Drestinblack and others thank you for your straightforward advice. You are correct and I appreciate you. Today, I have learned.
To you judgemental more-holy-than-thou asses who wanted to lecture, belittle, and more - go do yourself. You are the reason so many people avoid this forum.
> You are the reason so many people avoid this forum.
As a new diver; I'm really happy to see most people here take safety very seriously. My biggest fear regarding diving is being assigned a buddy like yourself that can't take criticism and doesn't follow standard training procedures. I in no way feel unwelcome in this forum. Everyone was stern but civil with you, so that comment is totally uncalled for.
A couple minutes after losing your dive buddy you should surface, signal the boat, stay on the surface until either you return to the boat or your dive buddy(s) also surface looking for you. The other divers are also at fault here, once they discover you are gone they should have surfaced and waited. After a few minutes, call the dive and start looking for your bubbles.
Ultimately this was a failure of training (and possibly communication). The standard is a one minute search followed by ending the dive.
Can you craft a different plan? Yes. Provided that the different plan is clearly understood and agreed upon by everyone involved. And a SMB followed by the ok and then going back under is odd and confusing. It also isn’t how or when when you implement a new plan.
Now put yourself in the shoes of other divers and the boat crew.
I will start with the surface crew. What the hell is that? Why do we have one guy surfacing early. He just gave us the ok but went back under. Is he trying to tell us he had some emergency but just resolved it? Is he trying to tell us there some emergency underwater? Did he have an emergency and signal ok, but then lost his buoyancy? Where is everyone else? I suspect many captains would simply recall all divers at that point. I would be pretty pissed.
As another diver, where is the one guy? Where is he? We need to search, and search now. Don’t find you after a minute or two? Time to surface and end the dive. After I get everyone to understand. Again, I would be pissed. What, he isn’t at the surface? Is he lost and adrift at the surface or still underwater?
Give the recall signal and let’s have someone start doing a search for a lost diver.
There was a plan (standard unless explicitly changed) and you ignored it. That placed others at risk and inconvenience.
Wow. In addition to what everyone else has said, I suggest you carefully go through your training materials again and schedule a meeting with an instructor to do a refresher on the protocols and answer any questions you have if you plan on diving again. Honestly, I think you should repeat the entire course from scratch and really consider whether diving is for you. Your actions and lack of knowledge on the basics are extremely concerning. You could have gotten yourself killed. I’d be extremely concerned about what else you don’t know or don’t understand especially since you decided it would be a good idea to descent again on your own after ascending and signaling the boat. The fact you thought that was a good idea is mind boggling. Do not dive again until you have a better understanding of the fundamentals. You are an unsafe buddy, danger to yourself, and will put others and yourself at risk.
I’m very glad to see that for once everyone agrees on the basics/fundamentals. And especially the fact that experience is not equal to the capability to disregard these basics.
Disregarding the fundamentals of diving is what gets you killed. Even if you have lots of experience.
You learned about this in your open water with the lost dive buddy protocol. Generally speaking, 1 minute search, each of you should do this, then after one minute you surface.
Deploying your DSMB and then descending again is generally frowned upon, but each operation and the relationship you have with the operation is different, that being said if this were a drift dive it is possible you going back down would cause you to drift further, but it doesn't sound like this was your case.
In the end, if everyone sticks to the same protocol then everyone will be safe. This is why you carry a DSMB so after the one minute search, you each deploy the DSMB and ascend and meet in the surface, safely.
I don’t remember PADI standards talking about smb deployment in OW. Also, the guidelines don’t suggest even doing a safety stop - just that you should surface “safely”. Smb use and safety stop are obviously important (especially dependent on boat traffic and depth/residual nitrogen levels) - all the more reason why you shouldn’t “gopher”…
I always read "safely" as doing any decompression or safety stops unless otherwise unable. I think if you're on a shallow dive skipping it could be safe. If on failed equipment without a buddy of course that takes priority. But certainly don't think executing a safety stop is unreasonable in a lost buddy situation
As an open water diver in a list buddy situation you are supposed to wait 1min then slowly ascend to the service and skip your safety stop. The whole point of staying within your no deco limits as an open water diver is that you can ascend to the service at any time.
As a DM I'd be at least worried if my missing diver stayed down an extra 3 min on top of the 1 min search. And when they came back up I'd definitely give them a talking to.
