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The purpose of this article is to give you some scenarios of how accidents can happen when 'open water divers' enter an overhead environment unprepared. Scenario One Two divers do an open water dive to a wreck at 20 meter. When circling the wreck they discover a passage that seems unobstructed, and they decide to enter the wreck. When diver one comes out of the passage on the other side diver two is still in the wreck. He returns to find his buddy entangled in a fishing line, and tries to free him. While they both try to remove the fishing line with their knives they start to stir up silt. They manage to cut the fishing line but are disorientated now, the visibility is reduced to zero. They did not lay a line when entering the wreck, they are not used to communicating with touch signals. They are not trained to avoid silt-outs by using appropriate propulsion techniques and good trim and buoyancy control. Maybe they get out of the wreck unharmed, maybe there is an "accident". But one thing is clear: they were not well prepared to enter the wreck. Scenario Two Four divers enter a cave in a reef wall, at 15 meters depth. They all have lights, and have seen a map of the cave, that is easy to navigate. One entrance, one tunnel, swim 50 meters in and swim 50 meters out, very simple. They enjoy the scenery in the cave until one diver kicks another diver accidentally in the face. A mask-strap breaks, and one diver is swimming without a mask now. The diver without the mask is close to panic, and grabs the first person that comes close. Everybody tries to help the person without the mask, but none of them brought spare masks. They do not know how to communicate in this situation that they have never encountered before. The stress is mounting quickly, the air is used up fast, and the three divers with a mask on their face can only think about one thing: "let's get out of this cave, fast!" They do not have the training to cope with these emergencies. They have not build confidence by doing exercises like a 10-minute no-mask-swim. One broken mask-strap reduces a dive team to four individuals who fight to get to the entrance of the cave. Scenario Three Two divers plan a dive in the Oslo fjord in Norway, in the beginning of the winter. They see that part of their favorite dive-site is covered with ice, but this does not worry them. They are used to diving in cold water, and they know the dive-site pretty good. So they feel comfortable when they plan a route that takes them under the ice, even though the ice is thick. During the dive the current is stronger then expected. It takes more time to get back to the place where they entered the water, and they are running low on air. Once they arrive at the place where they entered the water they find it covered with huge plates of ice. The current pushed these plates of ice drifting in the fjord to the dive-site. The time to find a hole in the ice big enough to surface through is running out fast. Summary These are three realistic scenarios of situations that arise when unprepared divers enter overhead environments. During overhead environment training you learn additional ways of communicating, like light- and touch-signals. You learn specific propulsion techniques, line work, gas management, what the dangers are and how to avoid them. You learn how to handle every possible emergency scenario. You are trained to be prepared. A large percentage of the casualties of the "accidents" that happen when untrained divers enter an overhead environment are very experienced open water divers, even dive guides and dive instructors. They have a lot of experience in open water diving. This experience gave them the confidence to try overhead environment diving, but not the right preparation. Open water diving experience, confidence and curiosity are no substitute for the right training in overhead environment diving.
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