Diving Safety: Full Tank of Air, But …

Every story has a lesson in it. This one is about being prepared and not panicking.

This is a story about Ann and Bill. Two relatively new divers that went out for what could be considered their typical dive in a local quarry.

Thy swam out to a marker and dove to a platform 60 feet down as planned. While on the platform Dan had trouble with his weight belt and was struggling a bit with his gear.  Upon noticing his trouble with this gear Ann decided to swim over to give him a hand.

As she approached to help, he inadvertently twisted and hit Ann knocking her regulator out of her mouth.  After he noticed what happened, he tried to help her, but ..

In the process of helping her, his weight belt came loose and dropped to the swim platform behind him. Bill immediately began floating toward the surface, and his weight belt was out of reach before he realized it. He began struggling to get back to the bottom, but in the process, Bill lost a fin and his tank came loose from his BC. He ascended all the way to the surface and was unable to descend again. When he realized Ann wasn’t right behind him, he signaled to the shore for help. Two nearby divers responded quickly, but they didn’t find Ann for 15 minutes. When they finally located her, she was unconscious and her regulator was still out of her mouth.

Read the full story here on scubadiving.com

When diving little errors can be come life threatening if you are unprepared.  The lesson from this story is to practice emergency skills, know your equipment and don’t panic if a problem occurs.