What to do in this situation as a buddy?

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Scott from LongIsland

Contributor
Messages
330
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Location
Long Beach, NY
# of dives
500 - 999
Hello all. I just joined this board and I am rather new to diving...so I have a question about a recent dive.

There were three of us on this dive, myself, a friend of mine and the divemaster. This was a shore dive on Bonaire, so it was warm, clear water. The dive is a drift dive where you basically just drift along the coral slope that drops down into the blue. So it was basically a straight line once you reach the dropoff.

We are swimming along at about 40-50ft when I notice that my buddy (this was his second dive after his OW certification and my 4th) turns upright and is having difficulty clearing his mask. It wasn't a "panic" difficulty it was more that he just needed to go upright I guess. Anyway, I slow down and look up to him and notice that he has ascended a good 15-20ft quite rapidly from turning upright. I give him the okay signal and he returns the signal and then starts descending. At this point I felt better so we kept going.

My question here is...if my buddy does not return the okay signal, do I shoot up and try to drag him back down? How long do you wait before trying to do something? When looking up, I got a little concerned at the depth change of my buddy. Am I being overly cautious? Luckily he gained control of the situation rather quickly. I was on the verge of acting though, but at the sametime...I cannot lie, I was concerned for my own safety.

Thoughts?
 
I think you have the makings of a good buddy. You were aware that you buddy was having problems and you watched. 15-20 foot ascent is not good, but under decent ascent rates not the end of the world. What I think you should do as a buddy is talk to your friend and spend some time in a pool at least if not open water just practicing buoyancy. SLOWLY ascend from 10 to surface and back down, if your in open water do, 30-20-10-20-30. travel in 30 seconds and hover for 30 seconds. At first this seems imposible, but its fun and you two can do it with some practice. Once you start to feel comfy, do it again with one of you with no mask on. Hold on to each other with your right hand so you can control air in you BC with your left. Point his thumb up to ascend, wave hand side to side for level off, and point thumb down for descend. I was just practicing this for a test, my team mate and I practiced for 3 days straight (two hour dives every day) and by the end of the third day, as he would have said "We were rockstars!"
Just get more dives in under your belt, get buoyancy dialed in and then take your mask off and see if you can still hover for 30 seconds and then 60 seconds. Make a game out of it, or a competition. Save just a little air at the end of the dive for the practice. Other than that, I think you'll be great.
 
Scott from LongIsland:
Hello all. I just joined this board and I am rather new to diving...so I have a question about a recent dive.

There were three of us on this dive, myself, a friend of mine and the divemaster. This was a shore dive on Bonaire, so it was warm, clear water. The dive is a drift dive where you basically just drift along the coral slope that drops down into the blue. So it was basically a straight line once you reach the dropoff.

We are swimming along at about 40-50ft when I notice that my buddy (this was his second dive after his OW certification and my 4th) turns upright and is having difficulty clearing his mask. It wasn't a "panic" difficulty it was more that he just needed to go upright I guess. Anyway, I slow down and look up to him and notice that he has ascended a good 15-20ft quite rapidly from turning upright. I give him the okay signal and he returns the signal and then starts descending. At this point I felt better so we kept going.

My question here is...if my buddy does not return the okay signal, do I shoot up and try to drag him back down? How long do you wait before trying to do something? When looking up, I got a little concerned at the depth change of my buddy. Am I being overly cautious? Luckily he gained control of the situation rather quickly. I was on the verge of acting though, but at the sametime...I cannot lie, I was concerned for my own safety.

Thoughts?

1st of all, don't shoot up, go up normally(slow) and do not drag him (back)down----find out if he's OK (eyeball to eyeball)...you then should be able to figure out if a surface is needed OR can you continuue your dive (@ the new higher depth).....
 
being overly cautious is almost impossible; i would never suggest dragging someone back down. if they are panicked, the fight is on, and you will probably lose, even if you win.

