Lost my dive group

[racerx_]

So I had a fiasco of a dive yesterday. The vis was bad on all the dives I did this weekend, but the last couple more so. Nothing earth shattering but maybe 5meters or so. We were diving a site with more currents which made it a bit more of a mess but still seemed manageable. There were also about a million divers on the site and mostly open water students except for our group.

The site was a rock formation in open water with a bunch of swim throughs, boulders etc. We dropped down and were gonna hit a swim through right away. My DM went through and two more of our group of 5, but before the last two of us could get to the opening to enter a "school" of OW divers lined up in between two of us and our group. The first OW guy was going up and down like a yoyo gripping the inflator for dear life, vertical in the water and "running" for lack of a better term. Me and the last guy (former instructor) decided we would just go around the rocks rather than wait for it all to end. Except around the rocks didn't lead to the other side of the swim through. Great. So we signalled each other, swam around, and tried to find the group eventually ascending a bit to try and spot them but vis was really poop so it wasn't working. Before too long the DM found us.. we proceeded with the dive

Then a few minutes later we're all trucking along and realize two of our group went off in some other direction and we can't see em. We all look, can't find em. The dm tells me and my buddy to stay put while he looks and so we sit there blowing bubbles for 10-15 min, the DM returning every once in a while and shrugging with the "I don't know where the heck they went" look. After this he comes back and we continue the dive.. (I think former instructor guy is unaccounted for by now too but not 100% on that)

Pretty soon we get to another swim through, the DM goes first, then my buddy and I'm waiting for him to get a bit through it before I proceed. So I'm looking at the rock beside me for a few seconds and when I look up, no buddy. Great. (This has to be some kind of record for lost divers on one dive) so I swim through, look around and decide left seems to be the only logical way to go due to my innate understanding of underwater geology (not really). But they're not there.. zzzz... So long story short I look around for a while and realize I'm not gonna find them. I've got air and I'm not panicking but I'm thinking about the dive briefing: if you get separated from your group search for one minute, surface, and reunite with them bla bla bla.. anyway I decide to poke around a little since its late in the dive (40min or so?) & the dive site isn't too massive I figure I can't be too lost. I eventually do my safety stop a few minutes later cause I hear the boat somewhere in the vicinity and end the dive.

I see the girls on the boat. I see my buddy on the boat (thanks buddy). I see the DM on the boat, and former instructor guy on the boat. No one seems concerened ha. Apparently the girls just kept diving till they got attacked by a titan trigger fish and decided to surface LOL and my buddy and DM completed the dive.

But I'm just wondering.. what happened to the dive briefing of we're gonna surface after a minute? and although I have the skills to complete a dive by myself, shouldn't someone be trying to find me?




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[Scuba_Noob]

I follow the search for two minutes and then slowly surface. To answer your final question, your buddy should be looking for you for a minute or so and then he should surface.

Some people don't follow that, and if it wasn't in the dive briefing and it was one of your concerns, you should have mentioned it. For every dive with someone new or at a new site, I go through a very detailed dive plan with my buddy before we gear up - i.e., dive cert/experience, direction, when to turn around, when to safety stop, when to surface, lost diver protocol, signals, buddy distance, emergency responses, limits in depth/time/areas, and so on. It takes five minutes to ensure clear communication to prevent problems like you had. Maybe your buddy did surface while you were poking around for a while or doing your safety stop - did you ask what happened before giving him the blame for what you perceive as 'ditching you'?

A lot of people on this board talk about independence and self-reliance as divers. You're responsible for yourself and your buddy - if you lose your buddy, both of you weren't paying attention enough. You shouldn't necessarily depend on someone else (e.g., a DM) for a course of action.

 

[racerx_]

LOL yeah it wasn't an instabuddy. It was my friend who went diving with me. And he and the DM finished the dive, I know cause I asked him. Slow down though, I didn't blame him for anything. I was just thinking the DM should be trying to find me rather than leave me to my untimely demise. I am in charge of my own safety, which is why I wasn't freaked out and successfully completed the dive without incident. But obviously the surface after 1 minute part of the dive plan wasn't happening cause the dm didn't do it after losing those other two girls either

I realize the massive amount of threads here with people griping about issues that are really their responsibility. I don't really care that much what happened either way as I could have called the dive any time and surfaced safely. My question is more of procedure. Not that they have to look for me, but why aren't they looking for me haha. Not to mention the other girls who happily took off and were separated and didn't follow the briefing either

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[cascas]

, shouldn't someone be trying to find me?

Just as much as you should be trying to find them.

