Lessons Learned from Bizarre Incident

[parabolic]

Here's a link to an article describing a strange incident that happened to me in the Sea of Cortez a long time ago. Obviously I survived, but learned from it:

http://www.kenbondy.com/images/ProfessionalArticles/ScubaTrolling_Oct94.pdf

 

[Matt P]

Wow - that's one of those things I'd never see coming. One thing I like to do about a minute into every dive is touch all my buckles, pockets, alternate air, dry suit inflator, knife, etc just so I know physically what it feels like to reach for each of those things. That 10 seconds check lets me relax during the rest of the dive knowing that everything thing is where I expect it to be.

Thanks for sharing. I like the refresher idea to. You're never too experienced to stop learning or to go back to the basics

 

[Jcsgt]

Holy crap, Ken, what a ride!

Thanks for sharing your experience. It's good for me to know that someone with your loads of experience doesn't feel like there's nothing left to learn.

I have a emergency list as well, and go over stuff with my buddy periodically. We'll be having a conversation about nothing dive-related whatsoever, and I'll suddenly say, "You're down at 100' and suddenly realize your reg is free-flowing. What do you do?" This is much more fun when we're in a group of non-divers, who look at me like I've lost my mind.

Before each dive trip, we go to the pool and practice everything from basic mask removal, sharing air, etc. to just finding stuff and retrieving it out of our BC's, inflating the safety sausage, hand signals, etc. We've both just purchased SMB's that can be inflated underwater, so that will be added to the list of skills to practice.

Hopefully, we'll never have to get ourselves out of a life-threatening jam and we'll both be able to perform our emergency skills as practiced and survive.

We need to dive more, also, to keep our skills up. That means diving in the cold Oregon muck, but I'm willing to do it. Besides, there's always something to see and photograph, right?

You're a great writer, by the way!

 

[DeepSeaDan]

Yikes! A nantucket sleigh ride on the end of a 2nd stage!

Quite a "heads up" self-save there Parabolic. I'm not sure if it falls into the category of "scuba O.O.A." - , it's more like a water skiing accident!

I teach alot thus I stay up on my skills practice as a matter of course. In my working diver days I suffered a "frozen hemet" o.o.a. situation ( I was working in the Arctic ).
What saved me then was my TRAINING; not only to deal with the problem at hand, but to conduct the dive properly in the first place ( no corner cutting, no complacency ).

There is no substitute for good training, then you must "dive-as-you've-trained." Yours ( & the others contributing ) are excellent personal safety systems.

Share them with every buddy you meet.

Best,
DSD

 

[Cacia]

yes, I can relate to that thought "this is going to be a stupid way to go" for something so unexpected... Great article! I do like the bungeed regs for this reason. The other day I got tangled up in my gear taking it off as I stood near the stern as the captain throttled the boat and I almost fell in the water, weighted, no mask, no reg in my mouth. It occurred to be that would have been an unglamorous death!