I am disappointed in myself...

[Marvel]

Jeanne, I had a similar experience on my first certification dive- a beach dive in rather choppy conditions. The BC that I was in was a child's BC but the instructor had put 16 lbs on my weight belt. I started struggling to stay afloat on the way out &, like you, never thought to drop my weight belt. Luckily a friend was along for the dive & noticed my struggles- the instructor wasn't paying any attention to me. (he was too busy playing with his GF who had come along on the dive). I wound up handing off my weigh belt & doing my surface skills without it. Then, I put it back on to do the actual dive (&, yes, my instructor spent the dive playing footsie with his GF). Needless to say, I had some very harsh words to share with the shop owner when I got back but the bottom line is that I came back safely & learned a valuable lesson early on about the options that I had. Like you, I did not think to drop my belt or put my reg in my mouth & go down (10-15 ft of water) & come back to shore.

VERY glad you made it back safely! :fruit: Here's hoping that your story & mine might make a difference to someone reading this thread.

 

[ScubaDiva]

A lot of us have been there. Sometimes the mind isn't thinking when things are happening so quickly.

When a similar situation happened to me, I immediately went and got my Rescue Cert. Like James Croft said at the top of this thread, you'll most likely never do that again. Just be happy that the situation didn't worsen.

 

[SPG3K]

FWIW - During my first dive after certification, I saw someone with a similar problem on the surface. His Inflator Hose disconnected from the corrugated hose and inflator mouthpiece thing (super technical, I know). I'm drawing a blank right now, I'm sorry.

Anyways - he was overweighted a bit, probably, who knows, and was finning hard to keep head out of water. He tossed his mask somewhere away from him and was starting to freak out.

During the whole thing, his buddy was underwater, and never surfaced. (I still don't know why he came up, how deep or how fast) At this point, one of the other divers near him blew up their BC and held onto him, bringing him to the dock.

Just by reading your assessment and report of your dive, I would say you handled your situation extremely well in comparison.

I won't comment on the weight dumping, I'm too new and inexperienced to begin to critique any instructor. He probably knew what he was doing or was protecting himself from a potential lawsuit as stated earlier.

 

[Teamcasa]

...I am VERY sorry to say that my buddy is my husband.

Is your husband a new diver as well? If so, don’t be that hard on him. I (the husband) am my wife’s buddy and pay close attention to her but I have been diving much longer than she has. This too will pass, you will never forget and I’m sure you will never let him forget this important lesson.

Keep diving, have fun and be safe.

 

[Saltwater Junky]

Don't be too hard on yourself. A lot of us have had learning situations. After purchasing my new pc (AI) 2yrs ago, I went to the North FL springs for a couple of dives. During the first dive I kept checking my PSI and could not get it to register. Upon surfacing and checking my PC I discovered that I had not turned the guage on. Dummy me and lesson learned.

 

[tuner fish]

Bravo! for sharing your experience. Perhaps someone will benefit.

 

[don Francisco]

Jeanne, don't beat yourself up. I've read and re-read your post trying to get a feel for the time element, which seems fairly short. From what I can tell your only failure was in being slower to come up with an action plan then a far more experienced diver (the instructor) was. Also, dropping the weight belt was different for him than it would have been for you, since he was able to carry it.

As others have said this is a learning experience which could make you stronger in the future. To consolidate it you should take some quiet time soon, while things are fresh in your mind and debrief yourself on the incident. You might do it as an informal micro "board of review" and try to answer some of the following questions and others.

1- was the mechaincal failure that started it, the result of poor maintaniance or assembly or an unpredictable defect.
2- how much time passed as the situation unfolded
3- were you sinking (if you didn't fin) or simply riding uncomfortbly low on the surface?, were you overweighted or not? were you in fact in any real danger?
4- how effective was your communication of your situation?
5- what was your state of mind, confused, nervous, verging on panic, or trying to dope out a plan? Were you aware of your air supply and options.
6- if more time had passed before the instructor took over, how would the situation have played out, would you have swum for shore, or communicated your distress more clearly, or exhausted yourself treading water.
7- most importantly, what would you do differently next time?

