was to have been to a wreck which at the bottom was 60 feet. Our tanks were filled light (2800 lbs.). I stepped off the boat and while waiting for my buddy wasted air in my BC by over filling it. Then on decent, I somehow hit the blue button with the black and let more air out of the tank. (So far, this is no big deal). As we descended, I notice the line of wreck reel that I had borrowed had come loose (was doing skills for my Advanced Diver Cert.) and started fiddling with it. This is where things started going wrong. As I got to the bottom, still fiddling, I noticed a rope on the ground right where I was to land. Still fiddling. Then I noticed that the rope was now a foot in front of me, then two, then three…stopped fiddling! I realized that I was in a strong current and tried to swim against it. Still moving backwards in spite of swimming, I saw blue beneath me. I realized that what I had feared was coming true, I was caught in a current that was becoming a down draft. Panic!! I kicked with all my might and was able to swim against the current to get over the ground. Now, where is my buddy, more panic. Still kicking hard, searching, found her slightly behind me, and totally ignorant of the circumstances. I signaled up to her and instead of following me she waives good bye! More panic. Now, conscious of my lower amount of air (which is by no means in danger of running out, but still on my mind) I am panicking more and breathing so rapidly that I’m sure there was a constant stream of bubble. Again I signal to my buddy to go up (hoping to get above the current). Again she waives goodbye! I give up on her as she is making headway against the current and I rise up to about 25 feet. Then I calmed enough to remember what we were taught. I focused on calming my breathing, then on swimming toward the wreck to which we were supposed to be going and then on the wreck, fixed the wreck reel. The rest of the dive was around the wreck, but I stayed at about 30 feet just observing others. I finally did my safety stop and got on the boat.
It wasn’t until I was telling this story to my brother and his pointing it out I realized just how bad my diving buddy was. She was oblivious to my panic and did nothing to assist me, instead waived goodbye and let me fend for myself, while also leaving her to fend for herself.
Lessons learned:
1. Be sure to choose a buddy that has more experience and one that is responsive (she has only about 16 dives now)
2. Watch out for those currents.
3. Work on one problem at a time (like they teach you)
And 4. Don’t fiddle on descent.
Funny how when you are done, the difficult dives really stick in your mind and the rest seem to swirl together.

[dlndavid]

Sounds like you handled the situation well, too bad your buddy was not a buddy. Maybe next time give the low on air signal for added attention of the circumstance or concern. Glad it worked out ok. Did you try talking to your buddy about it back on the boat and turn it into a lesson learned? I think I will try and come up with some emergency type signals for my next dives like down current and strong currents.

[ShakaZulu]

I like how she waved goodbye.......so funny. Go with the current, and swim 90 degrees to it.

[dlndavid]

I wonder if she did the princess wave, never higher than the crown. :D

[Doc Intrepid]

Glad you did some post-dive analysis with your brother, and things worked out for you.

Now it sounds like you need to do some talking with your buddy...(if she's someone you went on the trip with and would dive again with...)

Avoid swimming against currents. You're almost always better off to drop down to the bottom and 'pull & glide' against currents. You can hold your position if needed, and whether moving up a wall against a down current or across level seafloor, you'll find you use less effort by pulling and gliding than you will trying to swim against the current.

If nothing ever went wonky, you wouldn't learn things as effectively! :)

Now you know...

Doc

[jeckyll]

First, I'm glad you are ok.

Second, didn't you discuss the dive with your buddy up front? Whenever I dive with someone new (and even when I dive with someone whom I've gone with before) we run down a quick checklist.
What do to in case of OOA (I dive a long hose, not all people I dive with do).
What to do in case of separation (search for 1 minute then ascent).
Review signals for the dive (especially if there is something specific to be added. Can be as simple as a sign for Octopus)
Check if any gear is new (new mask, new hose routing, different way that light attaches).
One of the things that I _always_ discuss is "the thumb up is not a question". Any diver can call the dive at any time and the buddy will follow. No reason needs to be given.
This is aside from the 'buddy check'.

I haven't done any resort diving, but I would think that it would be even more important to review with a brand new buddy.

Just my $0.02

Bjorn

[daniel f aleman]

Did the DMs tell you about that cliff?

