I was reading this article posted by someone on the divers’ forum about a divemaster who took two inexperienced divers down to a wreck that has a maximum depth of 50 meters. The divers, Gerry and Anne, had 14 and 11 open water dives respectively, making them very green in the world of diving. The divemaster, in his brief, reminded the two not to go deeper than 45 meters, 15 meters deeper than the normal recreational diving depth. Both Gerry and Anne had never gone deeper than 24 meters.
10 minutes into the dive, Gerry found himself alone on the deck of the wreck. Anne was missing. Then he saw the divemaster above him who gave him a thumbs-up signal (in diving, thumbs up means “ascend”). Gerry thought to himself, “Good. He wants me to stay put.” Before he knew it, in an obvious panic, the divemaster had inflated his Buoyancy Compensator Device (BDC) and Gerry found himself in an uncontrolled ascent, going faster as he went higher as the volume of air in his BCD expands.
Gerry was sent to a nearby recompression chamber for treatment of suspected air embolism or Decompression Sickness (DCS). Anne, however, was never found until today.
First and foremost, what was the divemaster thinking taking recreational divers to depths beyond their training limit? Gerry was obviously having severe narcosis as he had misunderstood the “ascend” signal altogether. Never ever inflate your BCD on your way up unless you want a fast ticket to hell.
Recreational divers are limited to 30 meters for obvious reasons. It would be the “safest” depth for divers to go without requiring any decompression stops – meaning only a normal safety stop at 5 meters for 3 minutes is sufficient (although I would normally perform deep stops to make “off-gassing” of the residual nitrogen bubbles in my bloodstream more efficient). Being in technical diving requires me to be a self-sufficient diver – being able to dive alone: I have to calculate, plan and manage my gas consumption as well as my decompression stops. I would have been trained on narcosis management.
Even then, when in Sipadan, I informed the divemasters that I would be going alone, and deep. So I stayed between 40 to 50 meters, taking photos of the divers above me, and was hoping to bump into a school of Hammerhead Sharks (though none were seen throughout the trip), monitoring my air consumption every 10 minutes, and also my no-decompression limit. I also kept my mind busy to manage my narcosis level. Still, I did not ascend quick enough to avoid going into decompression dive mode, and had to perform deep decompression stops, staying longer above the 12-meter level. Still, during one dive, Kapal Selam followed me without my knowing, down to 40 meters. I had to guide him throughout the decompression process. Luckily it was the last dive of the second day then.
Going back to the stry of Gerry and Anne, although they are new, they are qualified divers and should plan their own dives. Many divers take for granted the requirement to plan their own dives, instead putting total trust on their divemasters. Be a thinking diver and use your common sense. never go beyond the limitations of your training.
Everything is safe to do until you decide to push the envelope.
SeaDemon Says 