1. Have you ever reacted to an underwater situation in a way that was not in accordance with your training?
Yes
2. Can you describe the situation, and explain why you reacted in the way you did?
I'm a relatively new diver, and to my much shame have more posts here than I do dives. But I love the sport and read as much as I can here.
Last weekend I finally got wet again after a number of cancelled trips. I went on a live-aboard in Jervis Bay in conditions that were far from ideal.
I was diving in gear that was fairly new to me. We'd done a couple of pool dives to start the familiarization process, but let's be honest, it was still very new with everything in different places.
Mostly though the main issue was I was still working out my weighting in this gear setup. I'd also bought a brand new wetsuit for a previous trip that I'd decided to take, so I was really guessing.
The dive was a live-drop in moderate swells, with a live pickup at the other end of a short wall dive. Needless to say, I did not in any way shape or form want to be under-weighted, so went with my weight from the previous dive (I was working my way down 1KG at a time on the previous dives. By the end of the trip I can say that I was around 4KG too heavy on this dive).
Jumped off the moving boat, co-ordinated with my buddies, and started the descent as quickly as we could to get out of the swell. I pulled out my torch at this time as it was also very murky and I wanted it for signalling.
As we descended, I quickly realized that I had dumped way too much air, and was rocketing down, losing my buddies and struggling to keep up with equalization. Reached for the inflator when bang i heard the LPI hose pop off the nipple.
I remember thinking "huh, so it really does happen", taking in an extra large breath to try and increase my bouyancy, clipping off the light, and finning upwards hard to slow the descent. Popped the hose back on, inflated, went back up a couple of meters to help clear my ears and all was sweet as I waited for my buddies to catch up.
Not a big problem, no dramas in sorting it, and to be honest it felt like I reacted without thinking. But it was situation I'd never been instructed to even consider, let alone practice. I'd only really considered and thought about dealing with such an event due to reading sites like Scubaboard. If i'd have kept descending, most likely I would have ended up with ear damage, if not worse. I can see how someone could easily panic in such a situation turning a minor issue into a major one. So thanks to the SB community.
On the flipside, the reason the hose popped off was due to following dodgy advice on SB on ways to bungee off your inflator
3. Do you, in hindsight, feel that your response was appropriate?
I do, but would happily consider any advice on what I might have done better
4. What did you learn from it?
Don't do a live drop when unsure on your weighting
Manage your descent rate earlier rather than later
Don't follow dodgy advice about equipment setup
Oh, and it really isn't a drama dealing with the unexpected underwater as long as you approach it rationally.
5. Do you feel that your training could have prepared you better to handle it? And if so, how?
Yes. My training did not cover this topic at all.