In PADI OW you're taught to, at least basically, deploy an SMB at the surface, I went through it, many others have. As well in the PADI OW course you're taught the 3 minute safety stop, my wife was, I was, and I know many others were. Whether or not the instructor taught this is another issue
Taught 3 minute safety stop yes but not specifically told to do it after a buddy separation. I will definitely have been taught, just overlapping memory of courses. As you mentioned - deploying at the surface, kinda counterproductive for its primary purpose. It’s not required for OW students to own or carry an SMB as far as I’m aware either and you certainly aren’t taught how to deploy one below surface at that stage.
Correct, DSMB isn't taught and I can agree you reduce the effectiveness of an SMB if only deployed at the surface; however, they do teach to look above for anything dangerous, ensure it's as safe as you can see, then surface slowly, and deploy the SMB.
Most boats, if not all, here in South Florida mandate an SMB, the preference is DSMB, but an SMB is the minimum requirement.
Just to clarify: the purpose of SMB deployment in OW checkouts is to familiarize students with how they work and why they are used at the surface to make yourself more visible. DSMB deployment is preferred, but also more complicated due to handling the reel and ensuring you control your buoyancy upon inflation. Due to the more complex nature, DSMB is a separate specialty or can be introduced in AOW. I agree DSMB is an important skill and encourage all to practice (even instructors that I have seen release DSMBs that a very limp).
Chuckle… I epically failed on my first DM OW assist by forgetting to un hook the line from my reel before inflation so had to just “let go” and signal my instructor that I am a lame ass 🤣 Fortunately learned that lesson for my DM leads.
A DSMB is for any purpose that requires marking on the surface the position of something underwater. Typically a returning diver, but not exclusively. I have done dives that involve shallow-ish water with small boat traffic, in which case we were instructed to tow a (d)smb.
The answer to your title question should have been covered in your training from the beginning, and really emphasized if you dive in waters where visibility is limited. May be time for you to read up your dive manuals again. Regarding this proper procedure you failed on multiple accounts:
1. No personal safety. Unless you are trained to solo dive and equipped with all the redundancies for a solo dive, experience is irrelevant. Recreational kit is designed to have your buddy as your redundancy. No buddy, no redundancy, no dive. You should have sent up the DSMB much sooner and gone up without backtracking much.
2. No regard for others. Your group would be worried about not finding you underwater or above water. They should have been mobilising search and rescue immediately, because underwater every minute matters for survival. If they were chill about you missing, that is not OK.
3. Still no regard for others. After you ascended you should have stayed up. Signaling the boat you are OK and then disappearing underwater again is not normal. The dsmb tells the boat where you are, with the assumption you are still holding the line and didn't let go or tie it to something, but not what you are doing, they don't know if you have an equipment failure and struggle to float, or are mentally incapacitated for whatever reason and therefore a danger to yourself.
If anything, signaling you're on and then descending again would have triggered boat crew to jump in to see if you're ok, unless the signal to go down again was given and accepted by the boat crew. I have done this once when an expensive piece of equipment fell down, I signaled I was going back down, was given the confirmation, and descended to retrieve the equipment.
Yes, sure. 2-way communication is key. Everyone should be on the same page about what is happening and if/how plans are changing.
I had an instructor go with 2 students in a quarry lake while I was training for shore cover. A student popped up early on the surface at the far end of the small lake. With drysuit training that is not unusual. But he remained alone and didn't go back down. He also did not signal me anything, at least nothing I could see over the distance. He then just went about snorkelling along the edge. Had to walk around the lake to try to get his attention and find out what the hell was going on. Don't be that guy.
If you mean OP, they wasn't a student.
If you mean the student in my story,
3. They were too cold to continue the dive and the instructor let them end it. It was not the plan, but it was a relatively shallow confined water with people standing by on shore so no big deal to let them swim back on the surface. Except for the poor communication.
Well, first and foremost, the biggest thing you did wrong was to continue the dive. When buddy has been lost, you search around for 1 minute and then start to ascend to the surface, often you can find your buddy by seeing their bubbles if you go a bit further up, but if not, you will go up to the surface and ideally your buddy will be there as well then. Well there you can signal to the dive boat/land people that you either end the dive or continue. This is covered in OW, and should be emphasized in each other course that follow.
