Article: Letting Go

[scubameg]

You can view the page at http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/content.php?r=632-Letting-Go

 

[dumpsterDiver]

So why didn't everyone just drift into the wreck? 2 kt current and pulling down a line seems unwise, unnecessary, no fun and increases the chances of separation, Co2 build up and decompression sickness?

 

[guyharrisonphoto]

DD, I agree, the tactics for the dive were way off, and I think the DM should have adjusted the approach to a drifting drop.

But, her decision making seemed sound once she realized that the dive was dangerous for her. Calling the dive before things get hairy is always a good story to share (although, they got hairy enough, having to drift away from the boat, due to no granny line to allow her to approach the ladder in a controlled way.)

To me, the really questionable conduct here is on the part of her buddy. Where was her back-up and support in this situation? I think it is outrageous that her buddy did not stick by her. I would never leave my buddy alone in such a situation, you can be sure. A buddy could have helped her manage the ladder, or hold the tag line, or even give an extra pair of fins to help her kick back to the boat, and would have been there for her while drifting in the event her exhaustion caused physical problems or panic. It is unbelievable that her buddy left her alone when she was in distress.

 

[Steve_C]

Not clear that she had a buddy. Plan was to shoot video of class. Once at depth she may have been relying on Instructor/Class as a backup if needed.

 

[Jim Lapenta]

Bad plan that. She either has a buddy or does not. The instructor/ group is not an acceptable choice. A "pro" should know that.

 

[guyharrisonphoto]

I read this a little more closely and it is not so clear that she can throw stones ("ego driven morons"???) from a position of superior judgment. She managed to avoid a personal catastrophe by being calm, but she did not enhance the safety of the dive. Bottom line, she was cast adrift from her surface support, alone, exhausted, and stressed, for an unknown period (probably a long time, if the deco dives took place as planned). That is not a "good" outcome, it is a bad one, it is merely less bad than injury or death.

I read it as she was not an instructor, only a friend of the instructors, shooting video as a favor to the instructors. The instructors and students are focused on each other, they are not her buddy. Obviously, no one was focused on her and it does not even sound like she had a buddy. Why on earth was this dive, a 200' deco dive in strong current, planned by her without buddy support? Even worse, with her being encoumbered with video gear and so a back-up even more essential? Was that an "ego driven" decision?

On the way up, she "passed her friends and husband" and no one stayed with her? Could they not observe her distress? Boy, if I ever did that to my spouse buddy, I'd have some serious explaining to do, probably in divorce court. But, on the other side, why did she give the "OK" sign when she knew she was having physical and mental stress? Being responsible means also letting your team know the truth about what is going on. Was that an "ego driven" decision?

At the ladder, she refused to call out and demand in-water assistance from the crew. Was that an "ego driven" decision?

She contributed to her bad situation by lack of buddy planning and failing to communicate accurately with her team and her surface support. She made the best of her situation by staying calm, but what was not sound was how she got in that situation to begin with. This dive never should have been done in the first place. It was an accident waiting to happen. In fact, an accident happened to her, and sounds like others in the group suffered uncontrolled ascents and other issues and only avoided serious incident by luck.

What I don't understand is her calling other divers under those conditions, placed in extremely difficult circumstances, "ego driven morons" for trying to stay in touch with their surface support, which undoubtedly was the dive plan. What a ridiculous statement! She did not fare any better than they. Judging from the narrative, this whole dive was an exercise in poor judgment on may levels and no one should be very proud of it, her included. Her "ego driven" decision not to have a buddy, not to tell the truth to her team, not to call for in-water assistance at the surface, all contributed to her being separated from her surface support. and cast adrift. The philosophical yoga-drivel does not enoble the result or cloak her with superior judgment.

In fact, this is an ideal example of situational (un)awareness and lack of evaluation, and how bad things come from bad decisions that could have been avoided. Just look at the at multiple opportunities to avoid this, such as: (1) deciding on a drifting descent/ascent (2) if using the line, rigging a granny from anchor to ladder so no step of the ascent is without support (3) having a buddy that actually is worth something in a time of need, and, on the other side, signalling that buddy that you are calling the dive and need assistance (4) leaving the video rig in the boat once you know you are in a 2kt current and will have to be holding on to something most of the dive just to be kept on the site; (5) having surface support willing to get in the water to assist you, and asking for that assist, and, grand prize, (6) taking the safe option and doing the reef drifts instead.

