TimK
Contributor
I was out on a charter boat dive today with a couple of members of my dive club as well as others. I was one of two OW divers on an AOW dive with most of the others on the boat diving doubles -- 3 of us single tank. First dive was to about 107 feet to hit the mooring and then you could follow a crevise down to max depth of 130 feet. I was teamed with an experienced AOW diver while 2 instructors took students working on certifications with them. Dive plan was to hit the mooring then visually go down crevice, return to mooring then back up line to the top. I experienced mask flooding difficulties as soon as I entered the water. When we got to the 15 foot hang bar I was already trying to clear mask and keep water from trckling in to the nose area. My partner signed OK and I replied OK thinking I could fix the flooding issue on the way down. So I worked on mask clearing and not trying to choke on sea water all the way down to bottom at 104 feet. By then, I had issues with the hood I was wearing forcing the reg partly out of my mouth so I was breathing extremely wet to the point where several times there was no air, just water or more water than air (didn't realize what was causing the wet reg at this point). I tried sipping air which helped keep a lot of the water out, but did nothing to help my confidence. Fortunately the vis was terrible. My partner came over and gave thumbed up meaning go up -- I told him this time I had equipment issues so he thumbed up again and we began to head up the mooring line. When we got on the boat he explained that vis was too bad for his comfort level and was cutting the dive anyway.
While not panicking, I didn't waste any time going up the rope either. My partner kept pulling my fin and telling me to slow down. We did a 3 minute stop at 15 feet on the hang bar where I was able to finally get my reg cleared and breathing real air with no water. Mask continued to be an issue. In reviewing my dive computer, I broke 30 fpm ascent twice, the rest of the time was slower than 20 fpm. Did a second dive at a different location to 84 feet after the surface interval and had no issues at all. I had tightened the mask strap up two notches during surface interval and prior to dive, rolled the face part of the hood in so there was plenty of room around the reg.
Lessons Learned:
If you have difficulties at or close to the surface STOP and fix them then or call the dive. They won't magically get better at depth.
Tell your buddy you have problems as soon as they crop up -- they might be able to help you. Might not, but at least he/she knows.
Don't panic. I had to fight panic real bad today when at 104 feet, I couldn't get a decent breath of air without drinking water. Fortunately, I continued to clear the reg and was able to maintain a grip on things till we got back up to the hang bar. But I wanted to BOLT to the surface -- I totally understand how others feel now. Wierd feeling.
Listen to your buddy. No doubt he kept me from exceeding an unsafe speed on the way up. I was watching my computer and was trying to take things slow, but I wanted to get to the boat badly.
I was also using a loaner wetsuit (mine tore and was sent back for replacement and hasn't come in yet) so the face was not trimmed. Prior to trimming my wetsuit, I had the same issue with the face edge part pushing the reg. out of my mouth. Unfortunately, I didn't remember that until back on the boat going over the dive in my head, which is why I rolled it way back for the second dive (no reg issues on that one). Had I remembered, I could have fixed the wet reg issue easily and then could have worked on tightning the mask. I'll chalk that one up to experience.
Remember your training. Major thoughts running through my head were underwater problems are fixed underwater. So I kept trying to fix the problems all the down and back up. Wasn't too successful at it but I'm sitting here in a warm house writing this so I didn't do too badly either.
If ever in doubt, refer to lessons learned line 1.
While not panicking, I didn't waste any time going up the rope either. My partner kept pulling my fin and telling me to slow down. We did a 3 minute stop at 15 feet on the hang bar where I was able to finally get my reg cleared and breathing real air with no water. Mask continued to be an issue. In reviewing my dive computer, I broke 30 fpm ascent twice, the rest of the time was slower than 20 fpm. Did a second dive at a different location to 84 feet after the surface interval and had no issues at all. I had tightened the mask strap up two notches during surface interval and prior to dive, rolled the face part of the hood in so there was plenty of room around the reg.
Lessons Learned:
If you have difficulties at or close to the surface STOP and fix them then or call the dive. They won't magically get better at depth.
Tell your buddy you have problems as soon as they crop up -- they might be able to help you. Might not, but at least he/she knows.
Don't panic. I had to fight panic real bad today when at 104 feet, I couldn't get a decent breath of air without drinking water. Fortunately, I continued to clear the reg and was able to maintain a grip on things till we got back up to the hang bar. But I wanted to BOLT to the surface -- I totally understand how others feel now. Wierd feeling.
Listen to your buddy. No doubt he kept me from exceeding an unsafe speed on the way up. I was watching my computer and was trying to take things slow, but I wanted to get to the boat badly.
I was also using a loaner wetsuit (mine tore and was sent back for replacement and hasn't come in yet) so the face was not trimmed. Prior to trimming my wetsuit, I had the same issue with the face edge part pushing the reg. out of my mouth. Unfortunately, I didn't remember that until back on the boat going over the dive in my head, which is why I rolled it way back for the second dive (no reg issues on that one). Had I remembered, I could have fixed the wet reg issue easily and then could have worked on tightning the mask. I'll chalk that one up to experience.
Remember your training. Major thoughts running through my head were underwater problems are fixed underwater. So I kept trying to fix the problems all the down and back up. Wasn't too successful at it but I'm sitting here in a warm house writing this so I didn't do too badly either.
If ever in doubt, refer to lessons learned line 1.
