At what point do you leave your buddy?

[Doug Allen]

I believe I've been in almost every situation discussed above.

A real horror story:

Doing final check out dives on the Oriskany for Tri-Mix. 2 days of diving w/o a mishap.

Last day, my dive buddy wanted to dive the O with our "new" Rebreathers....and we were recently certified on Rebreathers.

I checked out my Rebreather on the night b4 the dive and had a bad O2 sensor....decided to call off the dive.

Met my dive buddy at the pier the next am and told him my Rebreather wasn't working right. We accomplished what we went to Florida to do...ie, finish Tri-Mix Cert. He insisted that I use the other guys Rebreather. I did and we went diving again.

We are certified to 330 fsw on Tri-mix on Open Circuit. Certified to 140 fsw on a Rebreather for a reason.

Our plan was to dive to the deck and mill around awhile and limit the dive to 60 mins. total.

My dive buddy left me twice. I followed once. He went deeper...much deeper than our certification depth. Very Long Story short....I had to leave him @ 162' and he went deeper....he eventually surfaced and developed the bends which took his life.

Not sharing this for sympathy or anything like that.....just sharing to say that there are rules, guidelines, etc. that must be followed.....diving is a fun and enjoyable sport, but there are sometimes extreme risks.....

Never put yourself at risk on account of a dive buddy breaking the rules or diving deeper than the dive plan....Never!

 

[Thalassamania]

I believe I've been in almost every situation discussed above.

A real horror story:

Doing final check out dives on the Oriskany for Tri-Mix. 2 days of diving w/o a mishap.

Last day, my dive buddy wanted to dive the O with our "new" Rebreathers....and we were recently certified on Rebreathers.

I checked out my Rebreather on the night b4 the dive and had a bad O2 sensor....decided to call off the dive.

Met my dive buddy at the pier the next am and told him my Rebreather wasn't working right. We accomplished what we went to Florida to do...ie, finish Tri-Mix Cert. He insisted that I use the other guys Rebreather. ...

That's right where I'd leave that buddy!

 

[dumpsterDiver]

Even though my dive buddy also got killed (while diving with me), I just didn't feel right about posting on a publc forum the story about how he failed to follow the dive plan.

What rule(s) did he break that caused his death?

I'm sorry for your loss.

 

[Doug Allen]

Dive depth.
Dive time...the rebreather I was using only had 60 mins of scrubber life left....after waiting for him at 75', my eventual dive time was 90 mins.
Dive Depth. My best guess is that he dove to the bottom for an extended stay....based on VPlanner....and giving my best friend the benifit of doubt, his deco obligation was at best 259 mins.....
I hope to never see the damage the bends can do to a human body the way that my friend experienced...
This accident has been talked about on various forums...
This accident happened on August 19, 2007....
This accident has screwed with my head....should have, could have, questions....but If I followed, I'd have been killed or worse....resigned to a medical bed and crapping on myself and my wife and family without any source of income......

Like I said...Horrific.....

The wife and many family members were on vacation at the same time....they were all in the emergency room at the same time....the wife was especially vocal towards me....very angry....very vocal.....

 

[dumpsterDiver]

That sounds terrible. I don't know much at all about rebreathers, so I was wondering what the issues were. Telling people to "follow the rules" is overly simplistic in diving, but there are many constraints that just can't be violated. I have seen far too many accidents myself and it definitely affects the way I look at diving. I know that everything changes when you drag your dead buddy up over the transom.

It is only natural for the family to blame the buddy when an "expert" diver gets killed. I have already tried to explain some of this to my wife, in case I don't come back. We ALL need to do that to some degree, I think.

 

[Doug Allen]

Telling people to "follow the rules" is overly simplistic.....

Dive within your training and or ability...simple

Otherwise you might die.

 

[tfsails]

Here's my story: I had just finished OW training in Curaçao while down there with my Air National Guard unit chasing drug runners. During training I had met a guy from the CA Air Guard (I'm from VA Air Guard) who was obviously an experienced diver because he had a wetsuit, computer, etc. On my very first unsupervised dive after my checkout dives, this guy is my buddy and we're diving the house reef at the hotel we're staying at in Willemsted. No real dive briefing was done, other than go until you reach half a tank and then come back. Remember that a new diver is usually an air hog and I was no exception.

The first thing he did was descend to about 90 ft and take off along the reef WITH the current. "OK, he's the more advanced diver, he knows what he's doing..." I thought, so I followed him. We get to the point where I have half a tank and I let him know it's time to turn back. He flips me the "OK" sign and keeps on going. 100psi later on my gauge, I tell him again a little more stridently, and he turns around. Still at 90 feet!! Never mind the fact that a brand-new OW diver is supposedly limited to 60ft. At this time I realized that I wouldn't have enough air to make it back to the entry point at 90ft, so I decided to ascend to 45 ft and swim along with him where I could get to him if he got into trouble. Viz was about 200 ft that day so seeing him wasn't a problem. As my air quantity decreased, I decided to make a banzai bounce dive down to him to let him know my air situation was getting dire. He still gave me the "OK" sign and went merrily on his way as I just as rapidly (stupid of me, I know...) ascended back to 40 ft. FINALLY he ascended, we got back to the entry point and got out of the water. I had about 300 PSI left in my tank and I was pis*ed!!

I asked him what in the hell he was thinking down there (remember, HE was the more experienced diver) and if he was trying to kill me. He had some lame response like "I didn't understand what you were trying to tell me". Well, duh!! I was using the standard signs, don't you know them???

I never dove with that guy again. I am now a DM/AI and I've questioned periodically whether or not I did the right thing by ascending to half depth and following along above him. I am convinced that I did. Had I not ascended, that SOB could well have run me out of air and I'd have at the very best risked DCS with a rapid ascent from beyond OW limits. As it turned out, I didn't get bent and had no physiological problems whatsoever.

Bottom line: it's one thing to stay with your buddy. It's quite another thing to let your buddy get you into trouble. If he/she insists on getting him/herself in trouble (damn, I just LOVE this political correctness...) you, as a buddy, can't really stop him/her. You CAN control your own destiny by not allowing a situation with one potential victim to become one with two victims.

 

[c_figaro]

I've always understood that the "lets go up" signal means, no matter what, you must go up with your buddy.

 

[DeltaWardog]

I have seen far too many accidents myself and it definitely affects the way I look at diving. I know that everything changes when you drag your dead buddy up over the transom.

I know exactly what you mean. I lost a friend to a freak motorcycle accident several years ago while on a group ride and it has definitely taken a toll on my enjoyment of riding. I hope to never repeat the same experience with diving.

 

[almitywife]

guys tend to have a thing about wrecks ive found. one dive with a buddy, i stated i dont enter wrecks and i didnt want to do it on this dive (i have no training, no line ect) and it was ok if he wanted to dive with someone else and his reponse was no problem and hes happy to take pics outside.

soon as we see the wreck he is off following the dm into it while im left outside - did i follow, no!

especially after talking about it beforehand i had no worries waving bye bye to that buddy and followed their bubbles the best i could