AOW Deep Dive

[Myke green]

Hi everyone,

I am currently working on the AOW cert and had the deep dive ( my 1 deep dive ever) at La Jolla Shores in San Diego. For those not familiar or familiar its nice sandy bottom with a gradual slope, have dove it multiole times both good and low vis. Always awesome. Obviously am one of those who went into AOW after OW, am comfortable in 50-60 ft, each dive since OW has been gradually increasing depth by 5 - 10 ft and just relaxing getting used to it. Until today. The plan was to reach between 70-80 ft,compare gauges and look at the color loss on the AOW slate.

What i didnt know was just that in the shores around 55 ft mark the nice sand bottom takes a sharp slope down then droos off into the canyon. Right at the edge when i first encountered the drop i freaked out. Our group was the Instructor one other student and another buddy for me, who is DM certified. I adjusted my BC to gain closer to a neutral bouyance ahs tried signaling my buddy to return a few feet back towards where the slope start to try to slow breathing down, but after another look out Into the nothingness I freaked and could feel panic starting to build up and couldn't control breathing. At that point I signaled to end the five and we made a normal of not a bit rapid ascent.

TlR- at 60ft looked into the black nothingness of a hell hole drop for the first time In my life, ran away.

 

[Dizzi Lizzi]

It is scary. Truth. Excellent job at thumbing this dive in a controlled manner. I'm glad that you were comfortable enough with your group to be able to do that. I had an uncomfortable deep experience, and had a rapid ascent warning. You should be very proud at being able to "freak out" in such a controlled manner. I was not so controlled for a few seconds, but later was able to go back down, chill and then go back up...slowly. Now I know I can do it IF I want to. Going deep is not required to have fun.

Thanks for your post and continue to dive safe!

 

[Cowfish Aesthetic]

Hi everyone,

I am currently working on the AOW cert and had the deep dive ( my 1 deep dive ever) at La Jolla Shores in San Diego. For those not familiar or familiar its nice sandy bottom with a gradual slope, have dove it multiole times both good and low vis. Always awesome. Obviously am one of those who went into AOW after OW, am comfortable in 50-60 ft, each dive since OW has been gradually increasing depth by 5 - 10 ft and just relaxing getting used to it. Until today. The plan was to reach between 70-80 ft,compare gauges and look at the color loss on the AOW slate.

What i didnt know was just that in the shores around 55 ft mark the nice sand bottom takes a sharp slope down then droos off into the canyon. Right at the edge when i first encountered the drop i freaked out. Our group was the Instructor one other student and another buddy for me, who is DM certified. I adjusted my BC to gain closer to a neutral bouyance ahs tried signaling my buddy to return a few feet back towards where the slope start to try to slow breathing down, but after another look out Into the nothingness I freaked and could feel panic starting to build up and couldn't control breathing. At that point I signaled to end the five and we made a normal of not a bit rapid ascent.

TlR- at 60ft looked into the black nothingness of a hell hole drop for the first time In my life, ran away.

Friendly advice: don't book a trip to Grand Cayman yet.

 

[mi000ke]

Friendly advice: don't book a trip to Grand Cayman yet.

Or if you do, don't turn your back to the wall

Seriously, I did my deep AOW and all of my other initial deep dives at the Cayman wall, but it wasn't until a few deep dives in that I ventured to turn my back to wall and stare down the abyss - it does get a bit daunting, but eventually is very cool. Even to this day I still kind of hug the wall as we are diving along, while most of the others are 20 - 30 feet out in space. Anyway that's where most of the Marine life is. To each his own. Keep plugging away and it will get easier.

 

[rongoodman]

Or Turks and Caicos either.

 

[TMHeimer]

I've been to 130' on the Deep course, but never saw a hole into nothingness (nothing remotely like that in the many places I've dived). That would probably scare the crap out of me too.