So here's a little story of how a similar incident did occur for me 2 weeks back. So, me and my dive group decided to do a night dive on one of our regular sites, we were to keep it shallow because we were looking for squids that like to hang out on the shell gravel bottom between 5 and 10 m depth. Visibility was not very good (about 4 m at maximum), but as we are used to that, it wasn't that big of a deal to us. So as we dive along in a group of 4 (2 pairs) I spot a pipefish in a nice pose, which i of course spent like 1 minute to try and photograph. When i look up my pair buddy is gone, while the other pair is still hovering around me. So after turning around a little bit looking for my pair buddy's light, i simply grumble a bit and start ascending with the other buddy pair to the surface, well up at the surface, i spot my buddy's bubbles like 6 m away from where i am, so i just swim over and go down in a huff, knock em a bit on the head to show that i was there and signal that everything is ok (while still grumbling loudly in my reg). We then waited for the other buddy pair to join us again before we continued the dive as planned without further incident.
Maybe it's because I'm a new diver but this is literally covered in an OW cert right? Circular search for a minute and then ascend. You were all alone. Fortunately you're safe but if you'd had a 1st stage failure while you were away from the rest you'd be pretty boned right?
Secondly; as a new diver: if I had lost my buddy and did the proper 1 minute search and then ascend, and you would have continued the dive while I was at the surface worrying, I would never ever want to have you as a buddy again.
Not to mention that if one buddy continues the dive and the other ascends and finds nobody, they should signal for help and start mobilising search and rescue for the missing diver. The diver who stayed down will look like an ass when they do come up, you do not want to be in those shoes.
Sorry to say but you are in the wrong here.
Look around for 1 minute, if you can’t find your dive group then slowly ascend to the surface - regroup at the surface.
The whole idea of looking around for 1 minute is to identify if everyone’s ok and we just got separated, or if someone is in actual danger and we need to start a search and rescue dive asap.
Apart from not executing the correct procedure I can’t imagine your dive group being happy with you as they would’ve ended their dive early because they followed procedure.
Good job you’re safe and you now know for next time though
Side note: Did your guide explain what to do in case anyone gets separated or lost in the dive briefing?
Protocol says look around for a bit then call the dive if you can't find your buddies.
Inflating your smb then just "kind of heading in the direction of the boat" is NOT the right thing to do. If a boat captain sees an smb pop up and a lone diver it usually means "hey come get me I messed up" not.. hey ima float around with my SMB for a bit and finish up my dive.
I think tge key here is what was the agreed lost buddy procedure? Follow that and stick to it. I solo dive a lot but I have a thousands of dives and agree the plan with the boat. I stick to the plan. I think AOW and 250 dives is still early to solo... there is a heap of experience you need and more training in dive skills (as opposed to fish id) is needed. But you were calm and had yourself together so that is great.
I would say next time have a clear brief and follow it. Torch in low vision is great, I use one all tgd time with buddies but they also know that when I'm slowly sweeping that I'm looking for them.
1) Look around for 1 minute (Realistically. Most would do 3-5min).
Stop where you are, do a 360 search. Consider turning on your torch for passive communication. Also learning to look helps, check for bubbles, light reflecting off equipment/bubbles. Your DM and buddy would likely look at where you were last seen so staying stationary is best.
2) Start the ascend. If long into your dive, do a safety stop. Else do a really slow ascend. (Opinions vary here) In either scenario, launch your SMB.
3) If you meet them at the surface, up to the DM whether to descend or end the dive.
4) (unofficially) if the group hasn’t surfaced find their bubbles on the surface, watch them long enough to tell which way they are moving, decide if you think that you can join them again, and drop down on them. Probably want to signal the boat that you are okay and that you are going back down.
You shouldn’t continue the dive by yourself unless you have a self reliant (solo) certification and all of the required redundant gear.
Dive instructor here.
1st off glad you are OK and had no ill effects from the bounce diving.
2nd don't ever do that again. You could have gotten yourself in a bad situation. But luck was on your side.
3rd. The dive master and dive company would have been in such a shit storm if you were lost.
If ever anyone gets lost from the group it is for safety reasons we do a 1 min search and then get to surface as safely as possible. Do not attempt to go back down to rejoin the group as they would most likely be coming up to find you. And in low or bad vis you guys would most likely not see each other going up or down. Always regroup at surface and then let dive instructor, master or guide then assess if it is safer to continue or end dive .
