35ish dives in, started to panic, had to abort - still causes some concern

[CapnBloodbeard]

Hi all, first post here aside from my introduction. It's a bit of a long post, so I sincerely appreciate anybody taking the time to read through and post advice. I figure I can't discuss a panic without the full details.

I'm still a pretty new diver. OW certified, done 35ish dives, started diving 2-3 years ago.
Earlier this year I was doing about 6 or 7 days of diving in Komodo National Park, Indonesia - first was a few days on a liveaboard, 2nd was at a Scuba Junkie resort.

So in the middle of the trip we had the transition day between the two, did I think 1 dive with SJ in the arvo.

Much of that time was dealing with currents to varying extends. My fitness then....low-moderate, I'd say. I was going to gym regularly and I wasn't heavily overweight or anything. Fitness has improved since then. I'm usually the first in the group to be running out of air, maybe about 20bar ahead of the next person typically.

First dive of the next morning we were along a bit of a reef wall and has just done some pretty hard finning into current. We had rounded a corner so no current, and swimming along the wall. I was still feeling quite puffed and a little difficulty in drawing as much air as I felt I needed. i was starting to feel restricted by my reg's airflow...then I started to feel panic. I was starting to feel that sense of not wanting my reg in my mouth anymore, just not wanting to be underwater. I was aware that if I hit a full-blown panic I could well end up pulling my reg out or something like that. So, I was able to recognise at this point that I was in danger.

I thought to myself that I could try to rest and see if I can calm myself down out of it...but I reasoned that if it kept building up, then that's another few minutes I am away from being on the surface. So I signalled my buddy (my wife) that I wanted to abort the dive, she quickly checked I didn't have any air problems, we agreed to abort, and at this point the DM had turned around and the group joined us on the way up. I was starting to calm down on the safety stop. By the time I surfaced I was down to I think 50bar (everybody else was 90-110) - as expected with the panic (I kept a close eye on my air levels).

So I skipped the rest of the dives that day and just read and napped on the boat. I haven't had the same problem since (there was another 6-8 dives after) - but it's something that is now in the back of my mind; a little concern that it will happen again. I plan on going for my AOW later this year, but I have a little bit of anxiety about going deeper and not just being a breath and CESA away from the surface. A bit of concern about what happens if I get that feeling again.

So, any thoughts? I know there's another panic thread on this page, I'll read through that later.

I'm unsure if I have asthma so I'm thinking I should get that assessed.

I mentioned before that I had spent the previous few days with a different agency. I noticed at the best of times that the new agency's reg was slightly harder to breath through - i wonder how much that may have affected it (could it be that they used an unbalanced reg which made it harder to breath as I was puffed out?), and I'm thinking of getting my own reg (I'll research/post a thread with questions), aiming to get one with really easy airflow. As I mentioned, I was quite puffed out and felt like I couldn't draw as much air as I needed (I also have a higher than average lung capacity as well as higher than average air flow)

 

[BRT]

How deep? I have had that panicky feeling when working harder than normal and still keeping my breathing rate down. CO2 buildup. I think CO2 is worse at narcosis than nitrogen. I've learned I can exhale ALL my air, take a deep breath and repeat and the feeling just disappears.

 

[Esprise Me]

I think you handled the situation well. I realize you must have felt very anxious, and I don't mean to dismiss that, but I wouldn't say you panicked. You thought through your options and chose the best one. I wouldn't be too worried about this happening again, because what happened was OK. But yes to getting your own reg, yes to getting in shape, yes to more time with an instructor, and yes to getting checked by a doctor just in case.

Finning hard into a current can definitely leave you feeling the way you did. A reg that's hard to breathe can, too. I had a mild, somewhat similar thing happen on my first LOB; during the first dive I felt like I couldn't quite get enough air. I finished the dive with the group but gave the knob a slight twist before the second dive to make it breathe easier, and felt better. Maybe I solved the problem; maybe I just felt better because I convinced myself I'd solved the problem.

One more idea: see if you can't rent a bigger tank so you're not always the first to run out of air. Some people are bigger and need more air; some people are out of shape or don't swim efficiently and could learn to use less; some people breathe a lot because they're anxious. There's nothing you can do about the first, and it's a vicious cycle with that last one because worrying about how fast you're using up your air makes you breathe faster. Get a bigger tank while you work on your skills and maybe someday you won't need it. But even if you always do, at least you'll be having fun and not stressing out.

