Lessons Most frightening moments

Please register or login

Welcome to ScubaBoard, the world's largest scuba diving community. Registration is not required to read the forums, but we encourage you to join. Joining has its benefits and enables you to participate in the discussions.

Benefits of registering include

  • Ability to post and comment on topics and discussions.
  • A Free photo gallery to share your dive photos with the world.
  • You can make this box go away

Joining is quick and easy. Log in or Register now!

After seeing how the post I wrote about the reverse block resonated with people, I would like to make another post today, namely about the most frightening moments I've ever had.

It's easy, particularly for novice divers, to think that people like myself, with decades of experience, thousands of dives and a deck of c-cards have everything under control and nothing bad ever happens.

I wrote about the reverse block because of that. I wanted to show that I am still human and I can still make mistakes. On the internet there is a strong tendency for (technical) divers and instructors with a lot of experience to project an image of themselves as always solving problems correctly, always making the best decisions, and in the case of instructors in particular, having a monopoly on good ideas that lead to perfect students diving perfectly.

None of that, of course, reflects reality at all.

So I will start. I urge experienced divers to share their own stories.

-------
First
-------
1985. I was certified as AOW and we were making a deep dive along a wall. The bottom, for all intents and purposes, at the bottom of the wall was unsurvivable. A diver who diving with a group slightly ahead of us got caught in a large ball of discarded fishing line that he didn't see. He started sinking. The incident started at 42 meters. My buddy and I had just started our dive and we saw this happening. Nobody in his group did. We went after him. This was the first time I had dived deeper than 42 meters. I couldn't tell how deep we were when we caught him because the (analogue) depth gauge I was using was pinned at its maximum depth. This was also my first deco dive or at least my first dive where I was "off the tables" and unable to to know how to ascend. I was, at that time, unaware of oxygen toxicity, gas management and ascent protocols. We returned (at a rapid pace) to 30ft. (10m) and waited there until our tanks were empty on the assumption that any damage done by our deep incursion would be fixed by that. Upon surfacing we didn't know if we were going to get the bends or not. I was, frankly, scared. It still gives me the heebiejeebies to think about this incident more than 30 years later. We did something there that was completely out of control (also the rescue) and we got off easy.

-----------
Second
-----------
2002, I think. I was working as a DM. We temporarily lost a diver during a dive. The situation was that we were on a platform at 25m and doing some exercises for the AOW (deep) dive. A group of divers (maybe 6) descending LANDED on us and kicked up so much silt in their attempts to slow down before impacting the bottom that the visibility went from 5m to black-out in a matter of seconds. I grabbed the two divers right in front of me and dragged them out of the silt cloud. One of them turned out to be our diver and the other one turned out to be one of the idiots who landed on us. We were missing a diver. We surfaced. Naturally our divers were told to surface if they became separated but this diver did not. He remained where he was and waited to be rescued. On the surface we decided that I would search for the missing diver because I had the most experience of everyone (including the instructor). At that point I was a DM but I was already technically trained. I had very limited time. I went back down and eventually found him but it was luck. He survived and my beard got grayer overnight. If I couldn't have found him in the next 5 min his death would have been on my conscience until I died. This was so frightening to me that I nearly abandoned all plans I had to become an instructor.

-----------
Third
-----------
The accident. My team saved the life of a diver who ran out of air during an AOW training dive (by another group, not mine) and was left for dead on the bottom at 18m. We acted quickly and professionally and got him into the hands of paramedics within about 10 min. As an aside, the fact that the Dutch paramedics were able to be on scene so quickly was no small part of this! He looked dead when we retrieved him. He lay in coma for several weeks after the incident. Doctors had basically written him off when -- unexpectedly to all -- he woke up and subsequently made a reasonable (albeit not full) recovery.

The impact on myself and on the members of my team was substantial, particularly because of what we viewed as our 'mistakes'. One diver (the DM) stopped diving. He started hyperventilating during the descent to find the "body" and after that he started to hyperventilate on EVERY dive. He stopped diving.

To me it changed EVERYTHING about how I view training and my role as an instructor. I didn't organize things on the surface as well as I could have, if I had had a second run at it. Yes, I had the EMS on site in 10 min. Police, paramedics, trauma doctor, helicopter, fire department with a boat, a private boat.... all of that I had..... but I was overwhelmed and not communicating as well as I could.

