Got a little wake up call today...

[Nwbrewer]

Never, ever leave your buddy. We've all been taught it in OW class. I try really hard to follow that, and to be attentive. I'm sure sometimes I fall down on that a little, not as attentive as I need to be when I'm task loaded, or focused on something else.

Here's what happened to me today, that gave me a really scary little reminder of why that rule applies until BOTH buddies have their feet dry.

I met up with a dive buddy (not on the board) at Mukilteo T-dock this afternoon. My buddy occasionally dives solo, and has told me so, though I try to dissuade him, I'm not his parents, nor the SCUBA police. He always wears doubles, and always slings a 40. We geared up, and had a fairly uneventful low tide 63 minute dive up towards the refueling pier and back. I mention the TDT, because like a moron, I had not taken advantage of the opportunity to ah... "use the facilities" before the dive.

We surfaced and swam towards the beach. The tide had come in some, and standing depth water put us right into a large amount of basketball sized rocks just south of the T-dock. I was having a lot of trouble getting some footing to get upright and get my fins off, and kind of drifted south a bit. I was somewhat motivated to get out of my drysuit and off to the head, and this is where I lost focus on my dive buddy.

I had drifted maybe 10-15 yards away in waist deep water while fighting to get some footing. I looked away from my buddy trying to find a decent spot to stand up. When I looked up my dive buddy was face down in the water thrashing around like crazy, as the doubles and slung 40 were difficult for him to manage.

My only thought was "Holy crap I killed him. I wasn't there. MOVE!"

I'm not sure I've ever covered 15 yards of water that fast in my entire life. Definitely not in SCUBA gear. By the time I was half way to him he kind of rolled a little upright and I could see the Reg in his mouth. Talk about a "Thank God moment".

I got to him, grabbed him, slipped a bunch more on the rocks before we both finally got upright and balanced. We then took turns steadying each other to get fins off and climb the rest of the way out.

It ended ok, but if he hadn't been holding his reg in his hand, or had panicked when he fell sideways, it might not have.

Anyway that's my story and my wake up call for today. Never leave your buddy. Not even in waist deep water.

So for those of you that I dive with occasionally, expect to be annoyed with me hovering over you, offering to help you with your fins or whatever at the end of a dive from now on. You're just going to have to put up with it.

Be safe out there folks. The S- hits the fan rather quickly.

Jake

[Burntchef]

thanks for sharing jake, great story for all. for me the dive aint over till my ass is on my tailgate. ( usually kens too!!)

[dwashbur]

Wow! What a lesson. Thanks for sharing that, it's something I never thought about before.

[mattwave]

Ahhh the lessons water never stops teaching us, how important it is we share and learn.
Good show Jake.

[Joshua Smith]

You did good, Jake. I'd dive with you, any time.

[airsix]

Threads like this are a very good thing. Thanks for scaring me a little, Jake. What I mean is it scared me to think of situations I've been in where something like that could have happened. Thanks for re-shaping my behavior.

-Ben

[LCF]

One of the things I tell anybody who dives with me is that I often need a little help getting out of the water. There are few feelings in the world more helpless than floundering in knee-deep water in doubles, although thank GOD for necklaced regulators. I've been rolled in the surf in California twice, also scary.

Lots of good things to think about -- never going near the water unless valves are on and checked; having a backup regulator where you can find it and put it in your mouth if you fall; staying with your buddy until everybody is high and dry.

Great thing to share, thanks.

[spatman]

glad everything turned out ok. that's a scenario i would never have thought of on my own. thanks for the lesson, jake.

[Sounder]

Jake - was there any more information about why he was pinned? Was it just the weight of his rig or was there another factor contributing to the problem? Now that the adrenline has worn off, I'm curious to hear any specifics you can remember.

Thanks again for posting bud!

[Nwbrewer]

He wasn't really pinned, he just couldn't get his feet back under him. It's the same issue I was having. Anybody who's dove the T-dock much knows that right south of the pier there are a bunch of basketball sized rocks that are spaced apparently less than a fin length appart, covered in growth.

