Lots to critique here, both from the POV of the panicked diver and the person filming.

jesus!

looks like Santa Cruz Island on right... Channel Islands? or foreign?

WTF?

Description doesn't say.  Dive was @ 50'.

....and that's why mommy doesn't dive anymore kids!

eta: watched again...wow! note the ineffectual kicking....she was done.  Buddy System!

Equipment malfunction cause the panic?

I've been with panicked divers, who perceived a malfunction, when in fact everything was working as designed.  I tell my kids that there are 2 golden rules in scuba: always be breathing, and never panic.

Notice the poor control at the beginning of the ascent.  Trying to swim up with her hands, head down, not making any progress, panic.  Look up, reach up, kick up.

The DM (or whoever was filming) screwed up, too.  Although he responded quickly, he gave her her own octo.  If she was in a low- or out-of-air situation, cramming her reg back in her mouth probably wouldn't have helped.

I take it low air will cause loss of buoyancy in the BCD?  Also wondering if regulators malfunction these days?  I took a class in the 80's but did not go on to certification.  My class loaner regulator had issues.

Assuming she was neutral at 50 feet, she merely need kick up a couple feet and she would be positive.  Big misconception to ascending is that you need to add air to your BC.

In my 20 years of diving, I have never had a reg fail on me.  Then again, I take care of my stuff.

Get behind her and straddle her tank, reach around and drop her weight belt, take her up.

She was flailing her arms way before the signal to ascend. Any diver that is using their arms that much gets extra special attention from me if they're diving with me.

Eta

That ascent was crazy fast. DM took a huge risk not addressing the panic at depth and doing an ESA. I wasn't there and there's not a lot of info.

Something was wrong from the beginning of the command to ascend.  She wasn't looking [face down] nor did she acknowledge the person giving it.

Hope she's ok.
Dollars to donuts she won't dive again.

This was in South Africa BTW.

I'm curious on what an accent at that depth that fast did to her. Shooting up from 50ft doesn't sound to fun.

I miss diving and haven't done it in almost 9 years and this is the first video I click on.

Any number of things. Without knowing the dive profile and mix it would just be speculation. If 50 feet was max depth and they were under very little inert gas loading, she's probably safe, although she might need to clean out her wetsuit. The 15m/50ft NDL on the IANTD table is like, 95 minutes or something like that. I doubt they were down that long since they seem to be new divers on a single AL80 or 12L. That's best case.

Really though, potentials are all over the place, from AGE from holding her breath to full on bends, and anything in between. Even if her tissues didn't exceed critical supersaturation she's still likely to have silent bubbles at a minimum, as well as the DM and anyone else who made that ascent. O2 should be administered at a minimum. I'd be curious to see a profile and hear a follow-up.

There's an excellent graph in Mark Powell's "Deco for Divers" that shows the difference in bubbles detected during a Doppler study, 30m dive for 25 minutes. It had 3 groups of divers. First group, direct ascent. Second, 2 min safety stop at 3m. Third, 1 min at 6m, 4 min at 3m. It showed that the group who did the staged safety stop had less bubbles immediately after surfacing than the direct ascent group did after 2 hours of surface interval! None of the divers experienced DCS, but all had bubbles as measured by Doppler.

Newbie PADI open water here, headed to Grand Cayman and Cozumel soon.  PLEASE don't let this be me.  



I got certified in a lake w/ 3' visibility, so I'm hoping the Caribbean will be a breeze.  My only trouble was taking off my gear at the surface, then trying to get my fat ass back into the gear.  Reg recovery, mask flooding, etc. all went well.

Congrats!

Remember this to help your ascents: Look up - reach up - kick up.

Look up to see where the heck you're going.
Reach up...low pressure inflator up with your left hand, right hand over your head so you don't bump it under a boat.
Kick up...don't initiate the ascent by dumping air in the BC.  Since you're already neutral, kick up a couple feet and you'll be positive and rising.  Dump air as required to maintain ascent rate.

