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Alert Diver Article DAN's vision statement reads "Striving to make every dive, accident- and injury-free."
That is exactly how the dive is supposed to operate, and it works just that way for the vast majority of divers. In rare incidents, however, divers and their buddies do not return to their expected pick-up point. In our database of dive injuries and fatalities, DAN® has reports of divers who were adrift for some time, from a few minutes to hours and even days.
By now we have all probably seen the movie Open Water, in which two DAN Members were lost at sea and never recovered. You also may have seen televised interviews this year of two stranding cases: Two divers were adrift for two days in the Pacific off the Great Barrier Reef; and a small group of divers in
These incidents are not limited to ocean dives; they can happen anywhere in large bodies of open water, including rivers with limited exit points along the shoreline. Diving is one of the most enjoyable sports, but it is also an exercise in continuous decision-making. One of the best articles I've ever read that spoke to this point was "Deal or No Deal," written by Robert Rossier and published in the December 2007 Dive Training magazine.
Rossier discusses the decisions that begin on the surface, continues throughout the entire dive and ends with the safe return of diver and buddy. "Making a good decision relies heavily on our ability to identify and assess the various risk factors involved in a dive," he wrote. Occasionally, divers can make decisions that can quickly put themselves and others in peril. Here's an example.
Diving in currents I was diving with a group of experienced divers from a day charter boat in a popular diving area in the southeastern
In the predive briefing, the divemaster told us that we were anchored near an outstanding wreck that sat upright on the bottom 80 feet (24 meters) below. There appeared to be a relatively strong current, she noted, and emphasized that it was important for all divers to move onto the trail line to await our buddies once we had entered the water.
Once our buddies were in the water and we had made sure we were all ready to begin the dive, we were to pull ourselves along the trail line to the swim line that was connected to the anchor line. Once on the anchor line, we were to pull ourselves down to the wreck and continue to keep contact with the wreck as we assessed the current on the bottom.
As we have all been taught in our entry-level dive courses, we would move into the current, pulling ourselves along to reduce our workload. The divemaster had reminded us that even though the current may not have seemed strong, it is difficult to swim for any extended period against even a mild current.
A giant step in the wrong direction When you think about it, this should have been a relatively easy dive: Enter the water, hold onto the trail line, pull yourself along the swim line, move along the anchor line and enjoy the wreck. At the wreck, check the current, and, if necessary, pull yourself along it. At the turnaround point, we were to stay in contact with the wreck as we drifted leisurely back to the anchor line, doing everything in reverse. But things went awry. My buddy and I were the third dive team in the water. The visibility was excellent as we followed the other two dive teams down toward the wreck. Just as the wreck came into view, we watched as the buddy pair just in front of us let go of the anchor line, obviously thinking they would drop right down onto the wreck. They realized too late that the current was too strong. They did not drop onto the wreck. Instead they reached the bottom some distance behind the wreck. My buddy and I moved to the stern of the wreck to provide help if necessary.
We watched as these two divers spent their entire dive (and ours) clawing their way along the bottom against the current. They finally made it to the wreck just as our maximum allowable bottom time ended. Their exertions had left them little air to complete their safety stops, so we were able to provide some assistance by sharing air with them.
Good luck prevails This was an important lesson that could have had different results: Left to themselves, these two divers would have surfaced far behind the dive boat and downstream in very strong currents. Had this happened, the charter boat, which had no chase boat, would have had to wait until all the other divers were on board and the anchor recovered before attempting a rescue.
Even if the crew were able to gather all the other divers in a reasonable period of time, it would be some time before any recovery could have begun, especially with a strong surface current. By then, the lost dive team could be hundreds of yards or more from the anchored boat. In addition, surface conditions can deteriorate - increasing wave height and possibly exacerbating low light conditions - and sometimes make it difficult, if not impossible, to see divers floating on the surface.
What happened that day depended on many factors and a great deal of luck. Regardless, it would be far better never to have been in this situation.
Learning from experience
As anyone who has been stranded can tell you - even for a short time - it's lonely out there. I talked with a diver who knew from experience. He and his best friend were out to enjoy a leisurely dive on a beautiful, cloudless summer day. They went to a favorite dive site, an abandoned structure in the
As they had done many times before, they both entered the water leaving no one on board during the dive. The divers tied a short trail line to a milk jug float at the end just in case they came up a short distance behind the boat. The dive lived up to their high expectations; clouds of baitfish and a few pelagics swam around and through the underwater structure. The divers were thrilled with the display.
Near the end of the dive, the current pushed them a short distance away from the structure as they started their ascent. During the ascent, they swam into the current but couldn't keep the structure in plain sight. As they neared the surface, they found it increasingly difficult to see the structure. When they finally surfaced, they were about 20 feet (6 meters) behind the end of their trail line. No matter how hard they tried, they couldn't reach it.
Nearing exhaustion, they realized they were adrift, and, with no other vessels in sight, there was little hope of help. This member told me that they were rescued by the U.S. Coast Guard after being adrift for two days and two very long nights.
What should you do to keep yourself from getting into a situation where you - or you and a partner - are adrift?
All of the International DAN partners - DAN America, DAN Europe, DAN Asia-Pacific, DAN Japan and DAN Southern Africa - are coordinating efforts to reduce the number of divers who go adrift each year. We are encouraging all members of DAN, no matter where they are in the world, to do what they can to reduce the likelihood of such incidents. Each decision you make has important consequences, so make the right ones. As Eric Douglas and I wrote in our book, Scuba Diving Safety, "In recreational diving, you overcome challenges not by physical strength but by the effective application of knowledge and skill." Recreational diving should be an opportunity to share an extraordinary experience with others, not an exercise in natural selection. To quote from my favorite old TV series, Hill Street Blues, "Let's be careful out there."
*About the DAN's Diver Identification System: The DIDS is a system that contains a plastic board with numbered discs that are given to each diver; the numbers are recorded simultaneously by the divemaster. Divers clip those numbered discs on their buoyancy compensation devices and replace them on a numbered board at the end of the dive. DIDS is a donation-funded program; thus, the boards are available at no cost.
DAN's President and Chief Executive Officer Dan Orr has been diving for 40-plus years and has held membership and leadership positions in many notable diving organizations such as NAUI, PADI, ACUC, YMCA, NASE, IAND, UHMS, NACD, AUAS, the Institute of Diving and the Explorers Club. He is the recipient of numerous awards such as AUAS's NOGI Award for Sports/Education, NAUI's Leonard Greenstone Award for Diving Safety, the Our World-Underwater Award, Beneath the Sea's Diver of the Year, and he was named Chairman of the Board of the Historical Diving Society for 2004.
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