mxracer19
Contributor
On April 18th upon visiting a lake near me, it seemed like a nice idea to do a little snorkeling. On top of that I had just recieved my new computer from leisurepro and I wanted to take a look at a few different depths in the area. I chose not to wear a weightbelt because for the most part I would only be in shallow water and could readily see the bottom. I was wearing a 7mm suit.
With this much neoprene, it becomes slightly difficult to decend even a few feet, so I decided to use one of the small marking bouys in the swimming area to pull myself downward. It seems odd that I had such strong feelings towards switching my computer to my right wrist where it belongs, but as to the fact that I was only snorkeling - I didn't.
The descent was a giant 6 feet to a cinderblock holding the bouy in place. It wasn't a large bouy, merely a small 6" x 4" swimming marker. It was also cracked. I sprang to the surface after a few seconds without a hitch.
The second 'dive' didn't go so well. I hadn't thought much of it, but being that the bouy was cracked open, it was drawn under slightly the second time I descended. I reached the bottom not realizing how much slack rope was around me, cycled through some screens on my computer, went to head for the surface, and the rope cinched tightly around my left wrist - right above my computer.
At this point, the rope was cinched around my arm. The harder I pulled, the tighter it got. Luckily, it had cinched solid not a second to late, as I had just enough space to get my head out of the water. Panic set in, I flailed around for a few seconds, spit out my snorkle, gulped down half of the surrounding lake, and managed to tighten the rope slightly more.
And then I stopped. I remembered from a class that panicing only made things worse. I cleared my head, and thought to myself that at my current position, if I dropped my left shoulder, I could almost comfortably float in the water at mid-neck level. I put my snorkle back into my mouth. I breathed. And I decided to have a look at this situation on my apendage.
There was a large knot in the rope mixed into the tangle holding me to my spot. This made figuring out the path of the rope around my arm difficult. After several attempts at untieing the knot, spaced intermittantly with failed attempts at breathing from the surface with my snorkle and choking on more water, I surfaced and did the most logical thing. I wiggled the knot.
The knot loosened slightly. I stuck my head back underwater for a peek and found that if I gave some slack to the rope which ment going back down a foot and wiggling the knot, I could help my predicament. Thats exactly what I did, and just as soon as this incident began, it was over.
So what happened?
I decended hand over hand down the line. At some point, I pulled down about a foot and a half of slack. In my hand-over-hand motions, my left wrist went over/under/over the rope encircling my wrist. I was head down. when I inverted to return to the surface it twisted the wrap, cinching it tight. It was at the exact moment that it cinched, that the 1" wide knot got involved, complicating situation further.
What Did I do wrong?
I paniced. My guess is that I had a good 15-20 seconds of air left inside my lungs. If I had stopped, looked at my wrist, and delt with the problem more thoroughly, instead of bolting for the surface, I would have ended the situation. On the surface for the first moment, I paniced some more. Somewhat expected, yet shamefull that I couldnt calm myself down faster. I should have been carrying a knife.
What Did I do right?
I did manage to calm myself down, asess my situation, think about the problem at hand, and solve it with the only tools I had - my 5mm gloved hands and my brain.
Snorkling is a relativly safe activity. However, when the right combination of events unfold, what you have is a potentially life-threatening situation.
If you take nothing else away from my experiance, learn from my mistake. Asess your situation, analyze the possible incidents that could happen, and deal with them before they become problems. I thought, "how can you get hurt smimming in a lake?"
It can happen, and it can happen to anybody.
With this much neoprene, it becomes slightly difficult to decend even a few feet, so I decided to use one of the small marking bouys in the swimming area to pull myself downward. It seems odd that I had such strong feelings towards switching my computer to my right wrist where it belongs, but as to the fact that I was only snorkeling - I didn't.
The descent was a giant 6 feet to a cinderblock holding the bouy in place. It wasn't a large bouy, merely a small 6" x 4" swimming marker. It was also cracked. I sprang to the surface after a few seconds without a hitch.
The second 'dive' didn't go so well. I hadn't thought much of it, but being that the bouy was cracked open, it was drawn under slightly the second time I descended. I reached the bottom not realizing how much slack rope was around me, cycled through some screens on my computer, went to head for the surface, and the rope cinched tightly around my left wrist - right above my computer.
At this point, the rope was cinched around my arm. The harder I pulled, the tighter it got. Luckily, it had cinched solid not a second to late, as I had just enough space to get my head out of the water. Panic set in, I flailed around for a few seconds, spit out my snorkle, gulped down half of the surrounding lake, and managed to tighten the rope slightly more.
And then I stopped. I remembered from a class that panicing only made things worse. I cleared my head, and thought to myself that at my current position, if I dropped my left shoulder, I could almost comfortably float in the water at mid-neck level. I put my snorkle back into my mouth. I breathed. And I decided to have a look at this situation on my apendage.
There was a large knot in the rope mixed into the tangle holding me to my spot. This made figuring out the path of the rope around my arm difficult. After several attempts at untieing the knot, spaced intermittantly with failed attempts at breathing from the surface with my snorkle and choking on more water, I surfaced and did the most logical thing. I wiggled the knot.
The knot loosened slightly. I stuck my head back underwater for a peek and found that if I gave some slack to the rope which ment going back down a foot and wiggling the knot, I could help my predicament. Thats exactly what I did, and just as soon as this incident began, it was over.
So what happened?
I decended hand over hand down the line. At some point, I pulled down about a foot and a half of slack. In my hand-over-hand motions, my left wrist went over/under/over the rope encircling my wrist. I was head down. when I inverted to return to the surface it twisted the wrap, cinching it tight. It was at the exact moment that it cinched, that the 1" wide knot got involved, complicating situation further.
What Did I do wrong?
I paniced. My guess is that I had a good 15-20 seconds of air left inside my lungs. If I had stopped, looked at my wrist, and delt with the problem more thoroughly, instead of bolting for the surface, I would have ended the situation. On the surface for the first moment, I paniced some more. Somewhat expected, yet shamefull that I couldnt calm myself down faster. I should have been carrying a knife.
What Did I do right?
I did manage to calm myself down, asess my situation, think about the problem at hand, and solve it with the only tools I had - my 5mm gloved hands and my brain.
Snorkling is a relativly safe activity. However, when the right combination of events unfold, what you have is a potentially life-threatening situation.
If you take nothing else away from my experiance, learn from my mistake. Asess your situation, analyze the possible incidents that could happen, and deal with them before they become problems. I thought, "how can you get hurt smimming in a lake?"
It can happen, and it can happen to anybody.
