dumpsterDiver
Banned
- Messages
- 9,003
- Reaction score
- 4,652
- # of dives
- 2500 - 4999
Went out on a private dive boat Saturday in Florida. First dive, my buddy and I hunt in 130 ft depth with visibility of 60-70 feet, for around 30 minutes and get a few minutes of deco with nitrox. Shot a few fish.
Next stop; training dive for the two tech students and their instructor. Dive plan is 30 minutes at 160 feet on (air or 25% nitrox) and then deco with 80% for a total deco of around 34 minutes. One of the students is wearing double LP 95s, steel backplate, and a 45? Cu-ft steel stage bottle. The diver is a 180 lb man of average build. He is wearing a 3 mm jumpsuit with no hood. Clearly his rig is extremely negative and I remind him to put a bunch of air in the BC before he gets in the water. He has apparently only used the double steels once in a pool on the previous day. This is some type of extended range course.
The other two divers are wearing big single steels and aluminum stage bottles.
This is a drift dive in 160 feet of water and they pull a surface float attached to a reel. I watch the clock and decide to snorkel around the surface float and watch their ascent and deco. I can see one student deploy a large SMB from a depth of 45-50 feet and hang underneath it. I swim down and can see the other student and instructor somewhat deeper and they seem to be coming up slower.
A little while later, I watch as the heavy student deploys his SMB, which is attached to a reel. This is a large SMB with maybe 40-70 lb? of lift capacity. The marker pops to the surface 10 feet from me and it is about 1/3 full. The student then somehow loses control of buoyancy and floats up kinda fast which allows the SMB line to become slack. Her then very quickly manages to get the a loop of the line twisted and caught around his ankle and simultaneously dumps too much air (from his bungy wings of death). He begins to sink rapidly and I watch as he drags the SMB from the surface and pulls it underwater. This has to hurt the ankle I assume, and I consider if I should freedive down and try to pull the SMB (and thus the entangled diver) toward the surface. But he is pulling it down fast and within a few moments I realize that the diver and SMB are going down too fast and Ive missed the opportunity to provide any help.
The student is now in a free-fall, laying on his back, feet in the air and doesnt appear to be kicking or doing much about his predicament. I think he might have froze-up. I am now wondering if I am going to witness another dive fatality and I am praying that he has not switched over to the 80% deco mix yet. I can just barely see the student when the instructor gets over to him and gets him coming up again. The other student made no attempt to help, although I guess on a technical dive, it is reasonable to assume that the instructor will handle the problems. I really couldnt see what was happening at that point because the pair was at 70-80 feet and I was on the surface. They get the line straightened out and the student now had his buoyancy control, although the doubles are sitting on him crooked and he is clearly out of balance and not having a good time.
The dive goes further south for them as the reg on the deco bottle for the doubles student is freeflowing a lot and then after a short while he has switched back over to the main tanks of air. I swim down to the instructor/student at 30 feet and signal to inquire if they want me to bring them another deco bottle. The instructor (who has 2-3 freaking slates on his forearm decides not to use them to communicate with me) but seems to indicate he wants another bottle during our little pantomime session. I figure an extra bottle can't hurt them and I get on the boat and bring a bottle down to them. Their dive ends relatively uneventfully after this.
That cured me of wanting to be a "technical" diver for a few more years!
Next stop; training dive for the two tech students and their instructor. Dive plan is 30 minutes at 160 feet on (air or 25% nitrox) and then deco with 80% for a total deco of around 34 minutes. One of the students is wearing double LP 95s, steel backplate, and a 45? Cu-ft steel stage bottle. The diver is a 180 lb man of average build. He is wearing a 3 mm jumpsuit with no hood. Clearly his rig is extremely negative and I remind him to put a bunch of air in the BC before he gets in the water. He has apparently only used the double steels once in a pool on the previous day. This is some type of extended range course.
The other two divers are wearing big single steels and aluminum stage bottles.
This is a drift dive in 160 feet of water and they pull a surface float attached to a reel. I watch the clock and decide to snorkel around the surface float and watch their ascent and deco. I can see one student deploy a large SMB from a depth of 45-50 feet and hang underneath it. I swim down and can see the other student and instructor somewhat deeper and they seem to be coming up slower.
A little while later, I watch as the heavy student deploys his SMB, which is attached to a reel. This is a large SMB with maybe 40-70 lb? of lift capacity. The marker pops to the surface 10 feet from me and it is about 1/3 full. The student then somehow loses control of buoyancy and floats up kinda fast which allows the SMB line to become slack. Her then very quickly manages to get the a loop of the line twisted and caught around his ankle and simultaneously dumps too much air (from his bungy wings of death). He begins to sink rapidly and I watch as he drags the SMB from the surface and pulls it underwater. This has to hurt the ankle I assume, and I consider if I should freedive down and try to pull the SMB (and thus the entangled diver) toward the surface. But he is pulling it down fast and within a few moments I realize that the diver and SMB are going down too fast and Ive missed the opportunity to provide any help.
The student is now in a free-fall, laying on his back, feet in the air and doesnt appear to be kicking or doing much about his predicament. I think he might have froze-up. I am now wondering if I am going to witness another dive fatality and I am praying that he has not switched over to the 80% deco mix yet. I can just barely see the student when the instructor gets over to him and gets him coming up again. The other student made no attempt to help, although I guess on a technical dive, it is reasonable to assume that the instructor will handle the problems. I really couldnt see what was happening at that point because the pair was at 70-80 feet and I was on the surface. They get the line straightened out and the student now had his buoyancy control, although the doubles are sitting on him crooked and he is clearly out of balance and not having a good time.
The dive goes further south for them as the reg on the deco bottle for the doubles student is freeflowing a lot and then after a short while he has switched back over to the main tanks of air. I swim down to the instructor/student at 30 feet and signal to inquire if they want me to bring them another deco bottle. The instructor (who has 2-3 freaking slates on his forearm decides not to use them to communicate with me) but seems to indicate he wants another bottle during our little pantomime session. I figure an extra bottle can't hurt them and I get on the boat and bring a bottle down to them. Their dive ends relatively uneventfully after this.
That cured me of wanting to be a "technical" diver for a few more years!