[designbysue]

Wow so may responses already! The dive was the 9th of 10 on the trip sponsored by my LDS. My buddy was one of 3 of us novices, all trained by the same instructor (so I know she was taught to end the dive when the thumbs up is given as Jeckyll mentioned). I had dived the other 8 with her without incident, though I often surfaced earlier than her, but she was with other when I ended my dive. This was the first time I gave the thumbs up in the beginning of the dive. Once I got back on the boat, I was still upset and actually ended up in tears. When she got back on she was surprised to see that I was so upset. (She must have also forgot the lesson we had on the look of panic.) I told her of my concern about the current and the wall and she had no idea of the threat we were under. She did say she was exhausted by the time she got to the wreck from swimming against the current. I didn't say anything about not coming up with me as I didn't realize that she had been wrong til my brother's conversation. I plan on discussing it with our instructor and suggesting that he pair up buddys a bit differently in the future and that perhaps he can talk to my buddy and stress the thumbs up means go up. (After additional thought I realized that if I did have to surface complete for any reason at the time, I would have been alone and not near the boat - up a creek without a buddy! The more time passes the clear the situation becomes.)

Regarding the DM's instructions, I believe he said there was a wall but it was too far for us to go to so we were to stay around the wreck. He didn't mention a "cliff". There was no mention of current or the situation we got into.

Because of reading about these situations on the forum I was better prepared for the situation and I really thank all that take the time to post here.

[tjmills]

I understand the panic thing but you taking off for the surface would lead me to believe that its quite possible that you were dangerously surfacing. Now I would have tried to calm you noticing your panic but I would guess she probably didn't or that she wasn't capable to assisting you or didn't notice the signs. You did state she was pretty new. You pop up to the surface unsafely you will likely be on your own unless someone can stop you in time. I refer to the fact that all of us are responsible for our own safety and shouldn't depend on another. Buddies are a safety margin but not the responsible party.

Panic is the single biggest thing you have to overcome in adverse conditions and it isn't easy to fight the #1 urge in your life force but you must regain control and think clearly. If you sprung up from 100 feet to 25 in record time I am pretty sure unless someone were to catch you in the first 10 feet you will find yourself alone. A much more experienced diver might have caught this but you weren't diving with one.

I wasn't there and can only go on what you are saying but don't blame your buddy for what happened. You are ultimately the responsible party for your own actions both on the way down and one the way up. I don't mean this as a derogatory comment to you and nor am I trying to be mean to you but you have to take responsibility here and in the future. Panic is a funny thing and I am glad you overcame it before you hit the surface as it might have even been worse.

Hope I don't offend anyone here but take a look at this from the other side.

[Darnold9999]

Two things come to mind. First I think you are putting too much of this on your buddy. You are responsible for your own safety at all times. Your buddy provides a reserve in an emergency OOA situation, but as a beginner that is all I would expect from a buddy. You are both still learning, and one of the things you are learning is how to be a buddy, how to respond to another diver, what a diver in distress looks like etc. I'm know I'm still learning all this stuff and I have a few more dives than your buddy.

However.

My second point - An absolute rule in my diving is if someone thumbs the dive, the dive is over. Period, no question, no recriminations, no guilt trips, its over. (Unless it is some idiot who gives the thumbs up sign when they mean OK. I've only been guilty of this about 10 times -- this year:D ) The only time I have made an exception to this was a dive with three divers and on the swim out one of us lost their mask so could not dive. The two with masks waited until the maskless diver was safely on shore before starting the dive. (I would even question this decision depending on the situation.) Not one of us was carrying a spare, of course.

I do want to know why, what went wrong etc. but this is an absolute, thumb the dive its over. (for me - others may differ)

[tjmills]

I do understand the thumb up sign but lets take a look at what this sounds like as the panic was taking place and the diver starts racing for the surface and the buddy who is also very new got a clear sign that there was a problem. From the description of the incident, I doubt anything was clear to the diver at that time until they regained their composure and even much less to the buddy. We are talking about a buddy with very little experience watching a person race for the surface. This could have all happened in a couple of seconds but in the divers mind it was probably an eternity. (I am sure you know what I mean)

What frustrates me on here is that everyone wants to jump on the buddy right off the bat and it becomes their fault for the divers mistakes. They were not watching me all the time, they were looking at the reef for 15 seconds instead of watching me 100% of the time when I did something stupid, my buddy was more than 5 feet from me most of the dive...ect, ect. ect. They must be a bad buddy!!! And everyone jumps on their side and reinforces these insecurities. Its not good and its especially not good for NEW divers to think this way. They must take responsibility for their own actions and realize that they are responsible for their own saftey and that a buddy is "SAFETY MARGIN" and not their personal valet. (sorry, couldn't come up with a better word). This is why everyone practices skills and does things like remove their mask, remove their BC, ect. ect ect.

