I chose to enter the water on that night. Despite several warning signs I failed to recognize a situation that would slowly turn for the worse. The first of these signs occurred when the charter boat sped through the inter-coastal waterway (I believe there is a no wake zone in these areas due to their association with manatees). At sea, we were reminded of the last minute change of our dive plan. Instead of diving 30' water near shore on the copenhagen, our night diving introduction was also to be 75' deep dive on a wreck and with a substantial current over a mile from shore. Despite the predictions the seas appeared to be larger than 7' on average.
During the briefing, dive-master candidates spoke of the wildlife we may see and this concluded the briefing. As an afterthought it was mentioned that in our group of 6, the first person to hit 1800 would notify instructors and the group (now a team instead of true buddy pairs) would ascend as one. I do not expect to be hand held, so I worked the tables out with my buddy and wrote down several contingency depths on a slate. We hit the water and began to descend.
The seas were choppy and several staff and students became sick, but we followed them down. I do not like the idea of 'follow and trust the leader' dives but chose to trust the staff despite their condition. I consume air at a high rate and notified staff before the dive. Luckily my buddy has a very similar air consumption rate and we knew that we would generally be in the same condition regarding the pressure in our tanks. The entire team descended to 68 *to 74 feet. We hit 1800 at about 12 minutes. I grabbed the senior instructor and showed him my gauge. He gave me the OK signal which I returned. He pointed to my right and indicated to keep swimming. I checked my buddy and we decided to follow the instructors. Buddy notified one of the two instructors of his pressure and I assume he got the same signals so we kept swimming.
At 1500 PSI, I notified the new female instructor. She gave me 'Ok' signal and I gave her 'turn around' and 'up' signal. She did not return signals and told me to keep swimming and pointed to my right. Buddy did same with an instructor shortly after since he was consuming air slightly less than I was. At this point I felt a sense of impending doom but decided to trust instructors and notified them I now had 1400 PSI. A light hit me in the eye and I turned to locate my buddy. I located my buddy and noticed the instructors swimming aggressively away from us. We lost them in the low visibility and tried to catch up. We caught up and I notified senior instructor that I had 1200 psi by using hand signals and after receiving ok I shined my light on my gauges to show him. I gave the 'up' signal and instead of returning it he began to talk to me through the regulator. Buddy notified the same instructor of his pressure using hand signals and instructor told him to calm down by talking through his regulator and moving his hands around (I am not familiar with this hand signal, but none was made to me anyway). At this point, no one was giving any OK signals or ascent signals. At 1000 PSI, the group began an ascent without notification. I continued to follow and notify instructors of my pressure at every drop in 100 PSI and I received OK signals indicating they understood. We hit safety stop and my chest began to hurt. I had 700 PSI and we stopped at 25'. then slowly came to 20'. I signaled UP to female instructor but she kept looking at the computer and shaking her head. She suggested I take her regulator when I hit 200 PSI and I signaled OK and we did this very thing. At this point I was not comfortable but decided that this would be the best option since buddy would be useless for buddy breathing.
At this point I believe we surfaced. I have no recollection of the ascent from 20' but I imagine it was an extremely quick ascent. I was in a roman handshake with female instructor and suddenly found myself above water. *There was no sign of the boat and I told everyone I had chest pain.
I asked where the boat was and senior instructor pointed to the boat approximately 300 yards away and said 'Lets swim'. The boat was very far away and it became evident that we had been blown off the wreck by the current and also by aggressively swimming away from the place of our descent. Apparently the pointing signals instructors had used at depth indicated "Instead of ascending, lets swim aggressively away from the boat" . On the surface, I said "Please signal the boat" and senior instructor said "LETS ALL SWIM". I yelled "Someone please signal the boat" and I heard someone say "Only in an emergency". Senior instructor said "Regs in mouth... If you have air". I considered this an emergency but began to snorkel since I was out of air and did not want to be alone. Everyone else excluding my buddy and I used regulators. Buddy began to vomit uncontrollably and the group almost left the both of us behind. During the entire thing we were certainly isolated in the rear. Apparently no one had any safety devices for signaling other then the dive lights. At this point I believe an SMB should have been deployed but I did not have one and do not believe that the instructors carry any adequate safety equipment such as the SMB, signal mirrors, storm whistles, strobes, or anything at all related. I have not verified this but in any case none were used to my knowledge.
Well, someone signaled the boat and after a long time the boat came and threw a buoy. I could not swim to the buoy but I tried and my buddy towed it to me. The buoy was attached to a short wire and I hung on to it and told my buddy that I needed to get on the boat as quick as possible.
I climbed on the boat and told the boat dive-master I had chest pain and he ignored me. I told the driver of the boat I needed 02 and asked if she had any. She said she had many bottles and I asked her for one. Eventually she began to open the 02 kit. She fumbled with it for approximately 5 minutes before giving up and handing the job to the well trained dive-master candidates from the class. They fumbled with it for another five to ten minutes and eventually got me oxygen. I learned at this time the classes oxygen was being deployed on another diver and friends. I was trying not to be seasick and succeeded with this effort however many did not. Through the vomit, I struggled to remove all remaining gear. I was not sea sick and began to use 02. No instructors were present and the pain got worse. My right leg started to shake uncontrollably upon inhalation but I was not cold.