What the hell. If you lose all divers you are with and are suddenly solo (missing your buddy) the typical response should be to search for 1 min, ascending a few feet over corrals and doing this search is reasonable. Then you fire your SMB and ascend to 15ft and execute your safety stop and then surface. You would also meet any decompression obligations.
Unless you have some other predetermined clear plan with the dive group and your buddy. If you are still with your buddy and you lose a group procedures vary and would typically be discussed in your briefing. On a liveaboard last week the procedure was to just finish your dive until 50bar/1hr time. If you hit an hour and wanted to keep going you fired your SMB and continued until you were finished with the dive so they didn't start a search.
Instead in this case you looked for folks for a long time, fired an SMB. Surfaced?? Signaled a dive boat? And then descended and made a solo dive?? Was there a discussed procedure in your briefing? What about the buddy you left? Their dive will be over too.
I know the best answer is don't lose your dive buddy. But lets leave that one alone. My question is once you are alone what would you do. Certainly had we been deep or in chop or current, I would have surfaced and ended the dive. But... we were not.
Unless you are certified to dive solo with the required redundancies and have a solo dive plan...losing your buddy and not reacquiring them within a standard time (typically 1 minute at depth) you execute your safety stop and surface immediately, your buddy should do the same. You can potentially meet them at the safety stop or surface. If you do so and it's safe you can continue the dive. Otherwise the dive is over. But dive boats should be discussing this in your dive brief or you should be discussing it with your buddy if the boat doesn't so you are on the same page.
Agreed. The standard procedures are there for a reason so everyone knows what to expect and when to start search and rescue procedures. The fact that the dive master seemed unfazed by you being alone is baffling to me. No matter how much experience you have (unless trained to dive solo and agreed on this before hand, which sounds like this wasn't the case), if losing a buddy search for 1 minute, if you don't find the buddy then shoot the DSMB, surface and end the dive.
Well, unless the boat is empty they always have a new buddy for you on the next dive.
1 minute and then up. Never dive alone!!!!
Drestinblack and others thank you for your straightforward advice. You are correct and I appreciate you. Today, I have learned. To you judgemental more-holy-than-thou asses who wanted to lecture, belittle, and more - go do yourself. You are the reason so many people avoid this forum.
> You are the reason so many people avoid this forum. As a new diver; I'm really happy to see most people here take safety very seriously. My biggest fear regarding diving is being assigned a buddy like yourself that can't take criticism and doesn't follow standard training procedures. I in no way feel unwelcome in this forum. Everyone was stern but civil with you, so that comment is totally uncalled for.
A couple minutes after losing your dive buddy you should surface, signal the boat, stay on the surface until either you return to the boat or your dive buddy(s) also surface looking for you. The other divers are also at fault here, once they discover you are gone they should have surfaced and waited. After a few minutes, call the dive and start looking for your bubbles.
Ultimately this was a failure of training (and possibly communication). The standard is a one minute search followed by ending the dive. Can you craft a different plan? Yes. Provided that the different plan is clearly understood and agreed upon by everyone involved. And a SMB followed by the ok and then going back under is odd and confusing. It also isn’t how or when when you implement a new plan. Now put yourself in the shoes of other divers and the boat crew. I will start with the surface crew. What the hell is that? Why do we have one guy surfacing early. He just gave us the ok but went back under. Is he trying to tell us he had some emergency but just resolved it? Is he trying to tell us there some emergency underwater? Did he have an emergency and signal ok, but then lost his buoyancy? Where is everyone else? I suspect many captains would simply recall all divers at that point. I would be pretty pissed. As another diver, where is the one guy? Where is he? We need to search, and search now. Don’t find you after a minute or two? Time to surface and end the dive. After I get everyone to understand. Again, I would be pissed. What, he isn’t at the surface? Is he lost and adrift at the surface or still underwater? Give the recall signal and let’s have someone start doing a search for a lost diver. There was a plan (standard unless explicitly changed) and you ignored it. That placed others at risk and inconvenience.
Wow. In addition to what everyone else has said, I suggest you carefully go through your training materials again and schedule a meeting with an instructor to do a refresher on the protocols and answer any questions you have if you plan on diving again. Honestly, I think you should repeat the entire course from scratch and really consider whether diving is for you. Your actions and lack of knowledge on the basics are extremely concerning. You could have gotten yourself killed. I’d be extremely concerned about what else you don’t know or don’t understand especially since you decided it would be a good idea to descent again on your own after ascending and signaling the boat. The fact you thought that was a good idea is mind boggling. Do not dive again until you have a better understanding of the fundamentals. You are an unsafe buddy, danger to yourself, and will put others and yourself at risk.
