Four common causes of accidents for less experienced divers

[kimbalabala]

Complacency ties in with the above - people getting further and further away from safe practise just because "I have done this before and I was fine". It works perfectly until it doesn't! Skipping steps in pre-dive checks is one aspect that can come back to haunt later

That's the one we were guilty of. Generally speaking, my husband checks and double checks everything - and has spares of everything. The one time he didn't check his deflator was the time it didn't work AND he hadn't brought an extra BCD. Lesson learned. I don't think this was a newbie mistake (he's got about 160 dives?) - it's like leaving the bread out. He's an experienced bread eater but will occasionally leave it out and open. In scuba those mistakes have much larger repercussions. We won't make that particular mistake (not checking the deflator) - and will be more vigilant to not make others.

 

[Caveeagle]

I think there should be more emphasis on how to trouble shoot and diagnose typical problems. Certainly for AOW divers, where a dive operator will typically assume a higher level of diver independence.

I absolutely hate renting or borrowing gear. The first failure that hit me personally what my wife's rental reg stopped delivering air at 60' (Yes!, No air, with >2k psi in tank). She was a much more experienced diver than I and calmly came over to me and gave me the OOA signal. She was so calm, It took me a second to realize what was going on. When we went back to the dive shop (Branson, MO). The shop guy said "you must have done something wrong".. He hooked up the reg to a tank and was shocked to find out that we were right. "its not supposed to do that".. was his comment.

I think that's the last time I have rented a regulator. I now try to be meticulous about checking my gear and looking for possible failures BEFORE they turn into safety issues. I carry an IP gauge and stay on top of that for each reg we have.

I don't have gas analysis testors yet, but that will be together soon.

 

[TMHeimer]

I'm not a fan of "diving solo but with a buddy", because you are not diving solo, and a mindset like that could easily end in buddy separation. Around here we call it same ocean buddy. Not that having redundant whatever is a bad thing, it is the mindset of diving solo that has to go when you are diving with a buddy, or team. I dive with newbies on occasion and find it interesting that most have little understanding of effective buddy diving, as most seem to act like following behind or leading without paying attention to their buddy is acceptable. Let's say I dissuade them of that notion if I continue to dive with them.

As for two newbies diving, the OW class was invented so that upon finishing the class, those two newbies could dive together safely. I believe that might be the crux of the problem.

As for treating every dive as your first, I'll pass. I like to remember every foolish blunder and close call I ever had in the water over the last 50+ years so I don't have to do it over, as I get older my aversion to accidents grows stronger.



Bob
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I may be old, but I,m not dead yet.

I agree with all you say Bob. By diving solo but with buddy I just meant solo in regards to being able to take care of yourself (and help buddy), without worrying about whether your buddy can save you. As well, when I assist at OW checkout dives I always try to impress upon students that you ALWAYS have to be checking that you are right close to your buddy or you are not really buddy diving. Also agree about new divers having too vague a concept about what buddy diving entails (it's often a pain in the neck, figuratively and literally). At times I have found this problem with not so new divers as well.

2 newbies together--yeah, I've heard the OW classes decades ago DID teach many of the true rescue skills, so the OW graduates probably were safer buddying up with each other.

By treating every dive as your first I just meant don't take anything for granted just because you have more experience now or have dived that site a lot. Be confident, but be careful, etc.

 

[clownfishsydney]

Agree with overweighting.

After investigating a lot of accidents/deaths. I would say:

1 Overweighted
2 Failure to check available air
3 Doing a dive to a site or in conditions that are far beyond their ability
4 Diving in conditions that are not suitable for diving (eg rough seas, current)

 

[Littlerayray]

calculating weight.

no wetsuit = 6-8% body weight
3 mm = 8% body weight
5 mm = 10% body weight
7 mm = 10% + 3-5 lbs.

The above will put you in the ball park for guesstimating how much weight you should start with. There is also very little excuse for not doing a pre-dive weight check. Every boat I've been on has included in the briefing doing a weight check before the dive starts. That means it is up to you as the diver to get your gear on quickly and get in the water first to do your weight check. By the time you've done your weight check there will still be some person on board still gearing up and not yet in the water.

