If you can breathe, you're ok

[maniago]

Dang guys, I didn't realize I was such a wuss. Maybe I'll ask my instructor if he can do some more surprises, like concussion grenades, smoke (on the water!), tracers darting hither and yon...you know, simple stuff - don't want to go too overboard with this now...!

 

[Adam Grose]

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

Nah..... you shoulda mooned him.

 

[Islandheart]

Yes, today this kinda stuff tends to be outside of "Standards" and is considered a no-no in OW training.

 

[windapp]

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

That is exactly what you should do whenever somebody rips off your mask - calmly put the mask back on and clear it, calmly turn around, and calmly flip the bird to whomever had the audacity to rip it off.

 

[boulderjohn]

The LDS Instructors reply was total disbelief!He commented that these days an instructor would probably loose his insurance & become uninsurable if someone filed a complaint.So how do todays new divers learn to deal with SHTF scenarios,wait until they take a Rescue Course?

I had my mask ripped off many times during my technical diving training, and I suppose it did me good. It was done, however, in a controlled way. A hand would come over the mask and pause, giving me enough warning to be ready for it. Although I have definitely heard of it being done in recreational training, I have never seen it, probably because it really is against standards for most agencies, including some technical diving agencies.

I think the reason is that if the instructor does it, It should be likely that the diver does exactly what happened in this case, but it might not. A student caught unaware might instead make a panicked, breath-holding ascent to the surface, causing a fatal gas embolism. It shouldn't happen, but it might. If it does, the resulting lawsuit would not be a good experience for the instructor, since he violated agency standards. By the time the suit started, he would already have been expelled from the agency, and his liability insurance would not available to him.

So, if you are an instructor who thinks the benefit is worth the risk, knock yourself out.

 

[wmccall614]

At least yours was planned, I had a similar experience. We had just finished our ow certification and were touring the bottom of the quarry when visibility went to zero. The student behind me didn't stop and effectively punched me in the mouth sending my regulator out. In the practices we took a full breath and as luck would have it, he knocked out my regulator at the end of my exhale. I was also glad I didn't panic. Once we got back to our surface point, we were still under 17 ft of green water and I was curious to know if I had recovered my primary or back up regulator. I kept going back and forth to figure it out. On my gear one has a white faceplate and the other yellow, but in the green water it was a little harder to tell till I compared hose lengths.

 

[Gilldiver]

At least yours was planned, I had a similar experience. We had just finished our ow certification and were touring the bottom of the quarry when visibility went to zero. The student behind me didn't stop and effectively punched me in the mouth sending my regulator out. In the practices we took a full breath and as luck would have it, he knocked out my regulator at the end of my exhale. I was also glad I didn't panic. Once we got back to our surface point, we were still under 17 ft of green water and I was curious to know if I had recovered my primary or back up regulator. I kept going back and forth to figure it out. On my gear one has a white faceplate and the other yellow, but in the green water it was a little harder to tell till I compared hose lengths.

Back in the "Old" days I would have 3 2nd stages - one from each post and one from the pony strapped to my tanks and telling them apart was a major issue to us all and caused a number of deaths when a diver would jump in on the pony by mistake, run out of air at 150-250, panic, etc. More than a few were recovered with an empty pony and a full set of doubles. This got even more interesting when divers had independent doubles and had to make sure that they could tell which SPG and 2nd stage reg was on which tank. One solution was to use 3 different 2nd stages and a gauge console on one tank and only a SPG on the other. Now a-days we use a bungee reserve 2nd which helps tell them apart and if you sling the pony or stage as the cavers do it is very hard to get that wrong. The side mount guys also have a visible tracing ability that eliminates the problem.

Here is what I'm talking about - which 2nd stage is on which tank?

So here is what I dove for many years

By sight or feel I knew what tank I was on.