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Diving Officer's Report
Apologies for missing the
meeting but by the time you read this we will be enjoying the Red Sea
delights. Thought I’d better send a short report following the
incidents at St Abbs. In the end, the situations were not
life-threatening and no one was worse for wear but there were lessons
to be learnt.
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Buddy checks were not thorough enough. I
witnessed some that were properly done and some that were no more than
a nod. One diver ended up with no air at 30 metres because his air was
not fully turned on. Another had his cylinder slip out. Both these
could have been avoided by more thorough checking. We are all as bad.
Many of us, me included, turn our air on, check the contents and then
turn it off again until reaching the dive site. If it has not been
purged, the gauge will still show 200+ bar and there will be some air
in the hoses which is sufficient to reach the bottom of the shot. Only
then does the problem become apparent. All divers should take three
deep breaths, watching the gauge, just before getting in to the water.
The strap on the other diver’s cylinder is prone to
stretching but, again, if his buddy had checked his cylinder just
before entering the water, it probably wouldn’t have happened. I know,
we were racing the tide and had been told to hurry. At what price?
No-one should put themselves or their buddy at risk by rushing too
much.
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There were other instances of equipment
failure which led to my querying whether a dive to 32 metres is
perhaps not an ideal first dive on a weekend trip. In future, can I
suggest that if we do do the Glanmire as a first dive, that the buddy
checks are extra thorough and people only do the dive if they feel
confident that both they and their kit are up to it?
Right, I’ve said what I wanted
to say. Apart from the above, we had another great weekend and the
diving was superb.
Kate
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Recent St Abbs trip resulted
in two near incidents involving poor buddy checks. It was
stressed that safety was paramount and buddy checks should be
vigorously observed.
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It was agreed that the Dive
Marshalling responsibilities should be stressed - Diving Officer to
communicate these responsibilities to all Marshals
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Dive Marshals should ensure
that first dives on trips should be assessed to ensure buddy pairs
cover experience levels, etc.
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