First dive of AOW class... Yukon 10/1/05, NOT fun.

[David P]

Marc, where are you located? Given you dove the Yukon I'm assuming San Diego...If you live up north a bit, I have an instructor that I highly recomend.

It sounds like the dive was a bit beyond your cumfort zone, and you were ill prepared. I question your statement about weighting and practicing drills at the harbor, I have never seen this done here, is this something you have done at other dive locations?

I remember my first dive after OW class, it was the Yukon. Vis sucked but I thought that the low vis MADE the dive, it was like special effects in a movie as a wall of steel comes out of the myst. Even though the dive wasnt an offical class, it was done as a test (about a dozen divers that all hang out) go dive the wreck, navigate back to the accent line, come up to a suspended 80% 02 tank, verify the depth of the deco tank and do a 3 minute hold off. After the dive and everyone was back on board, some divers were pissed as they got lost on the wreck, most couldnt find the accent line because they failed to take a heading before they submerged... At the end, the deco bottle was raised up and only one team were on the slate that we were supposed to sign when we reach the tank, mine and my buddy. Even it was a great dive for me and I couldnt wait to go back and dive the wreck again, I (probably everyone) learned a lot from that dive on what to do and what not to do!
The second time I went to dive the Yukon I was a little nervous thinking about what could go wrong and everything that did go wrong for my friends last time. Along with the fact that I was diving with whoever I buddied up with from the boat (normal buddy couldnt go). I get down to the boat and im informed that we weren't going to be diving the Yukon becuase a local "very experienced" instructor failed to return from the wreck the day prior. Very somber boat ride out to the other sites...

Glad your ok and dive safely.

 

[TorontoDive]

Cold water shock happens to even experienced divers....you learned a lesson the hard way but at least you know what it's like now.

I was once on a boat where a lady with AOW who had only dived in warm tropical places wanted to give the St. Lawrence river a shot - well, first time in a 7mm, hood and gloves went like this: she giant strided off the boat, reappeared on the surface kind of panicked, DM jumped in without gear to grab her from drifting away and made her hold onto the tag line, a few minutes later she was back on the boat. She did thumb that dive because of the shock but she tried it again the next day. I gather from your posts that you'll be back at it, and now that you know cold water shock, I'm sure your next AOW dives will go MUCH better.

 

[ShakaZulu]

"The instructor was however looking at you and the other students as certified divers who were seeking additional instructoin, and not unskilled divers. This is an important distinction, but does not remove the instructor from blame" this is the key as Mark stated.

The Yukon can be a challenging dive, especially if there is a current and big swell. The water is always cold as hell over there, and I can totally see how that was a major factor in your train of events.

Get some more dives in, become comfortable and then do the AOW dives again.

PS. When you do decide to buy a wetsuit, get an XCEL...........

 

[MissyP]

I remember my first dive after OW class, it was the Yukon. Vis sucked but I thought that the low vis MADE the dive, it was like special effects in a movie as a wall of steel comes out of the myst.

My first Yukon "dive" was also in my AOW class.. And the vis was a whopping zero All 8 of us from the boat (only 2 students, our instructor, and 5 other divers) were hanging onto the line down at 80+ ft in pitch blackness... I think we were waiting for the first brave soul to let go before the rest of us did, and of course nobody was letting go! The DnDII's DM came down the line, saw the conditions and thumbed it. What a huge relief! Fortunately, I've had many good dives at that old ship since then

I agree with the person who said that your first deep AND wreck dive should not have been combined. There's a huge safety factor there in that you can hit depths past 100 ft at the Yukon and possible narcosis & "depth anxiety" become part of the problem.

As was suggested, try Catalina- its a very easy dive with excellent conditions (usually). We have a small group of divers (mostly from here on SB) going out there on Oct 15, you're welcome to join us.

 

[MaxBottomtime]

I hate to be the first to say it, but you had no business even taking AOW yet. Too many people jump into AOW right out of OW without getting any real experience diving. Even though the water was cold, vis poor and you had to use unfamiliar rental gear, you should be completely responsible for your own actions and choices rather than blaming the instructor, shop, your buddy and the other divers in the class. There should be a minimum of at least fifty dives before anyone should take an advanced course. Even a recently certified OW diver should have recognized his anxiety level and lack of experience to make a 100 foot dive in cold water. You were correct to cancel the rest of the dives that weekend.

