I'll share this to hopefully persuade others to be properly rested, hydrated, and in condition for their dives.
A group of us did decompression dives on the Doc Demilly and Elmorante yesterday off the Northern Keys. The first dive on the Doc went flawlessly with some nice penetration and sightings of Goliath Groupers. The second dive was more challenging for me for a number of reasons I'll share. These challenges ended up with me getting hurt, and luckily recovering today. First, some background:
We were scheduled to do this dive for several weeks. My flight schedule had me finishing up on Sunday morning and getting back home into Lauderdale early Sunday afternoon. I'd be able to get plenty of rest for a Monday morning 8:30am departure out of Miami Marina. Like an idiot, I didn't drink water on these flights, since I was behind on rest and needed some caffeine. The weather in the Midwest had sucked for the last couple of days, so I perspired, drank coffee and Mountain Dew to stay alert, went to bed late due to delays, and started the chain of events that led to my injury yesterday.
I got home from flying at 1:00am in the morning on Monday. By 2:00am, I had my tables cut and gear packed. My head hit the pillow at 2:30am with the alarm set for 7:00am. 4.5 hours of sleep following a bad couple of days flying before two technical dives. Stupid. I got up, loaded the truck, and drove south in bad traffic. No time to stop to eat or drink water. I'm stoked about the dives, when I should be calling it off. Conditions were OK with 2-4 footers and sunny. The outside temp was mild, which would be good for me since I would be diving dry. I drank one cup of water on the ride out. The first dive was excellent with a light current on the bottom and a moderate current at the surface. At this point, the only smart thing I did was run my tables conservatively due to the minute amount of time I spent thinking about my condition. I also planned for deco with ean50 and O2.
In between dives, I drank half of a small bottle of Gatorade, but I still hadn't eaten. I planned for a 1 hour surface interval, and got a 1 hour and 10 minute SI. The current was much stronger on the second dive, and I was wishing I didn't have the second deco bottle due to the drag. I worked hard to the bottom and had a nice buzz, so I stopped to get my wit and make sure I didn't take a CO2 hit. The working part of the dive went fine, but on the ascent, I could feel it. My body was fatigued, cramping, and I wasn't having fun. I was letting some air out of my wing at 40' and my bungee that holds the inflator and corregated hose to my harness snapped. The next time I went to use it, it was gone. The current had it pinned behind me. I held on to the line with my right arm and fished for it with my left arm. I finally got it, but the contortions left me feeling more cramps coming on. At the 20' stop, I deployed my jon line, since the current was now ripping and there were a few bystanders with me. We all looked like tattered flags in the wind. I was working on stowing my 50 reg and wasn't looking forward to the 15 minute hang. At 12 minutes, I started climbing in the jon line, and grabbed the anchor line with my right arm again. I stowed my jon line in my left thigh pocket, while the boat was doing it's best to be the crap out of me.
This is were I got hurt. The combination of me being very heavy and full of drag due to doubles and two deco bottles, the strong current pulling me away from the line, and the up and down motion of the line caused by the boat in the swells, ripped my arm out of socket. At first I thought maybe I took a bubble in my shoulder, but that didn't make sense due to my very consevative schedules. I imediately grabbed the line with my left hand and my right shoulder felt really bad. I still had a few minutes of deco left. I then ascended to the ball, and drifted quickle the length of the 46' Newton back to the drift line. I grabbed it close to the ladder with my left hand, got myself on the ladder and stood there for a minute. My shoulder hurt like hell. I don't know how I got up the ladder, because when I sat down on the bench, I couldn't move my right arm. It took three people to get my gear off. One guy reset my shoulder, and they put me on O2 for precaution. I started shaking, my legs and toes cramped, and my skin was pale. They covered me in fleece and towels and I started to feel better.
I'm bruised and very sore today, but thanks to a couple great dive buddies and crew, things could have been much worse. I now look back and think what if I had not been able to hold the line and the dislocation happened with more obligation left. I would not have been able to deploy my lift bag, and I could have ended up miles from the boat.
Lesson learned:
1. Rest (starting several days prior to dives like these)
2. Hydrate (same as above)
3. Tech dive in a smaller group. This would have been easier decoing using lift bags, but there were too many different dive teams.
4. My dive schedule was slightly different from my two buddies putting us at different depths for different times. They couldn't help me with my inflator, and I couldn't communicate about the cramping.
5. If you don't feel up to it, don't do it!
I know what I did wrong, and I knew it was wrong before I did it. I was lucky, and I learned my lesson.
