Inexperienced or just stupid?

[scubamurray]

Going on a dive with a malfunctioning piece of equipment adds risk to yourself and other divers.

I am not keen on rental equipment. Sometimes it is well maintained but you as a dvier are not familiar with it on an ongoing basis. I own and maintain my equipment in order to be confident it is working properly.

I always check operation of gear the day before a dive, carefully examining wear points or operating mechanisms.

And I bring a back up regulator when I travel. Why? If something is wrong on the first dive, I can switch and make a second dive. Otherwise, I would sit out the second dive and enjoy the sun.

It takes a certain amount of committment, both of time, training, money, focus and preparation to really embrace the diving experience. Don't sell yourself short, you did a good job for your level of experience but need more diving seasoning. This is one place and other divers in your town are also necessary.

Enjoy.

Bob

 

[Jim Kerr]

You said you rented everything "except" mask, fins and computer. Where did you get the computer? Was it new or used? Did you familiarize yourself with it "long" before you got in the water with it? Did you "really" understand what the computer was telling you?

Get one of your own if you haven't already. Get "very" familiar with it before diving with it. That means you actually have to "read" the manual, you would be suprised on how many that don't. A computer with a simulator is nice because you can sit right there in the comfort of your living room and simulate a dive to see what bells and whistles will go off and what they sound like. Get to know what the different "symbols" mean and what you're suppose to do when you see them.

You should also go back and "review" your OW manual. Adding a 0 to bar doesn't convert it to psi as you already found out.

Showing your guage to your buddy to show that you're low on air doesn't necessarily indicate there's a problem with the "guage".
Jim Kerr

Hi

After fairly recently joining SB and reading all the advice on here, I'd like to share an experience and get your comments as to whether or not I was very stupid

Sorry for being so long

I qualified only last year and did my first dives without an instructor holding my hand in May this year in Clearwater
I buddied up with a guy with a lot more experience and was more than happy on that front and rented everything except mask,fins and computer

The details from my dive computer are in metric but I'll add imperial measurements

First dive
Started with 320 bar (3200psi)
Max depth 17.7m (58 ft) Ave depth 15.7m (51ft)
water temp at bottom 23c (73F)

I was regularly checking my air but then noticed it seemed to be at 100 bar (1000psi) for a while, when it suddenly jumped to 25 bar(250psi) when I'm still at 15m( 50ft) after 45 mins
I must have a good mask as it didn't smash when my eyes flew out of my head straight into it!!!!...I'm not too proud to say I s**t myself( not literally, honest) but I didn't panic. I grabbed my buddy, showed him the gauge and we started ascent making sure I was within touching distance of him all the way. He told me afterwards he was worried I wasn't going to stop but I did stop at 5.5m(18ft) at 48 mins. I did 3 mins there before surfacing with 20bar (200psi) showing

Now for the stupid(?) bit

Second dive after an hour of SIT

Again started with 320bar

Hit max depth of 13.4m (44ft) early in the dive. I was checking air more this time considering what had happened previously but after about 5 mins I noticed my air had not moved but let it pass. I kept checking and it still hadn't moved after about 10 mins, so I knew it was stuck. I pointed out to my buddy who asked if I wanted to go up, but I said no, I'd be ok..

Is that stupid?..my thinking was that I'd averaged 50 ft and lasted 50 mins previously. I thought if I stayed shallower than that ( actually averaged 35ft this time) I should be able to last at least 50 mins, but would still play conservatively and cut dive before then
I didn't want to ruin my buddy's trip and at the time it was going to be my only 2 dives of the year ( now going back out next month to Key Largo) so didn't want to lose out
Also, I knew(did I?) that I had 320bar(3200psi) to start otherwise the gauge wouldn't have got up there to start with(right?)
I kept a close eye on time and started ascent to a safety stop after 38 mins. Total dive time was, inc stop, 46 mins. The gauge immediately dropped to 1000psi when I got on the boat to show the Capt that there was something wrong with his equipment

I know I could have lost a lot more, but just how stupid was it. At the time I thought I was using some common sense, but the more I read on here the less I believe it

Your comments would be much appreciated

Rob

 

[beester]

What I'm missing in this story is tank size....

I'm going to stick to metric because that's easier for me to calculate.

25 bar could be more than enough reserve at 15 m or stretching it thin (also depends on deco obligation yes or no).

25 bar on a 10 liter tank (66cuf) = 250 liters which is at 15m with a SAC of 20 liter per minute still 5 minutes of gas.

25 bar on a 15 liter tank (119 cuf) = 375 liters which is at 15m with a SAC of 20 liter per minute 7,5 minutes of gas.

A difference of 50%

So even diving a small 10 liter tank (this is about 66 cu feet I guess)... you would have ample time to slowly ascend and end your dive.

Of course this is not taking in account the fact that you didn't knew your actual gas left (even with a good functioning manometer there is always a margin of error of about 10 bar). Nor is it taking in acount local circumstances (for example having a ceiling because of deco obligations of being in a shipping lane if you would surface at that depth, etc).

2nd dive of course was a mistake (diving knowing you had faulty critical equipment).

All in all you didn't panic which is paramount. So cudos.

 

[b1gcountry]

Well, it sounds like you already got most of the advice I would give...good job on the first dive. Sounds like you handled the situation well. I would guess that the SPG giving the error was separate from the dive computer, and not integrated. I also have a feeling that the captain, or whomever you told was not convinced it was a malfunctioning SPG, and rather suspected diver error...This may be a good lesson for DMs and Instructors too. Just because a new diver is having a gear problem, don't assume user error. I've been guilty of this once or twice (a lot of times it is user error.)

Anyway, you were probably safe doing what you did, and it wasn't a huge lapse of judgment, but I would be skeptical of anyone with vast experience doing it, let alone a brand new diver...which brings me to two points not made above:


1. You are ALWAYS okay to call the dive AT ANY POINT for ANY REASON whatsoever.

Say it with me this time:
"You are ALWAYS okay to call the dive AT ANY POINT for ANY REASON whatsoever."

Now the people in the back:
"We are ALWAYS okay to call the dive AT ANY POINT for ANY REASON whatsoever."


Seriously, this is the hardest lesson for new divers to learn. Secret Fact: Every good experienced diver has called some dive some time or another for some seemingly trivial reason. Newer divers tend to have more problems than experienced ones, but they definitely do not speak up about them as much. There is no way that ignoring a problem is good for you, or a buddy. If you are diving with me, and you ignore a broken SPG, you put both of us in danger, and if I find out about it later (that you DIDN"T tell me) I will think less of your abilities (posting it here, BTW, makes me think more of you.) If you find a problem, and call the dive for it, I will probably be bummed, sure, but I will also think more highly for you for knowing you had a problem, and speaking up about it.


2. It is really hard to make judgment calls underwater, on the spur of the moment. You always have influences like time, money, the cool wreck down there--whatever--that make you err more on the risk-taking side of things. To get around that, do what we are doing now. Think about these scenarios on dry land, when you don't have any emotions playing into the equation. Go through scenarios and read threads like these and decide what you would do in these situations beforehand. Then when the problems happen in real life, you already know what you RATIONALLY decided. Also consider the problem you didn't consider: "If something unexpected happens underwater, I will react conservatively, and always do what seems the safest thing given the particular situation." As you found, there is no way to make the decision rationally when your emotions are playing a factor during the dive. I also think you knew what you did was the wrong choice after the dive or else you wouldn't be posting it here. After the dive, you thought about it rationally, and you made the right conclusion. In a lot of ways good judgment and contingency planning go hand in hand.

Tom