Saftety and recreation freedives

[rbsub]

Safety and recreation freedives

Following situation:

The water is 20 m deep, the visibility from the surface to the depth is 5-7 m. My buddy and me want to do some recreation freedives for watching fishes (between 10 and 20 m). No rope and buoy can be used because you change your location.

I know that most of the freedivers (and spearos) don't care about such a situation and dive alone.

But what is to be considered to do do such dives in a safety way?

Should we dive together? With a lanyard? Or should one wait for the other? What about a safety protocol?

 

[rbsub]

No ideas :-(

 

[jimqpublic]

Okay, since none of the wiser heads have responded I'll have a go. Most of this is paraphrasing what I've heard elsewhere.

In the Performance Freediving class, Kirk Krack stated that in his experience approximately 90% of hypoxic incidents (LMC, Samba, Blackout) occur after the diver has surfaced, 9% occur in the final several meters of ascent, and only 1% occur at deeper levels.

So even if visibility is zero, the safety partner can still be a very valuable asset simply by making sure the diver's airway doesn't go back into the water if he loses control at the surface. No real rescue skills are needed other than getting to the surfacing diver and giving support if he has a LMC. This would cover 90% of the incidents.

Next is the issue of LMC in the last several meters of ascent. As long as the diver is positively buoyant abouve 10 meters, he would float up to the surface. In this case more aggresive rescue techniques might be required, but a safety partner on the surface would still be there for the rescue.

If the visibility allows it, the safety partner will watch the final ascent, but this only works if the diver is surfacing where he dropped. If vis is low and there isn't a weighted dive line this doesn't seem as useful as scanning the surface.

The other day I was trying to watch a partner in just a couple meters of visibility and I gave up on trying to see him ascend under water. We had a dive line but the current made it slant so he was surfacing beyond the range of my visibility. It seemed more useful to watch the surface and my timer (he made me nervous with a 1:55 dive)

In an area that doesn't have entanglement hazards maybe each diver should hold a low resistance float line so their partner can keep track of them from the surface. I wouldn't want an attached lanyard due to the potential for entanglement.

That's my thought. The same process should work for spearfishing as well. Of course you would have to share your secret spots and agree to never shoot up, only down.

 

[rbsub]

Thank you. I like the idea with the small float line. I think I will need one.

What I understand is, that it is always better that one of the buddies is at the surface to help in case of LMC, BO etc. and not to dive together.

Should they both make some kind of surface protocol (is a OK-sign enough)?

What I noticed too (be reading ontother thread) is, that it is not wise to wear one of these cool looking camoflage suits or to have a white (?) sign on the back or head. So you can be better watched.

In another thread Trux recommended to (always?) release the buckle of your weight belt and keep the hand on it. This too seems to me an option to make such dives safer. I think I will give that a try.

 

[browneuan025837]

know your health condition first

My friend I belive for better safty during any dive, it's very important to know your current health condition. always spend some time with your buddy before the dive, especially if the person is someone you have not dived with before. You’ll get a feel for his or her personality, skill and comfort level, all of which can affect your dive. Also look for signs of fear, stress and nervousness. If you aren’t comfortable having that person as a buddy, you can request someone else or back out of the dive.

 

[cdavis]

Don't know how I missed this thread. Good question that applies to a lot of divers.

Almost all my diving is doing what you do, a little deeper and a lot clearer water, but basicly the same. Diving one up, one down, works fine. Three divers are much better, no long surface wait. With 5 m of surface vis, you should not have too much trouble keeping track of your buddy on the surface. It may take some teamwork and coordination if you are trying to cover a lot of ground on the bottom. We don't try to meet the diver and ascend with him, unless any of us decide to push it and notify the others. Just recognize that this is not competition and don't stretch. If there is current, or just for peace of mind, a light bouy and line can help keep track of the diver. He just grabs the weight and swims with it, everybody else follows, no problem.

The temptation is to slowly get scattered out, not be right next to the surfacing diver and/or not watch him for six breaths. Takes discipline to keep it up. Another safety item is timing the dive. Most divers have a pretty standard dive time. Timing will tell you when to get concerned, well before its too late.

One other thing you need to recognize. Because you (we) are trimming back on the safety protocols, if trouble arises, you will need to be more on top of things than if you are meeting the diver at depth, etc. Have you practiced rescue procedures with your buddies? Are you consistent on staying near and watching the surfacing diver, etc?

Nice to see somebody taking about what I think of as "real diving"

Connor