So, this just happened

[tech_diver]

That video has popped on SB from time to time over the years and I don't know if we ever got the full story behind it. I think it sticks in my head (freaks me out) because the heavy wetsuits and green water remind me of teaching off-season classes in a local lake years ago.

The lesson I always got from the video is that when things start going wrong, it can happen fast and you may not know why it's happening. Like driving a car, a split second of inattention at the wrong time can be tragic. When a situation like the one in video arises, the outcome could hinge on the instructor's reaction or delayed reaction. Where was his focus? I think that's what this video says to me, "Stay focused." Even then, you can do everything right and still have things go wrong.


I wasn't trying to dissuade anyone from the life of an instructor or post sensational click bait. If you love diving and live cheaply, it can be a life like no other. This video just reminds me that while this is all about fun, an instructor can't get complacent and fall into the beach party mindset. Brown stuff can come out of nowhere. I know I was told that during instructor training but seeing that video makes it real to me.

 

[boulderjohn]

Here's my take on it.

Observations:

• Divers are wearing heavy wetsuits.
• In the first part of the video, all is well. We see everyone is doing nicely. Everyone is calm. Everyone is at about the same depth.
• The leader gives the thumb--the dive is over. Others respond. All is still well.
• When the camera sweeps right again, we see one of the divers is significantly below the others. She is struggling to ascend, kicking ineffectively and pumping her arms in an attempt to ascend.
• As we get closer, we see the clear signs of panic in the form of equipment rejection. She has spit out her regulator and discards her mask.
• As people try to help, she is in too much of a panic to respond rationally.

Questions:

• How did she get deeper than the others when she was at their level only a moment ago?
• Why is she struggling to ascend when she was neutrally buoyant only a moment ago?

Conclusion:

• She must have dumped air from her BCD when the dive leader signaled the end of the dive. Since she was wearing a heavy wetsuit, she was unavoidably overweighted at that depth. New OW students are often overweighted beyond even the amount needed for the suit. She could not help but sink, and she did not have the experience to put air back into the BCD to overcome that loss of buoyancy.

Lessons Learned:

• Many instructors teach students an incorrect method for ascending--dump all the air from the BCD and then swim up. That works fine with properly weighted divers in 3mm suits, but it is not so good for divers in thick wet suits. Many students learn in a 3mm suit in the pool and then do their real dives in a 7mm suit in the OW. If you are the instructor and you told her to do that, change that instruction from that point onward. Teach them to begin the ascent with the same gas in the BCD as when they were diving and then dump a little at a time as needed during the ascent. They should be neutrally buoyant throughout the ascent, not negatively buoyant.
• It is possible that the instructor on this dive (or dive leader on this dive) did not teach this diver originally and is only now working with her for the first time. The instructor may not know that some people teach dumping all the air at the beginning of an ascent. (That happened to me! I had never heard of this technique until an AOW student wearing a 7mm suit for the first time did it in my class. I managed to arrest her descent quickly because she was my only student.) From then on, whenever working with new students in heavy wetsuits, the instructor must make sure the students understand good ascent technique before the dive begins.

 

[Birddog1911]

John, that is one thing I've already experienced, and told new students. You don't need to dump all of your air in your had, just some of it.

 

[decompression]

Here's my take on it.

Observations:

• Divers are wearing heavy wetsuits.
• In the first part of the video, all is well. We see everyone is doing nicely. Everyone is calm. Everyone is at about the same depth.
• The leader gives the thumb--the dive is over. Others respond. All is still well.
• When the camera sweeps right again, we see one of the divers is significantly below the others. She is struggling to ascend, kicking ineffectively and pumping her arms in an attempt to ascend.
• As we get closer, we see the clear signs of panic in the form of equipment rejection. She has spit out her regulator and discards her mask.
• As people try to help, she is in too much of a panic to respond rationally.

Questions:

• How did she get deeper than the others when she was at their level only a moment ago?
• Why is she struggling to ascend when she was neutrally buoyant only a moment ago?

Conclusion:

• She must have dumped air from her BCD when the dive leader signaled the end of the dive. Since she was wearing a heavy wetsuit, she was unavoidably overweighted at that depth. New OW students are often overweighted beyond even the amount needed for the suit. She could not help but sink, and she did not have the experience to put air back into the BCD to overcome that loss of buoyancy.

Lessons Learned:

• Many instructors teach students an incorrect method for ascending--dump all the air from the BCD and then swim up. That works fine with properly weighted divers in 3mm suits, but it is not so good for divers in thick wet suits. Many students learn in a 3mm suit in the pool and then do their real dives in a 7mm suit in the OW. If you are the instructor and you told her to do that, change that instruction from that point onward. Teach them to begin the ascent with the same gas in the BCD as when they were diving and then dump a little at a time as needed during the ascent. They should be neutrally buoyant throughout the ascent, not negatively buoyant.
• It is possible that the instructor on this dive (or dive leader on this dive) did not teach this diver originally and is only now working with her for the first time. The instructor may not know that some people teach dumping all the air at the beginning of an ascent. (That happened to me! I had never heard of this technique until an AOW student wearing a 7mm suit for the first time did it in my class. I managed to arrest her descent quickly because she was my only student.) From then on, whenever working with new students in heavy wetsuits, the instructor must make sure the students understand good ascent technique before the dive begins.

Hey John, I’ve never witnessed or heard of the instruction to dump air and swim to ascend, what’s the history behind it? Is it a warm water thing? A passed down from instructor to instructor thing? Generally where have you seen it?

 

[boulderjohn]

Hey John, I’ve never witnessed or heard of the instruction to dump air and swim to ascend, what’s the history behind it? Is it a warm water thing? A passed down from instructor to instructor thing? Generally where have you seen it?

I think it is a warm water thing, because it works OK with a decently-weighted diver in a 3mm suit. I have experienced it in the following cases:

• I was leading a dive trip in Belize, and we were contracted to work with the dive shop where we were staying. We had a DM assigned to us for the week. Before our first dive, he gave what I assume was his standard canned speech on dive procedures. That speech included specific instructions to dump ALL air from the BCD before beginning the ascent. I waited until the dive was over to talk to the group and tell them not to do that.
• One weekend I filled in at the last minute for an assistant instructor in a class being taught by the shop's Course Director. He gave those instructions, which surprised the heck out of me because I had done my IDC with him and he had not taught it that way then. I asked him about it, and he said he had learned it from a DM briefing in the tropics and liked it. He was now teaching it that way to all of his students and to all of the instructor candidates with whom he worked. Shortly after that, he left the shop and went to work teaching instructors in a large operation in Roatan. That CD was an admitted warm water wuss. He never dived in anything other than tropical waters.
• I had the experience I mentioned earlier, in which an AOW student dumped all her air when starting an ascent in a 7mm suit and told me later that she had been taught to do that in her OW class.

 

[Couv]

Congratulations to the OP.

I could not have said the following any better:

My years as an instructor brought me some of the most amazing experiences (and lowest pay). I got to travel, lead trips and spend lots of time in the water. You have an awesome journey ahead.

"Stay focused." Even then, you can do everything right and still have things go wrong.

@boulderjohn You've summed up the video nicely.

 

[Carl_F]

Observations:

• In the first part of the video, all is well. We see everyone is doing nicely. Everyone is calm. Everyone is at about the same depth.
• The leader gives the thumb--the dive is over. Others respond. All is still well.

Something missing from the observation ... the diver never responds to the leader. And she is not looking around or appears aware of anyone else. So clues are there from the start.

I use this video for my Stress & Rescue class not just to show what active panic looks like but also the passive onset that can be seen in the beginning of the video.