Someone tried to chase my (uncertified) OW students into the water to go search. He didn't know that they were uncertified and I ripped him a new one in a way that I regret, giving in to the emotion. An NOB (CMAS) instructor showed me by example how to control the dive site in a way I had never learned, I missed seeing a diver (the DM who caused the accident) displaying passive panic. It only became apparent to me when they had to take him away by ambulance when he collapsed.... it was MUCH more messy scene than I had ever imagined and I was not in control as well as I would expect from myself. At one point, once the EMS had control of the surface situation I grabbed another diver (a DM) and went searching myself. This was a mistake. I can't get over the mind set that drove me to ACT when I SHOULD have been coordinating! I'm like the guy who charges into a burning building because I can't fight the urge to DO SOMETHING! I HATE that about myself.

Since that time (it's been years) I've been replaying that event in my mind and thinking, "if I had only done XXXX then YYYY". It drives me CRAZY to think that if we were sharper we could have found him 30 seconds or a minute earlier and his recovery could have been better. The fact that he survived is utterly astounding. These things never end like that.... but I feel responsible for the fact that it took so long.

This was a formative moment in my diving. I considered stopping as well but eventually decided not not to. To this day I cannot -- and will not -- teach or participate in the Rescue course, even though I may be the one instructor in my circle who is most qualified to talk about the differences between theory and practice. It's just too intimidating.
 
Last edited:
So I dont have a ton of dives under my belt. I am rapidly closing in on 50 though. I am only AOW certified up to this point.

My local dive shop that I dive through organized a trip to Bonne Terre mines. They have had many trips here, but this was my first.

For those who have never dove there, they have a very strict "trail" system. You cannot dive the trails out of sequence. for example, you cannot dive trail 5 until you do trail 1,2,3 and 4. You cannot dive trail 2 until you have done 1. So on and so forth.

When I took this trip, I was only around 20 dives or so. It was explained by the DM that these dives would all be "open" water, with no obstructions, and only a few minor swim throughs. No big deal. So we do dive 1 on trail 1. It was exactly as advertised, and a wonderful dive.

So we exit for our SI, and the DM comes over to explain that the other dive group reported that trail 2 was totally silted out, and not divable ( the area had received massive rains in the previous couple days )

The DM goes on to explain he wants to take us down a trail mixed with parts of trails 3-5. At the start of this briefing, he explains that we will have to swim down an obstructed stairwell ( remember this is an underground mine ) and then through a "small swimthrough" that will exit into new cave section. We all gave our consent for this without really understanding what we were agreeing to.

The swim down the stairs was much longer and far more laborious than the DM led us to believe. The stairwell was narrow, and long. We were trying to cram 10 divers down this narrow stairwell. And the small swim through was not so small. it was a pretty long hallway. So we are about 15 minutes into this dive, and a lot of us have already huffed a good chunk of air just getting down these stairs, and im starting to panic a little bit at this point. Because we are just now getting into the long "small swim through. I am thinking to myself at this point, that I am most certainly NOT qualified to be here. But the end of the tunnel is in sight, and Ill soon be out of obstruction.

So we get to the end of the "short swim through" and it opens into new cave. Which, of course, is also entirely obstructed overhead with no way out.

At this point, I start to hyperventilate. And not just small shallow uncontrolled breaths, but massive intakes of air. And I am NOT getting enough air out of my reg at all. So I start to panic even more. Then, just for a small brief moment that I almost pulled my reg out of my mouth.

As soon as I had that thought, I was almost certain I was going to drown. And no one in my group has noticed this yet. I can feel myself getting light headed, and heading to the blackout point from hyperventaliting. A death sentence as far as I can see.

Through sheer force of will, I forced my body to just stop moving, I closed my eyes, and just sat inert in the water for a minute or so while others explored the cave. I spent the time focusing on my breathing to calm it down. I spent some time remembering my training, and understood that I can trust my equipment and the redundancy built in to it.

Once I was able to get my breathing under control, the rest of the dive was incredibly cool. In fact one of the coolest dives I have ever had. It was also all almost entirely obstructed overhead. I shouldnt have been there, nor should most of my group. We simply didnt have the training nor equipment for this dive. I made it out and to the surface with 200 PSI left. No one was over 500.
I can't believe this got so few reactions. It seems insane to me. Taking OW divers on a trust-me-dive deep into an overhead environment, with narrow passageways. It might not be as bad as doing it in a cave, but a still a hard ceiling and what sounds like non-trivial access to the surface. And to top it off zero gas management. Sounds like an absolute nightmare that easily could have ended with fatalities. It makes both the dive shop and the management at the mine look very bad, IMHO.
 
I can't believe this got so few reactions. It seems insane to me. Taking OW divers on a trust-me-dive deep into an overhead environment, with narrow passageways. It might not be as bad as doing it in a cave, but a still a hard ceiling and what sounds like non-trivial access to the surface. And to top it off zero gas management. Sounds like an absolute nightmare that easily could have ended with fatalities. It makes both the dive shop and the management at the mine look very bad, IMHO.
You are right that this was insane!