Now I realize there are exceptions to this and their are in fact...bad buddies but I would venture a large bet that it is far the exception than the rule. We are all taught buddy skills but the cold hard reality is that you need to be able to take care of yourself for the most part. You panic because you think you are stuck in some down draft vortex because you read something about this on scubaboard a couple weeks ago....don't blame your buddy as you go racing by them for the surface. You did something stupid and your brand new diver buddy didn't realize something was wrong and yet the diver thinks they were communicating perfectly???

Sorry, I don't mean to sound so gruff about this but this is one of those things on here that I have watched happen over and over on threads and it drives me nutz. Both experienced and inexperienced people on here fall into the same pattern of just agreeing with the complaint without taking a look whole issue here. By just agreeing with them, the are reinforcing bad practices to new divers and this is BAD BAD BAD.

I am sorry if I offended anyone as that is not my attention.

Designbysue, this is all not directed complety at you either and nor is it directed at anyone on this thread in particular either. You (and your brother) are only one in a long list on here and you have some pretty experienced company along the way. I just want new divers to analize the situation a little differently and learn from their mistakes and not just blame your buddy. I think you have for the most part based upon what you said. Many new divers are likely to read this and I think it was worth being said. No one is imune to panic but learning how to recognize and deal with it is especially important underwater and I am glad you overcame it and I am positive you learned a lot from it. I am glad you are ok too.

[Vayu]

they were looking at the reef for 15 seconds instead of watching me 100% of the time when I did something stupid, my buddy was more than 5 feet from me most of the dive...ect, ect. ect. They must be a bad buddy!!

True! Your buddy needs to have a large amount of situational awareness and this includes keeping track of you and your safety. If you do something stupid it also impacts your buddy to a large degree.

I do not think this diver did anything stupid. As many have said, fighting a current can be difficult. His buddy should never have waved goodbye - she should have been ascending with him. She pretty much forced him into a solo dive and even joined with someone else.

It goes without saying that a diver has responsibility for his or herself. Sounds like this diver took that responsibility seriously and came out of it in good health.

Bad buddies suck and it becomes increasingly obvious to me what sort of attitudes are required to be an educated, safe, and fun companion underwater.

Like darnold said - a thumb means its OVER. The water isn't going anywhere.

-V

[Charlie99]

I had dived the other 8 with her without incident, though I often surfaced earlier than her, but she was with other when I ended my dive. (emphasis added) Perhaps this is part of what led to the miscommunication. You had repeatedly done solo ascents before, and from her point of view, this was just another case of you doing a solo ascent.

Reading between the lines, it sounds like you perceived a much higher current/downdraft/level of danger than she did.

In some locations, such as SE Florida, I often buddy with an inexperienced diver who will use up air much earlier than me. If we agree upon him ascending solo, we also agree that he can, for any reason or none at all, call for me to stay buddied up with him. The agreed upon sign is simply for him to point to me and signal up. The alternate sign is for him to point to me and then give the "buddy up" sign of tapping the side of the index fingers together.

In either case, our agreement is that, even if he does a solo ascent, that I will ascend as necessary to keep him in sight until the boat has come to pick him up.

A better buddy would have realized that you were aborting early for some reason and because it was unusually early would have gone up with you; but you also need to look at what you could have done differently.

[TSandM]

I would like to offer some thoughts about perceptions.

Somewhere around my twelfth dive or so, I did a drift dive off a boat in Maui. I did not enjoy it very much at all. I didn't like the feeling of being pushed by the ocean, sometimes where I did not want to go, and I got anxious when we swam against the current to stay and look at something. I didn't panic, but I didn't enjoy the dive.

A couple of months later, I did a dive with my husband on Whidbey Island where we got into some current. Once again, I did not at all like the feeling of fighting with the ocean, and I called the dive early. My husband went in with me, but once on shore, said, "Why'd you call the dive?" I explained that the current was making me uneasy, and he just didn't understand at all.

