Diving without problems - Is it possible?

[300bar]

2500+ dives I`m still here so...

KEEP WET , and keep thinking what you do.

 

[ProfessorAronnax]

Roughly 150 dives (didn't count the first 30 or so) 1 stupid that just left me brused and bleeding and watched someone else handle an OOA that could have been serious. By and large as long as you dive within your own abilities you will be fine, like everything else its when you push the envelope that bad things tend to happen.

The stupid was me being way too over confident and was a very good learning experience. Not panicing is everything IMHO.

The OOA was someone not taking responsibility for their own safety. "Oh look I'm running out of air, I'm sure the DM will come and fix this before the guage gets to 0, no need to worry" The worry came big time when the guage hit 0 at 30 feet. The look of panic is imbedded in my brain. Was also a good lesson - YOU are responsible for your own safety nobody else. IMHO your buddy is just someone packing around a possible extra gas supply. You may or may not have access to it. What's you plan if you don't. (Buddy may very well be more than that, but I prefer to plan for the worst and hope for the best.)

Great post! Over confidence and complacency is a huge factor in accidents. Guy I knew decided to grab some quick lobsters, long story short: jumped in without buddy, BC, octo, got hung up on a lobster trap line and died-and this was under great conditions in 15 feet of water.

Also, your exactly right about about your buddy-you can't stake your life on him rescuing you. Up here in poor vis of New England you can lose a buddy pretty quick. It's important to prepare yourself for the worst and be as self reliant as possible.

 

[miketsp]

No.
But the difference between a minor event and a major emergency really can be a fine line and depends on how you handle the situation.
Sometimes being too calm can be a problem.
Last weekend I had a real BC inflator problem for the first time ever and almost got into trouble because I thought it was simple to handle having done this easily during training.
I checked the inflator while mounting the equipment - OK.
I checked it again just before the giant stride - OK.
Floating at the surface with my buddy we checked everything, gave the down signal and emptied our BCs.
Now I was diving with a 7mm semi dry which needs a lot of weight to sink it - generally I stick my fins up in the air to get the initial downwards impulse - but once I pass a couple of meters neoprene compression comes into play and I have to start putting air into the BC.
Anyway passing 10m I was starting to descend quite fast and I started to press the inflator button - and nothing.
No sweat I thought, the hose connection must have come loose and anyway I can always orally inflate. So I started checking the connection with no results.
Now my ears were telling me I was descending fast so I decided to start an oral inflate.
After a couple of puffs I realised that I was fighting a losing battle. The volume of air I was transferring to the BC was not compensating the increasing buoyancy loss due to the compression of the thick neoprene and I was still heading down fast.
So since I had a full tank of air and a regulator capable of a good flow rate I changed tactic and put my entire effort into finning vertically upwards until I managed to stop the downwards movement. Once I did this I then went back to orally inflating the BC taking advantage of the fact that I was breathing heavily.
I finally stabilised the situation but at a depth well beyond that planned for the dive.
My mistake - over confidence thinking that resolving the inflator was the issue when my first objective should have been to stop the descent while I was shallow. Probably a couple of fin strokes would have held me near the surface - and closer to my buddy that got left behind on the descent.
Yet another lesson learned.

 

[bogrady]

I just noticed your in Austin, are you diving Lake Travis?

Yes I am - is there anyplace else one earth to dive? I hear rumors of these magic blue water places with visibility past 10 feet and fish with colors. I find it hard to believe. My theory is the same people that faked the moon landing in '69 are the ones that are making up all the blue water stories.

My son and I certified in February (58 deg water and 3 foot viz at Windy Point). 4 weeks before we were in the lake we literally had never even heard of the place or noticed the LDS in Oak Hill.

We fell victim to the Newton’s unknown law of masculine Physics:

One guy says "Hey - I'm going to Hawaii and I want to get scuba certified. Anyone want to go with me?"
The guy next to him says "Yeah, I'll go"
Now at this point its still two guys talking abut something. You need the third element - which is a third guy (me) who says:
"Count me in!"

Newton’s unknown law of masculine Physics - As soon as the third guy joins - the inertia becomes infinite, no one member of the group can back out least they suffer the chicken out humiliation, and we all found ourselves in Lake Travis in February.

The rest is history. 25 dives and still counting, all primary equipment acquired and moving on to the nice cool extra stuff.

My son and I did get the chance in March to use out skills in clear water when we did Disney’s EPCOT Dive Quest. We’ve also been diving in the Aquarena Springs practice area to prep for the Scientific Diver course.

