Kelp should be vertical

[cdolphin]

4th scooterless team was back on boat drinking tea (we had already had enough of the "minimal current" statements from the previous day)

voice of experience.



Thx, TSandM. Good story!

 

[Scott L]

While I may be an "experienced diver" this dive was on the outskirts of my experience. We do a lot of dives in current (and I've done many dives in current) but always with a live boat, not one that is anchored. I was very pleased to see the boat send out the skiff to pick us up because it was a long way to swim!

Not having ever dived in CA and among kelp. Could this dive have been accomplished with a "live boat" taking current out of the equation? I would imagine the kelp would offer a lot of challenges with this goal...

 

[TSandM]

Yes, if this had been a live boat the whole thing would have been much less stressful. But with the large SoCal boats, I guess it isn't very feasible to chase divers, so they anchor and you are expected to return to the boat. They do have a chase skiff, though -- they'd have to, as our experience shows.

I have done live boat dives in kelp here in the PNW -- it's not much of an issue. The boat simply stays a little offshore, where it's too deep for the kelp, and watches the divers' bubbles.

 

[Scott L]

Yes, if this had been a live boat the whole thing would have been much less stressful. But with the large SoCal boats, I guess it isn't very feasible to chase divers, so they anchor and you are expected to return to the boat. They do have a chase skiff, though -- they'd have to, as our experience shows.

I have done live boat dives in kelp here in the PNW -- it's not much of an issue. The boat simply stays a little offshore, where it's too deep for the kelp, and watches the divers' bubbles.

I like that scenario a lot better. 6-pack charters and the like are great when available. Not always the case though...

 

[dumpsterDiver]

It was also an interesting exercise in how one makes choices to deal with such occurrances.

When my dive buddy signaled me she wanted to ascend, I motioned that I wanted to drift along the bottom seeking the anchor ... thinking that we'd been kicking into the current for 20 minutes, and should drift back to it. She nixed that idea because of concerns about depth and because if we didn't find it our risk of coming up too far behind the boat to be seen were much greater. In hindsight, she made the more prudent call.

I wanted a quicker ascent, thinking that we hadn't hit NDL's and we didn't need a lot of time in in the 40-20 foot range. She wanted more minutes than I ... thinking that we'd been at depth a long time, and had been exerting ourselves pretty heavily. Her call prevailed.

When I realized we'd be spending more time than I'd anticipated on the ascent, I considered shooting a bag, and then decided not to. My rationale was that we were both facing "into the wind" and kicking in an attempt to slow down our progress downcurrent as we ascended. Shooting a bag at that point would add some drag that, given topside conditions, would probably pull us further downstream ... and considering the waves and swell, there was no guarantee the boat would even see it. So I waited until we surfaced to inflate it and wave it over my head.

Point being that in any given situation, there will always be choices ... and there will usually be equally rational reasons for more than one alternative. What really matters the most is having good communication between buddies, making a decision, and following through in a calm manner. Good communication keeps the buddy team cohesive, and gives you the best chance at a happy outcome ... pretty much regardless of which choices you make.

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

Once you realized you were lost and were going to be drifting fast away from the boat, I think the best decision is to IMMEDIATELY send up a SMB from the bottom. I do a lot of diving in currents and sometimes we screw up and have problems.

My feeling is that it is best to get the SMB up as close to the boat as possible. If they are going to see the smb at all, the best chance is to deploy right away. Then there is no need to exert yourself on the ascent (trying to fight a current) and absolutely no reason to hurry your ascent. In fact. the SMB is probably easier to see if a diver pulls down HARD on it during the ascent rather than trying to wave it in the wind while on the surface.

 

[TSandM]

That was our decision, DD, and it worked out pretty well for us.

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

Once you realized you were lost and were going to be drifting fast away from the boat, I think the best decision is to IMMEDIATELY send up a SMB from the bottom. I do a lot of diving in currents and sometimes we screw up and have problems.

My feeling is that it is best to get the SMB up as close to the boat as possible. If they are going to see the smb at all, the best chance is to deploy right away. Then there is no need to exert yourself on the ascent (trying to fight a current) and absolutely no reason to hurry your ascent. In fact. the SMB is probably easier to see if a diver pulls down HARD on it during the ascent rather than trying to wave it in the wind while on the surface.

That was our decision, DD, and it worked out pretty well for us.

You were down less time, and were a lot closer to the boat than we were. We'd spent 20 minutes clawing our way into the current prior to starting our ascent, and I decided that we'd have a better shot at coming up closer to the boat without the extra drag of surface current pulling us along.

It's easy to "monday morning quarterback" someone else's choices ... there are always multiple factors, and there is rarely a single "right" response. I'm completely comfortable with the choice we made ... under the circumstances, I think it was the logical choice for us to make.

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[TSandM]

No criticism intended, Bob. The bottom line is that both of us got back to the boat. BTW, we thumbed the dive at 20 minutes as well.

 

[limeyx]

Yes, if this had been a live boat the whole thing would have been much less stressful. But with the large SoCal boats, I guess it isn't very feasible to chase divers, so they anchor and you are expected to return to the boat. They do have a chase skiff, though -- they'd have to, as our experience shows.

I have done live boat dives in kelp here in the PNW -- it's not much of an issue. The boat simply stays a little offshore, where it's too deep for the kelp, and watches the divers' bubbles.

Yeah, liveboat with a boat that size in kelp with 21 divers and wind chop/swell would I think not be a good idea.

 

[limeyx]

That was our decision, DD, and it worked out pretty well for us.

yeah. I do think though that for these remote islands, bringing at least one bigger bag per team would be a good idea.

The 3 footers were visible, but it was a little borderline honestly.