Take them with a grain of salt but you are arguing in a circle. Even if planning, conditions, equipment problems leads to low on air situation it was the simple fact you were not checking your air that leads to the accident. By far and away the most common trigger leading to diving accidents is getting low on air or out of air. You should account for all the variables that affect your air consumption and adjust accordingly. There is very little excuse regardless of external factors for not adequately monitoring your gas.

Your weight system is way out of whack for me your saying with a 1 piece 7mm wetsuit I need 10% of 210lbs + 3-5lbs extra that would put me in the 24-26lbs range with my 2pc 7mm wetsuit I dive with 16lbs I also dive with a 117 Faber steel tank 26lbs of lead I wouldn't be able to get off the bottom and 16 lbs is at the beginning of the year later on in the season I she'd lbs to where I'm down to 14 lbs of lead it all depends on your fat percentage muscle tone and other things

 

[freewillie]

Formula was in response to notion that there are situations where you don't know what the weighting requirements are. It was not meant to be a definitive "this is how much weight you should be diving." It is from the PADI OW manual as a rough guesstimate to approximate about how much weight you would need. It doesn't and can't account for individual differences and gear configurations and the subtle differences in weight requirements.

Use is to ball park the starting point and then adjust accordingly.

 

[Bob DBF]

Tom, first, I read your posts because they are well reasoned and I, for the most part, agree with your line of reasoning. I think clarification is sometimes necessary so that we are not using catch phrases to gloss over the reasoning

I agree with all you say Bob. By diving solo but with buddy I just meant solo in regards to being able to take care of yourself (and help buddy), without worrying about whether your buddy can save you.

Worry is not the right word for me because my wife is in charge of that, I just deal with what happens. Point being, I believe it is incumbent on you is to train your buddy to be a proper buddy that can save you, rather than diving a lopsided team. By a lopsided team is that you always are responsible, with no backup in sight. At that point I'd dive solo or sit out the dive. Usually it is a matter of longer dive planning and repetition.

As well, when I assist at OW checkout dives I always try to impress upon students that you ALWAYS have to be checking that you are right close to your buddy or you are not really buddy diving. Also agree about new divers having too vague a concept about what buddy diving entails (it's often a pain in the neck, figuratively and literally). At times I have found this problem with not so new divers as well.

By treating every dive as your first I just meant don't take anything for granted just because you have more experience now or have dived that site a lot. Be confident, but be careful, etc.

Amen, preaching to the choir.

2 newbies together--yeah, I've heard the OW classes decades ago DID teach many of the true rescue skills, so the OW graduates probably were safer buddying up with each other.

The RSTC guidelines that many of the agencies are members of give this as the purpose of OW training:

Open water certification qualifies a certified diver to procure air, equipment, and other services and engage in recreational open water diving without supervision. It is the intent of this standard that certified open water divers shall have received training in the fundamentals of recreational diving from an instructor (see definition). A certified open water diver is qualified to apply the knowledge and skills outlined in this standard to plan, conduct, and log open-water, no-required decompression dives when properly equipped, and accompanied by another certified diver.

Unfortunately many instructors only use their minimum guidelines rather than look at the purpose of the training, and train to that. They also use catch phrases of "recommended depth..." and "only in conditions...", never mentioned in the guidelines, instead of taking the time, and it does take time, to train a thinking diver.

[/RANT]

Anyway, we are on the same side, I just get carried away on occasion.


Bob
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That's my point, people, by and large, are not taught that diving can be deadly, they are taught how safe it is, and they are not equipped with the skills, taught and trained to the level required to be useful in an emergency.

 

[lerpy]

[QUOTE because when exhaustion of the available supply of breathing gas occurs, it is not necessarily the case that a simple failure to watch the SPG caused the accident. Poor gas planning, current, surface conditions, equipment problems, etc., can lead to the same outcome.[/QUOTE]

These would still fall into poor gas planning/management.