At this point I realized the nature of my condition. I asked the boat driver if she had called the coast-guard yet. She said no and wanted to know if I thought it would be a good idea. I asked her to please call someone and she called someone and the boat began to move. Someone said 5 divers including another instructor from the program were now alone at sea. Captain sent out a signal in the area about the abandoned divers and they were picked up somehow.
During the briefing, dive-master candidates spoke of the wildlife we may see and this concluded the briefing. As an afterthought it was mentioned that in our group of 6, the first person to hit 1800 would notify instructors and the group (now a team instead of true buddy pairs) would ascend as one. I do not expect to be hand held, so I worked the tables out with my buddy and wrote down several contingency depths on a slate. We hit the water and began to descend.
The seas were choppy and several staff and students became sick, but we followed them down. I do not like the idea of 'follow and trust the leader' dives but chose to trust the staff despite their condition. I consume air at a high rate and notified staff before the dive. Luckily my buddy has a very similar air consumption rate and we knew that we would generally be in the same condition regarding the pressure in our tanks. The entire team descended to 68 *to 74 feet. We hit 1800 at about 12 minutes. I grabbed the senior instructor and showed him my gauge. He gave me the OK signal which I returned. He pointed to my right and indicated to keep swimming. I checked my buddy and we decided to follow the instructors. Buddy notified one of the two instructors of his pressure and I assume he got the same signals so we kept swimming.
At 1500 PSI, I notified the new female instructor. She gave me 'Ok' signal and I gave her 'turn around' and 'up' signal. She did not return signals and told me to keep swimming and pointed to my right. Buddy did same with an instructor shortly after since he was consuming air slightly less than I was. At this point I felt a sense of impending doom but decided to trust instructors and notified them I now had 1400 PSI. A light hit me in the eye and I turned to locate my buddy. I located my buddy and noticed the instructors swimming aggressively away from us. We lost them in the low visibility and tried to catch up. We caught up and I notified senior instructor that I had 1200 psi by using hand signals and after receiving ok I shined my light on my gauges to show him. I gave the 'up' signal and instead of returning it he began to talk to me through the regulator. Buddy notified the same instructor of his pressure using hand signals and instructor told him to calm down by talking through his regulator and moving his hands around (I am not familiar with this hand signal, but none was made to me anyway). At this point, no one was giving any OK signals or ascent signals. At 1000 PSI, the group began an ascent without notification. I continued to follow and notify instructors of my pressure at every drop in 100 PSI and I received OK signals indicating they understood. We hit safety stop and my chest began to hurt. I had 700 PSI and we stopped at 25'. then slowly came to 20'. I signaled UP to female instructor but she kept looking at the computer and shaking her head. She suggested I take her regulator when I hit 200 PSI and I signaled OK and we did this very thing. At this point I was not comfortable but decided that this would be the best option since buddy would be useless for buddy breathing.
At this point I believe we surfaced. I have no recollection of the ascent from 20' but I imagine it was an extremely quick ascent. I was in a roman handshake with female instructor and suddenly found myself above water. *There was no sign of the boat and I told everyone I had chest pain.
I asked where the boat was and senior instructor pointed to the boat approximately 300 yards away and said 'Lets swim'. The boat was very far away and it became evident that we had been blown off the wreck by the current and also by aggressively swimming away from the place of our descent. Apparently the pointing signals instructors had used at depth indicated "Instead of ascending, lets swim aggressively away from the boat" . On the surface, I said "Please signal the boat" and senior instructor said "LETS ALL SWIM". I yelled "Someone please signal the boat" and I heard someone say "Only in an emergency". Senior instructor said "Regs in mouth... If you have air". I considered this an emergency but began to snorkel since I was out of air and did not want to be alone. Everyone else excluding my buddy and I used regulators. Buddy began to vomit uncontrollably and the group almost left the both of us behind. During the entire thing we were certainly isolated in the rear. Apparently no one had any safety devices for signaling other then the dive lights. At this point I believe an SMB should have been deployed but I did not have one and do not believe that the instructors carry any adequate safety equipment such as the SMB, signal mirrors, storm whistles, strobes, or anything at all related. I have not verified this but in any case none were used to my knowledge.
Well, someone signaled the boat and after a long time the boat came and threw a buoy. I could not swim to the buoy but I tried and my buddy towed it to me. The buoy was attached to a short wire and I hung on to it and told my buddy that I needed to get on the boat as quick as possible.
I climbed on the boat and told the boat dive-master I had chest pain and he ignored me. I told the driver of the boat I needed 02 and asked if she had any. She said she had many bottles and I asked her for one. Eventually she began to open the 02 kit. She fumbled with it for approximately 5 minutes before giving up and handing the job to the well trained dive-master candidates from the class. They fumbled with it for another five to ten minutes and eventually got me oxygen. I learned at this time the classes oxygen was being deployed on another diver and friends. I was trying not to be seasick and succeeded with this effort however many did not. Through the vomit, I struggled to remove all remaining gear. I was not sea sick and began to use 02. No instructors were present and the pain got worse. My right leg started to shake uncontrollably upon inhalation but I was not cold.
At this point I realized the nature of my condition. I asked the boat driver if she had called the coast-guard yet. She said no and wanted to know if I thought it would be a good idea. I asked her to please call someone and she called someone and the boat began to move. Someone said 5 divers including another instructor from the program were now alone at sea. Captain sent out a signal in the area about the abandoned divers and they were picked up somehow.
