A Giant Stride can hurt you

[tracydr]

Well , I never thought a "properly executed" giant stride could ever injure you.- goodness knows how many I've excuted without mishap in my 2500 dives. Now I know better. I was diving off one of our S. California dive boats (these larger types have about a 10-15 ft drop to the water). I was taught to have that small amount of leg spread to help avoid "too deep" a water entry to help stressing ears etc. This time the stress of that position must have been a little too much for my abductor muscle - which ended up partly torn by the entry. The effect.... no more diving for up to eight weeks while it heals. I'm gutted! The lesson fellow divers - avoid ANY leg spread in situations like these - your ears can take a bit more pressure that your groin muscles can!

Ouch!
I haven't dived off the Spectre yet, although I've heard about it. My favorite entry so far is Oil Slick Leap in Bonaire. That entry is almost as fun as the dive!

 

[mahjong]

Stopped doing "giant" giant strides some time ago after I opened my legs too much on an entry and it was like Mike Tyson hit me with a sucker shot below the belt.

No reason to have much of any space between the tip of one fin and the heel of the other foot, it seems to me.

Well , I never thought a "properly executed" giant stride could ever injure you.- goodness knows how many I've excuted without mishap in my 2500 dives. Now I know better. I was diving off one of our S. California dive boats (these larger types have about a 10-15 ft drop to the water). I was taught to have that small amount of leg spread to help avoid "too deep" a water entry to help stressing ears etc. This time the stress of that position must have been a little too much for my abductor muscle - which ended up partly torn by the entry. The effect.... no more diving for up to eight weeks while it heals. I'm gutted! The lesson fellow divers - avoid ANY leg spread in situations like these - your ears can take a bit more pressure that your groin muscles can!

 

[farsidefan1]

my rule (developed cliff jumping at flaming gorge from 50+ feet) is to hold my mask regulator with one hand and my, er, gear with the other. I also don't ever spread my legs on the descent. The Spoilsport (GBR liveaboard) has about a 10 -12 foot drop. Plenty of time to bring the legs back together. My procedure worked well. That is the largest "giant stride" I have taken, but I follow the same rule off docks and ladanians leap (sp?) in Bonaire. By the way, my flaming gorge jumps did NOT incude scuba gear

 

[Rogersea]

Diver Howie, Hope you heal sooner than 8 weeks but thanks for sharing.....

Cheers,
Roger

 

[DiverHowie]

Diver Howie, Hope you heal sooner than 8 weeks but thanks for sharing.....

Cheers,
Roger

Thanks for all the words of consolation guys. I guess the lesson I learned here is to never take even the simplest procedure or practise in diving for granted, or to ever make the assumption that it's always the right way to do something in all conditions. Also, I do hope than if anyone reading this thread acts who acts as a divemaster in one of these "longjump" entry situations includes a simple warning about leg separation along with the classic warnings about weightbelt and mask loss etc. in their predive briefings. I can assure you that it's even more painful to tear a muscle than to lose a dive mask.