Please Checkout My Article

[fisheater]

in this summer's issue of Alert Diver. It's about the scariest dive of my life, where I struggled with the idea that my dive buddy very well may be dead.

The link to the online version is http://www.alertdiver.com/636





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[dumpsterDiver]

10 minutes late is the scariest dive you've had.... Keep diving and you will see some crazy stuff....

You talk about all the wonderful DAN emergency gear (that was not neded), but never explained why your buddy was doing a deco dive like that with no SMB?

 

[doctormike]

This is really well written, congratulations!

You talk about all the wonderful DAN emergency gear (that was not neded), but never explained why your buddy was doing a deco dive like that with no SMB?

Well, the author did need (and use) his DAN SMB... but you are right, I agree that each diver should have their own, for just such a situation.

It doesn't sound like they planned to do a deco dive, but rather that his computer gave him a "mandatory safety stop" (that sounds odd, doesn't it?). My Suunto Vyper does this - from the manual:

"When the maximum allowed ascent rate is exceeded continuously the dive computer highly recommends an extra-prolonged Mandatory Safety Stop in the range of 3 m - 6 m [10 ft - 20 ft] for the calculated period. In this case the STOP sign will appear in the display and when you reach the depth zone between 6 m to 3 m [20 ft to 10] also the CEILING label, depth and the calculated Safety Stop time appear in the display."

I have had this issue with transient ascent rate violations (which might well have happened on this dive). It's not really deco per se, and it's not a safety stop. Something in between...

 

[fisheater]

I agree that we both should have had SMBs. I ALWAYS carry mine. Dave knows that he should get one.

This was to be a strictly recreational dive. Neither of us have any formal tech training. His computer must be more conservative than mine, as our profiles were nearly identical. He also should have signaled me that he was going to make a second stop at ten feet due to a deco obligation.

The scary part was being "pretty sure" that my dive buddy was dead. Him being in deco never entered my mind. Sudden medical issue. Great white. Something else very bad. Those I thought of.


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[doctormike]

The scary part was being "pretty sure" that my dive buddy was dead. Him being in deco never entered my mind. Sudden medical issue. Great white. Something else very bad. Those I thought of.

Yup. I hear you... those ten minutes must have been torture.

 

[MaxBottomtime]

I would have either aborted the dive right away, hoping the Captain would move to a better site, or explored the area near the anchor. When ascending in dirty water offshore with no visual reference, I would never even consider doing a safety stop. There is no excuse for drifting down current from a dive boat. A couple of years ago, two GUE instructors thought they would just shoot their bags and drift after losing the anchor line. They didn't know it was so foggy that the others on the boat couldn't see their bags. Fortunately, they were found by the Coast Guard hours later.

 

[davetowz]

Good write up. Reinforces the need for ALL divers to carry the basic signalling gear when diving.
The computer is probably very conservative and the deco stop was not really needed, but always better to er on the side of caution. Glad the situation worked out well in the end.