 

[HowardE]

Dear Guy.

I am Megan's husband. Let me first say, that at no time was I worried about Megan, as I passed her on the line, while she was heading back up. Megan is an extremely competent self reliant diver. She was diving a twin set (a redundant gas supply) with high quality regulators and has training and experience to well beyond 200'. Needless to say, I didn't worry about her thumbing a dive on her own.

This particular dive was a dive to a wreck that lay in 115 FSW, not a 200' deep wreck... By no means would ANYONE consider this a technical dive. The ONLY people making deco dives were the students in the class that I was assisting on. All other divers on this trip were purely recreational divers.

Secondly... Megan's plan was to shoot video of the class. She never had a plan to have a buddy, and quite frankly doesn't need a buddy if she doesn't want one. Buddy diving may be fine and dandy for recreational divers like yourself who must rely on others to save them if they're in trouble (which at no time was Megan in trouble, nor did she have any distress). Since there was no plan to have a buddy at all, this kind of invalidates most your "argument" against Megan's actions.

My group, successfully completed the dive. On our way to the surface, we found the wreck line did not make it all the way to the surface (in fact, the ball was at 60')... we immediately shot SMB's and did a drifting decompression and were picked up by the boat with no problems whatsoever. While I understood that some other recreational divers with less experience (who also had no decompression obligations) made direct ascents to the surface, but were at no time in danger of getting bent, as they made a direct ascent with no deco obligations... but... that's not really relevant to the story, now is it? That's their problem for attempting the dive, when the DM did in fact warn people that there was an extremely strong current, and there was also a drift dive on a reef option for those who did not want to dive the wreck. In other words... The other divers had the option to dive a different dive site.

Now, while I was not on the surface with Megan when the boat attempted to have her pull herself against the current, I agree 100% with her decision to just have the boat pick her up and that she not waste her energy attempting to make it back to the boat.

Would she drift away so far that they couldn't find her? Well gee... Megan immediately inflated her SMB, and the boat told her, "Just kick back and we'll pick you up" which also VALIDATES her decision. Additionally, I am a dive boat captain as well, and most likely in this situation would have advised an exhausted customer to just "Let go of the line and I'll come pick you up".

So really what's the problem here? Megan did the right thing, acted justly, and I nor anyone else who was there found fault with her actions.

So, to reiterate the key points that you've completely overlooked in your tirade against Megan, and indirectly me, since you criticize her husband (Me)

1. She was not in distress
2. She is self-reliant, with redundant systems, and did NOT plan for a buddy. She was (gasp) solo diving (but planning on following a group).
3. No team... Let me say this again... "Not a team dive... a solo dive"

To these points...

(1) deciding on a drifting descent/ascent (2) if using the line, rigging a granny from anchor to ladder so no step of the ascent is without support (3) having a buddy that actually is worth something in a time of need, and, on the other side, signalling that buddy that you are calling the dive and need assistance (4) leaving the video rig in the boat once you know you are in a 2kt current and will have to be holding on to something most of the dive just to be kept on the site; (5) having surface support willing to get in the water to assist you, and asking for that assist, and, grand prize, (6) taking the safe option and doing the reef drifts instead.

1. The dive Operation thought it would be best for the divers to be tied in.
2. Would a granny line help megan in this situation if she couldn't pull herself back in? Maybe, but the boat wasn't rigged that way.
3. She didn't have/want a buddy.
4. the video rig was just a gopro, hardly an encumbrance.
5. This is big talk from a guy who wasn't there.
6. She wanted to dive the wreck, but decided not to... Again... a lot of tough talk from an armchair quarterback.


Megan's blog is good advice for divers to remember, and also, positive information to learn for life lessons when it comes to letting go of things that may be bad for us, even though others think they're not. It wasn't a tale of how a recreational diver lost their buddy.

 

[dumpsterDiver]

Howard: I still don't understand why the operator was willing to drop people for a drifting reef dive, but was unwilling to allow everyone to drift into the wreck?