You should get your husband, and possibly the instructor, to participate. Maybe do it over dinner, your treat.

In the final analysis, only you know the answers to the above and your state of mind at the time is the key element, though what others saw will lend perspective. I suggest this not as a beat yourself up session but so that you can learn the most from the experience, and use those lessons in the future. Outside opinions, from those not there at the time, while they might offer insights, won't answer the core questions, only you and those there can.

Lastly, take the rescue course. It isn't so much about rescuing others as it is about opening your eyes to recognizing problems and your options in solving them.

Finally, what are you so disappointed about? You made a mistake. I'm fairly sure it wasn't your first and I absolutely guarrantee it wasn't your last.

 

[hudson]

*I brought up the weighing issue, but I believe her when she says she could be about 2lbs over. I don't see how a woman with 7mm suit + vest can stay neutral with much less. I am negatively buoyant, and still need 13lbs with a steel tank, in fresh water! Don't underestimate the mighty 7mm.

*If you are 2lbs over (which should be no big deal) plus have about 3lbs in the tank, that's 5lbs negative. If you were 100% neutral at the surface, you STILL would have to lean back on the surface to keep your head out of the water. Now when she is fiddling with the BC, she is probably all vertical and is not too focused on breath control, so having to kick continuously follows without having too much weight on board, I think.

I don't really see a mistake here, more of a comfort in the water issue. It comes with experience, getting better for me with each dive. When you are comfortable, then you will have a better idea of what the real risks are and what your options are. The important part is to stay out of any immediate danger and that's already accomplished by keeping the regulator in mouth and not carrying too much lead.

 

[DandyDon]

I had 1600 PSI left. I was approx. 125 - 150 yds from shore. There was a slight surf. At first I was able to stay afloat by kicking, it became harder. I wouldn't have been able to stay afloat by kicking too much longer. I NEVER thought about descending again and going into shore that way. I don't know why i didn't. FWIW when I got back to shore my bladder was completly filled with water.

Uh, if you're in trouble on the surface, descending was not my idea of a good suggestion. Spectrum, being able to get buoyant as needed is a pretty important and basic safety rule. Are you awake? Did I read that wrong. I'm confused.

--- about 6 pounds for every 80 cubic feet of air.

I was thinking 3 pounds for 80 cf?

I started struggling to stay afloat on the way out &, like you, never thought to drop my weight belt.

Okay you were brand new and with a lousy instructor, but still.

Drownings do happen, they happen all too often to divers who struggle at the surface and the body is found later with weights still on. Oral inflation probly should have been the answer here, but if panic or even a brain skip misses that, then ditching weights at the surface needs to be something learned and kept learned from the first pool dive. Solve the problem immediately or ditch. I've been amazed at how rapidly some drownings happened in some of the reports I have read.

Whose BC was this anyway? I'm curious about "FWIW when I got back to shore my bladder was completly filled with water." I can't see that happening with a disconnected low pressure inflator hose? The problem was where I am pointing with the yellow arrow here? That is not going to allow a lot of water in; I'm wondering if you were taking in water throughout the dive when you used the deflator button to let air out? Or did one of the BC O-rings fail allowing water in one of the larger air release ports/

​

 

[AbyssalPlains]

Don't beat yourself up over it. It's too easy to let things like this develop out of proportion and become self-fulfilling prophecies. The mere fact that the incident prompted you to think hard about it and ask for other folks' opinion, to me shows that you are very aware of your diving and willing to learn from all your experiences. Should you ever be in that situation again, you will know exactly what to do, unlike the majority of divers. The stats show over and over again, that 90 or more percent of divers in distress don't drop their weights.

On a related note: Personally, I think it's not a bad thing at all to think long and hard if I REALLY need to drop my weights. Unless I'm overweighted, there is no reason why I should sink on the surface and I hate the idea of littering the sea floor with lead just because I can't handle my diving.