Air in suit and DON'T TOUCH OCEAN LIFE...

[desert_gold_hound]

Well I did a my first Ocean Dive at Catalina Island on the 7th and 8th and while I had a very enjoyable time I did have a couple of problems.

The both problems happened on the second day with only one dive each day. We were under water around 28' maybe a little deeper. When I had to start kicking to stay down so I started dumping air out of my BC and this did not seam to help. Well I started to rise a little and kept trying to dump air out but non would come out from anywhere. Well the slow uncontrolled assent quickly became rapid. I couldn't keep down, slow down, release any air (didn't pull low pressure like I should have) and I COULD NOT BREATH. I watched the dive computer flash and yell at me that I was ascending too fast, but could do nothing. I knew from classes that I had to keep exhaling being that I couldn't breath in so I did just that and exhaled the whole trip up. I remained calm but knew I was going too end up finding out what the bends were all about. When I got to the surface I started testing everything to figure out what went wrong. Everything worked fine and my BC was completely void of air. I could breath through both regulator and octo. So I just waited for my dive Buddie which didn't take too offal long. He looked over my equipment and disused our plans and options.

Probably not the best plan but we decided to descend and keep diving only staying shallow. Well about 10 min into the dive I started getting the same problem only this time there was a nice stalk of kelp within arms reach. I reached out and grabbed it to stop/slow my assent. When I did this I could fell a bubble shift and exit my wet suit which seamed to be my problem. Now looking back I don't know how I didn't feel this before but I did not.

Lessons learned from this situation.

1. Never tuck your hood into your suit.
2. You can not breath in during a fast assent (I did right here)
3. I need to practice unhooking my LP to BC so that I think of it faster.
4. I actually stay calmer in an emergency then I thought I would.
5. Always keep your dive Buddie near by. (I did on this one)
6. A log book is a good place to record your MISTAKES for further reference.
7. List is too long to list


2nd thing I did was REALLY STUPID. After the first incident we saw a couple of rays. I saw my dive Buddie pet one and I followed suit it just laid there and let us. The second one felt like it was vibrating and I was kinda curios to see what they felt like (Sign reads "I'M STUPID") so I took off my glove and touched it. ZAAAAAAAAAAAP I now know that rays in Cal can electrocute you. I had to really fight to get my breath back. Then the thing started charging at me.

Lessons learned.

1. If your buddie does it that don't make it safe.
2. Don't touch sea life if you don't know its defenses.
3. Get someone to touch it without gloves and make it mad before you do (Just kidding).
4. Rays have a shocking personality.
5. Keep gloves on.

All and all Catalina is an awesome place to dive. Avalon was a beautiful place to visit and I cant wait to go back.

Another problem (solved first) was interring the dive park while at low tide. This was the first day but we planed our dive and dived our plan so it entry went very smooth anyway. What was cool is I did the planning. The difficult part was tide was quit a bit lower then the last step so I had us gear up sitting down on the step and then when we were ready wait for a wave. Lay down and start kicking and let the ocean do most of the work for us as the wave went back out. It worked perfect.

 

[Codiak]

Thanks for sharing and sounds like you did the right things during the emergency.

To recap
At the beginning of the dive your were negitive bouyant and had no issue desending?
After a given period of time you became positively bouyant.
Same occurred situation on the repetitive dive and mention an air bubble in your suit as being the issue.

Did you find a bubble after the first accent? Or do you believe it cleared on it's own?

For you lessons learned can you explain your reasonings for
1) Never tuck your hood into your suit?
and
3) discounting the LP

 

[TSandM]

Unless you figured out some way to ADD air to your suit during the dive, it's unlikely that an air bubble in your suit caused your uncontrolled ascent. With dry suits, there's an issue, because you add air to them at depth, and it expands with ascent. But if you had air trapped in your wetsuit, it was there when you went down . . . and you GOT down, which meant you were carrying enough weight to counteract it.

It is actually far more likely that you had some air trapped in your BC that you weren't able to exhaust. I don't know if you knew the location and function of all the possible dumps on your BC, but you have to use the one that's at the highest point, to be able to vent air. If you are kicking downward, the inflator hose and shoulder dumps may be useless.

It is quite possible to breathe in AND out during an uncontrolled ascent. If you felt as though you couldn't inhale, that may also point to a reason why you went up -- you had your lungs too full! Your lungs are a BIG BC bladder, but luckily, one you can quickly empty if you realize what the problem is before the other air spaces have expanded so much that emptying your lungs will no longer make you negative.

Glad you survived the experience -- and you should know that the "bends" are unlikely from a dive to only 28 feet, regardless of ascent rate. Pulmonary barotrauma, however, can occur from shallower depths, so remembering to exhale was a good thing.

 

[Peter_C]

Unless you figured out some way to ADD air to your suit during the dive, it's unlikely that an air bubble in your suit caused your uncontrolled ascent.

Well I know when I exhale air often gets into my hood (Helps keep me warmer). If a person then went head down with their hood tucked in it could very well fill their wetsuit with air.

Burning a small hole or more into the top of the hood could help with this situation, or simply not tucking it in fully.

As to touching wildlife

 

[Digger54]

I'll add --(A) don't touch the wildlife -- period. Unless you plan to legally kill it and eat it. This greatly reduces your chances of being shocked, stung, irritated, dismembered or killed by the offended critter.

And -- (B) don't wear gloves during a simple recreational dive unless they are needed to keep your hands warm. That reduces the temptation to engage in (A).

 

[Jim Lapenta]

Methane could put a bubble in the suit.

 

[Cave Diver]

Well I know when I exhale air often gets into my hood (Helps keep me warmer). If a person then went head down with their hood tucked in it could very well fill their wetsuit with air.

Burning a small hole or more into the top of the hood could help with this situation, or simply not tucking it in fully.

I've had this happen as well.

I like my hood to fit snug around my mask skirt, and when exhaling in a head down descent bubbles can indeed find their way into your hood. I burned a series of holes in my hood from the top of it down towards my neck with a soldering pen, so it does vent, but it can take a moment. Because of this and because I dive dry and my hood is over my neck seal I've never had the problem the OP described, but I could definitely see it happening. This is especially true of someone who hasn't been used to diving with a hood before.

 

[Johnny Mojo]

Methane could put a bubble in the suit.

Did you "burp" the suit before your initial descent? I guess this wouldn't necessarily explain the problem you had, but burping the suit has helped me. I tend to believe what TSandM said may have occurred. I've had to turn and twist sometimes to get air out of rented B/C's.

I read about the hole in the hood trick in another thread not long ago, and want to try that one.

J.

 

[Walter]

You can tuck your hood into your suit, but you should have exhaust holes for the air that will get into your hood. I put them in a line from the top of my head down along the spine. Air gets in, but it gets out too. You can put them in with a small soldering iron or a hot nail, but please don't wear the hood while making the holes.

As for touching marine life - it's not always bad, but make sure you know what you're doing before you do it.

 

[DandyDon]

I heard Dick Long, founder of DUI, say to not tuck your hood in a wetsuit once. I think some are made with air escape holes but my cheap ones were not. Heated the end of a screwdriver on my kitchen stove and fixed that.

You might have some air in your BC tho. Whichever vent you use to release it has to be higher than it or it doesn't go.

Oh, about petting rays. :silly: Dumb! Some sting, others shock. Look for a dog in the parking lot.

Methane could put a bubble in the suit.

That would not be new gas tho, would it? More buoyant that before released?