Don't worry. You will be fine. And believe me the Caribbean will be all you hope for and more. Full blown panics like this are very rare and this is the first I have seen on film. Just remember to go slow and easy, pay attention to your gauges and most of all relax. After a few dives it will all fall in place. Don't be afraid to let the dive guide know you are new and he/she will likely stay pretty close to you to make sure everything is A-Ok.

After you get a few dives in and feel pretty good about your skills then read "Shadow Divers" and "the Last Dive" They pertain to technical diving and are not the dives you will be doing right now, they are good reads for a diver. But seriously you may want to wait till you are confident about your diving so as not to increase any anxiety.

Thank you for the advice.  I have read the account of David Shaw's last dive.  That was some extreme diving for sure.



 

Ascending that rapidly can result in a blown ear drum since equalizing is vital to the ears.  Am I wrong?

Usually more important on the way down.  When you ascend, your ears will equalize naturally.

Rapid ascents carry higher risks of lung over-expansion injuries such as pneumothorax and mediastinal emphysema.

Scary

I saw a young gal freak out like that before.

Blocked ears and sinuses CAN erupt on ascent- it's called around-window rupture in the case of the ears. The pain is so intense that it can cause you to black out.

It can take several years to recover from.

I dove commercially (SCUBA) for years.  Given the conditions we dove in with only a surface tender and the numerous incidents we had under those conditions any instance of panic like that would have been fatal.  

I did fracture my oval window once.  Not a pleasant experience.

Wow that looked really bad.

Nice job on the guy helping her out, i did two dives in DR, and it was in my experience the best thing i have ever done in my life. Next time i go on vacation to the Caribbean i will tailor it for diving only.

true she was definitely fucked and maybe the fact that they were only at 50' lessened the damage done... But heres the rub, lets say you are at 50' or perhaps 100'. you donate your primary and get right on to your octo. Excellent, all is well in the world again if only this chick literally takes a nice deep breath and starts to calm down.



Or the opposite happens, you give her air like the responsible and generous diver you are, she remains in all out panic mode and now decides to either drop her weights, or pops her bc with a shot or two, congratulations, your now attached at the hip the a panicking out of control diver who just bought you both a ticket on an express elevator to hell... going up. so now you both get to enjoy your DCI be it DCS or an AGE (barotrauma) or both...



Im not saying that one is the right answer and one isn't, but I will say that the first rule of rendering aid to an injured victim in any arena, is to always make sure you don't make the situation worse by adding a second victim to said clusterfuck, which is generally a reference meant for you, the responder.



It then also brings up the age old question of what you are honestly willing to do or how far you are willing to go to help a buddy you know and have dove with in the past. Where you know you can trust him to have your back like a good buddy should, and also generally not lose his shit at any random moment, and if he does, you can trust that he is experienced enough to recognize your help and get himself back together in a reasonable fashion.



That of course vs everyone s favorite, the infamous 'insta-buddy' you get paired with on the boat 2 minutes before your about to get wet and have just enough time to learn his or her name let alone talk basic procedures, basic communication, a basic plan on how you guys want the dive to go etc.





Its one of the imo one of a bunch of pretty strong arguments in favor of always slinging a nice little cf40 tucked away neatly under your arm and out of the way on every dive. Someone needs air? they they are fixing to do an ooa due to panic or disorientation, heres a nice fresh bottle of gas, take it its all yours... now if you want to do a controlled swimming ascent and event throw in a safety stop with me to help keep you calm and relaxed lets do it, ill take hold of your shoulder strap with my arm fully extended to give us a little space, and please dont try to latch on to me anymore, you have you very own bottle full of air, don't mention it.



Or course I rig all my stage pony bottles exactly the same which is to say exactly like this http://dir-diver.com/en/equipment/stagebottle_rigging.html

or this http://dir-diver.com/en/equipment/reg_config_stages.html

Im not sure what they official name of this setup is, I always heard it referred to as florida cave or florida tech rigging.





REgardless, to anyone who is reading this who has never dove with a stage/pony tank, I strongly strongly urge you to go out and pick one up and give it a try. I've had 2 inch knives that I found many times more obtrusive and uncomfortable that what it feels like  (or more accurately doesn't feel like) to sling a 30 or 40 nice and tight up under your arm, with proper rigging and a properly policed up and tucked away reg. Im telling you if you closed your eyes you would almost have trouble remembering whether or not its actually there, they fit perfectly in an unused and out of the way spot.  



