How often do you get Scared?

[SBP Studios]

Like when your diving or about to dive, how often have you had a truly frightening experience? Whether is was an equipment failure or a Dolphin that suddly rushes up next to you or maybe you came a little too close to a Hammerhead?

Do Shark encounters etc play much into your thought process when determining where you might Dive? for example the thought of Diving anywhere in Australia or Northern CA scares the crap out of me and I just dont think id ever do it.

Discuss.

 

[H2Andy]

i've been scared twice:

once was a solo night dive on a wreck (no penetration). i had a very creepy feeling,
kept getting all jittery, like jaws was going to come out of nowhere and finish me off.
i completed the dive but never quite fully relaxed.

second time was during my cave intro class. i removed my reg and swallowed some water. i couldn't breathe. kept coughing. i throught "oh sh...." i was probably
300 feet into the cave at that point, and i couldn't breathe. signaled the instructor,
tried to breathe from his regulator, no good. basically i just kept trying to breathe
until i was able to slowly inhale a little bit of air. scared the crap out of me.

 

[timle]

Do Shark encounters etc play much into your thought process when determining where you might Dive?

Of course, I try to go where I might see sharks. They are awesome creatures and number of attacks per year are very low.

As for scared I don't think I've ever been truly scared. Nervous of course on my first deep and first overhead dives - air consumption went up.

 

[Jim Ernst]

Like when your diving or about to dive, how often have you had a truly frightening experience? Whether is was an equipment failure or a Dolphin that suddly rushes up next to you or maybe you came a little too close to a Hammerhead?

Do Shark encounters etc play much into your thought process when determining where you might Dive? for example the thought of Diving anywhere in Australia or Northern CA scares the crap out of me and I just dont think id ever do it.

Discuss.

NORTHERN CA!!!!!!!!!!!!!! haaaaaa........ i had to go to the philippines just so i could see a shark, i have over 300 dives in the last two years just in northern cal and have never got to see one yet!!!!!!!!!!! sharks dont like divers, they have to worry about chipping a tooth on our tanks, i would love to see a shark out here!!!!!!!! :shakehead

 

[Matteo]

never been truly scared during a dive, but have gotten some jitters post dive after doing something bone-headed or the time we had a full grown tiger shark show itself for about 3 seconds before dissapearing into the murk...it was amazing at the time, but sitting on the boat and reflecting about it made me shiver a couple of times...but still an awesome experience I would give anything to relive one day, only w/ better vis next time!

 

[creamofwheat]

I've been nervous a few times (ie, first night dive, first anything, pretty much). I was also slightly anxious when I had regulator problems just before I penetrated a wreck, and then my primary light failed on me. But I wasn't scared. I just grabbed my octopus and then my backup light and signalled to my buddy, and then we ascended.

I have been scared only once, so far, and that was when there were 6 of us diving in a group, one of them was having equipment failure. we were at 100ft, he took off, trying to stay down, 2 people grabbed on to him to try to keep him down. Then the 3 of them were just gone. the 3 of us left calmed ourselves down and made a controlled ascent and met the others on the surface. everybody was ok, thank goodness, but I tell ya, I was pretty darn scared when 3 of them disappeared somewhere, one of them with major BCD issues. But it all worked out in the end.

 

[mstevens]

I got scared for the first time diving just last year. I was on a night dive in Cozumel with my wife and son on a small boat with a few other divers. We all rolled in together, but my 11 year-old son had some trouble clearing his ears at first. By the time we got to the bottom at 60 feet, there was nobody else to be seen. No lights in the distance, nothing. The current was the fastest I've seen in cozumel and we were really being whipped along. My son was interested in inspecting the reef for octopus but we were moving too fast to get close enough to see. After 2-3 minutes I'd decided to thumb the dive since I doubted we'd ever find the group and if I couldn't raise a boat in a reasonable amount of time wanted to have the energy to kick to shore. That's when my rented light crapped out.* I was just starting to think "this might not work out too well" as we were ascending when I saw lights from the boat above and the divemaster swimming down toward us. My wife had been trying to keep both us and the main group in sight but realized she wouldn't be able to so swam ahead to the group (and her supposed buddy) and made them abort the dive. Everyone agreed the current was too fast at that site, and the dive we eventually made a different site was the best night dive I've ever done. The first one was the worst 6 minute dive ever.

*Never again. First thing I did on getting back to the hotel was order primary and backup lights for everyone.

 

[MikeFerrara]

My scariest time have been when some one else had a problem. In a few cases it was students, either my own or those of another instructor but I was close enough to get involved. A few times I was assisting and it was my job. Once, as a DM candidate, I left my wife (who was doing fine but otherwise engaged watching some tiny creature) on a bridge span in the gulf to go after a student who was having buoyancy control problems and drifiting out to sea. After getting the student squared away and back with the instructor, I didn't have a ton of air left and had to go back down to look for my wife. As luck would have it, she was fine and met me right near the line. There was plenty of gas but if she hadn't have been right there I would have been stuck between a rock and a hard place.

Then another student of the the same instructor sunk out of control and freaked on her first post cert dive. The instructor who was with us (sort of) was above with ear trouble and the DM who was with us was a mile ahead "leading" leaving me (the DM candidate) to do the best I could. Every one lived but I was scared as she beat the crap out of me, refused to take a reg and just faught to ascend and screamed for all she was worth. I was scared again later at lunch when they all jumped on me because I handled her from in front rather than moving around behind her...never mind that the whole thing wouldn't have happened if she was taught the basics before being certified, had her gear put together right and/or one of the responsible folks were a half way decent buddy. I was scared during that conversation because I thought I was going to strangle somebody...or all of them. Well, hey, that shop definately taught me rescue skills because they kept trying to kill students and leavbing me to take care of things!

There have been dives that didn't go right. Once I became ill on a dive when I was a ways back in a cave and a few other times there were just things going on...line trouble, challenging passages, miscommunications or just people watching that I didn't want to be to embarased in front of. I like to do well but I don't always. In those instances, though I had dark thoughts in the back of my mind, they were kept at bay and I did as I was trained to do, sorted the important from the unimportant and prioritized sufficiently for a desireable outcome. I'd catagorize those instances as being under pressure rather than scared.

I love being underwater and some of the best times of my life are connected with diving. Some of the worst times of my life were also underwater. Note, though that, most if not all the bad times would have been avoided if I had learned, the right way from the right people in the first place.

 

[daniel f aleman]

Vertigo in a cave dive 170 ft down, 1250 ft in, totally loopy for 10 minutes. Scared and gigglingly-stupid at the same time. What scared me most was that it happened at all. Took two weeks off from diving, and had my yearly check-up two months early...

 

[herman]

NORTHERN CA!!!!!!!!!!!!!! haaaaaa........ i had to go to the philippines just so i could see a shark, i have over 300 dives in the last two years just in northern cal and have never got to see one yet!!!!!!!!!!! sharks dont like divers, they have to worry about chipping a tooth on our tanks, i would love to see a shark out here!!!!!!!! :shakehead

You want sharks, come dive in NC. We see sand tigers up close and personal on many dives. On some wrecks it's odd not to see several. Nothing dangerous and we don't feed them but for some reason they seem to like us. My last coastal dive here ended in 3 "man" buddy team - me, the buddy I went in with and an 7ft sand tiger, way cool.

As far as being scared I don't recall ever being scared. A little uneasy a time or 2 in the early days but nothing in a long time. I hope to keep it that way.