 

[Searcaigh]

Congratulations on dealing with this experience to surface alive

Currents can be challenging for the best of divers, and for me the best way to deal with them is go with them. Swimming against currents should be avoided unless it's for a short distance to get into the area where the dive is planned.

Having your own gear is also beneficial, especially a good pair of fins (can of worms on this subject) that can handle these situations.

My advice is to look at diving more locally to gain further experience, but I see that you live in Melbourne, brrr.

Depending on how you handle cold water, which can also affect your air consumption, you'll have to invest in a dry suit or decent 7mm semi-dry, both of which are not cheap in Oz.

Most dive ops in SE Asia mainly use AL80 tanks, but many may have AL100s, which you should request for your next trip. Practice different finning techniques, as well as buoyancy control, relax and enjoy, you'll get there mate

 

[Graeme Fraser]

This sounds like a classic CO2 hit following the over-exertion you described. Common symptoms are breathlessness, believing your reg isn't giving you enough air and feeling very anxious, on the verge of panic. A stonking headache can also be a symptom, which can continue for a couple of hours post dive. Apart from prevention being the best course of action, the important thing is to recognise the signs, stop all activity and try to breathe naturally. This should bring it under control, but yes, be prepared to end the dive if symptoms persevere.

The good news is, this can happen to anyone and it is not necessarily the sign of an underlying health condition. I've had a couple of hits myself and they're not pleasant.

That said, you mentioned you're not sure if you suffer from mild asthma. If you do think this is a distinct possibility, I'd definitely get it checked out by a doctor before continuing.

Good luck and don't beat yourself up on the air consumption issue. This will gradually improve over time and some people just do use more air. Doesn't matter.

 

[CapnBloodbeard]

How deep? I have had that panicky feeling when working harder than normal and still keeping my breathing rate down. CO2 buildup. I think CO2 is worse at narcosis than nitrogen. I've learned I can exhale ALL my air, take a deep breath and repeat and the feeling just disappears.

don't recall, but OW depth. 12-18m somewhere

This sounds like a classic CO2 hit following the over-exertion you described.

Interesting thought. Are some regs poorer than others at dispelling CO2 in this sort of scenario? I wouldn't think so, but figured I'd ask...I don't recall if I had a headache, but I often do on diving days

 

[Angelo Farina]

Graeme Fraser said: ↑
This sounds like a classic CO2 hit following the over-exertion you described.
Interesting thought. Are some regs poorer than others at dispelling CO2 in this sort of scenario? I wouldn't think so, but figured I'd ask...I don't recall if I had a headache, but I often do on diving days

I agree entirely with @Graeme Fraser . CO2 retention triggered uncontrolled breathing (technically called dyspnea, not to be confused with hyperventilation). It is a loop, as during a dyspnea attack breathing is very fast but very short, and this induces further CO2 retention.
The breathing apparatus (regulator, in your case) can be a con-cause of the problem: if not well tuned it can require an anomalous work for doing a complete respiratory cycle, and this is additional effort which is summed to your legs for swimming against current.
Once the CO2 is too high, it also alters your perceptions and can trigger panic. What's important now is to understand what happened (which is perfectly explainable and normal) and act for avoiding it can happen again.
You can act on three factors:
1) Training and behaviour
2) Fitness
3) Equipment
I ordered them according to what is their importance, in my opinion.
Here we talk about training
"modern" training tends to underestimate the importance of basic skills such as respiratory control and kicking techniques. Instead, I was trained in the seventies, when before being given a SCUBA system (typically, at the time, a closed circuit pure oxygen rebreather) you had to work in the swimming pool for 2-3 months improving your skills, first without any equipment, then with just fins, mask and snorkel. We were trained to swim with different types of fins and with different kicking methods according to the requirements, and for strong currents the recommendation was to use long free-diving fins, and to use the "free diver" kicking technique: slow, ample, without flexing the knees, and making the long fins to flex both upwards and downwards, so that both movements of the leg (up and down) produce an active thrust during both actions. This way of kicking, using those long, flexible fins, is not "natural", you have to learn it, and it takes a couple of months going to the swimming pool for 2-3 hours per week, under the guidance of a fin-swimming instructor. You also need to find the fins which have the proper geometry (angle of the blade from the shoe) and stiffness for your legs, and this requires to test at least a dozen of different models. Of course this was done because, at the times, every scuba diver had to be first a good free diver.
Then we were given that awful ARO (oxygen CC rebreather), which is incredibly hard to breath through. Our model did not even have the loop, it was a "pendular" model, where there is just one corrugated hose, and hence there is a terribly large dead space. If not breathing properly, such a system can kill you easily. So we were forced to learn how to control breathing very carefully, using very long expiration and inspiration, and with an inspiratory pause of at least 5 seconds, with a total of maximum three respiratory cycles per minute, possibly just two...
After two or three months training with such a rebreather, finally we had the first compressed air scuba system, open circuit, typically with very old and hard-to-breath regulators (in my case it was an Aquilon). But coming from the ARO, it appeared much smoother and easy to breath. Still we were trained to keep the same respiratory control, with a very slow cycle, and very deep, insisting particularly on emptying entirely the lungs for removing all the CO2. After 9 months of training, when we were certified, we had a proper training for controlling both our effort kicking and our breathing. Dyspnea was still a danger with the crap regulators of the time, but we were well prepared for controlling it...

