Ballsing up the Night diving spec.... advice needed

[Fraglette]

The quick short question, how do you beat vertigo?

The full explanation. I was fine until about 9 minutes into the dive, then for no reason that I can figure out I just went dizzy, needed to be taken to the wall so that have a reference point. Though the disorientation stopped when I got to hang onto the wall and was upright, I just called the dive and we headed for the surface and then the shore as I just couldn't get my head round continuing the dive. The conditions were no moon, 3-4m visability, very cold. Typical UK night diving, apparently!

I refuse to quit, I will go back and do the dives again. Its not the first time I have had vertigo when diving, I have had it twice before but I have always been able to sort myself out and continue the dive, but that has always been during daylight dives. Maybe it didn't help that I had started work at 6am and we weren't starting the course until 8.30pm and didn't get home until 2am and my plan for an afternoon nap was scuppered.

The good points, whilst the other diver finished the course I got to feel like I was in a sci-fi B movie, sitting on the banks of a very dark, quiet, wooded lake, watching the big glowing shapes on the surface of the lake moving into shore.

 

[--tom--]

Please understand that this is a WAG, based on you getting control by being taken to the wall. If a next time happens, try shooting an SMB, the line may be enough for you to regain control (and it gives you a great excuse to practice your SMB drill.)

 

[divad]

I've become disoriented several times when I had no visual reference in low light/ crummy visibility/no buddy situations and it really sucks. I just stop now and force myself to concentrate on following my bubbles and depth gauge. They don't have vertigo.

 

[Fraglette]

I have previously regained control mid water by using my buddy as a reference point, the reason we used the wall was that there were 3 of us diving in a group and that is what we said we would do as part of our "what if" dive plan. What I am looking for is advice on how to not get the vertigo in the first place. But thanks for your contribution.

 

[divad]

What I am looking for is advice on how to not get the vertigo in the first place.

Tilt your head back a little and look at your exhaust bubbles as a visual reference.

 

[scubamarketing]

A doctor I once certified told me getting vertigo is an "either you do or don't" kind of thing. Something to do with the inner ear and balance and some people are more sensitive when other orienting factors are removed. I don't get it myself, but have trained several people who do and there wasn't any real cure, just a way to deal with it when it happens.

 

[Crush]

Thus far I don't believe that I have experienced the vertigo that you have, but at times my dive conditions are similar to yours, if not at times more challenging. I'd like to draw attention to the posts by --tom-- and evad, and to add that, once I see the bottom of a lake, I feel perfectly safe and oriented, even though I am further away from the surface. Our primitive brains want reference points. A descent in murk during hours of darkness is a scary thing - congratulations on being up to the challenge. I would also note (unrelated) that stress is more easily managed if you are optimal physical condition, no matter how out-of-shape you might be. A good sleep and plenty of hydration/nourishment plus keeping warm before the dive might help you to better deal (psychologically) with dive stressors. Also, it is important to share with your dive buddies how you are feeling about the dive - tell them if you have any concerns, and if so, how you plan to handle them. Your buddies will respond better to your signals, and you will feel better knowing that they are attentive to your situation. I regularly tell my buddies if I have any problems. Ear equalization and getting uneasy when narc'd are two issues that I deal with on occasion.

 

[TSandM]

I feel your pain. I have battled horrendous vertigo in midwater, ever since I was a new diver. For a long time, I did not think I could do any ambitious diving, or cave diving, because of it.

If you were ascending when this happened, it may have been alternobaric vertigo, where the two ears were equalizing at different rates. You solve this by avoiding diving when equalizing is difficult, and by chewing or doing jaw thrusts, or swallowing on ascent, to allow the ears to equalize.

If you were NOT ascending, but were just in one place and got vertigo, I have some ideas. Here is what I have learned: First off, avoid head movement. If you are looking around for your buddy (or the anchor line, or anything else) you are provoking your inner ear, and are far more likely to get vertigo. This is apparently a well-known problem for instrument pilots, and they are taught to avoid major head movement. This was a BIG help for me.

Second, find something that orients you to vertical. I have found that monitoring my exhaust bubbles works -- I check to make sure they are running smoothly up both sides of my face. If they are running up one side, I am not flat in the water. If they are running up my front, I am head down. Bubbles give me a lot of orientation cues.

If you have a stable buddy, that's a HUGE orientation help. This works great if the water is calm, and not so well if you are both having to face into the current. If your buddy can't be where you can use their entire bulk for a reference, try using the particulates in the water. Most of the things in the water live at stable depths -- if the particles are streaming upward, you are sinking; if they are sinking, you are going up.

If you GET some vertigo, don't fight it. Anything you do with your fins or your hands to stop the spinning, is going to create the very thing that isn't really happening. Watch your gauge. After all, it doesn't really MATTER if you are doing somersaults, so long as you are doing them at 20 feet, right?

Learn your gear. Your gear will have a certain feel to it when you are flat, and when you are tilted; when you are negative, and when you are positive. I had a very vertiginous experience inside of a wierdly oriented wreck in the Red Sea, and one of the cues I used for orientation was how squeezed my feet were. If they were puffy, I was head down, and if they were tight, I was head up.

Most of all, don't despair. You may not be able to get rid of the tendency to get vertigo altogether, but you can seriously manage it to where it impacts your diving very little. The only thing that is left of mine is that I tell my buddies that it is their responsibility to stay where I can see them, because if they disappear, I cannot look for them.

 

[captain]

I had it happen once on a search and rescue dive in dirty water. As Evad said stop and look up at your bubbles, at night point your light up at them.

 

[bigblue_hi]

The only time I've gotten vertigo was doing recovery work in a harbor in a whopping 10-15 feet. Lots of silt and 0 visibility. So it will happen. Just stay calm and don't overreact.