We're going to try to make it out to Windy Point today for the new Wednesday meet of the board crew.

 

[SteveAD]

To quote an old drill sergeant:

"there are NO problems! Only challenges and opportunties to excell!"

In 15 years and well over 1000 dives I have had few challenges and never felt at risk for life and limb.

but I've never been afraid to abort if something just diddnt feel right

 

[bogrady]

Thanks for all the great replies so far. I feel soooo much better.

I’m becoming as addicted to this board as I am to diving. The blend of humor, critical analysis, outright chastising and just good old useful information contained in these forums just pulls you in and doesn’t let go.

So my path is set –

Stay within my limits
Continue to learn
Practice, practice, practice …

Next up – Scientific Diver so I can at enjoy the warm clear waters of Aquarena Springs (no more freezing in Travis in February), then Advanced Open Water and Rescue Diver.

Who knows – maybe someday I’ll get to see those mythical Blue Waters ….

 

[webjr]

I can live with the occasional minor emergency, but I'd like to think that it is possible to log 50+ dives every year for the next few decades without a required near death experience.

The only difference between a "minor emergency" and a "near death experience" is in how you deal with it .
Just remember the 2 most important rules of diving and you'll be fine .
1. Never hold your breath.
2. When $#@^ happens , don't panic .
Stop
Think
Fix it

 

[usmc4x4]

BS. There are lotsa things that can go wrong with you, your buddy, the weather, the boat, sea condition, dangerous sealife and also with equipment. Sometimes you will not be fine regardless of what you do.

But have fun, if you have good gear, a good buddy, good training and practice, it is probably a lot more dangerous driving your car to the dive shop than doing normal recreational dives.

That is a terrifying statement from an instructor. Your job is give your students the knowledge and situational awareness to avoid those problem prone situations. I can't think of a situation that can not be mitigated with training or proper response. The only things that cause unavoidable deaths or accidents are personal health problems such as heart attacks or strokes. Guess what, those kill on the surface too. Thats not an inherint danger of SCUBA, SCUBA just complicates the problem....

 

[KrisB]

That is a terrifying statement from an instructor. Your job is give your students the knowledge and situational awareness to avoid those problem prone situations. I can't think of a situation that can not be mitigated with training or proper response. The only things that cause unavoidable deaths or accidents are personal health problems such as heart attacks or strokes. Guess what, those kill on the surface too. Thats not an inherint danger of SCUBA, SCUBA just complicates the problem....

that's exactly what dumpsterDiver said... if you have good training, etc., you're SAFER diving than driving to the dive shop!

There are many situations that are unavoidable. Nobody has control over the sealife, and often enough, little control over what their buddy does. Everybody must exercise the same care-for-self as they do walking down the street. I don't seek out friends that have their CPR training just in case I should have a heart attack when we're walking down the sidewalk chatting... nor is that expected of them. I also don't expect them to get in the way of a car that's about to run me over, but I would hope they would call the ambulance if it happened.

Dive as though your buddy is nothing more than *maybe* a spare source of air... and even then, be careful not to depend on him/her too much, lest s/he not be there when you really need them.

 

[usmc4x4]

that's exactly what dumpsterDiver said... if you have good training, etc., you're SAFER diving than driving to the dive shop!

There are many situations that are unavoidable. Nobody has control over the sealife, and often enough, little control over what their buddy does. Everybody must exercise the same care-for-self as they do walking down the street. I don't seek out friends that have their CPR training just in case I should have a heart attack when we're walking down the sidewalk chatting... nor is that expected of them. I also don't expect them to get in the way of a car that's about to run me over, but I would hope they would call the ambulance if it happened.

Dive as though your buddy is nothing more than *maybe* a spare source of air... and even then, be careful not to depend on him/her too much, lest s/he not be there when you really need them.

Thats exactly what I stated and got BS called on me and I quote:

Originally Posted by usmc4x4
I can tell you that the seriousness of an emergency is completely dependant upon you. If you remain calm and use the tools at your disposal you will be fine.

How does this differ from his statement? Training is considered a tool as far as I know. I am not saying you can control your enviorment I am saying that if you know how to react to your enviorment or what enviorments to avoid you can mitigate most risks associated with diving. I haven't seen any incidents that weren't attributed to a chain of events that could have been broken with proper training and reaction by the individual diver. Situational awareness is key and only the individual diver can be aware of their personal situation.