 

[Angelo Farina]

Now we talk about fitness. This requires to keep your body in constant exercise, but remember than fitness is not just something related to your body, is more related to brains-body interaction.
As with breathing, everything is about control. You must keep your body under the control of your brain, and you must keep your brain in awareness of the status of your body. You need to exercise for making your body capable of sustaining some amount of effort for a proper time, and you must learn to understand the signals given by your body when you are asking it to exceed the limit of aerobic performances, creating a deficit of oxygen, or, what's much worst when diving, an excess of CO2 which starts accumulating.
While the lack of oxygen is very difficult to detect, the accumulation of CO2 causes usually quite detectable signals: rhythmic contractions of diaphragm, headache in the back of your head, and the need to breath faster (which of course is wrong, you should still force yourself to deep breathing, always exhaling entirely, and not leave the breathing reflex to get control of your lungs).
This kind of exercise can be done outside water, for example running, cycling, or exercising in a gym with proper machines. You must learn the aerobic limit of your muscular, circulatory and breathing systems, trying to make it higher with more exercises, but also learning how to stay indefinitely below the limit, so that you never loose control of your breathing.
This kind of fitness does not requires many hours per week of exercises, it is something you can do even just once per week, and only for one hour or less. It is all about CONTROL, not about PERFORMANCE...

 

[lowviz]

Please read all the good advice ^^^ and this: Overcoming Concerns about Breathing

 

[Angelo Farina]

And finally the equipment. Here the improvement has been substantial. We have now regulators providing a really minimal WOB (work of breathing), when tuned and maintained properly.
Using such regulator results in more effort available for your legs, as you are saving in the effort required for breathing. And in case dyspnea is still triggered, such high-flow regulators do not constrain your air consumption, It also means that, under dyspnea, they can empty your tank in a few minutes, so you should not abuse of their performances for exceeding the aerobic limits of your body, start accumulating CO2 and fall in dyspnea again. However, that sensation of not having your breathing constrained can help controlling the psychological effect of panic and to need to surface.
Actually, with these nice regulators, you breath more easily underwater than at the surface!
My recommendation is always to own your set of regulators, choosing high performances ones, and to keep them well maintained and properly serviced and tuned. Thrusting your equipment has a powerful psychological calming effect, which reverses back into easier breathing control and lower air consumption.
Also fins, and the other parts of your equipment, are also important: when diving in open water and with strong currents, all your setup must be very hydrodynamic and streamlined, for minimizing drag and making easier to penetrate the water. The ideal would be to become as hydrodynamic as a free diving recordman. Look for their videos on Youtube, you will see how they move gently, with minimal wast of energy, always keeping their body perfectly aligned with the direction of motion, without anything protruding from the shape of the body.
So you see that there is not just ONE solution for preventing that a case of dyspnea as the one happened to you can occur again while diving. But I can ensure you that, with proper training, fitness and equipment, it will not happen again.
And once you are prepared in such a way, you will have control of your body and your brains also outside the water.
In all my life I went in dyspnea only once, and it was NOT underwater. I was doing something where you, by definition, loose control of your body... Sorry, I cannot say more, you just imagine...