Saturday the 10th of April, decided to do one dive on the HardDeep ( Sutatip ), in Samesaen, Thailand. Have been on this wreck probably 50 times or more, know it very well. Have a routine sorted out, go down first, most people who follow run out of air quickly ( 28 meters ), and surface, and I will follow them up and be the last out , typically with a 10 minute deco + safety stop. Had a full tank, and a pony bottle as back up ( fortunately ).
Was down for yonks, really enjoying my self, testing my new D70 Wide angle set up ( pictures turned out crappy by the way ). Well, I had plenty of deco on the clock, caclulated my consumtion, and decided it was time to come up. ( use 1 bar per minute max at 5 - 6 meters).
Well...... I started coming up the rope, and the current was very strong (most people who Dive with Ray Divers never experience this )..... but, that was ok. I usually pick a knot in the thick line, and just "flap" there.
There was one problem though, as I settled on the knot at 6 meters, a whole army of divers ( about 10+ ) came up the line too.... divers from a different boat mostly who was not there when we went in. Heads facing into the current, they did not even see me there on the knot, and basically started squeezing me with their large mass up the line. Obviuosly in-experienced divers. I had my camera in one hand, holding on to the line with the other, and my head was buried in a mass of divers, and there were so many bubbles, I could not even read my dive computer. The current was so strong, it was not possible to swim down and settle on a deeper part of the rope. I was being squeezed more and more up the rope by the mass of divers.
I put my camera between my legs, and gave one guy a whack, he looked back at me, and he was sharing the octopus with some one else ( what a fiasco ! )...... then, he just let the reg out of his mouth, and looked at me with a puzzled look ( I though "Oooohhhhh shit, here we go with a panicked diver or a drowned one." ) . Suprizingly he found the reg. again, and not much changed.
By this time I was huffing and puffing well beyond my 1 bar per minute " max", trying to stay below 4 meters, and my air was expended. I always though my pony and extra reg was a big "over", but I have changed my mind since saturday. It was such a nice feeling to know I had an extra air source ready for use, and did not have to signal to share with others ( how some one could make that signal clear in all that confusion is beyond me ! ).
Well, I was enjoying my ROI with the pony, but, the situation was getting worse............ I was getting squeezed up more and more...... 3 meters with 10 minutes left. When at 2.5, my dive computer said "Er" in big letters. Made one last deperate attempt to swim past people / down, but the current was too strong....... so it was an ascent to the surface.
Happily, no bends or after effects ( Sunnto is very conservative )
Lessons :
1. Dont deco dive when there are alot of people ! Actually, we were the only boat there when I went in, and when I surfaced there were 4 or 5.
2. In the 10 years I have been diving, and probably 3 or 4 which have been mostly Solo, I still maintain the only times when my life has been in peril was when I was around other in-experienced divers. And this time was no different. Why new divers think they must safety stop at 5.00 meters down to an accuracy of 0.01 meters beats me.
3. Murpheys Law again hits in. Yes, I had my plan, told Ray what I was up to, have done the same routine for years...... and then ... Bingo.
4. Having an Alternative air source is very comforting indeed, and worth the trouble of taking it every where you go.
