Hogie
Registered
I'm going to relate an incident that occurred to me a couple years ago and scared the hell out of me.
Puerta Galera
I was diving with my old college roommate in Puerta Galera in the Philippines. I was out with my buddy, another diver, and the dive master. After making a fantastic dive we headed towards the surface. Just after our safety stop, I went up about 3 feet and had an incredibly intense pressure in my ear. A bubble. It was excruciating.
Bubble trouble
I knew the problem was an air bubble that had expanded in my inner ear and I knew the solution was to go down a little and try to equalize and blow it out so to speak. Problem was my buddy was out of reach. He flipper was above my head so I could not even grab it. I did not have a tank banger or other signaling device. I waited probably 20 seconds (1st big mistake) then due to the pain figured - well I can go down 10 feet and he'll see me and come back, if I don't I'm going to rupture my eardrum. Due to an upcurrent letting air out of the BC was the only viable way to descend. I then proceeded to use one hand to let air out of my BC and the other to desperately try to equalize (2nd big mistake).
Going down
This is where things got bad. By this point, we had drifted out into the big blue so I had no frame of reference for my descent. I went down for about 10-20 seconds and was sadly absorbed in my ear pain before I had the sense to let go of my BC and check my gauge. I seem to have inadvertently found the strong down current near the surface our dive master had warned us about because within seconds I went from about 12 feet to about 100(3rd big mistake).
Going up
At around the same time I felt sweet relief from the intense ear pressure and felt and heard the bubble clear. I then noticed my depth, heard my buddy and DM making noise trying to find me, and realized that I was deep. I also noticed that in my panic I had gone from 800 PSI to about 200PSI. Some sense started to return to me and I realized I needed to make a SAFE ascent. If I ran out of air before I got there, I was ready to do an emergency ascent. Fortunately my buddy and the DM found me at about 80 feet and were there to escort me the rest of the way up.
Epilogue
When I got the surface, I really started to realize how things could have been a LOT worse than a ruptured eardrum. As PG is in BFE of a third world country, premier medical care was at least 3 hours away. I started to shake. I explained what happended and why I did what I did . Now you are all probably wondering how big a dipstick I am. I am generally a very by the book diver. My hindsight makes me think that other than the obvious mistakes my bigger problem was overconfidence, impatience, and self reliance. Buddies are a third hand. If I had waited at 12’ until my buddy realized I wasn’t surfacing I would have had he and my DM to escort me down while I cleared my ear. I was foolish and thought “I can handle it myself”. I am telling this story because I hope other divers will remember it when presented with a similar problem and choose a wiser course of action. I also hope people will remember to stay close to their buddies during ascent. Stuff happens.
Puerta Galera
I was diving with my old college roommate in Puerta Galera in the Philippines. I was out with my buddy, another diver, and the dive master. After making a fantastic dive we headed towards the surface. Just after our safety stop, I went up about 3 feet and had an incredibly intense pressure in my ear. A bubble. It was excruciating.
Bubble trouble
I knew the problem was an air bubble that had expanded in my inner ear and I knew the solution was to go down a little and try to equalize and blow it out so to speak. Problem was my buddy was out of reach. He flipper was above my head so I could not even grab it. I did not have a tank banger or other signaling device. I waited probably 20 seconds (1st big mistake) then due to the pain figured - well I can go down 10 feet and he'll see me and come back, if I don't I'm going to rupture my eardrum. Due to an upcurrent letting air out of the BC was the only viable way to descend. I then proceeded to use one hand to let air out of my BC and the other to desperately try to equalize (2nd big mistake).
Going down
This is where things got bad. By this point, we had drifted out into the big blue so I had no frame of reference for my descent. I went down for about 10-20 seconds and was sadly absorbed in my ear pain before I had the sense to let go of my BC and check my gauge. I seem to have inadvertently found the strong down current near the surface our dive master had warned us about because within seconds I went from about 12 feet to about 100(3rd big mistake).
Going up
At around the same time I felt sweet relief from the intense ear pressure and felt and heard the bubble clear. I then noticed my depth, heard my buddy and DM making noise trying to find me, and realized that I was deep. I also noticed that in my panic I had gone from 800 PSI to about 200PSI. Some sense started to return to me and I realized I needed to make a SAFE ascent. If I ran out of air before I got there, I was ready to do an emergency ascent. Fortunately my buddy and the DM found me at about 80 feet and were there to escort me the rest of the way up.
Epilogue
When I got the surface, I really started to realize how things could have been a LOT worse than a ruptured eardrum. As PG is in BFE of a third world country, premier medical care was at least 3 hours away. I started to shake. I explained what happended and why I did what I did . Now you are all probably wondering how big a dipstick I am. I am generally a very by the book diver. My hindsight makes me think that other than the obvious mistakes my bigger problem was overconfidence, impatience, and self reliance. Buddies are a third hand. If I had waited at 12’ until my buddy realized I wasn’t surfacing I would have had he and my DM to escort me down while I cleared my ear. I was foolish and thought “I can handle it myself”. I am telling this story because I hope other divers will remember it when presented with a similar problem and choose a wiser course of action. I also hope people will remember to stay close to their buddies during ascent. Stuff happens.
