Almost died today--Any captains out there???

[Walter]

The woman didn't almost die. We all know that, but she is very new and was frightened. Cut her some slack.

Now that she's clarified and her buddy has told his story, it's pretty clear that they would have been safer underwater (lightning), but that wasn't an option because she ditched her lead. She was afraid of sharks. I'm afraid of sharks too, but I don't dwell on it. I've seen more sharks than she's seen, I know there's rarely a problem with sharks and because of my experience, I believe it. I'm sure she also knows it, but because of her lack of experience, she doesn't really believe it yet. Give her time.

She thinks (thought?) the captain deserted her. We know differently. What she may be coming to understand now is that had the captain kept the boat close to the divers in those conditions, he would've been putting the divers in danger. Being in the water in those conditions is never a good thing.

There have been a couple of times I had serious doubts that I would survive a dive. I can certainly understand her fears. I hope she's learned lots from this experience that will make her a better, more confident diver in the future.

 

[Walter]

I am curious why the dive operation would let a novice diver on the boat to do a drift dive.

My guess is because they are usually very easy dives.

 

[WreckDivingFool]

Ok I am going to put my pre-tax $.02 in here again. I was one of the first to post up on this topic, and this has turned into a circus. The OP has edited the OP numerous times over and has changed details of this little soiree as the flow of the topic changed. The more negative towards them it got, the OP was edited to reflect attempted proper dive technique. As the sympathy rolled in and a kinder, gentler posting ensued, the OP was edited to reflect a desire for more attention from the OP.

I personally think this is just a desire to be coddled, gain attention, and to want people to contact, comfort, and cajole the OP. Maybe I am wrong, but if you go and read the posting from the VERY beginning, prior to the comma and 1-iron references, you will see quotes that do NOT exist in the OP as of now.

In our sport, and for those of us who this is our line of work, we know we have risks that we take every time we strap on our backs an overly pressurized man made object. Then we breathe from a tube the vital life sustaining invisible substance called air from that man made object on our backs. And then to top it off, we step into a world that we are merely guests in for a short time before returning to our world.

For most of us, our problems and concerns seem to subside when we hit the water and breath from the afformentioned tube and object on our back. But for some, the drama begins when we hit the water. Taking a spear gun into the ocean on a dive and "protecting" someone is foolish at best. Placing blame on a captain for your own short comings is merely a way to justify a lack of planning, comfort, execution, training, etc.

My personal advice is to take that logbook with those 20 or so dives you have (at most) and go back and do a refresher course. It sounds as if both if you need to understand how a dive truly works, and the theory behind it. And I would suggest taking a boat diving specialty course as well. It sounds as if that can help you out.

And just a helpful hint.... LEAVE THE SPEARGUN AT HOME AS WELL AS THE BLAME AND CRIES FOR SYMPATHY! We all make mistakes, no matter how long we have been diving. The key to becoming a better diver it to come up with a plan on how to learn from them........

Now what does that leave me after taxes on my $.02? Do I owe anything now?


SAFE DIVING!!

 

[redacted]

I have not read all the posts on this but wish to chime in. I am curious why the dive operation would let a novice diver on the boat to do a drift dive.

Exactly what criteria do you think the operator should use? And why (supporting facts & data)? And what effect will that criteria and its rational have on their liability?

 

[roughwater]

Hey I Dive,

However, I am having a really hard time drawing the parallel between a seasoned Tech diver employing a shark shield in Great White country and a new diver nearly having a nervous breakdown over a 45 minute float to wait for a boat and declaring the situation a near-death experience.

What I was trying to say (and probably poorly I guess) is that I disagree with your remark on being scared of sharks, and that it can be normal for a scuba diver to have concerns about sharks. (As even tech divers can be too :cool2.

I don't know the environment that the OP was diving in (as whether there are known 'man eaters' - but most divers at some stage think about sharks (especially when relatively new to diving and are stuck without an escape). The more task loading (or stress) a diver is in, the more their fears can grow.

I don't blame her for being scared. She obviously believed at the time (whether right or wrong) that she was in a near death experience, and also when writing the post (less than 24hrs afterwards IIRC). She's still learning about the ocean and diving. Another 100 dives and she's probably going to be a lot less fearful of sharks than she is now and would cope much better in the same situation, but in the mean time it wouldn't hurt to cut her a little slack.

From an outside (and more experienced) point of view, we can see that it wasn't as bad as she feared, so, IMO the best way we can help her is to try and understand where she is coming from, empathize with her, and give her helpful advise that she can digest. (Hopefully also calming her fears down so she can see that even while she was scared, she wasn't in as much danger as she first thought).

Having a go at her and her BF as some others have is not helpful.

