One from a while ago - Long

[DannyB]

This happened to me back in 2001 whilst on a UKRS trip, it was reported and discussed at the time, anyone interested in reading the full discussion it's here Google Groups: uk.rec.scuba.

I have copied below the original report (written by my buddy and agreed by me before it's original posting) and followed by his and my thoughts.

The following is an account of Danny Burchett and my dive on Saturday, somewhere in the vicinity of the armed trawler, HMS Northcoat. This account has been agreed by both of us to be an accurate report of the events of that dive, and we both wish it to be posted to the newsgroup in the hope that it may stimulate constructive discussion and/or prevent others from making the mistakes that we made.

In this post, I shall relate the events of the dive. In following posts Danny and I shall each comment on the where we feel that we each went wrong.

The Dive
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After a stride entry from dive boat, we swam to the shotline, where we paused to catch our breaths. During our descent, I realised that I had neglected to turn my light on. While attempting to do so I let go of the shotline. Danny followed me off the line and the current carried us downstream. Despite not having my light on, Danny was able to see me due to my white-painted tanks. After a somewhat erratic descent, during which I was able to turn my light on, we reached the bottom. After a pause to regain control, we swam upcurrent, hoping to reach the wreck. During this period, Danny became breathless and called the dive.


I deployed my DSMB and we tried to ascend. I noticed that Danny appeared to be unable to achieve positive buoyancy. After fumbling with his inflator, he lost his grip on it and it fell behind his left shoulder, from where he was unable to recover it. I handed him the DSMB and tried the inflator. I noticed bubbles streaming from the connection between the direct feed and corrugated hose and realised that the hose was not properly connected. However, due to the neoprene sleeving over the two hoses (similar to the Custom Divers TDB wing), I was initially unable to grip the connection to try to reconnect it. It took a little time before I was able to roll back the sleeving to expose the connection, detach and reattach the hose. Having done so, I was able to inflate Danny’s wing. During this time, he had begun to hyperventilate, and I felt it best to control the ascent myself.
I was very much aware that I had a buddy who was at best on the edge of panic, and that as long as I remained behind his left shoulder, I was in a position where he could not reach me, should he panic and lash out. From here, I was also able to see his SPG. Unfortunately, this limited my ability to achieve eye-to eye contact, which probably contributed to Danny’s stress.

Danny was attempting to swim and reel us up, which further added to his work-rate and breathing rate. I was unaware of this and was concentrating on limiting the rate of ascent, without realising that much of the force for ascent was due to his kicking.

On surfacing, I fully inflated both of our wings. My next action was to reassure Danny that we were OK. He rapidly calmed down, and I felt that it was unnecessary to signal for help. The boat closed on us and we boarded. While climbing the ladder, Danny stopped - I thought he was just catching your breath before taking the final step onto the boat. However, Danny had reached the point of exhaustion, and was unable to take that final step. The skipper suggested to him that he allow himself to fall sideways onto the deck, which he did.


I am relieved to report that both of us survived the incident without injury.
Iain Smith.


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Iain's Thoughts
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So now that you've read the report, where do I feel that I went wrong?:

I screwed up right at the start, before we even got in the water. On the boat, I was aware that no-one else seemed to be doing the formal buddy check which I always use (primarily because at least 50% of my diving is teaching). This is not to say that buddy checks were not being done, simply that they were probably being done in a more relaxed fashion than I am used to. There was a rather stupid part of me which didn't want to stick out like a sore thumb on my first UKRS sea trip (especially after my screw-up at SETT with the frisbee), so I did not insist on going through Buoyancy-Air-Releases-Zips with Danny, and contented myself with ensuring that my equipment was functioning properly. Had I done so, I expect that I would have found that his direct feed was only partly on. I might also have spotted the potential for his inflator hose to get itself into a position where he could not recover it - something which we found while on the surface before descent, but at that time dealt with it without identifying the potential seriousness of the problem.


