Been Diving for awhile - Now experiencing panic?

[blac86]

At the end of the day you can demand more air than most regulators can provide you with. This can cause you to panicked you aren't able to get all the air you want. This leads to you trying to breathe deeper which exacerbates the problem and causes further panic.

 

[Neilwood]

I usually just depend on our divemaster to "set everything up" for me. That's why I'd like to purchase my own, and get really familiar with it (BEFORE I'm underwater!) Good to know there might be settings that may have caused the "lack of air" sensation. I felt like a complete dope, but when you can't breath, sometimes panic sets in. (In my defense, both times I had issues, the water was very cold and there were some bad currents we were dealing with. So, the lack of air added to the "fun.") Thanks for the info!

My guess would be not being comfortable in these conditions. Very easy to get spooked by the conditions.

 

[Marie13]

I usually just depend on our divemaster to "set everything up" for me. That's why I'd like to purchase my own, and get really familiar with it (BEFORE I'm underwater!) Good to know there might be settings that may have caused the "lack of air" sensation. I felt like a complete dope, but when you can't breath, sometimes panic sets in. (In my defense, both times I had issues, the water was very cold and there were some bad currents we were dealing with. So, the lack of air added to the "fun.") Thanks for the info!

I'm going to suggest you set your own equipment up.

You can get a number of regulator that allow you to adjust the breathing. I open mine all the way up when deeper.

 

[snowdog61]

Rental regs are often detuned to the limit the possibility of 'free-flow' and are often non-adjustable (to save on cost). Venturi assists on some models can be installed to also limit their effect for the same reason. A properly tuned reg shouldn't have any trouble keeping up with your demand unless you are going really deep or working very hard. Your situation with the cold and current didn't help you and you were likely working a great bit harder than what you would have on a nice relaxing warm water Caribbean drift. Add in a non-optimized rental reg and yes, things could get sketchy.

AFA the water in the mask..... that is something I tell my dive buddies that they need to practice. You really should be able to remove your mask and breath off the reg comfortably. If you dive charters, you never know when some idiot is going to accidentally kick your mask off. You really want to be able to casually re-don and clear so you can give them the WTF!? look rather than panicking and bolting to the surface.

 

[Doby45]

You really want to be able to casually re-don and clear so you can give them the WTF!? look

I do something very similar but it also involves the ole universal "Number 1" sign..

 

[FinnMom]

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Another possibility, based on my own experience. How much did you exert yourself during the dive? Rights after ruling certification, I enjoyed myself a lot under water, and thinking / knowing that I'm physically fit, I was swimming around like a maniac. Check this out, gomover there, chase this fish, outswim that guy. And predictably the reg could not keep up, CO2 retention ensued, and it was not pretty. I was able to calm down, and eventually these experiences (more than one, I hate to say) led to a change in my diving habits. I'm now fine with just enjoying myself in just hanging there and not doing anything, just watching and leisurely finning when I want to go somewhere.

Move at 1/2 the speed, you will see twice as much.

 

[nolatom]

I'm thinking it was probably the equipment and/or the exertion level, rather than "you".
If you open that little dial up on a reg to maximum flow, it will breathe easier. Downside is it will tend to free-flow easier when dangling, but that's a minor and fixable thing you've already dealt with.

But in case I'm wrong (even though I'm an English major and therefore know everything) and it's behavioral, try the above in fairly shallow depths before going deeper.

 

[chrisch]

I would stake a month's wages the equipment was perfect. Stress related shortness of breath is largely due to CO2. I have experienced this myself once (and still dive the same reg 10 years later).

The realisation of what you are doing sometimes is enough to trigger it. We are not meant to breathe underwater. Your body is just telling you not to. Try to get some more diving before your holidays and be prepared to cut it short then have another go and so on. Tell yourself you can do it - because you can, you've done it before.

Nothing to do with the equipment. Nada. Zilch.

 

[WaterSafari]

Hi teresak, there are a lot of regulators that have a venturi lever and a control to adjust the inhalation effort (ScubaPro, AquaLung, Hollis, and most others offer these features in mid and high end regs). If you've experienced this on multiple rental regulators though (I would suspect they're breathing ok), you might consider other things like a wetsuit that's too tight around the chest making you labor to expand your lungs, which then further starves you of air. A balanced regulator helps at depth, but I wouldn't dive deep until you've absolutely diagnosed the cause of the panic and done several shallow dives to ensure it's gone. Good luck and happy diving.

 

[teresak]

My wife is an experienced diver (more than 150 dives in the last four years) and sometimes feels like she can't get enough air. She attributes this to a tight fitting BCD and is getting ready to try a backpack.

My husband suggested that and I told him, "No...that can't be it!" Guess I should have listened to him and at least looked into this!!! Thanks!