What would Butch do? Everything you see is telling you a story.
LAST WEEK I SHARED……Steve Gerber’s video of a diver in a state of uncontrolled panic under water. Steve is not a dive instructor and shot this using a mask-mounted GoPro. The original footage was affected by high algae levels in the water, resulting in everything looking a rather monochromatic green. Here is what the same footage looks like with color correction, allowing you to see more detail.
Posted by Cave Diver Harry on Wednesday, February 15, 2017
EVERYTHING YOU SEE IS TELLING YOU A STORY. ARE WE LISTENING? DO WE REALLY UNDERSTAND WHAT TO LOOK FOR OR WHAT WE ARE SEEING?
This one of a kind video depicts the way we have been describing how real-life rescues evolve and the fact that most of the industry is not training for real life.
This diver visually starts having difficulty and a series of events take place (as they have a thousand times).
- Her kick rapidly degenerates
- Her hand motions start to become erratic
- Her breathing rate dynamically changes
- Due to her poor finning skills, her hands and arms become the main mode of propulsion
As the situation escalates, we don’t know if she has is having an out-of-air emergency, or if she’s simply over-weighted, or if some other difficulty is suddenly taking place.
Sadly, by the time all of the above is noticed, our diver is struggling to get to the surface, and as demonstrated and described over and over since the first explorers went underwater;
- She rips her mask off
- She spits her regulator out
- Her legs are no longer adequately pushing her toward the surface.
- An extreme lack of skill on the part of the ‘would-be’ rescuers is redundantly demonstrated.
By the time you see the bulging eyes, you’ve already missed a dozen signs.
“It’s time in our industry to look and or accept what real-life underwater emergencies are, and the lack of training to properly prepare the ‘would-be’ rescuer, especially at the leadership level. Underwater emergencies can happen to anyone, at any level, and they will probably never be stopped but better preparation of the ‘would-be’ rescuer can be changed.” – Butch Hendrick
Real Life Training For Real Life Rescues
