This is an incident and my own cursory analysis of what happened to me yesterday. I was at one of the popular inland dive sites here and diving with a group from my local shop. I didn't know them that well and after the incident realised I didn't know them well enough.
The dive site itself was pretty good, the vis started off at between three to five metres but by the time of the third dive had degraded to between one to two metres. We were exploring the various underwater attractions in the shallow section of the site. The group I was with was experienced and while I wasn't the least experienced diver there, they were used to diving with each other.
As we explored the first attraction I noticed what I thought to be divers from our group moving off on the planned route. So I followed them, as did one other diver from our group. It's important to note that at this stage I did not know that they were not actually the divers we were with, but I did not realise this. So I swam along behind this group with the other diver keeping up. Both groups were diving the same plan and at the same time.
About half way through I had suspicions things weren't right, but with the other diver from our group keeping track it reassured me that this was our group. We were coming to the end of the dive when I noticed that the other diver from the original group was missing. I was still with the second group and making a stop before my ascent. I ascended and saw the second diver waiting on the surface. I also realised that the second group wasn't the first group I went in with and then realised that I had been solo diving for the last few minutes.
In my mind this could of and should of been easily avoided. Here's a list of what we didn't do,
1) We were in a large group, but didn't seperate that group down into buddy pairs. In fact at no point did any of us have an assigned buddy. Groups get split up and the larger the group the more likely this is to happen. If you have someone who is both assigned to remain close to you and who you are supposed to remain close to then in the event of group seperation the buddy pairs can independantly follow the plan.
2) The diver who joined us did not notify me that he had suspected the second group wasn't the first group. Had he done so we could of explored the attractions and began working as a buddy pair and possibly rejoined the main group (It is possible that we both made the same mistake).
3) Once I had suspicions I should of made efforts to confirm them and then followed the appropriate course of action. Surfacing alone is safer than staying alone.
4) I should of made a better note of the equipment and look of the other divers in my group, I should of been able to positively identify them without getting mixed up.
I know what I did wrong and would like more opinion on this because to me it's a new hazard, one I wasn't aware of and one I would like to avoid experiencing again. Mostly because of the embarresment on surfacing with strangers. I later dived with a different group from the same shop and found I was paying much more attention to there kit load outs and staying closer as a result. Although it also helped that we were the only ones in the water at that time.
I was later told that while what happened isn't common, it's not as rare as it seems to be especially at popular inland sites. An instructor told me he once went down with four students, but somehow in the middle of the dive had seven before he could continue he then had to work out who was who and return them to there respective teachers.
The dive site itself was pretty good, the vis started off at between three to five metres but by the time of the third dive had degraded to between one to two metres. We were exploring the various underwater attractions in the shallow section of the site. The group I was with was experienced and while I wasn't the least experienced diver there, they were used to diving with each other.
As we explored the first attraction I noticed what I thought to be divers from our group moving off on the planned route. So I followed them, as did one other diver from our group. It's important to note that at this stage I did not know that they were not actually the divers we were with, but I did not realise this. So I swam along behind this group with the other diver keeping up. Both groups were diving the same plan and at the same time.
About half way through I had suspicions things weren't right, but with the other diver from our group keeping track it reassured me that this was our group. We were coming to the end of the dive when I noticed that the other diver from the original group was missing. I was still with the second group and making a stop before my ascent. I ascended and saw the second diver waiting on the surface. I also realised that the second group wasn't the first group I went in with and then realised that I had been solo diving for the last few minutes.
In my mind this could of and should of been easily avoided. Here's a list of what we didn't do,
1) We were in a large group, but didn't seperate that group down into buddy pairs. In fact at no point did any of us have an assigned buddy. Groups get split up and the larger the group the more likely this is to happen. If you have someone who is both assigned to remain close to you and who you are supposed to remain close to then in the event of group seperation the buddy pairs can independantly follow the plan.
2) The diver who joined us did not notify me that he had suspected the second group wasn't the first group. Had he done so we could of explored the attractions and began working as a buddy pair and possibly rejoined the main group (It is possible that we both made the same mistake).
3) Once I had suspicions I should of made efforts to confirm them and then followed the appropriate course of action. Surfacing alone is safer than staying alone.
4) I should of made a better note of the equipment and look of the other divers in my group, I should of been able to positively identify them without getting mixed up.
I know what I did wrong and would like more opinion on this because to me it's a new hazard, one I wasn't aware of and one I would like to avoid experiencing again. Mostly because of the embarresment on surfacing with strangers. I later dived with a different group from the same shop and found I was paying much more attention to there kit load outs and staying closer as a result. Although it also helped that we were the only ones in the water at that time.
I was later told that while what happened isn't common, it's not as rare as it seems to be especially at popular inland sites. An instructor told me he once went down with four students, but somehow in the middle of the dive had seven before he could continue he then had to work out who was who and return them to there respective teachers.