A new divers intruduction to the incident pit.

[Jules]

A question was raised on another thread about what happens when some one who taught you dive then takes you on a dive once you are qualified. The thought being that even though you are no longer "under instruction" as a new diver you are still looking to the person for help and support.

I had a series of little incidents on one dive which don't sound much now but at the time scared the living daylights out of me and made me really think hard about my diving.

So, I was about 20 dives into my career. OW then some holiday dives then AOW in the sea in uk.

Went on a trip organised by the dive centre I trained with. "a wreck in 30m near anglesey".

Turned up with standard kit, single dumpy 12, small torch, no buddy. Got buddied up with someone similarly inexperienced.

Buddy check and went diving down the shot which was attached to the wreck.

First incident: Suit inflator stuck on. This had never happened to me before and it took me a while to realise what was going on and why I had to keep on dumping air out of my suit. Realised the problem and removed the inflator hose.

In the process of removing the inflator hose I lost both the shot line and my buddy. With hind sight, given my level of experience, the usual anglesey viz etc I should have returned to the surface but I knew no better than to keep going down and see if I could meet my buddy on the sea bed.

Second problem; Hit the seabed which was 40m not 30m. The guy organising the dive had not allowed for high water slack. Elementary mistake which I now understand as a BSAC Dive leader but had no clue about then. Ignorance is bliss.

So there I was on the seabed at 40m with a single 12l from which I had used a lot already, breathing heavily and actually very narked. (I have never dived deeper than 30 m previously and that was my deep dive with an instructor on my AOW)

ALL ALONE AND VERY SCARED

I was just about to start free ascending (had no SMB or any training on how to use it then) when i saw a dim light in the distance I followed it and it led to the instructor who was on the wreck wit my buddy. He was waving his torch to signal

We did a really short dive as I was in the cycle of computer/gauge/computer /gauge that you do when you are narked as hell and terrified and then we returned to the surface up the shot line. Boy was I glad when i got there.


This is classic example of the incident pit. In dealing with the fairly trivial problem of a stuck inflator valve everything else went to pot.

This is also a classic example of a novice diver not knowing what she is getting herself into and just putting far too much into the decisions made by others.

I was not ready to do a 40m dive, nor was I adequately equipped, with just a 12 and no alternate air source and a crappy torch that isnt even as good my back up torch now. No DSMB and no training on how to use it. No real understanding of the effects of narcosis but assumed that it was all fine because no one else said otherwise.

I did learn a hell of a lot from it, subsequently bought a DSMB and reel and got more training and practice on how to use them. Got decent torch too but mostly I learned to ask a lot of questions about the planned dive and not trust to others.

I do accept that one of the problems with "internet diving" can be that less experienced people don't know what they dont know, this was definitely the case here and so I do think those of us who are more experienced absolutely have the responsibility (moral if not legal) to help less experienced people develope their diving safely without too many quantum leaps as you can naively get into a situation that you aren't preparred for..


Last 40 m dive I did I had my twin 7s and a stage and i shudder to think with so little experience I did that dive on a 12 and basic training kit.

Jules

[Mal Bridgeman]

Great write up.

Mal

[David Tombs]

I agree re write up. Abolutely agree with the you dont know what you dont know comment.The first real mistake was pairing two such inexperienced divers on such a dive.Plucking up courage to write mine up!

[Crazy Badger]

Agree about write up, but even at OW level (all I've done) you are taught to return to the surface if you loose your buddy. Doing anything else is asking for trouble?

[Jules]

Originally Posted by Crazy Badger

Agree about write up, but even at OW level (all I've done) you are taught to return to the surface if you loose your buddy. Doing anything else is asking for trouble?

I was pretty well at the bottom before I finished faffing with the suit connector, and yes then realised i had lost the shot and my buddy, PADI trains you to look for 1 minute and that's when i saw the torch. MAybe I didnt explain that very well.

The point was I was waaay out of my depth literally and very narked.

[Daz217]

I did something similar when i was a novice diver with about 10 logged dives although i have no excuces other than stupidity coupled with inexperience.
We were in the sound of mull skipper says the depth to the Sea bed is 17M. We kit up during which time the boat drifts out from it's original position. We jump in, I am overweighted by a fair bit as i had just started using a drysuit and thought i needed the weight to get down.
Thinking the Sea bed is at 17M i deflate everything and start a descent. I fail to look at my guages fail to notice the speed of my descent and fail to notice my buddies are no where in sight. I hit the Sea bed at 37M when i began to wonder where my buddies were. On looking at my guages i saw how deep i was. I suppose because i was so inexperienced i was not afraid and thankfully one of my buddies had followed me down. He later told me he had been trying to halt my descent but could not catch up with me.
If the Sea bed had been 70M i do not know at what point if any i would have realised my error.
The incident still makes me shudder at the thought i could so easily have killed myself but for good fortune namely the Sea bed at 37M and not 70+
Furthermore the guy who came down after me says he had almost caught me as i hit the Sea bed so he was fairly confident he would have stopped me before i got much deeper.
We managed to ascend safely without any panic.
He remains my best mate some 15 years after this incident and i love diving with him to this day although he says i've got a bit better of late lol.
The other buddy who was far more experienced than me at that time halted his descent at 20M and i am sure if there had only been me and him in the water he would have let me go and surfaced alone. As i say it still scares me to this day what i did on that dive.
Needless to say i've not made the same mistake again. i learnt how to use my Drysuit and how to weight myself properly i also learnt never to take anyone's word on depths and moinitor my guages on descent.