Advice Please (longish post)

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!

Oh and one other thing you should be happy about...

You got nervous and called the dive. You didn't do anything stupid that could have gotten you hurt. So it's good to know that in stressful situations, this is how you react. Some people would take off their BCD or go down anyways and do something stupid underwater. Remember this when you get back in the ocean.

A similar thing happened to me when I was diving in Florida on a very deep shipwreck (Spiegal Grove around 105 feet deep) with a strong current, I got slightly narced and had a panic attack. I absolutely hated it and I was terrified. But I quickly signaled to my dive buddy and the DM that I wasn't feeling well and was going to go up. Us 3 went up and did a deep stop, then a safety stop. Although the whole situation was horrible and I hated every second of it, it's good to know I made good decisions when something like that happens. You should feel the same way about what you did.
 
First - you made a choice to end the dive and you should be ok with that desision. Don’t beat yourself up for that. Weight belt wasn’t tight enough. Should have been tighter. Learn from that. Make it fit better next time. Put it on. Stand up on the boat. Remember the material The strap is made of will stretch out when it’s wet. That might have been all it needed to get too loose. Next time that it feels too loose - get horizontal in the water and loosen off the buckle and make the adjustment and tighten the buckle again. If the weight belt would have slipped off completely the you would be buoyant at the surface. Relax and learn from your experience. Don’t beat yourself up. :)
Read my post (#3). The DM on my own OW course 14 years ago told me to lie on the bottom and tighten it as much as I could. NO GO.
Nothing to do with straps (wet or dry) and buckles. Has to do with physiology (well, assuming you do all that you have mentioned). This is one case where using equipment to "solve a diving problem" may be the right way to go.
 
  • Like
Reactions: BRT
Let's try to keep this thread on topic please.

Ok, thinking now about the Stingray finale while returning to shore, it was not such a bad day because after all, you did survive that. I heard of one guy who got croaked (crikied?) by one but he was humping it on tv.

All in all, not a bad day when you get to learn something. And thank you for sharing that difficult day, we all can get something out of it.
 
One of the best bits of advice given to me by the instructor who thought I was panicking (I had not panicked but I was uncomfortable and my goggles were fogging) was "never panic". He said remember you can always last 20 seconds at least even if your gear fails, that is plenty of time to get your octopus, drop your weight belt or find a buddy. In addition to saying not panic he stressed that whenever things started to go wrong, don't do anything hastily, just stop and think.
regarding the weight belt, I had mine slip during my OW test when I was having to put my BCD on on the surface, In addition to putting my BCD on in a roughish sea I was having to hold my belt onto my ankles by forcing my legs apart. I now have my own belt which is made from a lorry load strap, I find it is better than belts sold at dive shops, cheaper and does not slip or stretch when wet anything like as much as a dive shop belt. Tension your belt whilst floating horizontally. You are responsible for your own safety, don't rely on buddies or the DM.
 
This past week, I went diving in Mexico. I was trained a couple of years ago through PADI and all I've had is my open water check dives under my belt. I've never been in salt water before, just a freshwater lake.

I made sure to explain my complete inexperience to the dive shop owner and the divemasters that went out with us. Several times, I didn't want any misunderstanding.

We went out in the boat with 5 other divers, about 15 minutes off shore. Checked all my equipment to ensure it was all in working order. These boats required a back roll entry, never done that before, but I rolled pretty well.

But, once I hit the water, I panicked. Then to make matters worse, my weight belt started slipping and I managed to grab it about knee level. So, there I am- alone - in the middle of an ocean about 25 feet away from the boat, one hand grabbing a weight belt and all I can think of is "I want out of this water, now". I managed to make it back to the boat and tossed my weight belt to the crew member and got out of my BCD and handed that up as well.

I held on to the ladder for about 5 minutes and then climbed aboard, feeling embarrassed, but glad to be on the boat.

I don't know that the heck happened and why I panicked the way I did. I had attempted to go to a "refresh" class before I left, but none were available as the 2 shops in my area had dive trips already planned.

In retrospect, I should not have gone diving without doing the refresher first, or choose to go with the discover scuba group that morning.

But, I also felt I shouldn't have been alone in that water. Both dive-masters were with the group at the front of the boat, neither came my way when it was obvious that I was panicking. I think if someone had been there to reassure me, I would have calmed down. I think, I guess I'll never know.

To place a cherry on the top of this particular cake, I got stung by a sting ray when walking from the boat to shore. Nice little hole in my foot as a reminder of my trip. I'm planning on taking advanced open water to get more experience under my belt and will probably try to do it in Monterrey so it's not a lake.

Please tell me, I'm not the only one that has panicked when they hit ocean open water for the first time. What will help me with this.

Thanks
Sorry to hear about such a bad experience! Just a few months ago my situation was some what similar. One thing to remember is the ole Boy Scout motto “ Be Prepared” . It’s exciting to be heading out on the Ocean in a boat. And checking your gear on the way out was a good move. But I noticed that you said there were 5 other divers, so it looks like the dive could have been organized into 3 buddy teams. So a couple of questions. Were you given a dive buddy during the dive plan briefing? It’s very important to have a dive buddy IMHO. Recently I met a new dive buddy heading out to the Black Bart off Panama City. Being extroverted it’s easy for me to do an introduction and discuss who’s going first in the water, leading the way down etc. Also going over each other for a basic gear check demonstration ( SPG pressure, purge valve , 2nd stage check, bcd inflation check etc) is a good thing to check off with your buddy and can help tame the anxiety. Also get Refreshed. Like running a Marathon, you don’t want to be your first one to be the race you are running. Having been around the ocean for near 30 years off and on I still feel a little up tick in the heart and respiratory rate just before hitting the water. Practice suiting up and doing your pre dive check routine at home and it will add confidence when you hit the water. Have fun and Dive Safe!
 
Please tell me, I'm not the only one that has panicked when they hit ocean open water for the first time. What will help me with this.
Took me about five minutes to go under my first time. In 30 fsw. I laugh a little when I think about it now. That dive lasted 25 minutes because I breathed off about 1000 psi while I was panicking at the surface.

Baby steps. Spend some time in the pool and get comfortable performing necessary skills, especially before you do AOW. Consciously work on your breathing while you're down there. The extra task loading (and just plain doing new things) in that course can be hard on nervous divers but if you slow down your breaths you'll gradually find yourself relaxing. Perfect (or at least get really good at) your buoyancy and trim and master the basic skills and if you get yourself in a hairy situation you'll have the muscle memory built in and should be able to handle it.

Next time you hit the ocean maybe do a couple of shallow shore dives before you commit to a boat dive. Get your weighting figured out and get comfortable in the salt water and you should be good to go.

Am I the expert? Hell no. I haven't even hit 30 dives yet. But what I typed above worked for me and hopefully it'll work for you.
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/perdix-ai/

Back
Top Bottom