Buddy/exiting rant

[divex]

This is just a general rant due to an event witnessed this Sunday at Ginnie.

I am sure most of you realize that exiting (and entering) a cave is pretty much the most critical point of a dive. This is where task loading is highest due to current, gas switches, line use, and decompression requirements. I admit that I have been out of tech diving for a while due to other things in life, but I doubt that this consideration has changed. At any point in the dive, you need to be instantly ready to deal with an emergency. My buddies all know that if I see any signals that look anything more than a slow scan of the light, I'm instantly focusing on them. This includes if other teams are passing and I notice light movement I'll check my buddies first.

I was taking a few friends around the springs Sunday and dropped into the Ear to show them the cavern entrance area with the flow and let them observe the river and spring mix. When going in I saw what seemed to be a team doing stops right at the entrance. Fine, that is their prerogative so I placed my friends in the corner by the tree (opposite the cavern entrance) so they'd be out of the flow and out of the way. As I looked at the team, I saw this guy waving his light at the buddy about 15 feet below him. After a few seconds of waiting for the guy to get a clue, I took a closer look and saw the top diver wrapped in some line around the stage bottle. Somehow, this guy got his manifold twisted in the line, and in attempts to free himself (instead of seemingly waiting for the buddy to help figure it out) got his stage further caught. While trying to help this guy, I could not see any indication of the buddy even remotely aware that anything was happening. When trying to figure out what was caught and what was just part of the guy's gear (I still have not figured out what the hell the 4 green LEDS on the dude's mask were for), I was able to bring out the shear (never carry a dive knife) and slice the line. After getting him clear, I went back made sure the guy was OK enough on the tree (still hoovering in an understandable realization that he could have just killed himself) if anything else had happened. As I dropped back to try to resecure the lines (not know to what team they may have belonged) enough so they would not be freely flying around waiting to snag someone else, I noticed the other diver leisurely ascending, not having noticed anything that had just transpired. There seemed to be more teams getting ready to exit, so I decided that there was too much cluster and had my folks bail. We did a quick dive in the eye and then surfaced. When I got back the stuck diver was on the step, still seemingly in a bit of adrenaline induced shock and said his buddy went back to clear the line. After waiting a while I took a single friend back to reattempt the planned dive and was able to complete it (though found a line inside the cavern that had not been secured and was left dangling). I guess the other diver secured his reel, but failed to check to see if anything else had been damaged in the incident.

Hopefully the guy will learn from this and consider taking great care in choosing a buddy that is a bit more attentive. Do not get complacent in doing simple dives to think that everything always goes so well and stop paying attention. Since it was quite dark (I wasn't even using a cave light), I couldn't see this guys gear and cannot tell where his cutting tools were or if he could not reach them. Had the reg been caught and pulled out, I'm sure it would have been quite tragic. Just be careful and don't let complacency get you or a buddy killed. If Murphy doesn't get you, Darwin will.

[pdoege]

Lines in the ear can be a real pain.

The flow makes it very difficult to put them in properly. They need to be really well tucked away.

The flow makes dodging the line very difficult on exit. If you do get tangled you typically find out about the time that the flow has jerked the line tight. Very difficult to recover without cutting the line at that point. Even worse, the flow makes it hard to cut the line and the restriction and flow make it hard for buddies to check up on you.

I imagine that with the massive traffic at Ginnie on the weekends a class or perhaps a diver not experienced with the Ear put that line in.

I personally do not like to dive Ginnie when all those people are there, but what are you going to do when the other sites are flooded out?

Good job with the assist, divex. I'm glad you were there to help.

Peter

[wingman]

yea i saw some of that, i met the guy with the green leds on the mask briefly at the lips on the way in...it was crowded, two lines run through the ear and two through the eye, there were three jump lines to the boneroom on the mainline at the parkbench in the junction room, and two at the hill four hundred jump, should have counted all the o2 bottles on the ledge and dropped in the vicinity of the sign, more than ten...bill