The fact that the backmount option is even a 'thing' that really exists is enough to piss me off, that's how much I think that setup sucks. To each his own I guess but everything to me about  backmount setup is terrible in every way. To quote a friend and fellow diver



"The backmounted setups kill a diver every year or 2.... even the
rocketscientistknowitall type with "1000s" of dives.It seems they also
panic in an emergency and have neen known to put a hi po2 reg in their
mouth despite the mouthpiece being different."




 

Around here,  backmount typically is used by spearos for obvious reasons.  I sling a 13cf as a bailout for boat dives. I used to have a 40, but found it too big to lug around with everything else.  As you state, I didn't notice it either way.
I hear what you are saying about donating the bailout if needed, but this really wouldn't apply to the insta-buddy.  Most wouldn't know what to do with it [hold on to it, manage buoyancy, etc].  Of course, with a buddy that you are familiar with, different story.
My bailout, is well, my bailout.  I have been asked on the boat about donating, I am blunt and stating, that this 'my bailout plan'.  Most diving here, this is understood as you are de facto solo, which is cool by me.  If I am diving with my kid = game changer.
My reg set is setup with 2 second stages..so I still have a donor reg.  I have debated whether to ditch the octo, but with the mix of shallow shore diving [<30'] and boat diving I do, I will leave it on.  Plus, I can still be a sharing and caring diver if needed.

I just treat every dive as a solo dive, even within a group of insta-buddies. It's just not worth considering that you might be relying on one of them.

As for slinging a buddy bottle (NOT a stage bottle or a deco bottle, that implies it will be used by design during the dive), I sling it like I sling any other tank, door handle on the buttplate, clipped to harness, sidemounted to my backplate with bungees. The rig never changes regardless of whether I'm doing a single tank recreational dive, doubles in an overhead (physical or deco), or a rebreather. The slinging of bottles is the same whether it's a little 6L of O2 for deco on the right, or a 15L deep bailout on the left. The procedure for use is the same as well, so you're not trying to deal with any differing procedure. The regulator is the same also, except for the O2 bottle. Long hose for donation, whether it's bailout or a buddy bottle. Gives you time and distance to get them calm without them on you like a chihuahua on a teddy bear. The bailout reg also happens to have the QD for my BOV and LPI for MAV. Other than that, it's the only difference, so the procedure when dealing with another diver is the same.

Hey, guys...would love to see pics of how you rig your own personal equipment.

Cold?

Had a lady hug a tree in a grotto at 70ft once in 40deg water.

Why are videos no longer showing up on ARF?

Simple enough, I side mount. In fact my wife has taken over my BP/W as I'll probably never run back mount again. Two tanks with a 7 foot hose attached to the left tank and a 22 inch hose affixed to the right tank, twin SPG's and the necessary inflation hoses.

I've run pony bottles but got away from them and I don't really see the need with two tanks. When I did use a pony I would sling it on the left like a deco bottle.

Oceanic Excursion, oceanic air 2, aqualung legend 1st and 2nd, oceanic pro plus 3. It does everything I need for teaching and hunting.

Truth be told I often get wet with basically the exact same setup. I spear from the beach my mad depth is often is very often less than 20 ft tops depending on what im going for. I have both a 40,30,13 as well as a 3cf HEED (lets call that one what it what it is, cause it damn sure isn't a bailout bottle). Im not proud of this, but during fluke/flounder season or when I am taking bugs at certain spots where im basically never getting much deeper than 15 and at most 20 feet, and conditions are good I will occasionally grab the HEED bottle as my redundant. when things get a little more nautical or I'm going after something deeper I will step up to the 13 and then 30 as needed. I also still keep an octo and have never considered ditching that.

 
I think that's a bad idea for a couple reasons.

I had a reverse squeeze happen while diving the Channel Islands.
Could not clear my ears, tried going back down then up again with no luck several times.

