Twisted Bones
Contributor
Let me start this by saying The following account of my experience was in no part the fault of anyone but myself. As you read this if you take the time to you will discover every wrong move I made as I did after repeatedly going over the dive for the last couple days. There are still some holes to fill for me but here is what I remember and how it all went down.
I was to do my final two dives for my AOW on the Spiegel Grove in Key Largo 12/7. I decided to just make the 3+hour drive down, do the dives then drive back home again. I have been coming off a chest cold for the last week and woke up feeling pretty good at 4:30am. I checked all my gear again as I had the night before, grabbed something to munch on and hit the road around 6:30am. About half way there I stopped at McDonalds and grabbed a sausage mc muffin and a milk. Spent the rest of the trip drinking grape juice (I hate plain water) and enjoyed the rest of the ride. I pulled in almost 2 hours early for the 1pm trip.
After checking in and filling out all the required paperwork I decided to get my gear set up and ready to load. an hour passes and the boat is back early so we load up. The only thing we need are the two guys who decided to go to divers direct instead of show up early. Everyone loaded the boat pulls out and the Captain says its going to be sporty out there, 4-6' seas. I was excited, I like big water and had yet to dive in anything more than a foot or so. About half way out I realized I had forgotten my snack. I tried to fill the void with my fruit drink.
Once on site we were geared up in what seamed like 30 seconds flat. Here is where my trip started to go sideways. I donned my wetsuit and threw on the nice new hooded vest I had never even worn. Yeah its a little tight but not bad I said to myself. I openned my air valve and gave my regs a couple puffs each before stowing the octo in its mount. I jumped into my BCD strapped it all up and all the sudden it was my turn to get in. I slapped my fins on and headed for the swim deck, put my mask on, reg in mouth rope in hand and off we go. I hit the water signaled I was good to go and headed down the rope to the buoy.
At the buoy there was an old man 74 years of age just hangin out. he had done this dive before but was unsure this time. I hung out with him for a minute or two just to make sure he was gonna be ok. He decided to call it and went back to the boat. I emptied my BCD......um wait, I never filled it up! Interesting, I'm still floating. No big deal I told myself, I probably just forgot to put the two pounds I took out for fresh water back in. I can work with that. Face under and down the rope I practically ran with no issue or so I thought. SG7 lands you on the upper deck at 70'. I got to the deck and that's when I discovered that that two pounds was way more important than I had thought. I could not get settled down to my knees without exhaling fully and holding it out.
My normal routine as a solo diver is to thoroughly go over my gear once on the bottom and make sure it all checks out including my head. Oh, the group is taking off for the dive. Of course I was a little flustered but got over it and immediately followed the wrong instructor with another diver. Once alerted to the fact we were going the wrong direction we turned around and made a dash to the group we were supposed to be with. I was still fine but noticed I was having a hell of a time staying trim and felt like my left side was pulling down.
About 5 minutes in I started to feel the effects of Narcosis. I happen to enjoy the effect and was relishing the moment as we went down to the 90' mark. Once down I was struggling to stay down and really working hard to stay on task. This when I realized something more was going on, something insidious and just plain not right. I rose slowly back up to 80' and started to feel better but was told to come back down and follow the group. I did as I was told, big mistake. We went deeper. 100' is where things really just went way beyond wrong for me. Yes I was narcd but that was the last of my worries at this point. My face was tingling and I had started to develop a metallic taste in my mouth. This was no longer just narcd I told myself. I immediately swam up to the instructor and let him know something was not right. I wanted to go up to the 70' level and relax. No go, he told me to follow the group and stay close to him. I remember that being very troublesome for me and having to fight the urge to ascend a little as my vision was starting to fail. I do not remember from that point until we got to the flag. That is when the fog cleared a bit. I was down to 1100 PSI. Time to go up. Now you notice one thing I have been without this whole venture? My dive buddy. Never saw him until it was time to ascend. Good ol insta buddy. He went up the rope, blew through the half stop and was not at the mandatory stop when I finally got there. At the 15 foot mark I was feeling completely down on myself. I wanted to go back down and see what I missed. totally bummed, I made my way to the back of the boat and climbed aboard. I sat down and removed my gear. Oh my, I lost a weight pouch. yep 7lbs light on the right side the whole dive. I got out of my wetsuit and called my second dive. I was completely physically exhausted Which being on 32% nitrox should not have been the case. I sat for the rest of the trip and played the dive out over and over and over.
Back at shore I tipped the first mate, loaded my gear in the car and hit the road, I was famished. 3+ hours later I was home.
Now anyone with half a brain is going to spot every bad step I made through this whole mess of a dive. It turns out I was right when I felt there was more going on than Narcosis. I had a pretty good case of hypercapnia getting after me. What I felt and went through matches C02 poisoning pretty well.
All of that being said, this was a huge learning experience for me and it taught me to follow my judgment over anyone else's. I will never be rushed again. Period. As a solo diver I am very meticulous about my gear and checking it topside and bottom side. I allowed both of those checks to fall to the wayside by the rush to get everyone going. I will never again let anyone tell me I can not ascend to a level I know will clear my head. I may not have earned my AOW but I have learned some valuable lessons and feel lucky to be here to practice them. There is so much more I can say but I am going to leave it alone now and move on. If you made it to this point, thank you for taking the time to read this and I hope if nothing else you find something useful in it.
Just for sake of info. My previous two dives were to 115' with only mild narc. I attribute the above situation to the following missteps on my part. About the only thing I did right the whole trip was call the second dive.
