PSFlyer
Registered
Location: Florida Keys.
Divers / level of experience at time of accident:
Myself, Healthy 40 yr old, 250 dives, AOW, Rescue, working on DM
My son: 16 yrs old 150 dives AOW, Rescue always diving together great father son team!
Water conditions: Rough swells but within our abilities
Dive Site: Shallow Reef (max 40 ft), visibility 70 feet.
Unknown factor:
An unknown diver, lets call him Joe, came onto the boat at the last moment our captain, lets call him George, asked me if it was OK if Joe buddied up with us. Trying to be nice, I agreed.
During the bumpy boat ride, I casually asked Joe few questions, trying to judge his level of experience. He came off a bit arrogant when discussing surface conditions; in short, he barked answers such as: If the kid is going no sweat, Ill be fine.
Briefing:
George spent 5 minutes discussing the site, the conditions, the possibility of current changing direction, and procedures for getting back on the boat in the choppy seas. Surprisingly, Joe seemed more preoccupied and entranced with playing with his dive computer, rather than listening to George. After the briefing, I proceeded with gear checks and asked Joe if his computer was OK. He replied that he was having problems resetting it from Nitrox to air however all was good now. I noticed he did not have a snorkel so I suggested he may want to ask if George had any on the boat. His reply was that he had a collapsible one, stored in his BC pocket. We then agreed on the dive plan and that I was going to be leading and navigating.
The dive:
After descending to the anchor, and confirming everyone was OK I began leading us towards the familiar reef. It became obvious fairly quickly that Joes diving technique left much to be desired. His position was off, he was kicking aggressively and breathing heavily. I altered my dive plan not to stray too far away from the anchor and kept an eye on Joes air supply. As he reached 2200, I noticed the current beginning to change direction so I began leading us back.
I hugged the bottom to minimize the effects of the current and my son followed. Joe chose to stay a bit higher and continued to struggle. After a while, I approached him and checked his air (about 1,300). I proceeded to write on my slate: Follow, close to bottom, 5 min to boat.
Joe read the slate but unfortunately had other plans. He frantically signaled UP and, without waiting for my reaction, began his ascent. I knew that fighting the surface conditions to get to the boat would be tough, but not wanting to leave Joe alone, I signaled for my son to ascend. We caught up to Joe at his safety stop where he acknowledged my question saying he was OK. I then turned my attention to deploying my SMB. Just as I let it go, I realized that Joe disappeared. To my relief, my son pointed up letting me know that Joe surfaced. We followed, despite our shortened safety stop, and surfaced about 10 feet from Joe who had his BC inflated, reg in his mouth, and was in clear panic, frantically trying to keep his head on the surface and point to the boat some 150 yards away. It appeared to me that he had overinflated his back-filled BC and it was actually making it difficult for him to keep his face out of the water, in fact forcing him into a face down position.
I took my reg out and yelled to Joe to stay calm and let some air out of his BC. Amazingly he actually followed my advice and his situation improved. Establishing eye contact, I pointed to my SMB, reassured him that we are all OK and told him to just wait for the boat. But again Joe decided to execute his own plan, he turned around and took off swimming into the current. For a moment, I wanted to chase him, but I knew it would be pointless given the surface conditions. Staying with my son next to our 6FT SMB, proved to be a much better option, especially that we managed to get Georges attention and he signaled that he had us in sight. What I wanted to do next is to give him a distress signal, for Joes benefit, but I guess, I hesitated and few swells later, it appeared the boat started moving and George was no longer maintaining visual contact with us, probably pre-occupied with a pick up of other divers...hopefully Joe.
We waited in sheer agony, we expected Joe to run out of air, not be able to switch to his collapsible snorkel, and choke on see water, way before reaching the boat...It proved to be a very long 10 minutes filled with thoughts that we may never see Joe again.
When George finally picked us up, we were relieved to find Joe on deck and apparently OK. Joe was very quiet the whole way back and the atmosphere on the boat was tense. It wasnt until George and I got together for a beer 2 days later, that I heard his side of the story.
He told me that he spotted us immediately but realized there was only 2 of us by the SMB so he grabbed his binoculars and started looking for Joe. Once he spotted Joe, swimming on an angle that was actually taking him further from the boat, George focused his efforts on catching up with Joe. Once he approached him and got him to communicate, George realized that Joe was out of air and breathing through his snorkel, but otherwise OK. What happened next defied logic Joe took his BC off and struggled onto the boat not paying attention to Georges instructions to keep the BC on; which was a clear part of the pre-dive briefing...Relieved that the guy made it and seeing that we were both OK by our SMB, George and Andy (the DM that was on board) spent the next few minutes trying to fish Joes BC out of the mounting swells and picking up divers that have returned to the boat on schedule.
I guess all is well that ends well...I am sure I could have done many things differently and I am sure many of you more seasoned divers will point those things out to me and for that, I thank you. I am always looking to learn. For now my conclusions are as follows, correct me if I am wrong:
Know your skills and set realistic limits
Do not dive with a buddy you do not know and, if there is no alternative, watch for early signs of disturbing behavior such as total disregard for surface conditions, and lack of attention to safety briefings. If you observe any of those attitudes from your new buddy, suggest to the boat crew to re-assign you.
