Posted by Joe R on September 05, 2001 at 01:58:19:
In Reply to: Proper OOA/comments posted by Ken Kurtis on September 04, 2001 at 23:12:33:
I can't agree with you more. Any diver who gets into an OOA situation
barring eqpt failure, did it because of carelessness or lack of training.
Of the 2 the lack of training diver is the one you really have to be worried about. Most likely they
will be very paniced. The number 1 priority is to get a reg in the mouth and get the diver on the way to the surface.
any troubles at all drop his weightbelt (if he has integrated weight dump some), at worst case you get a fast ascent to the surface and deal with it.
If you don't get to the surface you are dead.
We can un-bend we can't un-dead....
experienced divers probably can work the problem out, but thats only through
training and practice which unfortunately many divers lack.
Your conditions in southern CA aren't that bad , at least compared to what
us northeast divers have to deal with. Granted we don't get as many inexperienced
vacationing divers, but we seem to have a lot less accidents. from july on most of our
dives are atleast 100ft many are 130+. These aren't even the dives for the hardcore dive
which are usually deeper.
Most of our boats require some form of redundant air supply, lift bag and reel.
We have to drill into our divers the dangers involved and the need to dive with
experienced divers especially when 5ft vis is not uncommon.
Our boats make the divers aware they are responsible for themselves.
I don't know how many times I practiced isolating my tanks, deploying ascent lines ect.
Being 20 miles or moe offhore is not a place to figure out how to deal with an emergency situation.