Troubles on a drift dive.

[boulderjohn]

And bubble watching / surface cover by a boat doesn't work well with several groups in the water -- with some of them quite a ways apart because some are dropped on the inside reef edge and others on the deeper edge.

On one dive off Pompano last year my buddy and I were dropped off in a deep section because of some training we were doing, and everyone else was dropped off much more shallow after us. We were, consequently, done before the others. When I was back on board, I was really impressed by the huge separation of the floats and the way the crew had to keep track of them all to get everyone back on board safely.

 

[highflier]

My wife and I did one drift dive so far, It was in Cozumel area. The Dm did not use a float, at least not one at the start, I do not know about at the end cause we got seperated, not a good thing.

As the dive got near the end my wife was posssitive boiyent. Fighting to stay down. the DM pointed up to all of us and she stoped kicking down. Once she was pointed up it was a nonstop trip to the surface. I grabed her fin and slow the accent up. adding as much drag as i good. Once on the surface I noticed no one else was comming up. It was quite choppy that day. 3-4 swells. I still had plenty or air left but wife was under 1000 PSI. I went down about 15 feet to see if I could see the group. No sign of them anywhere. So I went back to the surface to stay with dive buddy, After about 4-5 min of bobbing around in the seas I spoted the boat a ways off, By this time we had been thinking about the movie "Open Water" as we could not see shore or any boats at all. With our BC's inflated we just started kicking. We made it to the boat after about 5-10 min. 70% of the PPL where already on the boat. Not one person said a word about us swimming to the boat. I don't recall a head count after boarding the boat either.

From that day on my wife does not like dive boats, Does not trust the boat or the crews.
A few years later we did our first shore dive, Big island of Hawaii, (location 2 step) She loved it and stated that she can not wait till we can dive on our own without the Dive boat BS.

What this all boils down to, is that there certainly should be a better way, and keep in mind that many operations are shoty at best.

Highflier

PS. this is a good example of why you stay with your buddy, It truely would have been terrifing to be in that situation alone. Not to mention I barely saw the Dive boat am not sure she would have spoted it, causee you could only see it when you where on top of the current wave.

PSS. now wife uses a few more LBS of weight when she is diving.

 

[dumpsterDiver]

DD. What reel are you using in the video? Nice btw. Thanks for posting.

I don't know... It was found on the bottom years ago. I have it loaded up with 600 lb test kevlar/dynema kite line that is very thin and very strong. Probably 350 feet on it, never measured, just loaded up as much as it would hold. The reel looks very similar to a manta reel.

For drift diving, I normally attach a small grapling hook to it and it can hold a lot of tension without spooling and the hand grip is very easy to control.

 

[Pauly854]

Thanks for all of the responses. As usual, the subject branched of in several differrent directions. That is what I LOVE about SB! Ask a question, get answers to that question...and others that you didn't even think to ask.

Let me clarify: Yes, that dive was a royal pain in the a$$...but I had a blast! It, in no way, discouraged me from ocean diving or drift diving. It was merely a speed bump, in the ocean of life.

 

[TSandM]

We did a dive a couple of months ago in the Tacoma Narrows -- currents there can get to 7 knots. We put about 20 divers in the water in groups of two or three. By the end of the dive, we had ,teams about a half mile apart but the boat came and got us all. Guess that's the difference between Seattle and Florida!

 

[soltari675]

I understand. My first ocean experience was also a drift dive and was also challenging. I had a heck of a time keeping an eye on the guy with the buoy. He would be there one moment and be gone in an instant. I found myself all by myself a couple times. I learned to just not take pictures during a drift dive. Or only takes ones I could catch passing by. Stopping just causes trouble.

 

[Splitlip]

I don't know... It was found on the bottom years ago. I have it loaded up with 600 lb test kevlar/dynema kite line that is very thin and very strong. Probably 350 feet on it, never measured, just loaded up as much as it would hold. The reel looks very similar to a manta reel.

For drift diving, I normally attach a small grapling hook to it and it can hold a lot of tension without spooling and the hand grip is very easy to control.

I thought was likely a Mant. I like mine. Funny...a buddy found a Manta on the Hydro.

 

[Mike]

My wife and I did one drift dive so far, It was in Cozumel area. The Dm did not use a float, at least not one at the start, I do not know about at the end cause we got seperated, not a good thing.

