I'm about halfway through a book called Diver Down, it's about SCUBA related accidents. Why read a book that's basically true horror stories about the hobby I really enjoy doing? I could sum it up as the same reason people watch NASCAR (which will be the first and only time you ever see that word in this blog), for the crashes. The same reason we can't look away at the replay in super-slow-mo of the running backs knee bending the wrong way after the big hit. But, it's not for reasons like that. Really, it's about knowing what to do in the event of a problem. Though, I must admit, the title of the book should be Diver Down, Because of Poor Decisions Before Entering Water. So, I'm not really getting what I'd like from the book.
Some friends were heading down to the Quarry in Ohio for the weekend. We decided to join them, with our primary goal being diving the deep side and setting a new depth record. Once there, we had to file a deep dive plan and get it approved. That turned into being slightly more difficult because we were required to have one of five extra safety devices, none of which we had. Luckily, our friends had one, a small tank of air called a pony bottle, and they let us borrow it.
Down we went. The pony bottle was thought to be neutral buoyant, but when we reached the 80ft platform, I had my BC inflated more than I ever remember and I was still slowly sinking to the bottom. The little voice from the book said "maybe you should take some weight out", but I continued on. At the 117ft mark, Becca and I placed our hands out together and slowly dipped them down until our computers both read 120ft. Woot, our new goal! As tradition holds, it was high five time and no sooner did we do that when my regulator started free flowing. Our dive plan called for us only to stay down for five minutes or 2000 lbs of air left in our tanks. Becca had already began swimming to a boat that we could see, so she didn't know what was going on with me. The boat was so close, we weren't going to be down long, I figured I'd just keep my eye on how fast my air was going down. This is the point where I did actually think back to the book and I told myself, this is pretty much stupid decision time, and you are doing it. We got to the boat, but that time I was at around 2500 lbs, so it was going down faster than normal, but not that bad. We swam to one more boat and it's at that point I gave Becca the turn around signal and we went back to the platform.
At the platform, or at least the cables that reach to the bottom, I still had around 1800 lbs of air. By the time we reached the actual platform at 80 ft, I was under 1000 lbs. At this point, the heart got beating. Not only were we still down 80 ft, but we needed to do a three minute safety stop at 60ft, plus the normal one at 15ft. At 60ft, I attempted to show Becca what was going on. Looking at her, I could tell she was happy to break our record as she continued to smile happily as we looked at each other. I thought she would think it's odd how bubbles continually flowed from me, but she just happily smiled at me. Unable to think of a signal to explain to her, I choose the obvious of showing her how much air I had left. We are usually very similar with our air consumption on a dive, so when I showed her my computer with now 700 lbs of air in it, her eyes got as big as saucers. She immediately got ready to hand over her regulator if I needed it. I always knew I could fall back on that, but already had it in my head that 500 lbs was my cut over point. We probably stayed at our stop less than normal, but once I got to 500 lbs, I decided to head up again. Low and behold at 50ft my regulator stopped free flowing and all was well. I think I ended with around 300 lbs, which it's typically to end a dive with around 700 lbs. Normally we get a dive of around an hour in, this time it was about a sixteen minute dive.
Although it did get more exciting, it never got to a point where I was in any real danger. If anything, the pony bottle gave me more of an excuse to push on, just knowing I had it just in case. Talking it over with some experienced divers in our group, it was painfully obvious to hear how they would have dealt with the situation. But, that's also one thing that comes with experience. So, even though I'm reading about situations in that book, I think it's more helpful being in them and learning from them after. A new depth record, a few fast heart beats, and knowledge what to do next time we experience a free flow...made for a good dive.
