4 and 5 Person Dive Teams......a bad idea

[Superlyte27]

If you are referring to what happened to me, then you are correct, you have no first hand knowledge of what happened. None of the above story is correct. No silt, no gold line, no hacking, no unpleasant end to the dive. It was actually a very pleasant dive for the most part. Certainly not an unpleasant day. And I was very familiar with my dive buddies, as I trained them from Cavern through Full Cave.

The only part you may have gotten right was that there was 4 of us. But as we were experiencing their first stage dives, and I am an instructor allowed to take three students in the cave, I guess technically while you are correct that it was a 4 man buddy team, it is allowable to teach 3 students.

For those of you who want the real story, and not Jont's usual attempt to elicit some sort of reaction, call me or pm me and I'll tell you.

*edit*
Oh, and it was me that got a line caught in my manifold. First time in 15+ years of cave diving. I guess it had to happen sooner or later. But, that's why we are trained. I cut it, repaired it, and finished our dive as planned. It's not all the hype that some would like to see I guess.

[bullfrog]

My often dive team consists of three of us. We come down from Pa. Everyone knows they are not supposed to run off from the guys behind them. I usually am the middle man. The guy behind me knows if I blank out my light he shines his light right under me. I have also dived in teams of 5 in mexico and we had no problems. A team of two may be ideal, but more can dive just fine if they are being aware of the guy behind and the guy in front. That being said, one person without team awareness can screw up a two man team!

[SlowDiver]

When I dove OC I really liked the three team concept. Now all members of my team were familia with each other diving capabilities but I stilled like the middle position. We called it the "Rocking Chair" spot, since the diver had a member in front and back in case something when wrong. Yes he had to communicate with both members and was involved in the whole dive, such as helping run the reel and retrieving the reel . But for me a diver with a light in front and a diver with a light behind just made for a enjoyable dive, plus I didn't have to set the pace, entering or exiting.


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[H2Ocaver]

Anyone.......and just to make it even more preposterous lets for arguments sake assume last Saturday, April 6, 2013 at maybe 2PM EST at Ginnie Springs near the hill 400 line.......

at about that time, I saw a team of 4 on Optima's and a team of 4 w/1 Meg and 3 Sidemount, are you talking about them?

[Sludge]

We called it the "Rocking Chair" spot

Try diving with some of my friends, when you have a fast swimmer in #1 spot and a slowpoke in #3. To borrow a cycling term, the middle guy is the "rubberband man," trying to keep the other two within sight of one another.

[rjack]

If you are referring to what happened to me, then you are correct, you have no first hand knowledge of what happened. None of the above story is correct. No silt, no gold line, no hacking, no unpleasant end to the dive. It was actually a very pleasant dive for the most part. Certainly not an unpleasant day. And I was very familiar with my dive buddies, as I trained them from Cavern through Full Cave.

The only part you may have gotten right was that there was 4 of us. But as we were experiencing their first stage dives, and I am an instructor allowed to take three students in the cave, I guess technically while you are correct that it was a 4 man buddy team, it is allowable to teach 3 students.

For those of you who want the real story, and not Jont's usual attempt to elicit some sort of reaction, call me or pm me and I'll tell you.

*edit*
Oh, and it was me that got a line caught in my manifold. First time in 15+ years of cave diving. I guess it had to happen sooner or later. But, that's why we are trained. I cut it, repaired it, and finished our dive as planned. It's not all the hype that some would like to see I guess.

This should be interesting. Please tell more about how an instructor with a class gets his manifold tangled. Despite being with 3 students, apparently has nobody around or aware enough to remove the line from his manifold and has to cut and repair the line. Where were the students? Who was supervising them while all this was going on?

[Superlyte27]

Like I said, if you want to talk about it, you can call me.

[rjack]

Like I said, if you want to talk about it, you can call me.

Its a pretty sad day when I agree with Jont.

[TeddyB]

I don't kno, don't want to know,and frankly don't care what happened on this occasion. I would however like to remind some people that stuff going wrong does not happen on a neatly timed basis. Just because an instructor has students diving with him does not make him immune to the little issues each of us can encounter on any dive. It seems to me that the issue was resolved quickly and he remained in control of his class. Anyone who has never had an issue develop on a dive, either has very few dives under their belt or is flat out lying. We train for and practice these scenarios repeatedly just so we can deal effectively with the real thing WHEN (not IF) it happens. People in glass houses and all that.....

[Wizard]

This goes to show why you need teams of 10-12. There's always somebody around to help. Safety in numbers and all that.
Yes I'm kidding. I agree with TeddyB actually.