This afternoon, my buddy and I witnessed what could have been a very bad situation. I thought about it all the way home and thought I'd share here in the hopes it might help someone in the future.
We were at Ginnie Springs, a popular dive site in north FL. Ginnie is comprised of an incredible series of caves (many miles of mapped passages) known as the Devil's system, and Ginnie Spring itself which is a beautiful basin that leads to an "open water safe" cavern (sort of an oxymoron if you ask me).
We had logged a couple of very nice cave dives and decided we would go be flies on the ceiling for a while. This involves entering The Ballroom (the "OW safe cavern") and hovering up near the ceiling with our lights off, watching the divers come and go. Typically, there is something intersting to watch. We saw a cavern class exiting as we got in position and then it was empty. There was one very talented freediver who entered the cavern, came down to check us out and then hung around for what seemed like forever...the guy must have been part fish. We were just ready to call the dive, when I saw three divers entering the cavern and signalled to my buddy to get into position and cut the lights.
The first guy came down and sat himself upon a rock on the bottom. He looked very comfortable and relaxed as he sat there, having no idea that we were watching from above, or what was about to happen. Then the second diver made her way down. She got to about 10-15 feet from her buddy and started giving the ight signal that means, "I'm in trouble". There was a pause, where I'm not sure he knew what was happening, but he swam over to the signalling diver and she pretty much ripped the reg out of his mouth. My buddy was closer than me and a bit below me, so he swam full speed over to offer assitance, namely the reg on his long hose, while I switched on my very bright light to give a little light to the situation. The panicked diver didn't even see my buddy's reg being held out, her eyes were the size of dinner plates. She bolted and pretty much dragged the first diver along for the ride. The third diver was closer to the entrance and saw them coming and apparently got her on his backup and started with her out of the cave. We watched as the first diver also made his way out of the cavern on his own.
We had just done a dive with minor deco, so I wasn't in a rush to bolt to the surface after them. I swam over and grabbed the panicked diver's fin off the bottom where it had fallen off, and we slowly surfaced, and went over to check on them.
The panicked diver and the third diver were together on the surface, standing in about 3.5 ft of water. The first diver, was on the other side of the basin all by himself. I felt really bad for the panicked diver, she was breathing a mile a minute, and her eyes were still wide. She grabbed my arm, and I talked to her calmly and did some deep, slow breathing with her. It was then that she realized she didn't know where the first diver was. We assured her that he was OK and on the surface across the basin. She told us that when she got down into the cavern, she suddenly had no air. I tried to purge her regs and nothing. I turned her valve and that old familiar sound of air rushing into the hoses could be heard. The valve was not all the way closed when I opened it, it was very partially open, just a teeny bit. I suspect that it breathed ok, or at least some, at the surface, but when she got to depth, she got nada.
We also learned from the first diver that when she grabbed the reg out of his mouth, his octo somehow got away from him, so he was also withough air, as she dragged him to the third diver where he then got his reg back.
The whole thing was pretty amazing, as we had just gone in there to people watch, and boy did we get an eyeful.
Some things that I took away from this incident:
* Check your valves!! And when you think they are good, check them again.
* Practice OOA drills, with those you dive with, on a regular basis. The more you practice, the more you will be prepared when the stuff really does hit the fan.
* Stop, Breathe, Think, Act. The panicked diver got the reg, and bolted, having no idea that her buddy was essentially worse off than her now. There was the potential for two tragic outcomes. Please understand that I'm not trying to pick on her, I actually felt really bad for her. I'm just pointing out that Stop, Breathe, Think, Act has to be drilled into our head all the time, and that takes practice.
* Understand that even though a place is considered "open water safe", even the most beautiful, innocuous looking place can turn deadly in an instant.
I'm really happy that this situation had a good outcome. The whole thing definitely had an impact on me. I had never seen a truly OOA panicked diver before.
Dive safe and practice those skills!
We were at Ginnie Springs, a popular dive site in north FL. Ginnie is comprised of an incredible series of caves (many miles of mapped passages) known as the Devil's system, and Ginnie Spring itself which is a beautiful basin that leads to an "open water safe" cavern (sort of an oxymoron if you ask me).
We had logged a couple of very nice cave dives and decided we would go be flies on the ceiling for a while. This involves entering The Ballroom (the "OW safe cavern") and hovering up near the ceiling with our lights off, watching the divers come and go. Typically, there is something intersting to watch. We saw a cavern class exiting as we got in position and then it was empty. There was one very talented freediver who entered the cavern, came down to check us out and then hung around for what seemed like forever...the guy must have been part fish. We were just ready to call the dive, when I saw three divers entering the cavern and signalled to my buddy to get into position and cut the lights.
The first guy came down and sat himself upon a rock on the bottom. He looked very comfortable and relaxed as he sat there, having no idea that we were watching from above, or what was about to happen. Then the second diver made her way down. She got to about 10-15 feet from her buddy and started giving the ight signal that means, "I'm in trouble". There was a pause, where I'm not sure he knew what was happening, but he swam over to the signalling diver and she pretty much ripped the reg out of his mouth. My buddy was closer than me and a bit below me, so he swam full speed over to offer assitance, namely the reg on his long hose, while I switched on my very bright light to give a little light to the situation. The panicked diver didn't even see my buddy's reg being held out, her eyes were the size of dinner plates. She bolted and pretty much dragged the first diver along for the ride. The third diver was closer to the entrance and saw them coming and apparently got her on his backup and started with her out of the cave. We watched as the first diver also made his way out of the cavern on his own.
We had just done a dive with minor deco, so I wasn't in a rush to bolt to the surface after them. I swam over and grabbed the panicked diver's fin off the bottom where it had fallen off, and we slowly surfaced, and went over to check on them.
The panicked diver and the third diver were together on the surface, standing in about 3.5 ft of water. The first diver, was on the other side of the basin all by himself. I felt really bad for the panicked diver, she was breathing a mile a minute, and her eyes were still wide. She grabbed my arm, and I talked to her calmly and did some deep, slow breathing with her. It was then that she realized she didn't know where the first diver was. We assured her that he was OK and on the surface across the basin. She told us that when she got down into the cavern, she suddenly had no air. I tried to purge her regs and nothing. I turned her valve and that old familiar sound of air rushing into the hoses could be heard. The valve was not all the way closed when I opened it, it was very partially open, just a teeny bit. I suspect that it breathed ok, or at least some, at the surface, but when she got to depth, she got nada.
We also learned from the first diver that when she grabbed the reg out of his mouth, his octo somehow got away from him, so he was also withough air, as she dragged him to the third diver where he then got his reg back.
The whole thing was pretty amazing, as we had just gone in there to people watch, and boy did we get an eyeful.
Some things that I took away from this incident:
* Check your valves!! And when you think they are good, check them again.
* Practice OOA drills, with those you dive with, on a regular basis. The more you practice, the more you will be prepared when the stuff really does hit the fan.
* Stop, Breathe, Think, Act. The panicked diver got the reg, and bolted, having no idea that her buddy was essentially worse off than her now. There was the potential for two tragic outcomes. Please understand that I'm not trying to pick on her, I actually felt really bad for her. I'm just pointing out that Stop, Breathe, Think, Act has to be drilled into our head all the time, and that takes practice.
* Understand that even though a place is considered "open water safe", even the most beautiful, innocuous looking place can turn deadly in an instant.
I'm really happy that this situation had a good outcome. The whole thing definitely had an impact on me. I had never seen a truly OOA panicked diver before.
Dive safe and practice those skills!