As the dive got near the end my wife was posssitive boiyent. Fighting to stay down. the DM pointed up to all of us and she stoped kicking down. Once she was pointed up it was a nonstop trip to the surface. I grabed her fin and slow the accent up. adding as much drag as i good. Once on the surface I noticed no one else was comming up. It was quite choppy that day. 3-4 swells. I still had plenty or air left but wife was under 1000 PSI. I went down about 15 feet to see if I could see the group. No sign of them anywhere. So I went back to the surface to stay with dive buddy, After about 4-5 min of bobbing around in the seas I spoted the boat a ways off, By this time we had been thinking about the movie "Open Water" as we could not see shore or any boats at all. With our BC's inflated we just started kicking. We made it to the boat after about 5-10 min. 70% of the PPL where already on the boat. Not one person said a word about us swimming to the boat. I don't recall a head count after boarding the boat either.

From that day on my wife does not like dive boats, Does not trust the boat or the crews.
A few years later we did our first shore dive, Big island of Hawaii, (location 2 step) She loved it and stated that she can not wait till we can dive on our own without the Dive boat BS.

What this all boils down to, is that there certainly should be a better way, and keep in mind that many operations are shoty at best.

Highflier

PS. this is a good example of why you stay with your buddy, It truely would have been terrifing to be in that situation alone. Not to mention I barely saw the Dive boat am not sure she would have spoted it, causee you could only see it when you where on top of the current wave.

PSS. now wife uses a few more LBS of weight when she is diving.

Don't blame the dive operation. You and your wife are certified divers, you're expected to be able to hold a safety stop, or at least be able to recover and descend again. Were you diving aluminum 100s? A few of the outfits in Cozumel offer them to give you more bottom time, especially to new divers who are going to suck their air down quickly, but they get very light and buoyant at the end of the dive. Again as a certified diver it's now your responsibility to find out what you need to know about different tanks and adjust your weighting accordingly so you can hold a safety stop.

Regardless, there was little danger to you and your wife, with the exception of if you were diving a dive site called Barracudda, which I'm sure you weren't, the dive sites in Cozumel are well travelled with multiple dive boats around them from all the operators and typically had you missed your boat, you would have been picked up by another and they would have radioed your boat and got you transferred over.

Your experience is why it's a good idea for both you and your wife to carry your own safety gear such as a surface marker buoy, mirror, whistle, and don't shoot the dive op for your own lapses in your personal safety. I'd have to guess that why nobody said anything to you guys about the incident was that nobody wanted to embarrass you any more then you already were. While I'm sure the incident was a bit unnerving to you and your wife, in reality you were in little danger. You guys should use it as a learning experience, learn from it, improve your techniques, update your safety measures and not blame it on boat diving being a issue, as boat diving is the norm for diving world wide and you'll miss out on a whole lot of diving if you plan on avoiding boat diving from here on.

Good job for staying with your buddy! Never leave your buddy.

 

[highflier]

I was disturbed that the dm indicated up then continued the dive for a few more minutes. Yes wife did need more weight, that was our fault. The fact he gathered all of us and indicate accent then did not is his. i dont know how he did not see us as the whole group Including us had stopped on bottom. Btw it was about 30' to 40' dive. I could see bottom after i went back down 15' or so to see they had continued the dive.


Sorry for typos. Iphone

 

[highflier]

We had been recently certified and had told the dive operation that , As well as ask them for a simple dive. As far as gear/tanks I do not know, We asked the dive shop for the recommendation telling them what weight we had used and even that my wife may need a bit more as she had barely neutral on the previous dive with that weight. She does tend to suck the air tank down fast. I am sure her working to stay down did not help at all. She was not struggling but was obviously no a rest either.

Btw it was time for her to end the dive tank was low on air! I think she had about 700-800 PSI left at surface. Had enough to do a safety stop and all, but that is why i was the one to go partially down to locate group.

I suppose no head count or questions from dm when we appeared late via surface swim is normal also.

So not saying we were perfect but neither were they.

Since we are now getting our own gear it will be much easier to know just how much weight we will need, (We will still have to learn more about how to adjust the weight based on the Rental tanks .

The only other dive boat that we were on was during our OW cert. It seemed much more organised.

Highflier