Perhaps, in time, I will discover how to do an adequate informal buddy check but until then, every dive I do will involve a formal buddy check - apologies to any future buddies who feel that I'm treating them like trainees, but having survived on this occasion, I don't intend to be that far down the incident pit again due to an omission of basic safety procedures.
The second thing I did wrong was not to pay attention when connecting the canister light's power supply. There are three possible orientations of the lid, of which only one results in a forward/backward orientation of the switch. Either of the others makes it very difficult to flip the switch...and I didn't try to do so until we had started the descent. While trying to flip it, I let go of the line. Two very stupid and basic errors. We should perhaps have called the dive when we reached the seabed, as we were unlikely to find the wreck, however, given the limited window, I think the attempt was worthwhile, whereas calling it would have meant that we had no chance to find it.

In terms of the ascent, I think that I would do the same again - under the circumstances, I felt that only be ensuring my safety could I ensure both of our safety. Perhaps some eye contact after "Going Up. Now." would have reduced Danny's stress, but I am unsure as to how I could have achieved that without exposing myself to what I perceived as a very real threat of an almost-panicking diver

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My Thoughts
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I feel that the lessons I have learnt from this episode are many, as someone said to me last week, you learn something from every dive. I think this dive has proved to me that some dives you learn more from than others!

The backplate/wing configuration I was using was relatively new to me, I had done just under 2 hours on the config in 10m of water since I had adjusted the harness and made the arm loops bigger (I now believe too big). Previous to that I had 3 dives since purchasing the wing. In retrospect I don't think that I had done enough to prepare me for a 30+ meter dive. However in the time I had used the wing I had not had problems getting to the inflator hose once I was under the surface, at the surface I had a couple of problems but did not consider this a
major problem. Lesson learnt. I need to do more dives on the setup and get used to it. Also I need to iron out the problems I have with it. This is going to involve removing the neoprene sleeve form the inflator hose and using a couple of bits of inner tube or similar to hold it in place. I also want to get the setup further up my back so that the inflator hose is in a more natural position to find. This will be practiced in shallow water.


I also scared myself stupid with how quickly me feeling uneasy (just before the ascent) to me being in a state of panic. It was seconds. Having downloaded the profile from my aladin I have looked at my air consumption. My normal is about 25-30 l/min the average for the dive was nearly 60. The peak nearly 100.

When we came to the ascent phase of the dive I did not consider using my drysuit as buoyancy. I think this is because I did not realise that the wing was not working, I was adding gas, thinking that I was heavy the panic had started setting in and I did not consider the problem. If I had I am not sure that I could have fixed it with the neoprene over the LP connector. I also don't know if I could have seen it easily with the hose so high up my shoulder.

As for eye contact on the ascent, I was not panicing as muh as Iain thought, I knew Iain was my ticket to the surface. I think some of the high breathing rate was due to exertion getting up. However in Iain's situation I suspect I would have and still would now do the same. It was the only way of ensuring our safety. I wish now I had the presence of mind to stop finning and reeling us up. Hopefully then the issues would have become apparent. My mental state at the time was not going to let that happen as I only wanted one thing and that very much involved the surface!

Finally when it came to climbing the ladder, I was knackered, I got halfway up the ladder and realised I was going to have serious trouble getting up the rest of the way. The skipper of the boat was keeping hold of me as I took a moment ot catch my breath, I asked him "If I go sideways am I far enough up the ladder to land on the deck". He replied yes, my route onto the boat was now decided.

Thanks to everyone on the boat and especially Iain for sorting me out. I think it's a credit to the ukrs team that nothing more happened.
When the sh!t hit the fan I think anyone can panic. At the end of the day both Iain and I survived the incident without injury. We both learnt and I hope this account will help others learn.

Danny

[paramedic paul]

As for apologising to future buddies for carrying out a check there shouldn't be any need to aoplogise at all, anyone who doesn't realise that it is as much for their safety as anything else doesn't really deserve to be your buddy, they may well be far more experienced etc than you but if they are incapacitated in any way you need to be able to deal with their kit!

I know i'm inexperienced but my regular buddy and i do a check before every dive, even though we know each others kit backwards, just in case!

Just my 2p worth!

[Sparky750]

Again something for me to learn from in this forum and help me feel better for insisting on buddy checks when i dive. Glad you where both ok and thanks for sharing.

[MAKING BUBBLES]

thanks for sharing.... your wiser for the future now.

[Jezza]

Never apologise for a buddy check.

I dive regularly with a bunch of the some of the most experienced divers in the area. Thorough buddy checks are the norm.