I must admit - I hate the idea of people 'going after' someone when they've had a scare - always blaming someone else. (Although littigation seems to be the way of the western world these days). :sad:

So, with that in mind I'm personally glad she's asked for some advise before trying to get the captain in trouble. It gives us an opportunity to help, and I figure the best way to help her is to politely get her to see things from a different perspective, including the captains point of view too. Understanding someone elses decisions (whether you agree with them or not) can go a long way to ones own learning and experience.

Cheers

 

[Ardy]

Having been left 'bobbing' around in the ocean for almost an hour myself I do understand the concerns that it brings. In my case it was a clear day and no sign of the boat anywhere and my dive guide/buddy who was badly hung over didnt appear on the surface for nearly 30mins after I did.

My concerns were with the early posts who hadnt even read the OP and started asking 'did you have a buddy' 'how much diving have you done' which was stated as in the 20's on her profile.

I have concerns about boat captains leaving moorings but, as this was supposed to be a drift dive, totally understandable. As the current should have taken them towards the boat a quiet swim would have taken them a lot closer to the boat.

My thoughts are; good outcome, lots learnt, nothing broken, move on.

 

[Puffer Fish]

As for what to do in that situation, one thing that concerns me is the SMB's during a lightning storm. I read only a couple of weeks ago about diving / boats and lightning. I wonder if the SMB could possibly be a lightning attracting device (especially if it's higher than the waves) and even if you were down at 20m hanging onto the line - could the charge be conducted down the line and into the diver, even if the lightning hit nearby and not the SMB?

Obviously during lightning storms we don't see dead fish on the surface afterwards, so maybe depth helps to subside the shock.

Would it be better if the OP (or anyone following this thread) was caught in a lightning storm to stow away their SMB and remain at a safe depth until the storm had passed?

You raise an interesting question...would suspect that would be a yes..on the other issues:

1. Lightning does kill fish...and a lighting strike in the water, if it is close to you is not a good thing.

2. Huge amount of energy being discharged into the water, but it dissipates in every direction...not sure how far it goes, but it is at least 20 ft...think it would depend on the size of the strike.

3. The line is an insulator, so it will not travel down the line.

4. I know from experience that a major lightening strike above divers in around 35 ft of water did nothing to the divers... their boat on the other hand had a major hole in it and sank. (17 ft fiberglass)

5. As this is a static charge.. the two safest places in an electrical storm are on the bottom or inside the containment of a large boat (not out on the deck).

6. Not every lighting storm has ground strikes... and sticking up is not the only reason things get hit.. have seen lots of beach areas, with smooth flat sand get hit.

 

[H2Andy]

someone mentioned it a bit back, but diving is a sport which involves degrees of risk

anyone who dives should adapt to a mindset that involves accepting and managing risk and taking responsibility for the consequences. it's your butt in the water and you're the one who's going to pay the price. if you can't live with that, you shouldn't be diving. things can and do go wrong, sometimes without anyone being at fault.

to the original poster:

remember, the first time you encounter a problem, it always feels like an emergency. later, once you know how to deal with it, it's just a problem to be solved.

your problem was serious (you were in the surface during a thunderstorm), but it was really no one's fault.

it's one of those things you need to accept and learn to manage: if you go diving near a thunderstorm, you might get stranded in the surface for a while. it's a possibility.

how are you going to manage this situation in the future?

you have a couple of options:

not go diving when a thunderstorm is near, but what if you don't see the thunderstorm creep up on you?

a better solution, i think, is never to lose the ability to go back underwater (a safe place to be in a thunderstorm at sea)

maybe you could manage your weights better so you can keep some on you on the surface and still be able to head down if you need to.

 

[DandyDon]

Having been left 'bobbing' around in the ocean for almost an hour myself I do understand the concerns that it brings. In my case it was a clear day and no sign of the boat anywhere and my dive guide/buddy who was badly hung over didnt appear on the surface for nearly 30mins after I did.

My concerns were with the early posts who hadnt even read the OP and started asking 'did you have a buddy' 'how much diving have you done' which was stated as in the 20's on her profile.

I have concerns about boat captains leaving moorings but, as this was supposed to be a drift dive, totally understandable. As the current should have taken them towards the boat a quiet swim would have taken them a lot closer to the boat.

My thoughts are; good outcome, lots learnt, nothing broken, move on.

She completed her profile? Good. Don't think she had when the first posts asking went up.

So why did your buddy let you ascend alone?

 

[vladimir]

I'm guilty. I'll try to do better, but seriously, I was taught in elementary school that both methods were correct. I routinely used the comma for years, but I almost never saw it being used by anyone else and I caved under all the pressure.

You are correct. Omitting the comma is not wrong, but inserting it is customary and preferred. It even has a name: the Oxford comma. And that is about as trivial as it gets.