This last week, we had some current in almost every dive, and one dive was a pretty rapid clip drift dive, and you know what? I enjoyed all of them. I've learned I CAN swim against some current, I've learned how to crab into current, I've learned how to find shelter behind something to get out of the current, and overall, I have a lot less anxiety about most things underwater than I had six months ago.

When you realized you were being pushed where you didn't want to go, you had several options -- swimming at right angles to the current, changing your depth (which you did, but not as a rational decision) to see if the current was less higher or lower, taking cover behind some part of the wreck, or swimming hard forward and taking hold of the mooring line if you were only three or four feet from it. You had only just descended, so you actually should have had plenty of air, even if you go through it more quickly than others.

This is a good case where you can look at it according to roturner's steps for dealing with task loading: Air -- you should have had plenty. Buoyancy -- get neutral, and remember you swim ACROSS currents. Communication -- signal buddy that you want to swim across current, or suggest than you go up ten feet or down ten feet and level off, or whatever strategy you have for dealing with the current. Then Dive -- execute the plan you've come up with.

Admittedly, your buddy should not wave off a thumb, but as has been previously observed, if you were in the habit of surfacing first without your buddy, there was no reason for her to believe she was to accompany you this time.

Severe downdrafts that take people a hundred feet down are rare. Mild up or down movements of the water are common along abrupt changes of relief in the topography (edges of things). More experience will help you remain calm and assess your situation more accurately, to know just how bad the risk really is. But this is a good experience to think through carefully and see how you could have handled it better as a reference for the next time.

[Michael Schlink]

As has been pointed out you probably weren't in as sever a "downdraft" current as you thought. Especially since you swam up without any great difficulty. Some of the "downdrafts" or currents I have been in you couldn't have overcome.
What is great about your experience is you survived unscathed and willing and able to dive again! Analyze what YOU did wrong first and then look to see where the buddy fits in.

Rule #1 DON'T dive alone, you don't have the training, experience or skill to be diving alone. When you make an ascent by yourself, you're diving alone-period-inarguable. Find a buddy that doesn't mind coming up a little earlier than their air supply would permit and then return the favor later in your diving career. There will come a time when you'll be the experienced diver, trust me, we've all been there.

Another suggestion, with 25 dives what are doing with a "wreck reel", lose the reel and don't task load your diving just yet.

As far as some suggestions to swim perpendiculr to the current, that may or may not work. If it is a small area that we're talking about you may be able to swim out of it but more than likely you'll burn more air swimming period. A better plan would be if you can swim against the current COMFORTABLY and get to where you're going so be it. If you are having a problem swimming or are getting out of breath quickly STOP swimming altogether, signal your buddy that you're calling the dive and start a NORMAL ascent, if this happens during your initial descent to the dive site, reef or wreck you can probably get the boat to put you on top of the divesite easier than trying for the swim.
With all that said, I'd dive with you anyday because you are THINKING and that's what it's all about-Dive safe-M

Doc's advice on how to handle it is spot on.

NEVER be afraid to call a dive (it's better to run away and live to fight another day so to speak)

The post regarding thumbing a dive is on target also. The "thumbing a dive" comes form cave diving. When you call a dive the dive is over and the only reprecussion that should come your way would be FRIENDLY teasing and the possibility that dinner's on you. If you are diving with people that you aren't comfortable telling " I'm not up to this" then you need some new buddies.

[Willie]

... Then I calmed enough to remember what we were taught. I focused ...
Thank you for sharing your experience. Congratulations, you did the most important thing you can do.

I also believe that it is unwise to ascend alone. A look at the 2005 DAN report for fatalities occurring in 2003 shows an alarming number of fatalities happen on the surface either before or after the dive. Of the 89 fatalities that DAN analyzed, in 31 of the cases when and where the accident occurred could not be determined. That leaves 58.

In 5 cases the accident occurred on the surface before submersion
In 12 cases the problem became apparent after ascent
In another 13 the problem became apparent during the ascent, sometimes after the safety stop

I find those stats sobering. Over half of the accidents resulting in fatalaties for which the cause could be analyzed happened before the dive, during ascent or after the dive.

Willie

[Kevfin]

I think the best part of your dive is that you learned something. You knew something wasn't right, discussed it with your brother, and realized things can be done better.

Yeah, your buddy and you made some errors. You're new, you're going to make some mistakes, what do you expect? You came out alive, wiser, and with more experience.

Thanks for sharing what happened so that you and others may learn.

It's all good. Keep diving.