brizzolatti
Contributor
I was going to post this in Basic Discussions but decided to put it here first for reasons which will become clear.
Sunday I was on a 3 dive boat trip. At the first site, we were ready to enter the water when someone knocked my octopus, which started to freeflow. I swung my hand round to get the octo and hit it (my hand) against the end of a horizontal post. Hurt like hell but I thought, as you do, that it would be okay in a few moments. Got octo sorted out and we entered the water. More on the hand later.
Dive was to be to a wreck at 31 metres. Surface conditions were good, water temp was 10 celsius. There was a line down to the wreck and we all began to descend. Viz was horrendous. I knew there were divers above and below me on the line but I could just see their bubbles. At around 12 metres it got very dark so I switched on my light. Viz now horrendous and dark. It got blacker and blacker. i Kept descending and eventually hit something with my knees, which was a bit of the wreck. My buddy, who had gone in front of me, was there and we began to swim. Viz was no more than about 5 feet at best, not helped by silt. Suddenly I can't see my buddy and I am aware that my breathing is very quick and shallow. I look around, see another buddy pair but not my buddy. I feel like I am panting and can hear myself seeming to gasp for breath. Decide to abort. See lights of another buddy pair a few feet away and swim towards them. Signal with my light that I have a problem but they seem to carry on away from me. I fin up to them and tap one of them on the back. Give him the signal that I have a problem and that I am ascending. I do it again and we start to ascend together from 30 metres. It feels like I am finning through treacle and making no progress. I hold onto my new buddy's arm and feel calmer. I just concentrate on breathing. The blackness turns to lighter green and eventually I can see the surface.
Once on the surface I take the reg out and look for the boat, which is about 100 metres away. I use my emergency whistle to get their attention and signal I am ok. Boat comes to pick me up.
I get back on the boat and explain that I lost my buddy so had come up. As it turned out, another guy was there who had had a problem, too, and another buddy pair who had gone down the line and decided viz was too bad so had just come back up. My buddy had come up when she lost me and then gone back down when she realised i was with someone else.
I felt ok on the boat except I was concerned at how I had reacted on losing my buddy. I felt I had panicked rather than been in control. I was spooked at how my breathing had been. However, others who had seen us come up said my ascent had been relatively controlled and I hadn't panicked to the extent of taking out the reg or anything.
I was even more spooked later in the day thinking what could have happended if I hadn't got in tow with the guy I came up with or if I had got entangled or something. All in all I put it down to anxiety due to poor viz/light at depth and a dose of narcosis. It was really scary but a good learning experience about my (in)ability in these conditions. It shocked me, too, because i have always found diving relaxing and have never experienced that kind of what i thought was anxiety.
However, back on the boat i realised that my hand was still hurting. I couldn't grip or bear weight. I sat out the next 2 dives.
Today I have been to the doctor and had my hand x-rayed and it is broken. So basically, I had a trauma to my hand which fractured it and then immediately went on a dive. Very bad idea. Had I realised, I wouldn't have dived. But what I am now wondering is how much this trauma might have contributed to my breathing issues, if it would have exacerbated narcosis?
I have dived in poor vis before to around 25 metres and have done night dives. But I haven't lost a buddy before in these conditions. It was the breathing thing that freaked me. All i could take in was the sound of my gasping. I remember looking at my computer but I couldn't make any sense of it. I could see it but I couldn't read it.That made me think I maybe got anxiety from narcosis. I have been to 30 metres before but not in cold water. And I haven't been aware of narcosis before.
Anyhow, I won't be underwater for a few weeks now with my broken hand so I will have plenty time to reflect on the dive. Lessons so far:
a) treat each dive with respect no matter what the conditions
b) things can go from being ok to potentially disastrous in seconds
c) you can't assume you'll react in the right way when things go wrong
d) practise your skills all the time
e) 100 feet feels like a million miles when you want to get to the surface
f) keep breathing
g) every dive is a learning experience no matter how hellish it is.