Neither of us could get our footing, I was just drifting south trying to get on the sand and find footing, he was still trying to stand up in place. I think once he got off center and lost control of the rig, it went sideways and it wasn't deep enough to swim, or to get his feet under him in the rocks.

From now on I surface swim south first.

[Sounder]

He wasn't really pinned, he just couldn't get his feet back under him. It's the same issue I was having. Anybody who's dove the T-dock much knows that right south of the pier there are a bunch of basketball sized rocks that are spaced apparently less than a fin length appart, covered in growth.

Neither of us could get our footing, I was just drifting south trying to get on the sand and find footing, he was still trying to stand up in place. I think once he got off center and lost control of the rig, it went sideways and it wasn't deep enough to swim, or to get his feet under him in the rocks.

From now on I surface swim south first.

Aaah, the footing issue makes sense.

As others have said, it's another reason to enter the water with your air turned on, having a working reg secured in a place where you can get it, and having your BC inflated.

[airsix]

Lots of good things to think about -- never going near the water unless valves are on and checked; having a backup regulator where you can find it and put it in your mouth if you fall; staying with your buddy until everybody is high and dry.

Sounder beat me to it - can't forget buoyancy device inflated. Don't forget the guy who drowned about 2 yrs ago in shallow water because he fell on his back in doubles with an empty wing and no reg in his mouth. (shudder) My rule since then is if I'm wearing my kit the wing is full unless I'm submerged - especially if I'm on my feet and near the water.

-Ben

[Nwbrewer]

Lots of good things to think about -- never going near the water unless valves are on and checked; having a backup regulator where you can find it and put it in your mouth if you fall; staying with your buddy until everybody is high and dry.

Sounder beat me to it - can't forget buoyancy device inflated. Don't forget the guy who drowned about 2 yrs ago in shallow water because he fell on his back in doubles with an empty wing and no reg in his mouth. (shudder) My rule since then is if I'm wearing my kit the wing is full unless I'm submerged - especially if I'm on my feet and near the water.

-Ben

Yep, though in this case we were on the exit, his wing was maybe halfway full, though I'm not sure in this case his wing fully inflated would have been a good thing, it may have just made it harder for him to go upright (forcing his face down) I don't know how much lift his wing has, but I think I saw a family of cubans on the news use on to get to Florida. It's huge.

[Tom Nic]

Great post Jake... thanks for telling the story.

I too am not the stablest coming in and out of the water... (something about being old, bad knees, fat, 100lbs of crap on my back, etc. etc. etc.) and have taken to being VERY careful in that process. Sites where you can't get a good footing are dangerous, quite frankly, and real care needs to be taken getting in and out.

Ditto on the necklaced back-up reg, LCF. Having access to a reg NOW in any situation is one of the main reasons I switched to that configuration. And ditto to having your tanks ON before you ever hit the water. I could grab my back up reg in the event of a stumble and loss of primary, but if it's not on it won't do me alot of good. And remember, folks drown in their bathtub every year...

Great thoughts people!

-Tom

[Sounder]

Great post Jake... thanks for telling the story.

I too am not the stablest coming in and out of the water... (something about being old, bad knees, fat, 100lbs of crap on my back, etc. etc. etc.) and have taken to being VERY careful in that process. Sites where you can't get a good footing are dangerous, quite frankly, and real care needs to be taken getting in and out.

Ditto on the necklaced back-up reg, LCF. Having access to a reg NOW in any situation is one of the main reasons I switched to that configuration. And ditto to having your tanks ON before you ever hit the water. I could grab my back up reg in the event of a stumble and loss of primary, but if it's not on it won't do me alot of good. And remember, folks drown in their bathtub every year...

Great thoughts people!

-Tom

Not going down any "philosophies of diving" roads, the necklaced back-up is REALLY great consideration for any diver.

