DC53
Guest
I don't know if this was a near miss, just lucky, or not so much to worry about so to speak, but tonight I was diving with three other divers... It was a night dive in a quarry with 39-40 degree water. I was buddied with a very experienced diver and a pair of experienced divers were just behind us. The leader went to the bottom immediately and then slowly swam across the bottom of the quarry, mostly around 90 feet plus or minus a couple feet, except when going up a little over a boulder here and there and then back down to the bottom. 30 minuts after the start, perhaps 29 minutes bottom time around 90 feet and someone comes up from behind, gets ahold of the lead diver. From below I watch them twirling around, with the fourth diver nearby, and then all three start to go up, and not real slow at that. I still had almost 2000 psi on my steel HP 120 and 16 min NDL left on my computer with 26% nitrox (don't ask) so this was all odd. Viz was poor and even lights would disappear soon. Thinking something must be very wrong I go with them to the surface. I think about stopping at 20 feet but they don't; I think something must be REALLY wrong, and decide to blow my safety stop too, from rescue class I know how many people can be needed on the surface if something is really wrong. We're all on the surface and nobody is saying much. There's a bunch of "are you alright's?" passed around. Within a minute or two I ask if we will re-descend and return underwater and one member of the second pair says "NO!". We swim back across the quarry in the dark on the surface.
Turns out one of the two divers on air went into deco obligation, and the two went up a little bit, but then swam back down & got the lead diver, then came the confused efforts at communication, and then one or more lost bouyancy control and started to ascend (we all had tons of clothing on due to the unusual cold) and then it all went from bad to worse and they ALL went to the top, probably well faster than 30 ft/min. I had followed, perhaps somewhat slower, but still not stopping due to the above concerns. I did not lose control of my bouyancy and could have stopped at 15 feet.
My question is, in a situation like that, should I have stayed and done a safety stop alone or followed what clearly appeared to be a distressed group to the top? (Again, these are very experienced divers and I felt it unlikely that they would do a sudden unplanned mid dive surfacing, after being relatively long and deep, at night, far from shore, without safety stop, unless something was really wrong.) Thoughts, ideas?
Turns out one of the two divers on air went into deco obligation, and the two went up a little bit, but then swam back down & got the lead diver, then came the confused efforts at communication, and then one or more lost bouyancy control and started to ascend (we all had tons of clothing on due to the unusual cold) and then it all went from bad to worse and they ALL went to the top, probably well faster than 30 ft/min. I had followed, perhaps somewhat slower, but still not stopping due to the above concerns. I did not lose control of my bouyancy and could have stopped at 15 feet.
My question is, in a situation like that, should I have stayed and done a safety stop alone or followed what clearly appeared to be a distressed group to the top? (Again, these are very experienced divers and I felt it unlikely that they would do a sudden unplanned mid dive surfacing, after being relatively long and deep, at night, far from shore, without safety stop, unless something was really wrong.) Thoughts, ideas?