Buddy separation is never one persons mistake, you share the blame and the shame ( )

 

[DivemasterDennis]

When conditions are as those described, it is nearly impossible to keep a group together. Perhaps the dive should have been briefed and buddy teams then told to keep together as buddy pairs but not worry about the group. Whether that works depends of course upon the level of comfort of the divers, and whether or not they are comfortable without a DM leading them. Debbie and I do every dive as a buddy team, and only incidentally as part of a group, but that privilege comes with professional credentials and one's own insurance. I do not understand buddies getting separated, but I understand group separation can happen, and does. Even in good visibility, popular dive sites visited by multiple boats regularly have divers from one group joining "the wrong" group." As I read the original post and follow up, it seems to me that the DM's briefing, and perhaps plan, did not fit the conditions very well, including the "rush hour" conditions of multiple dive groups and many many divers on the site. Here was a dive to learn from, and it seems the OP (and his buddy) did.
DivemasterDennis

 

[Scuba_Noob]

LOL yeah it wasn't an instabuddy. It was my friend who went diving with me. And he and the DM finished the dive, I know cause I asked him. Slow down though, I didn't blame him for anything. I was just thinking the DM should be trying to find me rather than leave me to my untimely demise. I am in charge of my own safety, which is why I wasn't freaked out and successfully completed the dive without incident. But obviously the surface after 1 minute part of the dive plan wasn't happening cause the dm didn't do it after losing those other two girls either

I realize the massive amount of threads here with people griping about issues that are really their responsibility. I don't really care that much what happened either way as I could have called the dive any time and surfaced safely. My question is more of procedure. Not that they have to look for me, but why aren't they looking for me haha. Not to mention the other girls who happily took off and were separated and didn't follow the briefing either

I was just being slightly blunt in my response because at 25+ dives, you shouldn't necessarily be expecting other people to do your responsibility. "Why aren't they looking for me?" you ask. Because you and your buddy didn't properly communicate before the dive - even with a non-instabuddy, you should go through the dive plan and emergency plans before a dive, if you've never done so with that buddy. You didn't follow the look for one minute and surface (you dove for a few extra minutes and did a safety stop), so why should your buddy?

Just because the DM and the two girls didn't do it doesn't meant that you can't plan for it for yourself and your buddy group (i.e., personal responsibility). While you felt safe, losing your buddy and choosing to dive alone for a while decreases safety in the removal of redundancy. Hopefully, this 'fiasco' is a learning point for you to properly communicate with your buddy before a dive. You should care what happened because it could be made worse in the event of an emergency - procedure is all about safety.

 

[Mr Carcharodon]

But I'm just wondering.. what happened to the dive briefing of we're gonna surface after a minute? and although I have the skills to complete a dive by myself, shouldn't someone be trying to find me?

Diving with a big group is like solo diving. Or at least that would be my take away. Your almost always are better off diving with one, or maybe two, other people who are really committed to staying with you. Not that I want to give the DM that much grief but as a practical matter they can not keep track of eight other people simultaneously. There are good reasons to have a buddy: redundant gear and redundant heads cannot be easily replaced. Mob diving does not provide that. It is unfortunate that that is a common way to dive. If you want to prevent it you need to bring a buddy who is on the same page or take initiative. The latter is not always easy, but there you are.

 

[Rogersea]

Sorry to hear about what a crappy dive you had...... Since no one really adhered to the "search for no more than X minutes" then surface philosophy, you guys were doomed to failure due to the conditions.....


I think it is best to ask the question during the dive briefing if something/anything you are interested in has not been covered adequately..

We get so many visitors from Singapore, I did not realize you guys had local diving.....

Cheers,
Roger

 

[gcarter]

I was on a drift dive when my buddy and I and a DM were seperated from the group. My focus was on my buddy more so than the group. We 3 stayed together and surfaced together. Not the dive we planned, but a good dive nonetheless.

 

[TSandM]

What I read from the story was that the feeling of "attachment" or responsibility was diluted . . . you and your buddy didn't feel particularly responsible for one another, and the DM may or may not have felt responsible for anybody, since you were ostensibly in buddy pairs or teams. You even state yourself that, once you found yourself alone, you didn't abide by the rule, but decided, since you were late in the dive, to spend some more time underwater and then go up -- and your buddy had ascended and was on the boat already.

If I had been your buddy, I would have been frantic; if I had been the DM, I would definitely have been worried.

We dive quite frequently in significantly reduced viz here in Puget Sound -- in fact, the 15 feet you're describing is pretty GOOD viz for us. What we know is that you can't keep groups together in low viz. It takes training and discipline to keep a team of three together, when the viz is 10 feet or less. We have started any number of dives as a group, with the proviso that within that group are buddy pairs or teams, and if the teams get separated, the dive will continue as planned. If it turns out to be really murky, those teams DO get separated, and we proceed as planned. If a buddy pair got separated, we'd execute the "lost buddy" protocol. But protocols are only as good as they are executed. In your case, it appears that NOBODY involved respected the protocol, whether it was briefed or discussed or not. If nobody respects it, it's hard to know when to trigger a search.