what would you have done?

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docmartin

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Location
Fort Lee, NJ
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on june 12th i went diving in pompano and ran into a problem. i am still not sure if i did the right thing. what do you think?

this was a very rough day on the ocean with choppy 5ft seas. i went with a dive operator i had not used before. besides me, there was a divemaster in training and the captain of the boat. he wanted to drop us on a wreck, the ancient mariner. currents were strong. i had never dived this site before. the captain had the divemaster drop a cinder block with a line and a buoy over the site. he told us to get to the line as quickly as possible and drop to the bottom before the cinder block would get dragged away from the wreck by the current. we both made our entry and i went straight for the line and started to descend. about 15 ft down i noticed the dm was still floating at the surface and adjusting his gear. when he finally started to descend he was already some 30 feet away from me and the line and being carried farther away by the current. when he was about to disappear at the edge of visibility i had to make a call of either staying with the line and the buoy or joining him. since he apparently had been struggling with his gear i let go of the line and joined him downcurrent. when i reached him i gave him the thumbs up signal to indicate that we should ascend. after all we had missed the wreck site and there was no way we could reach it against the current even if we knew where it was. furthermore, i figured the boat would stay somewhere near the buoy and the wreck whereas we were drifting away quickly and upon surfacing would be hard to see in the 5 ft waves.

the dm, however, possibly hurt in his pride refused to ascend. he showed me his gauge indicating that he had plenty of air and wanted to look for the wreck. this was complete foolishness because of the current that was carrying us farther and farther. however, i did not leave him but kept giving him the ascend sign. only after 15 minutes over a featureless sand bottom did he give in and we ascended. as expected there was no boat to be seen. i was furious at the stupidity. furthermore, my whistle was of no use into the strong wind. i inflated my sausage but had only brought a small one for this florida trip and it kept getting folded over by the strong winds. only from the crest of the waves could i briefly catch glimpses of the boat far away and motoring away from us. the divemaster carried absolutely no surface signaling devices. i had not been lost at sea before and must admit i was getting rather nervous if someone would find us in these swells. there were basically no boats out because of the rough seas. in the end, the boat captain after turning around actually caught a glimpse of my sausage and came to our rescue. i can hardly describe the relief i felt. the dm apologized realizing his mistake and thanked me for staying with him. he would have been in deep s$%^ without any signaling device.

would you have done what i did, i.e. stayed with a buddy that was obviously screwing up and putting himself and you in danger or would you have left him? sorry for the long post but i have been thinking about this a lot and would like some feedback. i do realize that i could have discussed a plan with him in case we missed the wreck but i guess the course of action in such a case was too obvious to me given the current and the seas and he was a dm (in training) after all.
 
I would not let someone elses unwarrented stupidity endanger me. Scuba or otherwise. When I call my dive, my otherwise able "buddy" can either join me or go solo.
 
By all rights, if someone "calls the dive", that's it, dive over, ascend. Sounds like a dumbass DM for ignoring the signal. It would have been a hard call - abandon the dive "master" and ascend by yourself, or stick with him in case he got into further trouble. Lucky you had a safety sausage - I take one on *every* dive, even shore dives. You would think a DM diving off a boat would carry one. Makes you wonder about the intelligence of the person - they're moving into scuba as a profession, and can't spend $18 on a piece of safety gear.

I did that site once, the current there was ripping.
 
I can't say for sure whether or not you did the right thing ... but to answer the question in the title of the thread, I'd have done exactly what you did, despite the fact that this person put both himself and you in danger with his behavior.

Given the facts as you presented them, it would appear this DM candidate made several judgement errors. But by far the worst was ignoring your ascend signal ... that simply should never happen, and I would not give someone who did that a second chance to dive with me.

... Bob (Grateful Diver)
 
Hello,

Well this is a loaded question. Everything worked out in the end and no one died, which is a good thing. As for what I would have done, well I would have called the dive when I found out about the cinder block on the rope. Had I been at depth and called the dive and the 'buddy' refused to ack the signal they would have been solo at that point. Remeber, there is nothing underwater that's worth your life. Had something gone wrong could you rely on this 'buddy' to rescue you?

Ed
 
docmartin,

It seems you were most kind beyond the bounds of normal kindness. Yes, you did the right thing to join up with the dive guide (dg) but since you were clear thinking on the situation then maybe you should have taken the iniative and forced the dg to ascend with you.

I don't begrudge the dg too much. Hopefully the dg will learn from the experience and you too.

In the briefing did you discuss what to do in event of separation? It seems a wise precaution during a buddy check to ascertain whether s/he has surface detection equipment (something we are not taught to check for).
 
I would have laughed heartily at the whole cinder block - dive buoy idea. That's sounds like a major cluster---k from the get go. In any event I would have done the same thing you did if I had got in the water.
 
I had the same thought of the dive operator. Cinder Block?

The first sign of trouble should have been the painted sign on the dock we be A div oporatr, cum div wit us .

BTW did the "captain" offer you some chaw when you boarded?
 

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