Detecting stress

[LCF]

This is a question for those of you who sometimes dive with novice or non-DIR trained divers.

With my DIR buddies, if any of them was having buoyancy control issues, or swimming constantly, or using his hands, I'd instantly understand that he was not on his game and something wasn't right, and I'd stick to him like glue. But with other divers, much more movement and instability and lack of light discipline is pretty usual, and I sometimes find it difficult to detect when they are stressed. My failure to do so today led to low on air situation that should never have happened. Everybody came home safe, but I'm wondering if anybody has any good ideas on how one can discriminate between unpolished diving skills and a stressed diver. The diver in question answered several "okay?" inquiries in the affirmative.

[krautrob]

I always found that looking them in the eyes tells a lot. Where are they looking? Do they manage to look back for a second or two or are they immediately distracted?

[Kevrumbo]

Get out your wetnotes, write "Relax -tell me what's wrong?" . . .

[kamyk]

Quote: (Originally Posted by Kevrumbo)

Get out your wetnotes, write "Relax -tell me what's wrong?" . . .

hehe but How do you know if something gose wrong ?

hmm... just a quick though since I got it on my mind:

1. Try to look where your (non DIR buddy) looks, and whether he want to have eye contact with you or not - all the time.
2. Simple gas check every 10min or so, but will depend on the dive.
3. Yeahhhhh.... looking thru the eyes would be a gud1, you could tell wheather or not they stressed.

[keri.lewis]

FWIW - I do a lot of diving with new divers as I help out a club once or twice a month - I find that there is a general level of stress that doesn't go away. This manifests itself in:

1. Fast breathing/air usage
2. rapid unstable movements
3. being "OK" when a more experienced diver would be signalling problems

So Lynne, your note and experience are "on the money", and nothing unusual.


From being an instructor and leading trips, I find that putting a little structure into the communication helps enormously. This is also the case for more expereinced divers (say 30-100 dives that are non-DIR trained that you highlighted) In the pre-dive discussions of the plan I try for:

• A signal to ask for air pressure and a schedule to ask the question (say every 10 mins up to 30 and after that 5 mins)
• A clear set of objectives for the dive
• Making sure that we are going to be going slowly (so many people dive in a hurry and see less because of it)
• Agreeing separations and buddy planning

I also explain what I will be doing, and the way I try to dive. That way the differences in dive style will be smoothed out and the dive is more enjoyable.

While team diving is (for me) undoubtedly better, diving with other divers, be they DIR-interested novices, or those that have no interest in DIR at all is fun too. I am cautious around those that are not safety conscious, but with doubles and reasonable self-sufficiency the need for team back-up is less. The communication is just harder!

[graham_hk]

Rapid movements and continous breathing - if you can see their eyes it will tell you something is wrong.

Don't pussy foot around - if you suspect something is wrong swoop in a make physical contact. They won't respond to signals at all or appropriately (return an OK when clearly not) you need to take control. Making contact is normally enough.

[Howard Payne]

Totally agree Graham - physical contact with people is often very remedial and re-assuring. Really calm, positive hand signals and eye contact usually throws them because they expect to see panic on your face as well and it's almost like "well if he's not panicking - why am I?"

[tim]

Preoccupation with nonexistant problems is one I've been taught to look for and find to be a useful sign of stress. I know I've done it myself - the mental state you fall into when you're aware something isn't quite right but you're waiting for something much worse to go wrong. Frequent checking of clips and kit (OK, that could also indicate that they've spotted a GUE instructor around!), checking of gauges and compass, clearing of mask, etc - everything *is* OK that they're checking, but what's not OK is their own mental state which is driving them into being paranoid and preoccupied.

Completely agree with Graham re. calm, positive physical contact.

[LCF]

Well, when I dive with new divers, which is something I try to do often, I KNOW their gas consumption will be high, and I ask them about it early in the dive, to get a handle on how much time we have. On this day, it was a fairly experienced diver (several hundred dives) with some advanced training, so it just never occurred to me that I would need to do that, and I discounted what I was seeing as being poor diving skills rather than stress. I'm kicking myself about it. I guess the answer is, if I don't like anything I'm seeing, simply asking "OK?" is not enough; check pressure as well. Certainly the high gas consumption rate would have been a light bulb to me that this diver was not doing well.

[Fiona]

I get stressed even before I get in the water with some DIR divers