I'd like to share something that happened to me 2 weeks ago in the off chance it sticks in someone else's head when the time comes
I was diving at a spring in Florida with my daughter (OC) and a friend of mine John (not his real name - he's probably just as embarrassed about this happening as I am). John dives OC and is not a rebreather diver.
The particular facility we were at has walkways out over the water, then a stairway down. Once you take the last step, you're in about 3m of water. This makes it very similar to a boat dive in that you need to be ready to dive when you take the last step.
At our prep table, I had carefully setup my gear, checking everything was normal, and donned my kit. Then I checked my daughters gear and setup. She was 100% and ready to go. John was finishing getting ready and told us to go ahead.
We went down the walkway deck to the stairs. There formed a line of people behind me as I slowly put on my fins, and mounted my RBS (an aluminum 80) and finished another set of checks. The people in line (maybe 3 at this point) seemed frustrated, but I wasn't going to rush.
I slid under the water and did another set of checks (gas, bov, computers) and watched my daughter enter the same way - Slowly and methodically. I told her that the people in line would just have to wait the extra few seconds and not to let them rush her.
John came down the walkway next. He was diving a single 95 on his back, and a side mounted 95 for a fully redundant system. He waited in line as people entered until it was his turn. His started to put a fin on, but was having trouble and felt rushed. By this time, a large group had come down together and were getting frustrated with the guy "who had too much gear on". They where actually *very* vocal about this (especially at the end of dive as we got out).
In truth, John had on what he needed - The 95, a side mounted 95, and was diving dry. Nothing too strange for a spring with a cavern etc
I was at the surface, on my loop, watching this unfold from about 6m away. My daughter was also 6m away waiting as well.
And then he did it - In a moment of frustration, John jumped into the water. He didn't have his reg in his mouth, no mask, with his fins in his hands, and side mount not side mounted. He figured he would sort it all out in the water.
Immediately he started having trouble. His drysuit had air in the feet which instantly put him on his back. The weight of the side mount 95 in his hand was trying to roll him to his side. In order to counter-act the rolling, he dropped his fins from his other hand to paddle, but that didn't help either. His reg was wrapped behind him, and he couldn't reach it.
At this point, I started swimming to him - John wasn't panicked, but he definitely wasn't having fun either.
When I reached him, I grabbed his wing inflator in my hand and squeezed, momentarily dumping some air, then adding enough to get him completely floating. At this point he let go of his 95 and I started swimming him to shallow water, about 8m away towards shore.
My focus had been to get him either a) on his reg or b) to shallow water. He wasn't panicked, but wasn't happy. I positioned myself behind him and towed him into shallow water.
Total time elapsed from when he jumped in, to the time he was able to stand in shallow water was a little over 1 minute.
And then it happened - as soon as we got to shallow water, I felt very weird - extremely relaxed, and sleepy. And getting sleepier. I instantly looked at my VR3 - It showed a pO2 of 0.09
The entire episode had unfolded without me checking my pO2 for 1 minute on the surface
I immediately and simultaneously laid on the manual add button and drew a deep breath to kick in the ADV. Within 30 seconds I felt normal again.
While I busy taking care of #1 (myself), John didn't know what was happening. He just knew I let him go in the shallows and backed off. Had I passed out, I doubt he would have noticed for a little while due to getting himself sorted out.
experience (plural experiences) 1. That thing you get immediately
after you needed it.
Outcome:
1) I had checked my gear and didn't "die during setup"
2) I wasn't allowed to be pushed or rushed
3) Everything was on and configured correctly.
4) My HUD was working, but being at the surface, my flashing green warning didn't mean anything to me since my set point was 1.0 (unmaintainable directly at the surface)
5) I got distracted to help with a "situation".
6) During the short distraction, my work effort went up at least 10 fold
7) I inadvertently allowed my loop to go very Hypoxic - Probably less then 0.09 in the loop given the delay of the cells.
Moral of the story:
1) #1 has to be alive to help #2
2) Being at the surface is a dangerous place, even on a properly configured and working mCCR. Great care and diligence must be practiced at ALL times, but ESPECIALLY at the surface.
(As a side note: My daughter also got "a talking to" - Being a team of 3, she didn't take part in helping with the situation. She told me later that she didn't realize that she should have been helping, and that the "adults" had it. She's 17 years old and AOW w/ Nitrox - I told her as a diver in the community it was her responsibility as well to watch out for her entire team)