A group of us did decompression dives on the Doc Demilly and Elmorante yesterday off the Northern Keys. The first dive on the Doc went flawlessly with some nice penetration and sightings of Goliath Groupers. The second dive was more challenging for me for a number of reasons I'll share. These challenges ended up with me getting hurt, and luckily recovering today. First, some background:
We were scheduled to do this dive for several weeks. My flight schedule had me finishing up on Sunday morning and getting back home into Lauderdale early Sunday afternoon. I'd be able to get plenty of rest for a Monday morning 8:30am departure out of Miami Marina. Like an idiot, I didn't drink water on these flights, since I was behind on rest and needed some caffeine. The weather in the Midwest had sucked for the last couple of days, so I perspired, drank coffee and Mountain Dew to stay alert, went to bed late due to delays, and started the chain of events that led to my injury yesterday.
I got home from flying at 1:00am in the morning on Monday. By 2:00am, I had my tables cut and gear packed. My head hit the pillow at 2:30am with the alarm set for 7:00am. 4.5 hours of sleep following a bad couple of days flying before two technical dives. Stupid. I got up, loaded the truck, and drove south in bad traffic. No time to stop to eat or drink water. I'm stoked about the dives, when I should be calling it off. Conditions were OK with 2-4 footers and sunny. The outside temp was mild, which would be good for me since I would be diving dry. I drank one cup of water on the ride out. The first dive was excellent with a light current on the bottom and a moderate current at the surface. At this point, the only smart thing I did was run my tables conservatively due to the minute amount of time I spent thinking about my condition. I also planned for deco with ean50 and O2.
In between dives, I drank half of a small bottle of Gatorade, but I still hadn't eaten. I planned for a 1 hour surface interval, and got a 1 hour and 10 minute SI. The current was much stronger on the second dive, and I was wishing I didn't have the second deco bottle due to the drag. I worked hard to the bottom and had a nice buzz, so I stopped to get my wit and make sure I didn't take a CO2 hit. The working part of the dive went fine, but on the ascent, I could feel it. My body was fatigued, cramping, and I wasn't having fun. I was letting some air out of my wing at 40' and my bungee that holds the inflator and corregated hose to my harness snapped. The next time I went to use it, it was gone. The current had it pinned behind me. I held on to the line with my right arm and fished for it with my left arm. I finally got it, but the contortions left me feeling more cramps coming on. At the 20' stop, I deployed my jon line, since the current was now ripping and there were a few bystanders with me. We all looked like tattered flags in the wind. I was working on stowing my 50 reg and wasn't looking forward to the 15 minute hang. At 12 minutes, I started climbing in the jon line, and grabbed the anchor line with my right arm again. I stowed my jon line in my left thigh pocket, while the boat was doing it's best to be the crap out of me.
This is were I got hurt. The combination of me being very heavy and full of drag due to doubles and two deco bottles, the strong current pulling me away from the line, and the up and down motion of the line caused by the boat in the swells, ripped my arm out of socket. At first I thought maybe I took a bubble in my shoulder, but that didn't make sense due to my very consevative schedules. I imediately grabbed the line with my left hand and my right shoulder felt really bad. I still had a few minutes of deco left. I then ascended to the ball, and drifted quickle the length of the 46' Newton back to the drift line. I grabbed it close to the ladder with my left hand, got myself on the ladder and stood there for a minute. My shoulder hurt like hell. I don't know how I got up the ladder, because when I sat down on the bench, I couldn't move my right arm. It took three people to get my gear off. One guy reset my shoulder, and they put me on O2 for precaution. I started shaking, my legs and toes cramped, and my skin was pale. They covered me in fleece and towels and I started to feel better.
I'm bruised and very sore today, but thanks to a couple great dive buddies and crew, things could have been much worse. I now look back and think what if I had not been able to hold the line and the dislocation happened with more obligation left. I would not have been able to deploy my lift bag, and I could have ended up miles from the boat.
Lesson learned:
1. Rest (starting several days prior to dives like these)
2. Hydrate (same as above)
3. Tech dive in a smaller group. This would have been easier decoing using lift bags, but there were too many different dive teams.
4. My dive schedule was slightly different from my two buddies putting us at different depths for different times. They couldn't help me with my inflator, and I couldn't communicate about the cramping.
5. If you don't feel up to it, don't do it!
I know what I did wrong, and I knew it was wrong before I did it. I was lucky, and I learned my lesson.
