Should I be dead? (Last night's dive)

I'm wondering if I should be dead... I ran into a situation last night which spun out of control and became a (potentially?) lethal situation.

I was doing a planned dive with a couple of buddies. Our plan was to start in about 30' off a point and swim out off a ledge which drops down to about 120'+. Down the ledge are some nice big old trees, and on the flats at the bottom of the ledge are some huge old trees. We had a good sonar of the bottom, had previously dove the site, and had our plan well thought out - so we thought.

We got down to depth fine, swam around and looked at lost anchors etc. down under the trees. It was nice and calm. I was keeping an eye on my air (started with 3K) and when I reachd about 1500 we started setting up for our ascent. We began our ascent and slowly started surfacing. Somehow between 120' and 60' when I looked at my console, I was down to about 500 lbs. I asked for a buddy breathe. I started breathing and couldn't reach my console. It was night and we where suspended at about 60' with no ascent line and I became disoriented. I *wrongly* assumed that we where still at about 60' doing a short safty deco (I don't have a comp but usually follow my buddies comp which is bad but I seriously can't afford $400-$800 for a dive computer right now). I was happily breathing off my buddies octo when out of nowhere my head broke the surface! I had enough time to say, "This is bad" before dumping all my air. I draw a blank on what happened after that. What, in actuality did happen, is I began a runaway descent. I had two buddies (there where 3 of us and it was a good thing there weren't 4 in this case) and I was still buddy breathing during the descent. I still draw a blank, but apparently I was pulling my buddy down and he couldn't get enough air in his BC fast enough to lift us. We shot down to about 90' in less than 30 seconds. It was a very rapid decent. My other buddy grabbed a handle on my tank and started lifting both of us. We shot to the surface from 90' in less than 1 minute. It was a VERY rapid descent followed by a VERY fast ascent. Well, we all knew we where in deep trouble and we where about a 3 minute swim from our original anchor line. We swam as fast as we could without excerting ourselfs and got on that line. We dropped down to 15-20' and stayed there for about 20 minutes, trading air back and forth trying to conserve as much as possible. We finnaly surfaced and sat in the water for close to an hour before exiting. We took care not to excert ourselfs after the dive and loaded everything up very carefully. We also took some asprin to thin out our blood.


So yes, we had a problem - initially we thought we where doing everything right. We've done this before several times - deep night dives. Buddy breathing ascents after a deep dive... the difference was a breakdown during the buddy breathing ascent at night WITHOUT A ROPE or point of reference. I seriously didn't know we where ascending until I was looking at the stars, then I went into a panic and dumped all my air trying to get back down to depth. I didn't have time to grab my console and check my depth because my hands where so full putting my buddies octo in my mouth and dumping my air. By the time I even had a bearing, I was getting narced. I didn't feel any squeeze in my ears and thought I was just under the surface when in reality I was approching 100' very fast.

Those factors considered, I'm interested in knowing if anyone else has had a similar experience - runaway ascents, descents, night-ascents from a deep dive buddy breathing and not having a rope to ascend by and losing control...

I won't bother defending myself on this one - I've only logged about 50 dives and my buddies only have about 120 or so. We are experienced enough to know this type of situation is one that should never have happened in the first place.

Does anyone have any oberservations or comments? How dangerous was this situation? Was it seriously as grim as it seemed or where we fairly safe?

and call DAN - 919-684-4326.

Seriously. Now.

I picked this up from another member (Uncle Pug I think): Don't watch your gauge to maintain depth at stops. Pick out a piece of stuff floating in the water and stay level with it. Just check gauge occasionally if in doubt. Stuff floating at mid level tends not to change depth much quickly.

A dive computer might not make much difference but it has to be better than trying to share your buddy's. Perfectly adequate computers on e-bay for around $100.00. Bells & whistles like that pretty graph will run a couple hundred more.

Good that you are OK.

I will. Right now.

Assuming you come back to the computer alive............

Pugs little "trick" doesn't work too well in a night dive.

Hmmmm, 100ft PLUS dive, Night, No ascent line or reference point (Land contour etc), ALU80's??

That about sums up my initial thoughts.

So how about some of that good Ole Tech training? Maybe?

Now of course that last staetment WILL inflame someone, but you know what i mean.

The best part about it is, your buddy didn't panic, and you're alive to dive again, and to learn from it.

Totally neutral on the incident........Welcome to 1 ATA.

asemili once bubbled...
I was happily breathing off my buddies octo when out of nowhere my head broke the surface! I had enough time to say, "This is bad" before dumping all my air. I draw a blank on what happened after that. What, in actuality did happen, is I began a runaway descent.

Click to expand...

Does this bother anybody??
you were at the surface with <500PSI - you dumped your bc and you began a "runaway descent"!!!! that your buddy couldn't stop? Man, how much weight you carrying?? with a bottle that empty you should have to not only dump the bc but exhale completely and still just barely start down!!!! you should easily be able to swim up in a case like this.

I think there were lots of issues here like not being equiped for a 120 ft dive, IMO but I'll address the depth orientation problem. Even very experienced divers can become disoriented without a reference. With experience the disorientation will cause little if any depth change. Absent a visual reference your ears tell you a lot if you pay attention. Watching a computer of depth gauge isn't much help in controlling ascent speed but it does serve as a reference to help hold to a constant depth. It will tell you how far you've moved.

The depth gauge doesn't do any good though if you can't see it. I Put mine on my right wrist! When on the right wrist you can see it when horizontal and while doing something with bothe hands or while adjusting the bc with your left. A consol isn't any good because you have to use a hand to find it and then get it in front of you. At night when you need a light that can take both hands. You can't afford to need both hands and all that time to check depth. On the wrist it just takes a glance with no other movement.

If I had to guess I'd say your air got used up because you thought you were ascending when you were really hanging down there at 100 ft without moving. 1500 psi would have got you up if you were going up. I don't think you were.

I would suggest more diving at reasonable depths and practicing the basics. I'd also suggest setting up your equipment into a configuration thats more functional.

On a final note. Once at the surface I think you should have stayed there. The ascent may have been fast but you were withing the NDL? had no symptoms and didn't have any gas. In water recompression may be of use in special situations but this wasn't it.

Wrist mounted analog depth gauge for $60

http://s1059kxm.leisurepro.com/weba...6&cgrfnbr=957&parentCategory=954&sort=prsdesc

"We shot down to about 90' in less than 30 seconds."
- Let me guess, you dive with about 30lbs of lead on your weight belt???

"I was happily breathing off my buddies octo when out of nowhere my head broke the surface! I had enough time to say, "This is bad" before dumping all my air."

Dumping all your air? Do you normally begin an ascent from 120 feet without first dumping all the air in your BC, and continuing to dump on the way up?

Don't mean to hurt your feelings, but you should get more training before someone gets hurt.

Peace

You were grossly overweighted.

One sunny day I screwed up my weight calculations and jumped into a quarry with double 72s and 12 pounds overweighted.

Even with full tanks and the extra weight, I didn't do an uncontrolled descent.

That's only one of several screwups on this dive.

In your situation, I would assume I didn't know a damn thing about diving and hit the books before I hit the water again.