Mark Michaud SELAUSAR
Contributor
I posted this on CDF concerning what is the worst thing that happened during a dive. I wrote this as it was dive that no rules were broken, we were very careful and the mere turn of my head put us in a tough spot. Training, visualization techniques and mastering your skills may be the difference in living to dive again and dying. Here goes:
I think it was 2008 at the NSS/CDS Convention in Marianna. It was Sunday. I was scootering, in JB, around the left side of courts squeeze with a brand new buddy. He had seen me gearing up and told me his buddy wasn't feeling well. He asked if he could come along and I said sure.
As I said, we were scootering along and I turned to look and check on him. We were going very slow and swimming the scooters in some places. I was sidemount and he may have been backmount, I can't really remember. When I looked back I saw dark line and continued. Being color blind can have its issues. All of a sudden it was very white line. A moment later I realized I didn't know where I was as the moment I turned my head I missed a turn and went into a small silty passage. The new buddy was a really big guy and we both had scooters. I turned around, and swam back a bit, to find a total siltout. I O'd the line and moved back toward, the direction, I had originally come from. I felt him and found his hand and put it on the line. I swam over him and gave him a "follow me" tug. I found the mainline a minute, or so, later.
After waiting a minute he didn't exit. I secured my scooter to the mainline and pulled a spool to make the jump. After I made the jump I started in, on the line, in zero vis. I knew about where he was and, when I got there, he was gone. I had a ton of gas so I decided, even in zero vis, I had a while to search. Shortly after that I had some real bad vibes going on. I kept telling myself, "Mark this is bad, this is really bad."
I only knew this guy by his "handle", I had just met him, and this was supposed to be a leisurely dive. I had scootered this route at least six times solo and had swam it many times more. It seemed like my Gavin was going really slow even though I had just changed the blades. I looked back every few minutes and we were mostly swimming at this point. I don't think I could have been any more safe. But, How did I wind up here? I wasn't concerned about myself as I dive regularly in zero vis, but I didn't know this guy or his actual skill level, or anything else for that matter. He had to know that back, was the way out, when I put him on the line. But he was gone. I decided that he was not gonna be left there. I was gonna find him no matter what. If the worst happened, I was gonna find hiim and bring him out. "Damn this is bad", I told myself.
I went further into this pasage and the ceiling got a bit higher. I ascended a bit and could see a bit of more clear water. A moment later I saw his light. As I moved closer I saw him. My heart felt a bit better now, he didn't seem panicked. I waved, in front of my light, for him to follow me back out.
Now I knew this wasn't gonna be easy because he told me NOPE. Again I gave a signal to come on, let's get out of here. Again he gave me a "Ain't doing it dude" look. I swam closer and he pointed to his left. I looked and saw my scooter in the distance. I went to the mainline, pulled my spool, and grabbed my scooter. We headed out no worse for the wear.
At the surface we discussed what had happened and I appologized since I was leading the dive. He said he should have seen the change in the line too but I didn't feel any better. We talked about our speed, our looking out for each other and didn't know how we wound up there. I felt better because he was never shaken, and he had followed his training too.
He looked at me and said something that made a big impact on me. He said, you put me on the line and then, when I didn't follow you out, you came back and searched until you found me. Thanks. He then said, it wasn't as bad as it seemd for him. He figured he would go a bit further in and find some clean water, and sort things out. He followed his training, and was never in any real danger. He said he was looking for a bigger place to turn around and found this was a loop shaped passage and wound up on the mainline. We left a bit shaken, but more confident knowing what his instructors, and mine (Pat Watson and Lamar Hires) had done their job well. This was psychologically bad for a few minutes. Planning to be in a siltout is one thing. Finding yourself in one, in an unfamiliar place (being lost) is another. We shook hands and parted ways the way we started...........new friends.
Later at Edd's I was telling him about this and mentioned my scooter seemed very slow. He checked and found I had not put them on right. They were stuck on about 3, out of 9 speed settings.
I went back, on another day, to find this passage. I scootered to the first T and swam from there. While I was looking for the passage, I will be danged if I didn't swim right into it again. I backed out and realized how easy it was to miss the mainline.