Divers / level of experience at time of accident:
Myself, Healthy 40 yr old, 250 dives, AOW, Rescue, working on DM
My son: 16 yrs old 150 dives AOW, Rescue always diving together great father son team!
Water conditions: Rough swells but within our abilities
Dive Site: Shallow Reef (max 40 ft), visibility 70 feet.
Unknown factor:
An unknown diver, lets call him Joe, came onto the boat at the last moment our captain, lets call him George, asked me if it was OK if Joe buddied up with us. Trying to be nice, I agreed.
During the bumpy boat ride, I casually asked Joe few questions, trying to judge his level of experience. He came off a bit arrogant when discussing surface conditions; in short, he barked answers such as: If the kid is going no sweat, Ill be fine.
Briefing:
George spent 5 minutes discussing the site, the conditions, the possibility of current changing direction, and procedures for getting back on the boat in the choppy seas. Surprisingly, Joe seemed more preoccupied and entranced with playing with his dive computer, rather than listening to George. After the briefing, I proceeded with gear checks and asked Joe if his computer was OK. He replied that he was having problems resetting it from Nitrox to air however all was good now. I noticed he did not have a snorkel so I suggested he may want to ask if George had any on the boat. His reply was that he had a collapsible one, stored in his BC pocket. We then agreed on the dive plan and that I was going to be leading and navigating.
The dive:
After descending to the anchor, and confirming everyone was OK I began leading us towards the familiar reef. It became obvious fairly quickly that Joes diving technique left much to be desired. His position was off, he was kicking aggressively and breathing heavily. I altered my dive plan not to stray too far away from the anchor and kept an eye on Joes air supply. As he reached 2200, I noticed the current beginning to change direction so I began leading us back.
I hugged the bottom to minimize the effects of the current and my son followed. Joe chose to stay a bit higher and continued to struggle. After a while, I approached him and checked his air (about 1,300). I proceeded to write on my slate: Follow, close to bottom, 5 min to boat.
Joe read the slate but unfortunately had other plans. He frantically signaled UP and, without waiting for my reaction, began his ascent. I knew that fighting the surface conditions to get to the boat would be tough, but not wanting to leave Joe alone, I signaled for my son to ascend. We caught up to Joe at his safety stop where he acknowledged my question saying he was OK. I then turned my attention to deploying my SMB. Just as I let it go, I realized that Joe disappeared. To my relief, my son pointed up letting me know that Joe surfaced. We followed, despite our shortened safety stop, and surfaced about 10 feet from Joe who had his BC inflated, reg in his mouth, and was in clear panic, frantically trying to keep his head on the surface and point to the boat some 150 yards away. It appeared to me that he had overinflated his back-filled BC and it was actually making it difficult for him to keep his face out of the water, in fact forcing him into a face down position.
I took my reg out and yelled to Joe to stay calm and let some air out of his BC. Amazingly he actually followed my advice and his situation improved. Establishing eye contact, I pointed to my SMB, reassured him that we are all OK and told him to just wait for the boat. But again Joe decided to execute his own plan, he turned around and took off swimming into the current. For a moment, I wanted to chase him, but I knew it would be pointless given the surface conditions. Staying with my son next to our 6FT SMB, proved to be a much better option, especially that we managed to get Georges attention and he signaled that he had us in sight. What I wanted to do next is to give him a distress signal, for Joes benefit, but I guess, I hesitated and few swells later, it appeared the boat started moving and George was no longer maintaining visual contact with us, probably pre-occupied with a pick up of other divers...hopefully Joe.
We waited in sheer agony, we expected Joe to run out of air, not be able to switch to his collapsible snorkel, and choke on see water, way before reaching the boat...It proved to be a very long 10 minutes filled with thoughts that we may never see Joe again.
When George finally picked us up, we were relieved to find Joe on deck and apparently OK. Joe was very quiet the whole way back and the atmosphere on the boat was tense. It wasnt until George and I got together for a beer 2 days later, that I heard his side of the story.
He told me that he spotted us immediately but realized there was only 2 of us by the SMB so he grabbed his binoculars and started looking for Joe. Once he spotted Joe, swimming on an angle that was actually taking him further from the boat, George focused his efforts on catching up with Joe. Once he approached him and got him to communicate, George realized that Joe was out of air and breathing through his snorkel, but otherwise OK. What happened next defied logic Joe took his BC off and struggled onto the boat not paying attention to Georges instructions to keep the BC on; which was a clear part of the pre-dive briefing...Relieved that the guy made it and seeing that we were both OK by our SMB, George and Andy (the DM that was on board) spent the next few minutes trying to fish Joes BC out of the mounting swells and picking up divers that have returned to the boat on schedule.
I guess all is well that ends well...I am sure I could have done many things differently and I am sure many of you more seasoned divers will point those things out to me and for that, I thank you. I am always looking to learn. For now my conclusions are as follows, correct me if I am wrong:
Know your skills and set realistic limits
Do not dive with a buddy you do not know and, if there is no alternative, watch for early signs of disturbing behavior such as total disregard for surface conditions, and lack of attention to safety briefings. If you observe any of those attitudes from your new buddy, suggest to the boat crew to re-assign you.