/ SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2019 / 79reservation, so he showed up without a
partner. The boat crew asked Ted if he
would mind buddying with Nell, and he
agreed. Nell told Ted she was a photog-
rapher and planned to take photos on the
dive—but didn’t give him any more detail.
Ted and Nell descended to the bottom
and began swimming along the reef. Ted
was enjoying the dive when he saw Nell
stop and move close to the reef. He as-
sumed she was going to take a quick
photo, then they would move on to see
more of the dive site.
THE ACCIDENT
After waiting more than five minutes
without an indication from Nell that she
was done and wanting to continue the
dive, Ted began looking around. He did his
best to keep Nell in his peripheral vision.
He did want to explore some more,
though. He'd paid for a dive, not to watch
another diver nap on the bottom. So,
Ted moved off along the reef. He would
glance back and note Nell had relocated,
but she always seemed to be hovering in
place with her camera up to her mask.
Ted was annoyed, and not paying at-
tention to his bottom time or even where
he swam. Suddenly, he noticed it was
hard to breathe. He looked at his pres-
sure gauge and realized he was nearly
out of air. On top of that, he was 60 feet
underwater and had no idea where his
dive buddy was.
Ted began to panic. He was a long way
from the surface. He looked around for
the boat but couldn’t find it. He began
to ascend, then glanced back at the reef
and spotted Nell. She looked up and they
made e ye con t ac t. He signaled t o her t ha t
he was low on air and he was going to
surface. She immediately began swim-
ming toward him, signaling to him to slow
down. She clipped her camera to her BCD
and pulled her alternate air source out,
getting it ready for him.
Ted got one last breath off his own reg-
u l a t o r b e f o r e h e r a n o u t o f a i r. N e l l a r r i v e d a
moment later. She held onto his BCD while
she gave him her alternate air source.
She positioned herself directly in front of
in his face, making eye contact, signaling
him to breathe slowly and easily. After
a couple of breaths, she could see him
begin to calm down.
Nell never let go of Ted, and kept a firm
grip on his BCD to prevent him from bolt-
ing to the surface. They made a slow,
controlled ascent. Nell helped Ted orally
inflate his BCD on the surface, then they
swam back to the boat.ANALYSIS
Both divers made mistakes. Nell didn’t
accurately describe her plans for the
dive, and even though it wasn’t the dive
Ted imagined, he should have stayed
closer to Nell. He also should have mon-
itored his own air supply along with his
position relative to the boat.
Had they discussed the dive and their
mutual goals, they could have compro-
mised to spend part of it photographing
and the rest exploring, but neither diver
explained what they expected.
It could have turned out far worse than
it did. A rapid, uncontrolled ascent from
60 feet could easily cause an arterial gas
embolism and Ted could have lost con-
sciousness before he even made it to
the surface, suffering from stroke-like
symptoms and cardiac arrest.
A key to being good dive buddies is to
ensure you have compatible goals un-
derwater. Photographers are often so
focused—no pun intended—on getting
their shots, they forget about their dive
buddies. Often, the best dive buddies for
underwater shooters are people who like
to be good spotters, looking for interest-
ing scenes or critters to photograph.
When buddying with someone new,
talk about air-consumption rates. In this
case, Nell was fit. Even if she had been
swimming around, she would have used
significantly less air on the same dive
than Ted. The fact that she also was hov-
ering in place, relaxing and concentrating
on her subject, made it more likely that
she was using very little air on the dive.
Realistically, the boat crew should not
have teamed them as dive buddies, but
it's possible they were the only t wo unac-
companied divers on board.LESSONS FOR LIFE
QMonitor your air supply. No one is responsi-
ble for you running out of air but you.
QStay with your buddy. Dive buddies don’t
have to stay on top of each other, but they
should stay close enough to assist should a
problem arise.
QHave similar dive goals. This should be
worked out before the dive begins. Plan the
dive and dive the plan.
QMove slowly and easily through the water.
Rushing around is the quickest way to burn
through your air supply.