Diver Panic (Video)

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I don't see how it's "shame" on her buddy, if you are a "certified" diver it's you're responsible to monitor your own air When I dive, admittedly I'm usually leading, but I ask those diving with me to tell me when 100 and again at 70. If there's an issue with air words are exchanged after the dive. Perhaps this is an insta buddy issue.
 
Probably she ran out of air, since it happened at the end of the dive. Why would she dich her regulator and she also did not took air from the octopus? Why did she take her mask off?
 
Why would she dich her regulator and she also did not took air from the octopus? Why did she take her mask off?

Because gear rejection is a quite common reaction to panic.
 
I have a feeling she was one of those that had to lie to herself to believe she could do this and was on the edge the entire dive then finally just had enough after 45 mins or an hour and completely lost it.
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I agree- it may be that she's was on the edge -im sure we've all seen or been there and it would only take a little issue maybe mask flooding or swallowing water to tip the balance
 
You can train for a lot of situations, but when an emergency develops super fast, it is so very easy to revert to instinct - rather than training. Don't kid yourself with excessive confidence that you or your buddy will always respond appropriately. One reason why I use a pony bottle - even in 60 ft of water.
your bang on DD -the only way you'll really know how you will respond is to be in real emergency, training for those situations is important but when the pressure is on its quite different
 
Training should develop into changed 'instincts'.

Learning to do something and being trained to do something is not the same.
 
Probably she ran out of air ... Why would she ditch her regulator?

I heard of people doing this before my Rescue course and thought they were crazy. Anyway, funny story, I'm not proud of it tho :)

In about 3m of water we had to practice an expanding circle search, orbitting my buddy, stopping, tugging, getting another metre/yard of string, and doing another circle only bigger.

Being an idiot I made a race of it and returned to the centre puffing and to my absolute astonishment, feeling unable to get enough air from my billion dollar diverite xt reg, I widened my mouth to pull air in from around the sides.

No **** it was water lol. Could. Not. Believe. It.

I guess by that point I'd spent nearly 50 years in air, and 8 months diving off and on and that's just what we do when we feel like we can't get enough air from something in our mouth.

Fantastic lesson for me - if anything goes badly wrong assume that your body will try to behave as if you're in air.
 
Basking Ridge Diver (page 4) has really got this right. We have dived enough to be very observant of other divers in the group. The signs were probably there before the dive. Not just the girl with the problem, but also her buddy. She was in trouble a long way out, and all she got from the buddy was the posy-position. We have seen a bit of that (nothing as bad as this) and the group leader needs to be alerted and all members of the group need to be aware. We have been in a couple of mild "need the buddy" situations, and the buddy system works if you engage and participate in it. But it should be an active, not passive, arrangement.
 
There is a lot of speculation and blame in the responses here. Went to the Youtube page and the poster was the diver actively trying to help the panicked diver. He says in answer to a question in the comments that they were all separated from the dive leader due to poor visibility, so there's no point in lambasting him as an incompetent dive leader. He stepped up to try to keep the rest of the group together.

There can be a any number of factors that ultimately contribute to her panic response. In another setting she might have been a competent and capable diver, though I doubt she was very experienced. There are a lot of vacation divers who have only ever dove in clear, warm tropical locations with no current and fantastic visibility. Maybe she was one of them.

Others have said she was on holiday at the time of this dive. If she was inexperienced (likely), and if she was using rental gear that was unfamiliar (very possible), and in conditions that were also unfamiliar (cold, low vis) - her stress level was going to be high from the outset. Then add being separated from the dive leader, and fear of a big shark coming out of the gloom (it IS South Africa, after all), and the stress and fear start to ratchet up. It wouldn't take much more to push her into panic. Whether she ran out of air, took a CO2 hit from hyperventilating, or simply realized that others were going up and she wasn't - something pushed her past her tipping point.

I remember my very first open-water experience breathing through a rented regulator - I began hyperventilating and "overbreathing" my reg - and my reptilian brain took over when I perceived that I "couldn't get enough air" out of it. I was convinced that it was malfunctioning. I wanted it out of my mouth and to be on the surface as fast as possible. It's not a rational conclusion. Fortunately, I didn't spit it out and zip to the surface, but I DID end the dive and went back to the boat immediately and decided my diving days were over. (I got better...)

The hand waving and bicycle kicking are outward manifestations of her mental status - she's not thinking about what she's doing here. Others have commented that she failed to respond with a thumb's-up to acknowledge that they were going to begin their ascent. That's another big red flag - as if the flailing arms and ineffective kicking aren't signs enough. I am certain that getting in her face early, you would see huge eyes, and have a hard time getting eye-contact with her. This is the time to grab her and help sort out whatever problem she's dealing with.

Rejecting the reg AND the mask, plus trying to rip off the hood at the surface all are indications that she's in complete panic - no rational thought - just; get this stuff away from my face so I can breathe!

The signs of extreme stress are readily apparent early-on to anyone who is paying attention. As disturbing as it is to watch, it is a good lesson to show every diver what to watch for in your buddy so you can help prevent a disaster. Once the tipping point is reached it is very hard to execute an effective intervention.

If you haven't done it - take a 'stress and rescue' class. Best class since OW.
 
I've was certified as a divemaster many moons ago but over time and not practicing skills you lose them. My GF and I decided that a Rescue Diver course would be a good thing for many reasons. I copied this clip for study material.
 

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