Diving today (1/21) and lessons learned

[dk2943]

I am a new diver with less than 10 dives. I am no longer young, although I think of myself that way, being 56. I live in Miami and most of my dives thus far have been in the Keys, but today I went with RJ Diving out of Miami Beach. I took my friend, an experienced diver, who is 60. The boat was a bit crowded. I am used to 8 to 10 on a boat. This one had at least 20. The first dive was to the Belcher wreck. Vis was good, not great. The sea was very bumpy. I was carrying 16lbs. I was wearing my 2mm full wetsuit. My friend and I agreed that I would jump in first. I jumped in, grabbed the line, checked myself out and looked around for my friend. There were lots of people in the water, but I could not find him. Finally, the people on the boat told me he had already gone down. I was not happy, but I went down the line myself. This was my first real wreck. It is a large, upside down, barge. Lots of fish, lots of other divers, but I could not find my friend. I contemplated aborting the dive, but elected to keep on going as long as I could keep others in sight. I followed two other divers out to an auxilliary wreck about twenty five feet away and found my friend there. We were at 57 feet. We decided to move onto another auxilliary wreck and moved in that direction when I realized I had not checked my air in a while. To my dismay, I was down to 500lbs. I signaled my friend and started to swim back. I quickly realized that I would not have enough air to get back, so I decided to surface. My friend followed me up, but I could not see him. I stopped at 30 feet for 3 minutes and then started up, but as I started up, I ran out of air! I did not panic, as I knew I was coming to the surface. I got to the surface and realized (1), I was 50 yards from the boat and (2), my friend was no where to be found! My next thought was to inflate my bc, but there being no air in the tank, no air went into my bc. Finally, I saw my friend surface about 20 yards away. I started swimming to the boat. It was against the current. No air in my bc and the weights were holding me down. I tried breathing through my snorkle, but the waves kept on crashing over me filling the snorkle with water. Try as I might, the current was not letting me get closer to the boat! I tried to manually inflate the bc, but, NEVER having done that, I could not do it now. I swam over to my friend. He had plenty of air, but he was exhausted trying to swim against the current. I filled his bc with as much air as I could and signaled the boat that we needed help. I was continuing to work hard keeping on the surface. The boat sent someone out with a line. I made sure my friend was attended to and grabbed the line to go back, It was a bit slack, but I did my best, but my energy level was plummeting fast. I realized it was more than I could handle. I handed off my weights, but it was not enough, so I took off my bc and gave it to the person who had come out to help, grabbed the line and, with my last bit of energy, swam as fast as I could to the boat. When I got there, I was so exhausted that I had to be lifted onto the boat. My friend came in a few moments later. First lessons: Pay much more attention to my air. I never want to OA again! Practice manually inflating the bc. Be far more aware of the currents.

The next dive was a fairly shallow reef. I was still tired, but I was going. My friend declined to go, so the boat gave me another buddy. It was a nice dive. Saw a ray and lots of fish. My buddy was very attentive, which put me at ease. In the middle of this dive, I realized I was getting cold. I was not cold on the deeper dive, but I was getting chilled now. I finished the dive (with plenty of air) uneventfully, but when I got back on to the boat, I was totally exhausted and shivering, even after taking off my wetsuit. Slowly my energy level has been coming back. I got my stuff put away and my friend said: "This was great, let's go out next weekend!"

I realize my mistakes were mostly due to inexperience and I consider them learning lessons. Writing about them is almost cathargic. I will not be diving next weekend due to family obligations, but probably will be the weekend after.

 

[scubafool]

Good job of staying in control during all of the problems you experienced.

 

[CD_in_Chitown]

Glad to hear it worked out. Don't ever be afraid to dump weight if you cannot inflate a BC.

 

[johnny_bravo]

I'm glad you and your friend are OK but I have to question your OW training? Not being able to inflate your BC manually...this is a basic and very necessary dive skill.

A case could be made about ditching your weights as well as you were struggling to stay afloat and swim back to the boat.

Cheers.

-J.-

 

[Jason B]

Glad all things turned out well. Good thing you didn't panic what with all that happened.

I have to agree with johnny bravo, manual BC inflation should have been covered in your OW class. Talk to your instructor about that.

I was also curious as why you did your safety stop at 30ft instead of the traditional 15ft (you may have had enough air to inflate your BC had you done the stop shallower).

Cool heads prevail - kudos.

 

[skynscuba]

Just a few random comments:

You need a buddy who will stay with you on descent. Like many things in diving, the great majority of the time it will not matter, but that is not good enough.

At 16 pounds of lead, and a 2mm wetsuit, you may be overweighted unless you are a fairly large guy.

I've learned a lot of things by reading Scubaboard that were not covered (or I missed) in my training. One of these was getting a good understanding of "rock bottom" for my air supply, which needs to include enough air for my buddy as well as myself, assuming both are a bit excited and consuming more air than usual.

I went almost directly into my AOW after my OW. It provided more time with an instructor to refine basic techniques, as well as introduction to new topics. I wanted to get more experience before my first dive trip. You should get in a pool and practice orally inflating your BCD.

You don't get cold as easily as I do, but 2mm might be a bit thin this time of year. I know I'd be in 5mm, with hood and gloves, if I were making multiple dives. More suit means more lead, but that cold can really sap one's energy.

 

[dumpsterDiver]

Your problems were not due to inexperience, they were a result of inadequate training and poor judgement. Glad you were able to dive again!. Beginning students should be told at least 50 times that when they reach the surface to "establish positive bouyancy" You need to be able to orally inflate the BC underwater and on the surface. It sounds to me like you should enroll in an advanced class ASAP and maybe take a re-fresher class too.

 

[spectrum]

Kudos for keeping your cool.

Keep a much closer eye on the air.

Practice orally inflating your BC on your surface. After that practice doing it underwater to establish neutral buoyancy. That will really cement the skill.

If you are ever feeling in danger of going under drop your weights. They are totally replaceable and often salvageable. Drowning tends to be terminal.

Good move on boosting your buddy's buoyancy.

Learn to keep any eye on your thermal state. Get out of your wetsuit or at least covered up out of the wind on your SI. Evaporative cooling is brutal. Bring some warm hydration.

Sleep well.

Pete

 

[fisherdvm]

The more you read accidents and incidents, the more you would be prepared for future dives. But nothing replaces experience.

I think the best refresher course for scuba is doing more dives, and making more mistakes. But next to that, you can read about the mistakes others have made.

I am glad that you are sharing this with us. I've seen very intelligent divers making terrible mistakes, and the more you read, the more you realize that none of us are perfect.

 

[fast5frog]

Not to beat a dead horse, but yeah I would wonder why orally inflating your BC wasn't covered in OW classes??
Great job keeping your cool and staying in control!