Exhausted on choppy surface

[rmorgan]

i made several wrong choices:

(A) back roll down current not forgetting my 65+ body no longer as strong as before..

(B) Sucking and blowing air too quickly due to exhaustion fining hard back ward towards the descent line .

(C) Did not inflate correctly to remain on surface

(D) A sign of desperation whether to remain fining on surface or to descent. Thus pressing all the wrong button on the BC .

(E) near panicking and to grasp for air .. requlator was removed mask off causes more problems on the surface..choking with sea water the least to mentioned( a case of classic panic diver..im a way i am glad to had experience it 1st hand myself )

Fortunately the DM realised what was happening .And safely as instructed we descend but below between 0-30' down current still there..after 5+ min or so i decided to abort at around 30' + and ascended .

I was already at least 100' + from the boat by then reaching the surface . .Tks the almighty all is well .

You made one good choice—calling your dive. Most of the rest weren‘t choices, in my thinking; just panicky reactions. Being in the water with a deflated BCD, mask off and reg out of your mouth, in current, just shouldn’t be; perhaps a skills refresher course would help with some muscle memory to see you through several more years of safe diving. Thank you for sharing your sobering experience.

 

[napDiver]

If conditions are that bad at the surface, a negative entry may of helped. To get below the surface chop. Ofc letting ur dm know before doing it and being trained/experienced in doing it are musts. However if you couldn't get to the line, u would have to surface and abort as well.

If current or conditions are bad, I always try to check where all the lines are. Try to jump in as close as possible to a line and grab it asap as needed. From there you have time to gather, think, and execute without having to fight the current.

 

[happy-diver]

Your fins are designed not for surface splashing with some of you out of the water on an angle

 

[Lookchart67]

Your fins are designed not for surface splashing with some of you out of the water on an angle

Yes .I wore a split fins it was disastrous.!

 

[John C. Ratliff]

Nick_Ravdov: I was told to back roll at the stern up current

I wish they dropped me up current so i can swim and drift to the descending line on the surface .i made several wrong choices:

(A) back roll down current not forgetting my 65+ body no longer as strong as before..

(B) Sucking and blowing air too quickly due to exhaustion fining hard back ward towards the descent line .

(C) Did not inflate correctly to remain on surface

(D) A sign of desperation whether to remain fining on surface or to descent. Thus pressing all the wrong button on the BC .

(E) near panicking and to grasp for air .. requlator was removed mask off causes more problems on the surface..choking with sea water the least to mentioned( a case of classic panic diver..im a way i am glad to had experience it 1st hand myself )

Fortunately the DM realised what was happening .And safely as instructed we descend but below between 0-30' down current still there..after 5+ min or so i decided to abort at around 30' + and ascended .

I was already at least 100' + from the boat by then reaching the surface . .Tks the almighty all is well .

Lockchart,

You’ve got to analyze this dive a bit differently. First, why was the mask off and regulator spit out? Those two need to stay in place. If the mask knocked off you by the chop, then that is an issue to be addressed. The regulator is the same, keep it in your mouth. It provides air despite the chop. I always dive a snorkel, and the snorkel could have helped too, especially the newer ones with splash guards.

SeaRat

 

[GiraffeMarineSalvage]

From your description it seems like there was a big breakdown in communication and a disconnect between the boat's expectations of all divers' abilities and experience relative to the dive site conditions and the actual diver abilities at that specific point in time (which would need to take into account a wide variety of factors like if it were one's first dive in years and at the opposite end of the spectrum if it was the third dive of a day after a really exhausting week...)
Also, the recommendation of making a rapid descent simply to get out of the chop is only suitable if everyone is sufficiently experienced to do so without issues and that intention was properly briefed prior to the dive. If (when) the boat needs to maneuver and divers are in wrong place at wrong time it can easily lead to a situation in which a diver is hurt or killed (especially in relation to potential injury/death from propellers...)