 

[Scuba_Steve]

I hate to be the first to say it, but you had no business even taking AOW yet............

Ya think?

 

[lord1234]

Marc, I was the one who suggested on myspace that you post this on here.

 

[lamont]

I check my gauge and see that I'm at 1000 psi. So I signal low on air.

Unless you were diving a big steel tank, at this point you didn't have enough air to safely take you and your buddy to the surface while making your stops.

Very good job on signalling low on air at this point. You certainly were. Not only did you not have enough to ascend safely in an OOA, but you were probably between 5-10 mins away from going OOA yourself at depth... Not a good safety margin of gas for a beginning diver down that deep... If something else had gone wrong at depth, and you had tried to solve it at depth and you wound up burning through another 5 mins of bottom time both you and your buddy-of-crisis could have wound up bent or drowned...

NOBODY responds. I try knocking on tank but it makes no sound. I almost decided to pull out my dive knife to knock on my tank but given my poor depth perception I decided I'd rather not do that. Yay, another anxiety factor. Guess who's breathing too quickly at a depth of 100 feet? Sounds like a great way to get nitro narc to me... and not the happy drunk kind, how about the anxious panicky kind?

Yeah, you had a paranoid narc on at this point, but even worse, you were risking a CO2 hit...

My dive partner, U got extremely dizzy at one point. He grabbed onto the nearest diver and signaled not ok. This other diver was BF, not me. BF thinks U is out of air so he offers him a secondary but U just knocks it out of the way and shoots for the surface. Along the way, U starts blacking out and says that he couldn't see anything on the ascent or remember what happened. Meanwhile he has a death grip on BF that he doesn't let go of until they hit 30 feet.

...like this one.

Don't dive with this shop or this "instructor" again, please.

Don't go this deep without acclimatizing yourself to cold, limited viz diving as well...

 

[Firediver]

I was informed by padi that they recommend someone right out of their open water course should jump into the advanced because they will gain more experience diving t with an instructor. And they will be able to to learn more from the instructor during these dives.... as for me I think the minimum required dives that are set up by agencies should be mandatory and actually increased so divers aren't put into a situation they aren't comfortable with. Many new divers don't want to abort the dives if they feel uncomfortable because they don't want to disappoint everyone or look bad. As new divers gain experience, they Know to listen to that inner voice and call any dive if they don't feel comfortable...... just my short 2cents

 

[mpenner]

Marc,
I'm glad you're still with us. I agree with most of the posts; I would definitely report this to PADI and get comfortable in low vis/colder water BEFORE taking a course; anything after OW should be an addition to your diving skills, not the 'basics'. Unfortunately, cold-water diving 'basics' are different that your standard tropical vacation dives. You may not have known this before the course but if the shop or instructor was aware that you only had warm-water experience, they SHOULD have recommended that you go on a 'discover local scuba diving' dive, or take an OW refresher, or do SOMETHING with an instructor/divemaster/experienced diver present. I've seen this problem in British Columbia as well. Sadly, people often waste half of their AOW course or more (not to mention the risk to themselves and detraction from other course partipants) because they're not familiar or comfortable with their gear or the conditions. In part, this is the shops' fault because they are only too eager to take your course fees, without asking enough questions about your skills or experience. If you have a choice of places from which to take courses, take them from whoever asks you the MOST questions. (About diving, not about your credit rating.) If they just want to take your money, you're better off not taking the course at all.

Argh. The more I think about it, the more sure I am that I have to buy my own gear and find some pool to practice in WITH a partner.

While this is a great idea, if you can afford the gear, I don't think that it's necessary. Any reputable shop should let you take rental gear out to the local pool for an evening or something, to let you get familiar with it and practice a few basic skills; I would deal with the (manageable) inconvenience of rental gear initially, rather than regretting an expensive purchase. Figure out what you want from your gear, and when you think you've figured it out, give it another 5 or 10 dives. THEN buy gear. Unless you're rich.

I think you're going to end up being a safe and discerning diver. What doesn't kill you makes you stronger...

Just make sure you know your equipment, your buddy, and the conditions first.