Lost buddy: did I make a mistake while finding him?

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lolarent

Registered
Messages
25
Reaction score
2
Location
Alberta, Canada
# of dives
200 - 499
Hi,

Last week, my buddy and I got separated. This is a first, despite having a combined about 700 dives.

So, this is what I did:
1. We got separated at 120ft.
2. I looked around 30 seconds to try and find buddy. Visibility was poor, so no buddy in sight.
3. I started ascending to the surface. Ascend time was about 4 min and 50 seconds.
---> Question a: did I go too slow? Should I have gone faster to try and reunite with my buddy faster?
4. No buddy on the surface, but I did notice his bubbles
5. The bubbles were very small, so they were broken up, indicating that buddy was still a bit deeper.
6. I waited until the bubbles were nice and big, at which point I guessed he was no deeper than 30 ft. Still no visual of the buddy though.
7. I went back underwater, following his big bubbles, and found him within 20 seconds at about 30ft
---> Question b: I know this is against protocol. Should I have waited, or was this an acceptable risk? I knew he was close by because his bubbles were not broken up. What is the consensus here?
8. We gave each other the OK sign, descended to 60 ft. Continued the dive and made a nice, long stay at 15 ft for at least 15 minutes near the end of the dive.

Comments?
 
Oh, and I should have mentioned that this happened right at the start of the dive, about 3 minutes in. Dive was on regular air, but I wasn't anywhere near deco, so I could go straight to the surface.
 
Sounds like you did great. You do want to ascend, but not at a rate that could put you in danger. So you do a normal ascent like you did. You found your buddy, and you had a great dive that both of you came back from. Sounds like it all went very well. :)
 
Just my opinion here. This really depends on your buddy and how you preplanned the dive in case of a lost buddy. IMO you did the right thing on coming to the surface. I dive a lot of Low/No viz and once lost you wont find them again. You have to abort and your buddy must be self sufficient. I would have probably ended the dive and took a surface interval for a little bit.

Question A, No. Abort dive and do the safety stop.

Question B, I wouldnt have done it like that. I would have waited for the buddy at the surface. I dont do the ups and downs it might cause in a low viz situation. Following the bubbles to find the diver was smart. Your buddy should have come up also. IMO.
 
Was you buddy aware that you were gone? If so, why did your buddy not surface at that point? What would have happened when you decided to go back down, if at that point your buddy decided to go up - now one is up and one is down, again.
 
From what you said, I think you did the right thing. It was your buddy who did not.

When you lost your buddy and were unable to reconnect after a brief search, you headed to the surface at a safe rate. If your buddy had done the same thing, you wold not be writing about it.

Then you saw his bubbles and went to look for him at a reasonably shallow depth. That is where you departed from the usual protocol because there is no usual protocol. You have to think things through and devise a plan. You saw your buddy's bubbles and had to choose between two conflicting potentialities. If your buddy is having a problem such as an entrapment, he needs your help, and you should descend. If you descend unnecessarily, though, you risk a bubble pumping scenario that puts you at risk for DCS. Tough decision.

You saw your buddy's bubbles so you knew he was breathing. You ascertained correctly that he was ascending. That rules out an entrapment issue. That led you to make a reasonable compromise between the two potentialities by meeting him shallow to see if was OK. Sounds good to me.

EDIT: In general, I don't have any trouble with the idea of spotting your buddy's bubbles and descending through them to reconnect. I have done that myself. The problem in this case was the 120 foot depth, which brings about an additional danger factor.
 
Depends on which agency's teaching, standard protocol is usually do a quick search then make a proper ascend with safety stop, then wait at the surface until buddy shows up.

Personally I probably wouldn't chase down the bubbles unless I'm sure that it was just myself and my buddy in that particular dive site.

Hi,

Last week, my buddy and I got separated. This is a first, despite having a combined about 700 dives.

So, this is what I did:
1. We got separated at 120ft.
2. I looked around 30 seconds to try and find buddy. Visibility was poor, so no buddy in sight.
3. I started ascending to the surface. Ascend time was about 4 min and 50 seconds.
---> Question a: did I go too slow? Should I have gone faster to try and reunite with my buddy faster?
4. No buddy on the surface, but I did notice his bubbles
5. The bubbles were very small, so they were broken up, indicating that buddy was still a bit deeper.
6. I waited until the bubbles were nice and big, at which point I guessed he was no deeper than 30 ft. Still no visual of the buddy though.
7. I went back underwater, following his big bubbles, and found him within 20 seconds at about 30ft
---> Question b: I know this is against protocol. Should I have waited, or was this an acceptable risk? I knew he was close by because his bubbles were not broken up. What is the consensus here?
8. We gave each other the OK sign, descended to 60 ft. Continued the dive and made a nice, long stay at 15 ft for at least 15 minutes near the end of the dive.

Comments?
 
Hi,

I need to defend my buddy. He was coming up too; he did everything right. Remember, I lost him at 120ft, and we reconnected at 30ft. He was just much slower coming up than I was. He was doing the right thing too! It was me that deviated from the protocol by going back down. I just thought it had been so long (by that time, we had been separated probably 6-7 minutes) that made me decide to go back down (to 30ft) and meet up with him.

The question really is the ascend speed. I took it slow up, he took it slower. There must be a happy balance between a safe ascend speed and the comfort and reassurance of meeting each other on the surface. Normal ascend speed is 30ft/min. I have read that - in this exact scenario, i.e. lost buddy - it is ok to go up 60 ft/min. Is that true? Is that not too fast?

Thanks.
 
The question really is the ascend speed. I took it slow up, he took it slower. There must be a happy balance between a safe ascend speed and the comfort and reassurance of meeting each other on the surface. Normal ascend speed is 30ft/min. I have read that - in this exact scenario, i.e. lost buddy - it is ok to go up 60 ft/min. Is that true? Is that not too fast?
The recommended safe ascent rate was 60 FPM for many years. Research eventually led to the decision that 30 FPM is better. PADI stays with the 60 FPM ascent rate for the simple reason that the PADI tables were created based on research done on divers ascending at the old 60 FPM rate. If it were to change, then all their numbers would need to change.

While 30 FPM is currently believed to be the safest ascent rate, 60 FPM is still a safe ascent rate.
 
you should have doubled your time looking for him from 30 sec to 60 sec. You should have also done a deco for 1 minute at 60 ft. Maybe you would have met your buddy on his way up.
 
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