136ft in no time

[Bubbletrubble]

yes, the point is to ebay the console and buy a wrist-mount.

@lamont: I really don't see this as a helpful recommendation for the OP. As fisheater pointed out, there are certainly ways to make the depth/time info on the Wisdom more accessible.

Personally, I like the convenience of having depth/time info on my wrist. FWIW, I have a very experienced dive buddy who uses a Sherwood Wisdom. He's never been surprised by his depth on any of our dives. During pre-dive planning, we set a maximum depth...and we stick to it once the dive begins. The OP's equipment didn't cause this "near miss."

 

[lamont]

fisheater also bought a wrist mount.

you can put your depth information clipped to your chest, so you remain more aware of that, but its always going to be inferior to just having it on your wrist...

 

[Deefstes]

I knew I was only 6ft beyond rec limits, so I figured since I was already there I may as well hang out for a couple of minutes

To me this is the most shocking line in an already shocking story. I would think that, if I had planned a dive to 65ft and before I know it I find myself at 136ft, I'd haul ass out of there. Two questions jump to mind:
1. Why am I at 136ft when I thought I should be around 65ft? Is it because there is a down current? While I "hang around", could this same down current take me down to 200ft without me knowing it, just as it took me down to 136ft without me knowing it?
2. Do I know what my NDL limits and gas requirements are for this depth or am I just blindly trusting my computer, which I know I can't hear through my hoodie, to tell me when I can't stay any longer?

I don't want to be too much of a smartypants as I'm a fairly inexperienced diver myself but I am a bit surprised that you have not been lambasted by other divers yet. In all honesty, you probably came much closer to your death than you may think. I don't know the locale but I'm sure there is a looong list of possibles that could have turned your dive into a disaster. You were probably only a couple of minutes from deco. Imagine you had a little entanglement or whatever issue which took you a little time to sort out, nothing serious but enough to get you to incur a deco obligation on a gas supply that might well not be sufficient.

Anyway, glad you're OK and that you learned something from the experience.

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

When I realized how deep I was, my inner monologue was something like: "Holy s#*t, 136ft, how did that happen? Well, that's only 6ft beyond rec limits."

As Uncle Pug used to admonish me ... you really need to rethink your approach to that dive. What you should be thinking is "Holy s#*t, 136 ft, how did that happen? That's more than twice as deep as I planned to go."

Rec limits should not enter the thought process ... you hadn't planned to go to rec limits. Nor ... on an AL80 ... were you really prepared to go there. So don't think about hanging out just because there's some arbitrary line hovering slightly above your head. Get the heck outta there because the fact that you blew your plan that badly is a giant red flag that something went very wrong.

For sure you were narced ... probably more than slightly. With your level of experience, you wouldn't be in a position to be making very good decisions. The red flag shouldn't be that you slightly exceeded recreational limits ... but that you blew your dive plan by a very wide margin. Any time that happens, it's time to get the heck outta Dodge.

I'm glad you're OK. I'm glad you decided to talk about it. I can't help but get the feeling that you're taking solo diving a bit more lightly than you should be ... particularly on the cylinders you're carrying.

You need to rethink what happened, though ... you're emphasizing the wrong things. When you made the decision to solo dive, the adage "Plan your dive and dive your plan" took on a whole new significance. Be very careful about taking it too lightly. The biggest mistake you made in this case wasn't going too deep ... that was an accident. It was deciding to hang out there ... that was a potentially much worse accident.

Maybe you should reconsider whether or not you're ready to solo ... sounds to me like an extra brain would've come in really handy ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[The Chairman]

I agree with Lamont: I use a wrist mount almost exclusively and for my Gas as well.

 

[drbill]

I can't really comment on the solo diving aspect of this incident since my first time on SCUBA back in 1961 was solo, as have been the vast majority of my dives since then. However, your lack of attention to critical things like the depth gauge and SPG suggest your diving this time was not sufficiently focused. Could you have become narc'ed and not have noticed the final descent because of it?

I didn't read through all of this thread so maybe this issue has been addressed. From what I did read it sounds as if you did have a pony? You refer to getting a bigger one in the future if you dive deep. I did the same when I started diving deeper (used a 13 cu ft prior to that but was only diving to rec depths solo).

And don't get complacent about using the pony. The one time I did nearly was my last dive.

 

[BioLogic]

I'll try to address all of the comments:

As far as rethinking solo diving, I appreciate the concern but it ain't gonna happen. I realize I don't have a lot of dives, but they are all in limited vis, surgy conditions, surf etc. and 60 of them are solo.

With respect, I do notice that you're posting about accidentally exceeding planned depth by more than 65 ft, then not having it immediately occur to you that this was a problem. Do you expect the dive would have gone the same with a competent buddy? I do *not* mean to imply you're incompetent; it's just that humans make errors and some oversight can be useful -- particularly in those with less experience.

I might make a hundred dives and never need my cutting tool; but the hundred and first could teach me that it wasn't wisdom not to have been carrying one.

 

[FritzCat66]

FWIW, all Wisdoms have a programmable depth alarm that can be enabled or disabled, as well as DTR, turn pressure, and PPO2 alarms. No excuse not to regularly check the display of course, but still - unless disabled, alarms should have been going off.

I set mine to 100' because I am rarely ever interested in exceeding that depth; gas utilization goes up dramatically and so does risk of pushing into deco. Not worth it in my book, although I understand that the OP did not plan on it either.

 

[Deefstes]

FWIW, all Wisdoms have a programmable depth alarm that can be enabled or disabled

Surely there can't be many computers these days that don't have this?

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

There is nothing wrong with setting and using audible alarms on your computer. When you need to rely on them, though, that's usually a pretty good indication that you've not yet developed appropriate awareness skills to be solo diving.

... Bob (Grateful Diver)