Greatest Fear?

[DiverDurf]

Okay, just read the whole thread. As someone else pointed out, I "had" a fear of a tank o-ring going bad while under, but I've already had one go bad on me. So now when I rent a tank I just pop the o-ring and replace at the beginning of the day. Yeah, I know it's way over-redundant and all, but for the 3 cents each (or whatever) it's TOTAL peace of mind for me. I just don't like rental gear but can't do anything about it for now.

 

[drdaddy]

I liked it better before I became afraid - when it was just me and no one loved or depended upon me (which, as I have grown older, I realize has never been the case).

I hope my fears do not become irrational and hold me back, but I also hope that I will never lose my healthy fears.

My Greatest Fears Are:

Ignorance, foolishness, overconfidence, and stupidity. Being too confident and not realizing that I'm in a dangerous situation until it's too late and I panic or run out of options. Then my only option is to drop my expensive gear and surface and I refuse to drop my gear until it is too late. And as I go down I realize that through my foolishness I have let those down whose lives depend upon me.

A real life situation is the guy that ran out of air, switched to his pony, but when he reached the surface was too exhausted to manually inflate his BCD and almost went under - saved by a boater. In retrospect should have dropped his weights and/or gear, but was too exhausted and panicked.

Here are two other "real life" examples that terrify me - they both led to death. The first was in the Red Sea when the guy kept going deeper and deeper, probably holding onto his expensive camera too long - should have ditched it and headed towards the surface, but it was too late and he sank hundreds of feet to the bottom. The other example is the guy with thousands of dives who was all geared up for a tech dive, jumped in the water and sank quickly to the deep deep bottom - he had forgotten to turn on his air.

These "Rescue Diver" scenarios remind me of my vulnerability and I pray that I will not get overconfident and complacent.

drdaddy

 

[thunsaker]

Being told by doctors that I must give up diving for a medical condition...kill me now.

I would definetly feel the same way.

 

[redrover]

Nope, never think of that one.
The worst thing I do not want to happen is screwing up bad enough to be maimed yet still alive. If I was truly afraid or scared I would not be diving.

 

[princessaprilia]

I'm afraid of updrafts and downdrafts. I've been in both (thank Heaven, no downdrafts that were really serious). I can't figure out how to predict them, and I'm way too slow to recognize what is happening to me. Both my husband and I had bad experiences yesterday with little microbursts along a wall in current that blew us up some 20 feet before we got stopped. I dive walls in current with great trepidation.

As a new diver, I'm most afraid of the things I don't know that I don't know.

Like updrafts & downdrafts? I was totally unaware that I should be worried about these.

Why did I never hear about these before?

Oh, great. It's going to be 2 more hours before I can go to sleep now.

 

[steel-slinger]

Well my Greatest fear is having a daughter.

Second....spearing a world record and it getting away with my gun.

 

[rstofer]

I just don't want to embarrass myself.

Richard

 

[SkipperJohn]

I'm afraid of being afraid. Or more precisely, not being in control.

 

[Steve50]

Coming up with less folks than I took down.

 

[FritzCat66]

Hadn't thought much about this - I doubt many scuba divers are really very fear-driven, or they wouldn't be divers.

However, upon thinking and reading, I would have to echo some of the other posts here that while bad things may happen to me, I think it's much worse if something were to happen underwater to someone you cared about - especially if you were aware of the problem but for whatever reason powerless to help. Just one more reason to dive buddyless and solo as far as I'm concerned.

That being said, I would say another concern or "fear" would be discovering some medical condition that would terminate my diving prematurely (again, as mentioned by others).

As far as stuff happening to me directly dive-related, I guess there's getting some sort of stray man-o-war tentacle or box jellyfish inside my wetsuit. When my non-diving buddies inevitably ask, "Aren't you afraid of sharks?", I always answer, "It's not the big chompy critters I fear underwater - it's the little stingie ones!"

Anything that kills you relatively quickly I'm not too concerned about - like drowning, or even a fatal AGE. But I think another reasonable fear for any diver is massive DCS. If you've read Shadow Divers then it had to horrify you when the kid goes into the chamber all numb from the chest down, with DCS so bad when they take a blood sample the syringe fills up with pink foam. Then as the chamber takes him back to depth his feeling comes back - but it's extremely painful, and he endures hours of this but dies anyway, horribly screaming his life away in miserable stinging pain in the chamber.

*shudder* Yeah, I think I'll keep doing those safety stops...

>*< Fritz