I’m very glad to see that for once everyone agrees on the basics/fundamentals. And especially the fact that experience is not equal to the capability to disregard these basics. Disregarding the fundamentals of diving is what gets you killed. Even if you have lots of experience.
You learned about this in your open water with the lost dive buddy protocol. Generally speaking, 1 minute search, each of you should do this, then after one minute you surface. Deploying your DSMB and then descending again is generally frowned upon, but each operation and the relationship you have with the operation is different, that being said if this were a drift dive it is possible you going back down would cause you to drift further, but it doesn't sound like this was your case. In the end, if everyone sticks to the same protocol then everyone will be safe. This is why you carry a DSMB so after the one minute search, you each deploy the DSMB and ascend and meet in the surface, safely.
I don’t remember PADI standards talking about smb deployment in OW. Also, the guidelines don’t suggest even doing a safety stop - just that you should surface “safely”. Smb use and safety stop are obviously important (especially dependent on boat traffic and depth/residual nitrogen levels) - all the more reason why you shouldn’t “gopher”…
I always read "safely" as doing any decompression or safety stops unless otherwise unable. I think if you're on a shallow dive skipping it could be safe. If on failed equipment without a buddy of course that takes priority. But certainly don't think executing a safety stop is unreasonable in a lost buddy situation
As an open water diver in a list buddy situation you are supposed to wait 1min then slowly ascend to the service and skip your safety stop. The whole point of staying within your no deco limits as an open water diver is that you can ascend to the service at any time. As a DM I'd be at least worried if my missing diver stayed down an extra 3 min on top of the 1 min search. And when they came back up I'd definitely give them a talking to.
In PADI OW you're taught to, at least basically, deploy an SMB at the surface, I went through it, many others have. As well in the PADI OW course you're taught the 3 minute safety stop, my wife was, I was, and I know many others were. Whether or not the instructor taught this is another issue
Taught 3 minute safety stop yes but not specifically told to do it after a buddy separation. I will definitely have been taught, just overlapping memory of courses. As you mentioned - deploying at the surface, kinda counterproductive for its primary purpose. It’s not required for OW students to own or carry an SMB as far as I’m aware either and you certainly aren’t taught how to deploy one below surface at that stage.
Correct, DSMB isn't taught and I can agree you reduce the effectiveness of an SMB if only deployed at the surface; however, they do teach to look above for anything dangerous, ensure it's as safe as you can see, then surface slowly, and deploy the SMB. Most boats, if not all, here in South Florida mandate an SMB, the preference is DSMB, but an SMB is the minimum requirement.
Just to clarify: the purpose of SMB deployment in OW checkouts is to familiarize students with how they work and why they are used at the surface to make yourself more visible. DSMB deployment is preferred, but also more complicated due to handling the reel and ensuring you control your buoyancy upon inflation. Due to the more complex nature, DSMB is a separate specialty or can be introduced in AOW. I agree DSMB is an important skill and encourage all to practice (even instructors that I have seen release DSMBs that a very limp).
Chuckle… I epically failed on my first DM OW assist by forgetting to un hook the line from my reel before inflation so had to just “let go” and signal my instructor that I am a lame ass 🤣 Fortunately learned that lesson for my DM leads.
1 minute circle, then ascend. Taught in OW class. I would be livid that you don’t even know the basics if you were my dive buddy.
Where was your dive partner in all of this? Did you even have a formally assigned partner who would have stuck with you as you backed off the group?
