An instructor and his student were on a dive trip and carried out a hard-boat dive with the instructor assessing elements of dive leading. Because of the wind direction the skipper had chosen a sheltered reef site and had briefed the divers. The instructor and student carried out their dive, drifted with a current and occasionally entered gullies. At the end of their dive the instructor signalled to the student to deploy his DSMB ensuring they had moved away from the rock face to avoid entanglement. The divers completed a 3 min safety stop at 6m and surfaced with a dive duration of 40 min to a maximum depth of 21m.
Within a minute of surfacing the divers were lifted and separated by a large wave which pushed the student out to sea and the instructor towards the rocks. A series of waves forced and trapped the instructor against the rocks and it was apparent that he was not going to avoid the large waves. He felt panicky and inhaled water as the force of the waves had removed both his mask and regulator so he crawled up onto a rock using its cracks to maintain a hold. The student, who had also lost his mask and had his regulator removed by the waves, swam toward the boat and was recovered aboard.
Meanwhile, the instructor had put on his replacement mask and waved and shouted at the dive boat and his signals were acknowledged. The instructor decided not to re-enter the water until the boat was near enough to recover him. With approximately 40 bar left in his cylinder he used it sparingly as more waves washed over him and pushed him twice off the rock so had to climb back up each time to be seen by the dive boat.
Having recovered all the other divers the skipper moved the boat as near to the rocks as he could but the wave action and shallow depth prevented him from getting close. The skipper checked that the instructor was fit and experienced and used the boat’s speaker system to tell him to re-enter the water and swim out far enough to be picked up. The instructor was recovered by the boat’s stern lift and apart from being shaken and exhausted he did not require any first aid.
He had bruising on his hands due to impact with and gripping the rock and had pulled muscles in his legs and abdomen from bracing himself against the force of the waves and decided not to dive for the remainder of the dive trip.
As well as losing his mask the instructor had lost a torch and had a weight pouch ripped from his harness.