Waited a few minutes at deco stop and tried repeatedly to clear, but didn't work.

Got my partner to follow me up as I was running down to about 300 PSI.

At about 10 feet it finally cleared through my nose, filled my mask with blood and mucus.

Cleared my mask and made it back to the boat, but that was my last dive that trip, left me dizzy and disorientated for days afterward.

Gear removal and replacement is actually a common skill for some of us.   When I'm at the lake and the instructor has the students on the shore, I slide my BC under my ass and sit there.  

It's surprising how many student's tanks slip out of the strap during a dive

As already mentioned it's more about popping a lung.  With scuba I was taught to "humm" into the regulator, commercial diving they said if we ever had to do an emergency ascent yell, scream, whatever it took.  

 

The air in your lungs expands in volume as you rise closer to surface a surprising amount.  Doing practice emergency ascents, you can slowly float to surface just letting out a stream of bubbles for a LONG time (the rule of thumb is to rise slower than your bubbles) and STILL breath out a lot when you pop out of the water.


Basically you just have to give the air a path to leave.


There is however, a risk of getting a reverse block in your ears, but that's normally due to diving when you absolutely should NOT be. I.E. congested and taking things like sudifed or nose sprays that run the risk of stopping thier work underwater, allowing things to inflame and swell again when you're under pressure. But normally, if you got down there fine, coming up will be fine on the ears.

I dove in lakes from the time I was 10 with dad back in '68. In January I finally went on my first cruise- first time on the ocean, at 57 years old, and my first ocean dives in Cozumel, Belize and Roatan.
Trust me- the ocean is much better than lakes. You will probably be spoiled like me- lakes will never be the same.

Pretty much the only places I will dive now have 100' visibility and you don't need a wet suit.  I find it to be much more enjoyable.  
 

I will still have to dive lakes, but now I consider them places to polish skills to prepare to get back to the real fun.

No diving in the Chesapeake or the Potomac Dad?

Fuck and no, son.



 

Just watched the video...

I can't even make sense of it. Spit her reg out. Tore her mask off. Looked like she was trying to tear her hood off.

On her frantic ascent her eyes looked like she was trying to breathe on Mars.

Full blown panic frequently results in exactly what is shown here. Rejection of all equipment including reg, mask, and hood. This is the first time I've ever seen it so clearly caught on video. Would make for a great training aid. As others have mentioned, this is a very dangerous situation for the rescuer. Unless you are well trained (and keep that training current) you should approach this situation with extreme caution, and consider not approaching at all. May sound harsh, but may save your life.

Dive Masters are a special group of people.

I've only ever had one bolt. I saw it in her eyes well before she went.  Had her by the ankles. She didn't rip out her reg or mask. Just giant eyes and a bubble storm before she bolted. Calmed her down and went back to doing skills

I have had many students tell me that they wanted to bolt. But because I was right there in their face they felt comfortable in the water. What they didn't know is I already knew which students would be uncomfortable. By talking to and listening to each student in class, at the pool, and on the boat, I have a very good understanding of who needs my attention and who will be perfectly fine in the water.

I learned long ago that agency didn't matter. It's your instructor that makes the difference. I strive to be a good Instructor and give each student the attention they need and deserve. I want people to know the live I have of diving and I try to impart that during my lessons.

I've only ever had one bolt. I saw it in her eyes well before she went.  Had her by the ankles. She didn't rip out her reg or mask. Just giant eyes and a bubble storm before she bolted. Calmed her down and went back to doing skills

I have had many students tell me that they wanted to bolt. But because I was right there in their face they felt comfortable in the water. What they didn't know is I already knew which students would be uncomfortable. By talking to and listening to each student in class, at the pool, and on the boat, I have a very good understanding of who needs my attention and who will be perfectly fine in the water.

I learned long ago that agency didn't matter. It's your instructor that makes the difference. I strive to be a good Instructor and give each student the attention they need and deserve. I want people to know the live I have of diving and I try to impart that during my lessons.

I saw a pair of eyes like that in a mask once. There was a guy wrapped around her ankles and another guy trying to dump the BC she'd filled full of air.
This was in Roatan, 1993.