It was definitely a moment I will never forget. I can't see any glaring mistakes, speed, not paying attention, hell I was looking back every few minutes. Sometimes things just happen. The combination of things is just right to let things happen. When they do you will find if you are ready or not because, ready or not, it will happen.
I think it was 2008 at the NSS/CDS Convention in Marianna. It was Sunday. I was scootering, in JB, around the left side of courts squeeze with a brand new buddy. He had seen me gearing up and told me his buddy wasn't feeling well. He asked if he could come along and I said sure.
As I said, we were scootering along and I turned to look and check on him. We were going very slow and swimming the scooters in some places. I was sidemount and he may have been backmount, I can't really remember. When I looked back I saw dark line and continued. Being color blind can have its issues. All of a sudden it was very white line. A moment later I realized I didn't know where I was as the moment I turned my head I missed a turn and went into a small silty passage. The new buddy was a really big guy and we both had scooters. I turned around, and swam back a bit, to find a total siltout. I O'd the line and moved back toward, the direction, I had originally come from. I felt him and found his hand and put it on the line. I swam over him and gave him a "follow me" tug. I found the mainline a minute, or so, later.
After waiting a minute he didn't exit. I secured my scooter to the mainline and pulled a spool to make the jump. After I made the jump I started in, on the line, in zero vis. I knew about where he was and, when I got there, he was gone. I had a ton of gas so I decided, even in zero vis, I had a while to search. Shortly after that I had some real bad vibes going on. I kept telling myself, "Mark this is bad, this is really bad."
I only knew this guy by his "handle", I had just met him, and this was supposed to be a leisurely dive. I had scootered this route at least six times solo and had swam it many times more. It seemed like my Gavin was going really slow even though I had just changed the blades. I looked back every few minutes and we were mostly swimming at this point. I don't think I could have been any more safe. But, How did I wind up here? I wasn't concerned about myself as I dive regularly in zero vis, but I didn't know this guy or his actual skill level, or anything else for that matter. He had to know that back, was the way out, when I put him on the line. But he was gone. I decided that he was not gonna be left there. I was gonna find him no matter what. If the worst happened, I was gonna find hiim and bring him out. "Damn this is bad", I told myself.
I went further into this pasage and the ceiling got a bit higher. I ascended a bit and could see a bit of more clear water. A moment later I saw his light. As I moved closer I saw him. My heart felt a bit better now, he didn't seem panicked. I waved, in front of my light, for him to follow me back out.
Now I knew this wasn't gonna be easy because he told me NOPE. Again I gave a signal to come on, let's get out of here. Again he gave me a "Ain't doing it dude" look. I swam closer and he pointed to his left. I looked and saw my scooter in the distance. I went to the mainline, pulled my spool, and grabbed my scooter. We headed out no worse for the wear.
At the surface we discussed what had happened and I appologized since I was leading the dive. He said he should have seen the change in the line too but I didn't feel any better. We talked about our speed, our looking out for each other and didn't know how we wound up there. I felt better because he was never shaken, and he had followed his training too.
He looked at me and said something that made a big impact on me. He said, you put me on the line and then, when I didn't follow you out, you came back and searched until you found me. Thanks. He then said, it wasn't as bad as it seemd for him. He figured he would go a bit further in and find some clean water, and sort things out. He followed his training, and was never in any real danger. He said he was looking for a bigger place to turn around and found this was a loop shaped passage and wound up on the mainline. We left a bit shaken, but more confident knowing what his instructors, and mine (Pat Watson and Lamar Hires) had done their job well. This was psychologically bad for a few minutes. Planning to be in a siltout is one thing. Finding yourself in one, in an unfamiliar place (being lost) is another. We shook hands and parted ways the way we started...........new friends.
Later at Edd's I was telling him about this and mentioned my scooter seemed very slow. He checked and found I had not put them on right. They were stuck on about 3, out of 9 speed settings.
I went back, on another day, to find this passage. I scootered to the first T and swam from there. While I was looking for the passage, I will be danged if I didn't swim right into it again. I backed out and realized how easy it was to miss the mainline.
It was definitely a moment I will never forget. I can't see any glaring mistakes, speed, not paying attention, hell I was looking back every few minutes. Sometimes things just happen. The combination of things is just right to let things happen. When they do you will find if you are ready or not because, ready or not, it will happen.
