Fire rescue personnel responded to a disabled vessel with a diver suffering from the bends a half-mile off Shark’s Cove on Oahu’s North Shore Saturday, a fire official said.

The 17- to 18-foot boat experienced engine trouble about 1:55 p.m. and a local man in his 50s man suffered from the bends, likely from not properly decompressing, fire Capt. Carlton Yamada said.

Fire rescue crews got to the vessel, placed the man on the sled of a rescue watercraft and brought him to Aweoweo Beach Park in Mokuleia, where he was transferred to Emergency Medical Services personnel, Yamada said.

An ambulance took the diver in serious condition to Kuakini Medical Center for treatment in its hyperbaric chamber, officials said.

A boater used his vessel to tow the disabled boat to Haleiwa Small Boat Harbor.

The man and the boat operator were the only two on board, Yamada said.