If you can breathe, you're ok

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maniago

Contributor
Scuba Instructor
Divemaster
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Location
Mid-Atlantic (MD)
# of dives
I just don't log dives
So in our last session in the pool yesterday, we were just hanging out - we'd completed all the tasks successfully and the instructor signaled that he was ripping up the cards and to have fun. I was working on neutral buoyancy, kind of in the zone, and the instructor comes past and rips my mask off. Wham! Funny thing was, my first thought was "hmmm, now that's interesting" and reached for my mask and snorkel, found them somehow, put them back on and cleared. I'm breathing right? Pffft. What's the worry?

Sounds a bit rough of a lesson I suppose (we're both gung-ho military, so kinda used to such antics - he wouldn't do that with the other civs), but it boosted my confidence 1000fold. Training kicked in without a thought. No panic. Man, I love good training!

Should have flipped him the bird underwater, but I was too pleased with myself to think bad thoughts! haha :)
 
Respect! Most of the challenge of dealing with unforeseen problems is remaining calm and not panicking.

You had your head in the right place!!
 
Good training, really.

Was diving a few weeks ago and got a classic fin-in-the-face mask flood. Been there, done that. Cleared mask and continued on. Now you've been there too.
 
Omg that's insane!! Haha.
On my first experience I nearly had a mini freak out so just stayed perfectly still and thought exactly what you wrote: "you are breathing, therefore, you are okay"
 
Nice job finding the mask cooly. An instructor did that to a freind of mine's son back in 1976. He immediately quit the course. The father/ freind gave me his steel 72 tank 30 years later in '06--still filled with air & in good shape.
 
Handling an unexpected problem smoothly is a huge confidence booster.

I remember my most vivid such experience (I've told this story here before). I was diving doubles, with a buddy, taking "diving lessons" from a technical instructor. The instructor got me caught in the upline, and my buddy swam away from me, so he, of course, ran out of gas. He boiled back to me to get gas, and I donated, and put my backup reg in my mouth and SLURP! No gas. The double-take I did must have been very funny to watch -- I knew darned well I had gas, because we had just started the dive, and furthermore, my buddy was quite clearly breathing happily off the reg I donated to him.

It took me a second to realize that the line I was "caught" in had rolled off my left post, leaving me with no gas to my backup reg. I reached up, turned it back on, and felt an enormous sense of accomplishment, because I had handled a completely unexpected issue with almost perfect aplomb.

Kudos to you for doing the same. The more you experience, the more confident you become that you can deal with issues.
 
So in our last session in the pool yesterday, we were just hanging out - we'd completed all the tasks successfully and the instructor signaled that he was ripping up the cards and to have fun. I was working on neutral buoyancy, kind of in the zone, and the instructor comes past and rips my mask off. Wham! Funny thing was, my first thought was "hmmm, now that's interesting" and reached for my mask and snorkel, found them somehow, put them back on and cleared. I'm breathing right? Pffft. What's the worry?

Sounds a bit rough of a lesson I suppose (we're both gung-ho military, so kinda used to such antics - he wouldn't do that with the other civs), but it boosted my confidence 1000fold. Training kicked in without a thought. No panic. Man, I love good training!

Should have flipped him the bird underwater, but I was too pleased with myself to think bad thoughts! haha :)

A Harassment was part of the last night of basic scuba classes for a long time, This was back when you only had SCUBA Diver, Advanced Diver, Dive Master, Asst Instructor, and Instructor ratings, nothing else.

We did mask floods and rip offs, black mask swims buddy breathing for a lap while nets were thrown over us and then had to do it all over again with one diver having air and the other no mask, air was turned on and off, ropes and mono were tangled into our equipment, tank clamps were opened so the tank drop out of the back pack, .............
 
Good for you! I hate not being able to see underwater. When you get your mask back on and cleared, the salt water still stings your eyes (lucky you were in a pool). Better without a mask and having air than without both a mask and air.
 
Well, I have a friend who was inside of a wreck in the early 90's when his canister light blew up from H2 build up from lead acid batteries which is what we used then. When he basically got punched in the kidney from the blast he rammed his mask into a piece of steel and shattered the glass. So there he was, inside of a wreck, no light and no mask - got himself out of the wreck on his line, worked his way to the up line and started going up. When he hit the divers on the deco stop, one went up and got a spare mask from the boat and he finished his deco with no problems. Then made the 2nd dive.

The wreck was the Stolt Dagali and he was around 120 feet at the time

http://www.aquaexplorers.com/StoltDagali.htm

I have also had my mask flooded many times in low vis when working or diving around dive classes - it happens.
 

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