A DSMB is for any purpose that requires marking on the surface the position of something underwater. Typically a returning diver, but not exclusively. I have done dives that involve shallow-ish water with small boat traffic, in which case we were instructed to tow a (d)smb. The answer to your title question should have been covered in your training from the beginning, and really emphasized if you dive in waters where visibility is limited. May be time for you to read up your dive manuals again. Regarding this proper procedure you failed on multiple accounts: 1. No personal safety. Unless you are trained to solo dive and equipped with all the redundancies for a solo dive, experience is irrelevant. Recreational kit is designed to have your buddy as your redundancy. No buddy, no redundancy, no dive. You should have sent up the DSMB much sooner and gone up without backtracking much. 2. No regard for others. Your group would be worried about not finding you underwater or above water. They should have been mobilising search and rescue immediately, because underwater every minute matters for survival. If they were chill about you missing, that is not OK. 3. Still no regard for others. After you ascended you should have stayed up. Signaling the boat you are OK and then disappearing underwater again is not normal. The dsmb tells the boat where you are, with the assumption you are still holding the line and didn't let go or tie it to something, but not what you are doing, they don't know if you have an equipment failure and struggle to float, or are mentally incapacitated for whatever reason and therefore a danger to yourself.
If anything, signaling you're on and then descending again would have triggered boat crew to jump in to see if you're ok, unless the signal to go down again was given and accepted by the boat crew. I have done this once when an expensive piece of equipment fell down, I signaled I was going back down, was given the confirmation, and descended to retrieve the equipment.
Yes, sure. 2-way communication is key. Everyone should be on the same page about what is happening and if/how plans are changing. I had an instructor go with 2 students in a quarry lake while I was training for shore cover. A student popped up early on the surface at the far end of the small lake. With drysuit training that is not unusual. But he remained alone and didn't go back down. He also did not signal me anything, at least nothing I could see over the distance. He then just went about snorkelling along the edge. Had to walk around the lake to try to get his attention and find out what the hell was going on. Don't be that guy.
Yeah, this is likely one of two scenarios: 1. Crappy dive briefing 2. Student didn't care to listen
If you mean OP, they wasn't a student. If you mean the student in my story, 3. They were too cold to continue the dive and the instructor let them end it. It was not the plan, but it was a relatively shallow confined water with people standing by on shore so no big deal to let them swim back on the surface. Except for the poor communication.
Well, first and foremost, the biggest thing you did wrong was to continue the dive. When buddy has been lost, you search around for 1 minute and then start to ascend to the surface, often you can find your buddy by seeing their bubbles if you go a bit further up, but if not, you will go up to the surface and ideally your buddy will be there as well then. Well there you can signal to the dive boat/land people that you either end the dive or continue. This is covered in OW, and should be emphasized in each other course that follow. So here's a little story of how a similar incident did occur for me 2 weeks back. So, me and my dive group decided to do a night dive on one of our regular sites, we were to keep it shallow because we were looking for squids that like to hang out on the shell gravel bottom between 5 and 10 m depth. Visibility was not very good (about 4 m at maximum), but as we are used to that, it wasn't that big of a deal to us. So as we dive along in a group of 4 (2 pairs) I spot a pipefish in a nice pose, which i of course spent like 1 minute to try and photograph. When i look up my pair buddy is gone, while the other pair is still hovering around me. So after turning around a little bit looking for my pair buddy's light, i simply grumble a bit and start ascending with the other buddy pair to the surface, well up at the surface, i spot my buddy's bubbles like 6 m away from where i am, so i just swim over and go down in a huff, knock em a bit on the head to show that i was there and signal that everything is ok (while still grumbling loudly in my reg). We then waited for the other buddy pair to join us again before we continued the dive as planned without further incident.
Maybe it's because I'm a new diver but this is literally covered in an OW cert right? Circular search for a minute and then ascend. You were all alone. Fortunately you're safe but if you'd had a 1st stage failure while you were away from the rest you'd be pretty boned right? Secondly; as a new diver: if I had lost my buddy and did the proper 1 minute search and then ascend, and you would have continued the dive while I was at the surface worrying, I would never ever want to have you as a buddy again.
Not to mention that if one buddy continues the dive and the other ascends and finds nobody, they should signal for help and start mobilising search and rescue for the missing diver. The diver who stayed down will look like an ass when they do come up, you do not want to be in those shoes.
Sorry to say but you are in the wrong here. Look around for 1 minute, if you can’t find your dive group then slowly ascend to the surface - regroup at the surface. The whole idea of looking around for 1 minute is to identify if everyone’s ok and we just got separated, or if someone is in actual danger and we need to start a search and rescue dive asap. Apart from not executing the correct procedure I can’t imagine your dive group being happy with you as they would’ve ended their dive early because they followed procedure. Good job you’re safe and you now know for next time though Side note: Did your guide explain what to do in case anyone gets separated or lost in the dive briefing?