Another basic question... You have a grappling hook with a rope and a floatball hooked into the wreck for an ascent with a bunch of people in a 2 kt current...Since everyone knew the current was going to be 2 kts,, didn't all the experienced people (and the boat operator) know that there is no way that the floatball would stay at the surface with all that drag on it?

Also, I am really confused about the dive operation. Why would you use a rope and a floatball hooked into the wreck for ascent AND have the dive boat anchored in as well. What advantage does that have over just having the anchor line to ascend?

Also, if she was too tired to hang on a line and pull herself into the boat, why didn't a crew member jump in, grab her, grab the line and have another crew member haul them back to the boat? It is much easier to just hang on a line and allow the boat crew to bust asss and haul the diver in.. yes?

 

[scubameg]

Perhaps I should have included a "don't try this at home" disclaimer? I am a well trained self-reliant technical diver. I make it a point to continue to expand my diving knowledge, improve my skills, and evaluate my performance with each dive. Each time I prepare to dive, whether I am going with a friend or not, I prepare myself to be able to solve my own problems. However, for recreational divers, I believe buddy teams are a good idea. You are not trained to be self-reliant. However, I would recommend one of the many Solo Diver courses offered by almost all the training agencies. It will certainly give you more confidence as a diver, and prepare you if you are ever in need of self rescue.

My decision for thumbing the dive was my own, and I didn't need someone to hold my hand back to the boat. Especially when I didn't plan the dive with a buddy. Are you saying that one of the students should have returned with me? Or how about having one of the instructors leave the class and escort me up to the surface? Serious? In fact, in that current, the addition of a second person would have led to more problems. Also, to demand "in water rescue" from the crew would have put more people in a potentially dangerous situation in that kind of current. Now there are three people to pick up? Not only does that make no sense, but it seems a bit selfish putting other people in an avoidable situation such as that. In my opinion, it is the ego-manic diver that would continue to try and fight that current to the point a real problem occurs. I had the proper tools and was in no danger by drifting... especially when the second group was going to be dropped off in the water for a DRIFT dive. The criticism of this makes it clear that you have little experience in drift diving, and that's not your fault...BTW, I totally recommend you give it a try sometime.

As for the "ego driven moron" comment. That was in reference to the other divers in this story who actually panicked and then blamed the boat for they (the diver) not having the skills or the sense to listen to the warnings of the DM. In addition, when they lost the line, again they panicked, and instead of blowing an SMB and doing their safety stop, they went right to the surface...who knows if they even had a SMB in the first place? If you don't have the training, equipment or know-how to handle the dive...go drift the reef instead.

There are obvious assumptions being made here while casting judgement. Things such as I was encumbered by video equipment? How do you know what kind of gear configuration I had? How about calling it a 200' dive? It was the Captain Dan, a recreational depth dive in South Florida. How about assuming I was in total distress despite the fact I gave the other divers the OK signal? Well, I wasn't. I was tired, but not distressed. I was "OK" I'm sure for many in this situation, making the decision to call a dive would be because the average recreational diver pushed themselves too far to the point of panic, but I called it because I was tired.... No panic involved. See...I dive a lot, and I feel no reason to push myself beyond the limit I am willing to go that day. I was tired, so I turned it. I did enjoy the second drift dive very much.

Now I'm sure there are going to be a bunch of wanna-be diving know-it-alls jumping in and criticizing me about diving without a buddy, or letting go of the line, or something else that doesn't fit within their open water training. Many of these will be band-wagoners who didn't even read my blog. And that's OK with me, because this was a blog of my opinions, not a directive. I'm not going to defend myself much more than this. I don't need to. The point of this blog was to get people to think about how they would handle this, and similar situations. Would you have the courage to set your ego aside and make the best decision for you?

Now I think it's time to let go of this line and drift on to something else.

 

[Blue Roamer]

I see the some things never change on SB...A person gives a heap of good advice and someone tries to shoot the s&#t out of it.
I wasn't there and can't judge and wouldn't.
A very smart person told me once "the only people that can criticise my dive are my buddy and my instructor." Guess you had that covered

Thanks again for reaffirming what I believe and live by.