1. Just coming off a chest cold.
2. Not fully rested.
3. Diving on an empty stomach.
4. Not following my usual gear check routine.
5. Over exerting myself at depth.
6. Using a new untested piece of gear on a non typical dive for me.
Matt
I was to do my final two dives for my AOW on the Spiegel Grove in Key Largo 12/7. I decided to just make the 3+hour drive down, do the dives then drive back home again. I have been coming off a chest cold for the last week and woke up feeling pretty good at 4:30am. I checked all my gear again as I had the night before, grabbed something to munch on and hit the road around 6:30am. About half way there I stopped at McDonalds and grabbed a sausage mc muffin and a milk. Spent the rest of the trip drinking grape juice (I hate plain water) and enjoyed the rest of the ride. I pulled in almost 2 hours early for the 1pm trip.
After checking in and filling out all the required paperwork I decided to get my gear set up and ready to load. an hour passes and the boat is back early so we load up. The only thing we need are the two guys who decided to go to divers direct instead of show up early. Everyone loaded the boat pulls out and the Captain says its going to be sporty out there, 4-6' seas. I was excited, I like big water and had yet to dive in anything more than a foot or so. About half way out I realized I had forgotten my snack. I tried to fill the void with my fruit drink.
Once on site we were geared up in what seamed like 30 seconds flat. Here is where my trip started to go sideways. I donned my wetsuit and threw on the nice new hooded vest I had never even worn. Yeah its a little tight but not bad I said to myself. I openned my air valve and gave my regs a couple puffs each before stowing the octo in its mount. I jumped into my BCD strapped it all up and all the sudden it was my turn to get in. I slapped my fins on and headed for the swim deck, put my mask on, reg in mouth rope in hand and off we go. I hit the water signaled I was good to go and headed down the rope to the buoy.
At the buoy there was an old man 74 years of age just hangin out. he had done this dive before but was unsure this time. I hung out with him for a minute or two just to make sure he was gonna be ok. He decided to call it and went back to the boat. I emptied my BCD......um wait, I never filled it up! Interesting, I'm still floating. No big deal I told myself, I probably just forgot to put the two pounds I took out for fresh water back in. I can work with that. Face under and down the rope I practically ran with no issue or so I thought. SG7 lands you on the upper deck at 70'. I got to the deck and that's when I discovered that that two pounds was way more important than I had thought. I could not get settled down to my knees without exhaling fully and holding it out.
My normal routine as a solo diver is to thoroughly go over my gear once on the bottom and make sure it all checks out including my head. Oh, the group is taking off for the dive. Of course I was a little flustered but got over it and immediately followed the wrong instructor with another diver. Once alerted to the fact we were going the wrong direction we turned around and made a dash to the group we were supposed to be with. I was still fine but noticed I was having a hell of a time staying trim and felt like my left side was pulling down.
About 5 minutes in I started to feel the effects of Narcosis. I happen to enjoy the effect and was relishing the moment as we went down to the 90' mark. Once down I was struggling to stay down and really working hard to stay on task. This when I realized something more was going on, something insidious and just plain not right. I rose slowly back up to 80' and started to feel better but was told to come back down and follow the group. I did as I was told, big mistake. We went deeper. 100' is where things really just went way beyond wrong for me. Yes I was narcd but that was the last of my worries at this point. My face was tingling and I had started to develop a metallic taste in my mouth. This was no longer just narcd I told myself. I immediately swam up to the instructor and let him know something was not right. I wanted to go up to the 70' level and relax. No go, he told me to follow the group and stay close to him. I remember that being very troublesome for me and having to fight the urge to ascend a little as my vision was starting to fail. I do not remember from that point until we got to the flag. That is when the fog cleared a bit. I was down to 1100 PSI. Time to go up. Now you notice one thing I have been without this whole venture? My dive buddy. Never saw him until it was time to ascend. Good ol insta buddy. He went up the rope, blew through the half stop and was not at the mandatory stop when I finally got there. At the 15 foot mark I was feeling completely down on myself. I wanted to go back down and see what I missed. totally bummed, I made my way to the back of the boat and climbed aboard. I sat down and removed my gear. Oh my, I lost a weight pouch. yep 7lbs light on the right side the whole dive. I got out of my wetsuit and called my second dive. I was completely physically exhausted Which being on 32% nitrox should not have been the case. I sat for the rest of the trip and played the dive out over and over and over.
Back at shore I tipped the first mate, loaded my gear in the car and hit the road, I was famished. 3+ hours later I was home.
Now anyone with half a brain is going to spot every bad step I made through this whole mess of a dive. It turns out I was right when I felt there was more going on than Narcosis. I had a pretty good case of hypercapnia getting after me. What I felt and went through matches C02 poisoning pretty well.
All of that being said, this was a huge learning experience for me and it taught me to follow my judgment over anyone else's. I will never be rushed again. Period. As a solo diver I am very meticulous about my gear and checking it topside and bottom side. I allowed both of those checks to fall to the wayside by the rush to get everyone going. I will never again let anyone tell me I can not ascend to a level I know will clear my head. I may not have earned my AOW but I have learned some valuable lessons and feel lucky to be here to practice them. There is so much more I can say but I am going to leave it alone now and move on. If you made it to this point, thank you for taking the time to read this and I hope if nothing else you find something useful in it.
Just for sake of info. My previous two dives were to 115' with only mild narc. I attribute the above situation to the following missteps on my part. About the only thing I did right the whole trip was call the second dive.
1. Just coming off a chest cold.
2. Not fully rested.
3. Diving on an empty stomach.
4. Not following my usual gear check routine.
5. Over exerting myself at depth.
6. Using a new untested piece of gear on a non typical dive for me.
Matt
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you. We all have bad days, though, and as dives go this sounds like a relatively good one to learn about things going bad.