 

[rsingler]

Let me give you something to hope for on the positive side:
I was doing a drift dive in Lanai about two years ago after a plain vanilla drift along the coral seeing multitudes of tiny aquarium-style fish. Nice, but nothing to go ape over.
On the dive leaders signal, we all turned offshore on a compass heading to take us out to where the boat would meet us in deeper water, slowly ascending to offgas.

For a brief moment, I was three feet ahead of the group, just moseying along in the ascent. No visible buddy to either side. No visible surface. No visible bottom. Just a graduated blue everywhere. Just as you will be (comfortably) in just a few more dives, I was neutrally buoyant. And at that moment, floating weightless in space, I had the most wonderful few seconds of calm and serenity in that featureless blue beauty. I hope I experience it again. After decades of diving, little has ever approached those few sublime seconds! It was wonderful!

To put it in mundane terms, as long as you're neutrally buoyant, you're not going anywhere in a hurry. Enjoy the moment. You are fixed in space.

I wish you an experience like mine. Keep diving!

 

[ystrout]

Vallecitos Point (that drop off at about 55 feet at LJ shores) drops off fast, no doubt. That drop eventually reaches 1,000 feet or so. It's eerie! The first time I saw it, I was blown away by how deep it gets that fast.

You'll end up diving there again. Remember, it's a very safe dive, you can easily come back to the gradual slope of the shores, you're close to shore, and there's pretty much never waves in La Jolla!

Good luck and have fun next time! You'll be safe.

 

[HeliMech]

Hi everyone,

I am currently working on the AOW cert and had the deep dive ( my 1 deep dive ever) at La Jolla Shores in San Diego. For those not familiar or familiar its nice sandy bottom with a gradual slope, have dove it multiole times both good and low vis. Always awesome. Obviously am one of those who went into AOW after OW, am comfortable in 50-60 ft, each dive since OW has been gradually increasing depth by 5 - 10 ft and just relaxing getting used to it. Until today. The plan was to reach between 70-80 ft,compare gauges and look at the color loss on the AOW slate.

What i didnt know was just that in the shores around 55 ft mark the nice sand bottom takes a sharp slope down then droos off into the canyon. Right at the edge when i first encountered the drop i freaked out. Our group was the Instructor one other student and another buddy for me, who is DM certified. I adjusted my BC to gain closer to a neutral bouyance ahs tried signaling my buddy to return a few feet back towards where the slope start to try to slow breathing down, but after another look out Into the nothingness I freaked and could feel panic starting to build up and couldn't control breathing. At that point I signaled to end the five and we made a normal of not a bit rapid ascent.

TlR- at 60ft looked into the black nothingness of a hell hole drop for the first time In my life, ran away.

I didn't freak out but I distinctly remember when doing my Deep Certification a few months ago having similar feelings. I was diving at Whytecliff Park in West Vancouver which drops off to around 700 or 800 feet. I came around the corner from The Cut and watched the bottom disappear into inky blackness. At around 130 ft. I may have been slightly narced (not sure) but remember the feeling of dread wash over me - both from the blackness below and from looking up to know that was an awful long way up for a CESA.

You aren't crazy for freaking out. I almost kinda did....almost. ;-)

 

[caruso]

I recall my first deep dives back in 2005 in Cozumel, swimming out over the wall, seeing nothing but blue ahead, around and below me with the reef behind me dropping off into the depths, seeing only what my eyes and the visibility could discern perhaps 100-150' below me. It was spectacular. I thought to myself "this is so freaking cool", it was a zen moment like no other that is churning in my memory as I write this, as if it was only yesterday rather than the better part of 2 decades prior.

Another diver sees this mass of blue and goes into a full scale panic.

The same reactions can happen along magnificent bridges, or hikes across magestic mountain peaks, or encounters with potentially dangerous creatures such as spiders, or even confinement in small spaces.

For this diver, it appears that diving in general isn't off the table, there's lots of shallow reefs to explore. Either avoid wall dives completely or seek consultation with a qualified therapist to work on the underlying issues that cause some people to completely freak out over experience that leave others thirsting for even more.