If your buddy does not shoot the ok signal back, stay back, see if he is repsonsive to anything. if not, go up, not down. this needs to happen is seconds, not minutes. this is taught in rescue class, hopefully.

even is ascent rate is exceeded and you have exceeded the non-deco limits, don't go back down, go up. a ride in a chamber costs about $10K and takes 7 hours or so. a ride in a coffin costs about $10K and is forever. take your pick.
 
Nice work- it sounds like you both kept your heads about you.

As far as assisting him if he doesn't give you the OK signal, I would say so- either he is too task loaded to respond or he's not OK. Body language tells a lot too- if he signals OK, but his eyes are as big as baseballs, I would assist.

I don't think dragging him down would be the first thing to do, but at least help him level out. After he resolves the problem, you can decide to continue or abort.

Regarding your own safety- if he were to panic and drag you up, that wouldn't be the best ascent. First, these sound like recreational dives, so the most important thing is that you both are breathing during the ascent to reduce the risk of embolism. If you can slow or stop the ascent, that would be better, but a fast ascent while breathing won't kill you as quickly as a breath hold ascent at any speed.
 
Your buddy lost track of his depth reference and as he worked the mask issue he began an ascent either from kicking or pumping up his lungs. It's an easy trap to fall into.

Should you follow him up? I would say only at a pace that is safe for you. A primary rule is not to become the second injured diver. Providing him with a visual reference is a good thing but he needs to know enough to observe you during his distraction. Signaling him to make him aware of what is happening can get him refocused.

Making it a point to practice doing maneuvers and skills while holding depth in the water column is the way to get to root cause.

Pete
 
You need to keep things in perspective. On most dives I do super slow ascent with stops. I feel good and fresh, even after multiple dives per day.

OTOH, the old standard USN table was for 60fpm ascent straight to the surface, and that had an acceptable DCS rate, even with NDLs the are signficantly longer than today's tables (for example, 40 minutes at 80' on air).

You have to balance the increased (but acceptable) risk to yourself, vs the risk of your buddy having serious problems.

If he is just struggling with buoyancy, and you can keep him in sight and see that he is still breathing, then go slow. If he is in obvious trouble, or if the viz is such that he is disappearing, then I will expeditiously go assist or find him. "Expeditiously" takes on different meanings according the situation (such as how heavy is my N2 loading, etc.), but 60fpm straight ascent to the surface is a very reasonable response for anything within NDL. Doing a 60fpm ascent up to your buddy, and then hanging out a while at 15' has even lower risk.

The probability of DCS increases much more slowly with ascent rate and bottom time than what most divers believe. Don't exposure yourself to unecessary risk when it isn't going to help your buddy, but OTOH, don't abandon your buddy due to excessive caution.
 
I am a new diver (45 dives) and I sometimes have the same problem of maintaining depth while task loading. It's definitely something I'm aware of and I'm constantly working on. I would suggest that next time your buddy starts having problems, grab a hold of his BC just to maintain depth, providing of course that he is not showing signs of panicking. While he is working out the issues of mask clearing, equalizing, free-flow, whatever, at least there won't be additional issues to contend with (rapid ascent). You can watch your depth gauge and assist your buddy at the same time. Then, once the problem is taken care of, slowly descend back to a safe depth or slowly ascend to your safety stop depth, whichever is needed. You don't want to become a second victim but if you can assist him before he starts to ascend too high, then both of you are better off. Of course, I would also practice task loading and maintaining depth, under supervision, whenever possible. Like I said, it's something that I'm still working on, especially if I start messing around with a camera or my mask.
 
Another thing to think about is that you were in a group of 3. While it is best to make the third buddy aware of what is going on (shout, use your light, or whack him on the fin to get attention), if the situation is something that requires immediate action, then immediately go to the aid of the buddy that is in trouble even if that means abandoning the buddy that wasn't paying attention and doesn't realize that your other buddy has problems.

There have been several incidents reported where a buddy goes unconscious, out-of-air, or panics and ends up going missing while another buddy is trying to notify the third.
 
I think your questions have been answered. I will suggest that whenever you feel ready..take a rescue class. The reading alone is very informative. Be prepared for a great learning experience.
 

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