My dive lasted 12 minutes according to my computer. They were probably the most valuable 12 minutes of my dive experience to date.
Sunday I was on a 3 dive boat trip. At the first site, we were ready to enter the water when someone knocked my octopus, which started to freeflow. I swung my hand round to get the octo and hit it (my hand) against the end of a horizontal post. Hurt like hell but I thought, as you do, that it would be okay in a few moments. Got octo sorted out and we entered the water. More on the hand later.
Dive was to be to a wreck at 31 metres. Surface conditions were good, water temp was 10 celsius. There was a line down to the wreck and we all began to descend. Viz was horrendous. I knew there were divers above and below me on the line but I could just see their bubbles. At around 12 metres it got very dark so I switched on my light. Viz now horrendous and dark. It got blacker and blacker. i Kept descending and eventually hit something with my knees, which was a bit of the wreck. My buddy, who had gone in front of me, was there and we began to swim. Viz was no more than about 5 feet at best, not helped by silt. Suddenly I can't see my buddy and I am aware that my breathing is very quick and shallow. I look around, see another buddy pair but not my buddy. I feel like I am panting and can hear myself seeming to gasp for breath. Decide to abort. See lights of another buddy pair a few feet away and swim towards them. Signal with my light that I have a problem but they seem to carry on away from me. I fin up to them and tap one of them on the back. Give him the signal that I have a problem and that I am ascending. I do it again and we start to ascend together from 30 metres. It feels like I am finning through treacle and making no progress. I hold onto my new buddy's arm and feel calmer. I just concentrate on breathing. The blackness turns to lighter green and eventually I can see the surface.
Once on the surface I take the reg out and look for the boat, which is about 100 metres away. I use my emergency whistle to get their attention and signal I am ok. Boat comes to pick me up.
I get back on the boat and explain that I lost my buddy so had come up. As it turned out, another guy was there who had had a problem, too, and another buddy pair who had gone down the line and decided viz was too bad so had just come back up. My buddy had come up when she lost me and then gone back down when she realised i was with someone else.
I felt ok on the boat except I was concerned at how I had reacted on losing my buddy. I felt I had panicked rather than been in control. I was spooked at how my breathing had been. However, others who had seen us come up said my ascent had been relatively controlled and I hadn't panicked to the extent of taking out the reg or anything.
I was even more spooked later in the day thinking what could have happended if I hadn't got in tow with the guy I came up with or if I had got entangled or something. All in all I put it down to anxiety due to poor viz/light at depth and a dose of narcosis. It was really scary but a good learning experience about my (in)ability in these conditions. It shocked me, too, because i have always found diving relaxing and have never experienced that kind of what i thought was anxiety.
However, back on the boat i realised that my hand was still hurting. I couldn't grip or bear weight. I sat out the next 2 dives.
Today I have been to the doctor and had my hand x-rayed and it is broken. So basically, I had a trauma to my hand which fractured it and then immediately went on a dive. Very bad idea. Had I realised, I wouldn't have dived. But what I am now wondering is how much this trauma might have contributed to my breathing issues, if it would have exacerbated narcosis?
I have dived in poor vis before to around 25 metres and have done night dives. But I haven't lost a buddy before in these conditions. It was the breathing thing that freaked me. All i could take in was the sound of my gasping. I remember looking at my computer but I couldn't make any sense of it. I could see it but I couldn't read it.That made me think I maybe got anxiety from narcosis. I have been to 30 metres before but not in cold water. And I haven't been aware of narcosis before.
Anyhow, I won't be underwater for a few weeks now with my broken hand so I will have plenty time to reflect on the dive. Lessons so far:
a) treat each dive with respect no matter what the conditions
b) things can go from being ok to potentially disastrous in seconds
c) you can't assume you'll react in the right way when things go wrong
d) practise your skills all the time
e) 100 feet feels like a million miles when you want to get to the surface
f) keep breathing
g) every dive is a learning experience no matter how hellish it is.
My dive lasted 12 minutes according to my computer. They were probably the most valuable 12 minutes of my dive experience to date.