The benefit is having a regulator totally secured beneath your chin, always. If you drop your primary reg, it may go somewhere you can't easily recover it. If your octopus comes unclipped or comes out of whatever device is holding it, it too can be lost where it isn't easily recovered. Having that regulator on a necklace that it can't easily come out of really adds a margin of safety that I enjoy.

My 2psi.

[Nwbrewer]

Yep to that too. He had a bungeed reg, though in this case he didn't need it as he had control of his long hose reg. He also sould have grabbed the reg on his 40 I suppose if it came to it. All very well and good as long as you don't freak out, which thank god he didn't.

From his perspective I don't think it was quite as frightening, as after he got his reg in he KNEW he had air and was basically just thrashing around just trying to get his feet under him. From my perspective it looked more like a paniced diver with no air.

[Sounder]

From his perspective I don't think it was quite as frightening, as after he got his reg in he KNEW he had air and was basically just thrashing around just trying to get his feet under him. From my perspective it looked more like a paniced diver with no air.

Hindsight is always 20/20... You didn't ASSUME he had his reg though, good call. You reacted as though the worst possible scenerio was happening and changed the level of your response once you KNEW he had air... better to assume the worst and have him be fine than assume he's fine and find later than he was in a bad place.

[Pez7378]

Never, ever leave your buddy. We've all been taught it in OW class. I try really hard to follow that, and to be attentive.............................

.................. Never leave your buddy. Not even in waist deep water.

So for those of you that I dive with occasionally, expect to be annoyed with me hovering over you, offering to help you with your fins or whatever at the end of a dive from now on. You're just going to have to put up with it.

Be safe out there folks. The S- hits the fan rather quickly.

Jake

No problems Jake, thanks for sharing this experience. You are a very attentive dive buddy and I've never thought otherwise. Now get your grubby paws off of me!

[airsix]

I too am not the stablest coming in and out of the water...

Nobody is! Just feel lucky. My last shore exit was broadcast on the local 6:00 news. I didn't fall on my can, but it didn't exactly look like ballroom dancing, either.

-Ben

[CaptnJack]

Nice, glad to see a repeat of last year's Alki pipeline fatality was averted.

[Nwbrewer]

Nice, glad to see a repeat of last year's Alki pipeline fatality was averted.

Yeah, I think reading about that is probably why it scared me so much.

[LCF]

I had an experience at Les Davis that was akin to this -- I was leading a dive at very high tide, and the water was essentially opaque. I knew there were submerged rocks at the entry, but I thought I'd cleared them, so I sped up my pace and promptly slammed my shin into one of them and went flat down on my face. My primary reg was still clipped off, but I did have air in my wing. I had a moment of near panic and then I just grabbed the backup reg and stuck it in my mouth, turned over, popped my head out of the water, smiled and told my buddies, "Watch out, there's a rock there!"

It could have been a much bigger deal if I hadn't been able to find a reg quickly, because of course I wasn't prepared for holding my breath, didn't have my mask on, etc.

[lurch]

I've been there. Broke up a buddy team of 4 becuase I didn't remember the pre-dive breifing.

I was (much too) kindly re-educated afterwards by a very knowledgeable instructor whom I should have paid attention to in the first place. ](*,)

Jake: check your PM inbox.

[Fishstiq]

Another similar experience... i tripped over myself and fell on myself, face down in about knee-deep water. Firm, sandy bottom be danged, i could not get up. Because i wasn't "diving", it never really occured to me to put my secondary in my mouth, and I got a good gulp of seawater before i was able to kneel up and get some air. I was coughing up seawater for the next hour or so. The whole thing took about 5-10 seconds, but that can be a long time when you are breathing hard from carrying gear and fighting surf andwhatever else. The person I was diving with saw me trip and laughed their off, never realising I was having a legit problem.

Jake, thanks for the reminder.

[thelawgoddess]

thanks for the share, nwbrewer. glad everything turned out okay. being a good buddy definitely takes more awareness and effort than just being a "good diver" ...