Accomplished Bad Divers - John Chatterton's Blog

[Mustard Dave]

There's a lad I've known for about 18 years. I used to work with him in the estates department at a university, both of us were electricians. We'd been talking about learning to dive for a few years but never got around to it. We were going to do the OW course in the red sea but a broken leg meant I had to put it on hold. In the end, he did the course but I didn't. A couple of years later, I got around to doing it and I have dived a few times with him since then.

At work, he had a reputation for being rough with his work and working in a dangerous manner. The first time I dived after doing my AOW (which I did straight after the OW) was with him. He was great! He did everything by the book and I felt safe with him. I found out later from his stories that he pushes the limits when out with others. There is a quarry in north Wales called Dorothea. it is a bastard to get into without a 4X4 and when you get there, you have to walk down a very steep slope. It is not an organised site unlike other quarries, where they have car parking, shop, food and more importantly rescue boats. It gets a lot of bad press (Google it and you'll see the number of news stories) because quite a lot of people have died in there. At the end of the day it is a freshwater lake with fairly good visibility. However, it is 110 metres deep at one point. This makes it popular with technical divers. There are shelves at shallower depths that are well within recreational limits so it is easy to stay safe. Unfortunately, people push the limits of their training and equipment and become statistics. This is their fault - not the quarry's.

A popular feature of Dorothea is the tunnels. There is one at 22 metres that has plenty of room and is quite short. There is one at the bottom I know little about ad one at 58 metres. Some people visit this tunnel on air, which is beyond the recommended safe limit for oxygen toxicity and well into narcosis territory. My mate has done it with a single 15 litre cylinder and a 15 litre pony.

I have told him he is a ****ing idiot and explained why. At that depth, he will be racking up the deco pretty quick. If he has problems with his back-gas, the pony will not get him through his deco stops and up to the surface. He argues that his buddy is his redundancy, to which I pointed out two divers breathing like rapists at 58 metres in 4 degrees C off the same first stage is not a good idea. After telling me the pony would get him to the surface, but he'll be needing a trip to the hyperbaric chamber, I added, "...or dead, or paralysed, or...".

Last year, I went to Germany with him and some other mates. He drove to the airport and as we were unloading, I spotted his cylinders in the boot. His pony had a crummy reg attached to it. I looked at it and asked what it was. He told me he didn't know. He'd bought the whole set-up second hand off fleabay. I said, "So this kit that's going to get you to the surface from 58 metres, you don't know it's history, you don't know if it's ever been serviced, you don't know if it's cold water rated and you don't even know who made it?'.

What amazes me is he is absolutely loaded. He has thousands in the bank and won't invest in training or equipment. He won't take a twinset to Dorrothea because of the big hill. I will never change his attitude and that's why I don't join him on his suicidal dives.

 

[Hatul]

Ed reminds me of the diver who is unable to make himself buoyant at depth, so he has his buddy pass him weights when ascending so he can make the safety stop. It works fine until it fails.

 

[TSandM]

I think the vivid nature of the Ed story has made us all think about the wrong things.

I just reread John's article, and the real point is in the last paragraph. If you survive an emergency, what lessons do you learn from it? Refining your techniques for coping with that emergency may not be the best response -- sitting down and examining how you ended up having to deal with the situation is FAR more profitable.

In the dive training I've gotten, we have spent an incredible amount of time practicing emergency skills and running emergency scenarios . . . but we have spent at least as much time learning dive planning, and being reinforced on having a plan, reviewing it with the team for consensus, and doing a complete equipment check before diving. I guess it's no surprise that neither I nor any of my friends has had to cope with a true emergency -- because it would have to be a completely unforeseen thing, and largely beyond anyone's control (if you assume we have followed our own procedures).

This goes back to the saying that "a superior diver uses his superior judgment to avoid having to use his superior skills". It also goes to the long and sometimes acrimonious discussions about whether we should even TEACH air-sharing and CESA to students, on the basis that that implies that being out of gas is something which is more or less expected . . . It also connects with the concept of the "incident pit", and the idea that the trigger for an accident is often the first thing in a long series of problems that result in an emergency. Learning to recognize and avoid, or quickly correct that trigger is far better than honing skills for getting out of the bottom of the pit.

Very nice piece, Mr. Chatterton. Thank you!

 

[Fatterboy]

The only time I have been out of air is cleaning my swimming pool, but I did surface once with less than 100psi gauge (after the safety stop).

 

[Ste Wart]

Good article by JC, and a cautionary tale

This goes back to the saying that "a superior diver uses his superior judgment to avoid having to use his superior skills". It also goes to the long and sometimes acrimonious discussions about whether we should even TEACH air-sharing and CESA to students, on the basis that that implies that being out of gas is something which is more or less expected . . . It also connects with the concept of the "incident pit", and the idea that the trigger for an accident is often the first thing in a long series of problems that result in an emergency. Learning to recognize and avoid, or quickly correct that trigger is far better than honing skills for getting out of the bottom of the pit.

I don't think we should think of it like that.

For instance I know everyday I should leave my house with my keys. It's the right thing to do and keys should always be a part of my going out routine.

But you can be guaranteed once a year, maybe even less, I'll forget my keys and be locked out. Then I'll have to either get a spare, or call the locksmith.

The thing is I know that I can do these things. If I didn't know what to do when I locked myself out, then I would be in a bit of state.

You can apply this to teaching the CESA and OOA to OW students. Nobody wants newly qualified divers to run OOA, but if they do, they should really have an idea of what to do.

 

[261311]

You can apply this to teaching the CESA and OOA to OW students. Nobody wants newly qualified divers to run OOA, but if they do, they should really have an idea of what to do.

Given from the semi-frequent posts we get in our accidents forum of vacation divers having exactly this happening, it's important to know. There's no sense carrying a spare reg even if you're not going to teach gas sharing.

 

[dumpsterDiver]

Given from the semi-frequent posts we get in our accidents forum of vacation divers having exactly this happening, it's important to know. There's no sense carrying a spare reg even if you're not going to teach gas sharing.

Yes there most certainly is! Think about it a little, why would a diver carry an extra second stage... even on a solo dive?

 

[JesperS]

I will never understand people with this type of mindset. Also, Mr. Chatterton is a HUGE fan of question marks.

 

[diverrex]

Yes there most certainly is! Think about it a little, why would a diver carry an extra second stage... even on a solo dive?

Yeah I've been on a dive where a buddy's primary broke mid dive. He simply switched to his secondary, no drama.

It could be as simple as a mouthpiece going bad, sure you can still breathe off it but it's more comfortable to switch to your secondary for the rest of the dive. And no I would not abort a dive just because a mouthpiece broke.

 

[DaleC]

I just reread John's article, and the real point is in the last paragraph. If you survive an emergency, what lessons do you learn from it? Refining your techniques for coping with that emergency may not be the best response -- sitting down and examining how you ended up having to deal with the situation is FAR more profitable.

Yes and both.
I remember the first time I encountered manifolded doubles on a boat when my buddy asked me to turn on his gas. I managed to turn off his left post. At 100 ft he suddenly ran OOA (small tanks) looked at his SPG, saw it read full, deduced the cause and calmly rectified it. Later, after some ribbing and feeling very embarrassed, I learned well how to verify when I was turning valves on and off and not just trust someone to do something without checking. But I was also struck by his ability to calmly work through the process of identification and correction.
It was a good early lesson for me.