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• This happened to my wife and me while diving off of Myanmar. We finally pulled out at 130 ft. and were separated because it was pitch dark. We couldn't even see our bubbles to get a sense of direction. I surfaced first and spent a very tense 5 minutes waiting for her to surface. We were with a small group of other divers. The currents were so whippy that some ended up a half mile in one dirction from our point of entry and some a half mile in the other direction. Fortunately we surfaced near the boat.

• Opinions about whether going back down to 30 feet was best advice?

  • I wondered about that too. Once you've violated your assent rate and reached the surface, will going back to 30 feet do any good?

    • No it won't you need to get out get in pure 02 and get to hyperbaric

      • No you do not need to go to a hyperbaric. You need o2 yes and you should get evaluated for possible dcs by a trained professional.

• This is totally ridiculous.. This is really a video of a very inexperienced diver that needs to get back in the swimming pool or shallow water and practice skills and get used to being underwater. Any diver knows that all he had to do was stop being scared and just add more air to the BCD, IF there was really a down current. All I really saw was a bunch of bubbles and dramatic panic screams. I have no idea Carol, but I think the person that was saying to go back down to 30 ft. was probably an instructor. You can see the instructor right next to the screaming diver. The screamer was obviously bolting to the surface due to fear and the instructor appeared to be attempting to slow his ascent.

• Carol
  There is no point once surfaced in "going back to 30ft", if there were issues with potential dci then the person would need to be treated accordingly, ie oxygen. Taking them back down would be more dangerous than treating them on the surface, it would also take hours for it to have any effect. Best advice in any similar situation is to remain calm, think and then act, this is why it's important to remain close to your buddy and not dive beyond your ability.

  • Yes and no. It will work. But can complicate things. Anyone of you "expert divers" ever do an actual surface decompression dive?
    Yup. Nuff said

    • Actually, DAN has been supporting to not return to depth for a blown Safety Stop. But, to immediately begin DCS treatment, administer O2, & head for a treatment centre.

      • I watched the film. I am a Rescue Diver. A few questions. 1). Did the Divemaster include this in their pre-dive briefing? That the wall might have significant down-current. 2). Why does the dive boat even go there without first advising divers that it is a dive only for experienced divers? This dive incident seems to have been just waiting to happen.

• Hard to interpret. I trust reports of a down current, but could just be new diver not controlling his descent for a wall dive. Another reason for new divers to start over sand for their initial descent. As for ascent rate and risk of DCS, bottom time was too short for significant nitrogen, but did risk lung over expansion, so recompression at 30ft would be foolish. In-water recompression is no longer recommended by DAN except under remote conditions without access to chambers or O2.