But it must have either been an anomaly, or they have changed significantly since.I wasn't on SB when this thread was active, but I have been to Bonne Terre a couple times in the last couple years (all after this incident occurred).

This doesn't sound anything like the kind of operation I saw. They were very strict about diving the trails in sequence, building skills and experience in the mine, etc. The frequently checked everyone's gas and managed the dives around the lowest (a couple of times they sent one of the several DMs with the group back with individuals that were going through gas fast so the others could still enjoy a good dive). They also had someone in a boat above the divers following the bubbles whenever there was air overhead.
 
Come to think of it - my two harrowing experiences have only and both involved barracuda.

A few dives ago, I was doing an afternoon dive. Solo. To a site I'm rather familiar with. About 29 meters (100 feet) deep.
It was a late afternoon. Most sealife was back at the reef and in dormant mode. Likely they'd had their lunch and were about to slumber.
Very peaceful dive. It was cuttlefish mating season - so a lot of romance and acrobatics.

I'd reached my NDL and decided to ascend. Even when I dive solo, I will actively try to find other divers to ascend with. Why not, right? Good practice. Makes it easier on the captain.
That late afternoon dive I wasn't near any of the other divers. No matter. Plenty of air, my spare pony, spare mask, and the usual reassurances.
So I begin to slowly ascend.
At 22 meters (72 feet), I notice a pair of barracuda swimming by.
Oh lovely, a pair of barracuda.
I turn my head left and I see a school of them.
Oh wonderful! A school of no less than a hundred barracuda swimming perpendicular to me.
At this point, I wish I had the wordsmith skills of authors and book writers to better describe what happened.
I had stowed my camera away but thought, why not take a few pictures. So I, with haste, unlatch the camera tether, turn on the camera. Set it to landscape mode (it defaults to macro mode) and begin taking a few photographs.
As I'm taking pictures and simultaneously passing my regards to Poseidon for this eventful ascent, I notice that the schooling barracuda are now circling me.
How fantastic! A circling school of barracuda.
As I'm looking at the camera screen, I find myself trying to zoom out. I was already at maximum zoom out. Why do they look so close on the camera viewfinder. So I look up and I notice that not only have they reduced the radius distance, but they picked up pace fast.
It was only a few seconds but the pace at which they were swimming, the half-open jaws, the military style rhythm of their tact and the millions of glimmers from their eerily shiny bodies and my heart rate picked up.
I realized what was happening.
They'd entered hunt mode.
They were attacking me on two fronts.
First front they were getting me dizzy by dazzling me with their glimmering skin, making my head spin by how fast they were circling me. The second front was emotionally getting my heart rate up.

Well done, barracuda. Well done.
It was both a pleasure and a pain to be prey to nature's alpha species.
I think I am fortunate that I realized what was happening. Because I then reminded myself I was fine. I had plenty of air. No need to panic. Action plan to simply and slowly ascend. They ascended with me a few meters before dashing off.
Magnificent bastards.

View attachment 668576 View attachment 668577 View attachment 668578


LOL

The only way I will shark dive is with a very wide angle so they look further away and a huge dome port so I can bump them

A7EE3C0F-D0A6-4490-82BF-5E0A8F9754E3.jpeg
07740160-4758-427D-9AA7-97F0C78D04DA.jpeg
D0697D1B-290A-49A0-BE20-2065B634F8C5.jpeg



Without the camera I would be freaking out, wit the camera I only imagine the images
 
I can't believe this got so few reactions. It seems insane to me. Taking OW divers on a trust-me-dive deep into an overhead environment, with narrow passageways. It might not be as bad as doing it in a cave, but a still a hard ceiling and what sounds like non-trivial access to the surface. And to top it off zero gas management. Sounds like an absolute nightmare that easily could have ended with fatalities. It makes both the dive shop and the management at the mine look very bad, IMHO.
Because we are numb with stories of recklessness/incompetence by dive pros.
 
There was this one time I was let loose on a new open water student 3 weeks after being invited on a DM course... :oops:
 
This is not my video, but I find the story pretty disturbing.
Holy cr@p some people are just clueless and accidents waiting to happen.
 
I can't think of any particular really scary moments while diving but then I do lack adrenalin and have been given the nicknames of 'Flatline' and 'Valium' in the past

Biggest Oh Crap moment I've ever had was when working at an underground gold mine. There probably isn't a good time to have a massive collapse in the underground, but 10.12am on Christmas Day was particularly bad timing. I wasn't underground at the time, but was in charge of the mine rescue team that had to get 36 miners out - the mine went down to about 1100 metres below ground. Wasn't how I had planned to spend Christmas Day!
 

Back
Top Bottom