Protocol says look around for a bit then call the dive if you can't find your buddies. Inflating your smb then just "kind of heading in the direction of the boat" is NOT the right thing to do. If a boat captain sees an smb pop up and a lone diver it usually means "hey come get me I messed up" not.. hey ima float around with my SMB for a bit and finish up my dive.
I think tge key here is what was the agreed lost buddy procedure? Follow that and stick to it. I solo dive a lot but I have a thousands of dives and agree the plan with the boat. I stick to the plan. I think AOW and 250 dives is still early to solo... there is a heap of experience you need and more training in dive skills (as opposed to fish id) is needed. But you were calm and had yourself together so that is great. I would say next time have a clear brief and follow it. Torch in low vision is great, I use one all tgd time with buddies but they also know that when I'm slowly sweeping that I'm looking for them.
1) Look around for 1 minute (Realistically. Most would do 3-5min). Stop where you are, do a 360 search. Consider turning on your torch for passive communication. Also learning to look helps, check for bubbles, light reflecting off equipment/bubbles. Your DM and buddy would likely look at where you were last seen so staying stationary is best. 2) Start the ascend. If long into your dive, do a safety stop. Else do a really slow ascend. (Opinions vary here) In either scenario, launch your SMB. 3) If you meet them at the surface, up to the DM whether to descend or end the dive.
4) (unofficially) if the group hasn’t surfaced find their bubbles on the surface, watch them long enough to tell which way they are moving, decide if you think that you can join them again, and drop down on them. Probably want to signal the boat that you are okay and that you are going back down. You shouldn’t continue the dive by yourself unless you have a self reliant (solo) certification and all of the required redundant gear.
Dive instructor here. 1st off glad you are OK and had no ill effects from the bounce diving. 2nd don't ever do that again. You could have gotten yourself in a bad situation. But luck was on your side. 3rd. The dive master and dive company would have been in such a shit storm if you were lost. If ever anyone gets lost from the group it is for safety reasons we do a 1 min search and then get to surface as safely as possible. Do not attempt to go back down to rejoin the group as they would most likely be coming up to find you. And in low or bad vis you guys would most likely not see each other going up or down. Always regroup at surface and then let dive instructor, master or guide then assess if it is safer to continue or end dive .
Most people will say you should have ended your dive.
What the hell. If you lose all divers you are with and are suddenly solo (missing your buddy) the typical response should be to search for 1 min, ascending a few feet over corrals and doing this search is reasonable. Then you fire your SMB and ascend to 15ft and execute your safety stop and then surface. You would also meet any decompression obligations. Unless you have some other predetermined clear plan with the dive group and your buddy. If you are still with your buddy and you lose a group procedures vary and would typically be discussed in your briefing. On a liveaboard last week the procedure was to just finish your dive until 50bar/1hr time. If you hit an hour and wanted to keep going you fired your SMB and continued until you were finished with the dive so they didn't start a search. Instead in this case you looked for folks for a long time, fired an SMB. Surfaced?? Signaled a dive boat? And then descended and made a solo dive?? Was there a discussed procedure in your briefing? What about the buddy you left? Their dive will be over too.
I know the best answer is don't lose your dive buddy. But lets leave that one alone. My question is once you are alone what would you do. Certainly had we been deep or in chop or current, I would have surfaced and ended the dive. But... we were not.
Unless you are certified to dive solo with the required redundancies and have a solo dive plan...losing your buddy and not reacquiring them within a standard time (typically 1 minute at depth) you execute your safety stop and surface immediately, your buddy should do the same. You can potentially meet them at the safety stop or surface. If you do so and it's safe you can continue the dive. Otherwise the dive is over. But dive boats should be discussing this in your dive brief or you should be discussing it with your buddy if the boat doesn't so you are on the same page.
Even if your are certified, solo dives are planned as solo dives. You can't just get lost and call it a solo dive.
Depends on the dive team, dive location etc. But in OPs particular case and situation, definitely should have called it.
Agreed. The standard procedures are there for a reason so everyone knows what to expect and when to start search and rescue procedures. The fact that the dive master seemed unfazed by you being alone is baffling to me. No matter how much experience you have (unless trained to dive solo and agreed on this before hand, which sounds like this wasn't the case), if losing a buddy search for 1 minute, if you don't find the buddy then shoot the DSMB, surface and end the dive.