Students have to show that they can remove and replace a weight belt, both on the surface and under water. There is nothing stopping you from doing the rest of the class with integrated weights if you choose to, and I know some who choose to.
2 more upper keys dive fatalities, 8/6/2011
- Thread starter reefman
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Ayisha
Contributor
You may want to re-consider cross-clipping the console because it makes it more difficult to remove your BC in an emergency. I understand that you are re-clipping it to the left side when you board the boat, but the BC may need to come off before you have planned it. Better to keep it on the left side.
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tcbc8222
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One question I have that I have not seen answered or discussed here is: At what point as a buddy in an OOA situation do you finally push away and save yourself? It had to have been apparent that they were not swimming and they were both soon to be out of air. Has anyone had experience in a buddy save and got to the point where you think you might have to push away? This whole scenario of this incident has way to many questions that someone with experience is standing there scratching their head wondering why it happened.
LeadTurn_SD
Contributor
In this incident, there should not been a need for the rescuer to "save themselves".
If I'm understanding this accident, it happened in relatively shallow water.
At no point should it have been necessary for the rescuer to abandon the victim to "save themselves". They were not deep inside a cave or in the bowels of the Andrea Doria.
The depth this accident apparently occured at was with easy CESA range for most healthy divers.
So what happened? I'd be surprised if the rescuer ran out of air.
If this was actually a buddy-breathing air share, it may have been a double drowning related to one or both divers panicing.
I began diving in the era when octo's were rare, and buddy breathing was a required skill to pass basic OW. While buddy breathing is not hard in a controlled setting, if both divers were not proficient in buddy breathing it is a recipe for a drowning in a real OOA, possibly both victim and rescuer drowning.
Very sad.
When one diver is panicking and can't be helped, that, unfortunately, is the time to kick away.
dumpsterDiver
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In shallow open water, even with a panicked diver, a rescuer might be able to position themselves above and behind the victim, grab the first stage and back of BC and then kick to the surface, dragging the victim with them. If the victim were in a total state of panic, they might not even realize that they are being dragged to the surface.
Of course, having an operable LP inflator functioning on your BC would be a huge help (which it sounds like was NOT the case for the survivor).
Conceivably, if a rescuer was small and weak and two divers were struggling so much that it appeared too dangerous to approach them, it might be possible to back off and literally wait until they drown. Life guards are taught to do this, if the victim is struggling too hard and is unmanagable, it is better to back off, let them exhaust themselves and move back in when the rescuer is confident the victim no longer presents a significant threat.
Once the divers had stopped struggling, it would be safe to approach them, remove lead and or gear and then send them to the surface by inflating their BC's or dragging them up or some combination there of.
I'm not sure the people involved in this accident had the ability to function in this manner because they seemingly failed to perform other, simpler actions (like dropping some lead and swimming up), but if someone were determined to try to help in a really bad situation, "backing off" might be a better response than "finning away". Running to the surface to "get help" is not very likely to result in a desirable outcome, in this situation the victims were not found until an over night soak.
A very sad situation.
wtcreaux
Contributor
Tricia
Contributor
In one of the news reports reprinted in a post here (sorry, I couldn't find it again...), it states that the survivor said she offered the man her octo and they were sharing air while she tried to deal with his weights, but they both continued to sink. It then says that when she became very low on air, he pushed her away so she could get to the surface on the remaining air.
I put that part above in bold because it really struck me what courage this man had to do this. Would you be brave enough to push away the other diver who had the only air left so that they wouldn't become a victim, too? I'm not sure I would have had the courage in that situation.
And I know that we've all criticised these folks for making newbie mistakes that lead to a tragic accident. But let's take a moment to recognise the bravery of this man. I am amazed!
Trish
I put that part above in bold because it really struck me what courage this man had to do this. Would you be brave enough to push away the other diver who had the only air left so that they wouldn't become a victim, too? I'm not sure I would have had the courage in that situation.
And I know that we've all criticised these folks for making newbie mistakes that lead to a tragic accident. But let's take a moment to recognise the bravery of this man. I am amazed!
Trish
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