Buddy Behaviour During Emergency

[SnuFPunK]

In case this happends, what should the buddy do ?

2 friends go for a free dive, ones PB is 28 meters, the others is 35 meters.
The maximum depth at the diving location is 42 Meters (it is a fixed bouy to alert boats that they are within 150 meters of the beach, a typical location in my area), the two make a couple of deep dives and then the one with the PB of 35 descends and doesnt come back within 4 minutes, which are way past the time he should have been back. How should the buddy act ?

~ Snuffs

[The Killer's me]

it is tough mate...i hope it will not happen to me or to any other Freediver...from the begining dont go for deep dives bec in such cases the only solution is to call a scuba diver to collect the dead body from the bottom.

[JPPLAY]

The time the other person gets down to 45 meters if they can make it and return with the body I would expect the other diver to be dead. No chance of CPR working.
The only thing I see is the person with the pb doing the best dive they can not pushing past their limits and if they are lucky finding the other diver at that level as it must be remembered if they find the other person they still need to be able to get him or her to the surface.
What made you worried about a deep water blackout at those depths?

[efattah]

There is another option, although I don't recommend it, because you would probably die as well in the process. The last ditch method of freediver rescue is a variable weight dive. The idea is to use all the weight you have access to, and then ditch that weight at the bottom.

Sometimes all you have is your weight belt, which you can ditch at the bottom. But, if you have access to someone else's weight belt (for example if there are two guys at the surface with pb's of 30m), then you can take BOTH weight belts down with you and drop BOTH at the bottom, and the weight belt of your dying friend as well.

If there are three divers total, then there is yet another method, it is called the sacrificial rescue. The idea is to rescue your friend (probably in variable weight), knowing that you will black out around 10-15m on the ascent. Then, it is up to the 3rd man to rescue both of you, he would be waiting at that depth....

However, DO NOT attempt what I have described. It is insanely dangerous (especially if you have never tried it), and you would almost certainly die.

I was once in a situation similar to this. I was the safety freediver at a competition. I rescued the first competitor at who blacked out at 15m and dragged her to the surface (very exhausting!) Then, 5 minutes later the next diver went down. I went to meet him at 25m (I was still out of breath from the last rescue!!). I waited and waited and he didn't show up (turns out the bottom plate was 21m too deep: 71m instead of 50m).

I started getting contractions and finally I saw the diver coming up (no fins). He knew he was in trouble and aborted by grabbing the line and starting free immersion. He came in front of me and blacked out right in front of me around 23m. I was already running low on air, and I had to pull him all the way back up (with bifins). Dragging up a dead diver is about 3 times harder than a regular ascent, so a 23m ascent with a dead diver is like a 69m ascent without the diver (after already a LONG hang at 25m...). The 2nd safety freediver was at the surface (he had already run out of air). The visibility in the first 10m was extremely low (1-2m) so it was not possible to see anything from the surface.

By the time I reached 10m on the ascent, I thought for sure I was going to black out (still holding the unconscious diver in my hands). There was no one around in the murky green water... just me, and the guy I was carrying...

I could only hope that the people at the surface would eventually come down to look for me (I had no lanyard on, but the unconscious diver did -- but if I BO and let go, I sink away...)

As I neared the surface my vision was fading fast and I couldn't think clearly anymore. I got to the surface and don't really remember the first few seconds -- but the moment I caught my breath I started trying to rescuscitate the BO'd diver. Eventually someone took over, and it took about 3 minutes to bring him back.

[island_sands]

Originally Posted by SnuFPunK

In case this happends, what should the buddy do ?

2 friends go for a free dive, ones PB is 28 meters, the others is 35 meters.
The maximum depth at the diving location is 42 Meters (it is a fixed bouy to alert boats that they are within 150 meters of the beach, a typical location in my area), the two make a couple of deep dives and then the one with the PB of 35 descends and doesnt come back within 4 minutes, which are way past the time he should have been back. How should the buddy act ?

~ Snuffs

I would say that if your PB is less than your buddy's, its his risk to dive deeper than you are able to save him!

2 friends who go for a free dive should agree on a maximum so that you can rescue each other safely in case this happens.

[Mullins]

Bit dodgy to be diving on a fixed line like that with no means of retrieval. Even a manual retrieval would be much better than nothing for those sort of depths. Much safer for the safety diver and possibly just as quick as going down there and hauling them up (slower rate of ascent but you can begin retrieving line as soon as you think there's a problem, without needing to spend 40-50 seconds in transit to the bottom). Very difficult if it was a thin, hard-to-grip line though. And almost impossible with a heavy baseplate.

I'm interested to hear people's thoughts on this, as this is how we dive in lake Taupo down here in NZ. No automatic retrieval system but a light baseplate and several people in the water (normally 3-5) who could pull the whole lot up if anything went wrong.

4 mins would be way too long to wait for a diver going to 42m. More like 2...

[efattah]

Diving on fixed line is very dangerous. It reminds me of the old days of freediving (<=2001) before lanyards were in common use. You go down, and if you have a problem down there, then RIP....

And as Yasemin Dalkilic said so wisely:

"If you haven't a problem when you're down there, then you haven't dived enough times."

[DeepThought]

Another tip to the arsenal: consider going down free immersion if you think it conserves more energy for you (practice this first, and some fixed lines have burning soft corals on them, so maybe consider bringing gloves).

It is good to consider a safety dive as a max dive regarding preparation.

Also, if you two are doing deep line diving to near PB depth you are not practicing the buddy procedure properly if you wait on the surface. Plan with your friend when to descend so you could meet him at 15m (or even deeper), so if something went wrong and he blacked out on ascend you might catch him before sinking.

I understand this post might be asking about a deep blackout, but it wasn't clear as you didn't mention the safety even diving, just waiting on the surface.

[SnuFPunK]

Thank you for the usefull input !
Training with a buddy is new to me, Ive only been training alone so far...
Just recently Ive started to ponder upon the consequences and responsibility involved when training with a buddy.

~ Snuffs

[DiverTodd]

This was a very smart idea, though...running through a "what if?" scenario keeps us ALL sharp on what we should do in emergency situations.

Todd