Drowning

[gaeke]

I will go thru the questions now.

I know I was out of air because when I inhaled it became severely restricted and then nothing. When that happened I was not breathing hard nor was I excited.

I tried to power inflate my BCD on the way up, but there was nothing left.

This was my 12th dive since August. That includes my certification dives and 3 freshwater dives in Florida. All with an instructor. It also includs a 60 foot dive in limited visibility off Jacksonville, FL, and a 60 foot dive with zero visibility. We went down the line to a wreck, could see about 24 inches, and returned to the boat.

I did my training in Georgia and was certified by SSI. I have done my advanced training in Florida with PADI. St. Thomas was a recreation dive while we were docked there on a cruise.

When back on board the boat, the crew was only interested in finding the BCD, and no one was anxious to talk about what happened. It was a quiet trip back to the dock.

"...what were you thinking????" That's good question and the reason for all of this. That was THE critical mistake. I can't think of anything to add to that without sounding like excuses. I am committed to living a "no excuses" life, so I offer none. It was my responsibility and my mistake.

As for the swim through the barge. During one of my dives at the Blue Groto (a freshwater cavern in Florida for those who don't know it) we swam through a tunnel that is 90 feet deep at it's deepest point. It is U shaped and black. There were 5 of us including the instructor. The barge was about 50 feet across and open on both ends. There didn't seem to be a lot of risk for three divers to pass through it. So I followed them through. Obviously, if I had lost my air midway through it would have been even more of a crisis. And I have often thought about that.

I think I have answered the questions. I will gladly field any more or you can contact me at gaeke@aol.com. Thanks for everyones input.

 

[openmindOW]

Thank you again, gaeke, for your contributions here. By sharing your story you are helping to make others diver for other people safer.

Do not be embarrassed. All experienced divers have made mistakes.

Based on your post of today, it sounds as if your tank was truly without any remaining air. You got yourself out of a very dangerous situation.

I do have one question for you that would very much help me as an Instructor. You ditched your weights under water in order to get to the surface. That action may have saved your life. Was that something you practiced with your class in the pool or did you take that step on your own?


Keep diving, my friend.

 

[wve]

... the only discussion on the boat afterwards was to point out that I should not have discarded my BCD.

This is one feature of your story that sounds a little like panic, that is, the rejection of equipment.

Most rental tanks are aluminum 80's which ought to be buoyant when empty, and many BCDs are also inherently buoyant even when empty. If it couldn't be found afterwards, then the next question is whether it floated away or sank to the bottom.

If the whole kit was truly pulling you under, then you were not wrong to ditch it. On the other hand, if the tank and BCD are buoyant, then you usually want to keep them on.

That said, there are some BCDs that tend to force your face-down into the water. If it was one of those, it may have FELT as if it was dragging you under, and it would be a judgment call as to whether it was correct to remove it.

(I must have been composing this while you were composing your post -- in case it seems out of order...)

 

[TSandM]

Thank you for posting this, because this is the kind of situation someone with little experience is likely to get into.

Most of the comments have already been made, but I have a couple to add:

First, it appears that "blow and go" was the solution to being out of gas that was first on your list of options. (I'm basing this on the fact that you attempted to inflate your BC on the way up, rather than vent it to control your ascent rate.) When I did my PADI certification class, I believe we did five different options for dealing with an out of air situation, and that was the absolute last option, because it is so dangerous. The FIRST option for an out of air situation is gas sharing with a buddy. When you signaled your "buddy" (and I put that in quotation marks, because it sounds dubious that you really had a buddy at all) that you were out of gas, you should have been on your way to him/her to get that octopus. A controlled ascent with both divers breathing adequate gas supplies is far safer than any ascent you do with no breathing gas for yourself.

Second, you don't mention, and no one else has, orally inflating your BC on the surface. Unless you were massively overweighted, you should have been able to achieve positive buoyancy with an inflated BC. The fact that your gear sank when you discarded it strongly suggests that it was not inflated (unless you had a huge amount of weight in integrated pockets). Oral inflation is taught in open water, but few people practice it thereafter. It is a good skill to have sharp and ready if you need it.

Finally, your experience with the snorkel is one of the reasons I think they are of limited utility. If the seas are breaking over my head, they're likely to be breaking over my snorkel, too, and if your head is down, you can't see them coming and time your breathing to minimize the likelihood of inhaling water. Getting water down the trachea is a very powerful stimulus for panic.

I think you learned a lot of lessons here, not the least of which is that freeflows empty tanks FAST (about 90 seconds for an Al80, IIRC) and that you should never get in the water without confirming that you have an adequate gas supply for the dive. But think about practicing oral inflation and gas sharing. And I don't think you'll ever take the buddy relationship casually again.

 

[bleeb]

Thanks for being willing to post about your experience and even more for being willing to discuss it. Hopefully the discussion stays polite, but for your sake, please try to take any responses with a thick skin, since even those that don't intend to be rude can be a bit blunt at times.

I had very little air in my BCD because I am so buoyant, that it was bobbing in the swells. That meant that at the bottom of the swell, it would actually take me under the water. [...] Because it is pulling me under, I have discarded the BCD.

If you don't mind elaborating a bit, I wasn't clear on how your equipment was set up and causing the problems you ran into. As others have mentioned, you seem to be saying your BC was significantly negative. Although you'd dropped your weight belt, did the BC have any integrated or permanent weights as well? Was this an aluminum tank or a steel one which is more negative.

You also mentioned problems with bobbing in the swells and going under (occasionally or all the time?). How fast and how high was the waves and the bobbing? With the BC, how high out of the water were you floating before you got rid of it? I'm trying to understand whether the problem was not having enough lift or maybe the size and frequency of the waves combined with the momentum of the heavy tank being the problem (which more buoyancy would be less effective counteracting. How much exposure protection were you wearing?

 

[gaeke]

We did practice dropping weights in my training. My personal BCD has intragrated weights, but I was wearing a belt at the time. I don't remember thinking about it, just doing it.

 

[gaeke]

Thanks for everyone's input. Some questions I just can't answer. I think I have had enough.

 

[aascubagirl]

Thanks again for being willing to put yourself out here so that we could not only possibly help but also learn. Glad you are happy, healthy, and just as importantly, still diving!

 

[scubagirl510]

i read that you were embarrassed by this but both incidences happen (underwater and the near drowning when you ascended). I have had both happen on 2 different occasions and have to say, better to be embarrassed then not here anymore!

My running out of air debacle was same with a faulty regulator but I had excellent divers around me (thankfully because my dive buddy had wandered off, even though he was a rescue diver by trade!) and two of them shared with me on the ascend. So, I think it is very important to try and stay where most of the divers are.

The near drowning was also same and I panicked when I swallowed water as well. The other divers were still on the boat and did not notice me. By the time they saw me, I had torn off my mask (big mistake) and floated onto my back so that I could get some air. It took a few minutes for me to regain my composure but I completed the dive shortly after.

I think it is SO important to make sure you have good people around you and more than just one because you never know who will be there (or not!) to help you in your time of need. But, never be embarrassed, we're all in this together!!!