Lost sight of buddies - tank came loose

[underthedeepblue]

I am the Original Poster of this issue and your first sentence is exactly correct. There were a chain of events that could have ended up with me dead and I am not going to dive again until I work it out.

I was basically too shy to insist on safety because I was on my own and was embarrassed to take control. There were other issues too. The dive master was cavalier and I was too stupid to check my equipment.
Never again.

I came back into this forum today because I honestly think I couldn't think about it until now.

Had one more thing gone wrong I may have drowned. I am astonished I didn't panic

 

[knowone]

Hey, doesn't John C. Ratliff look young for his sixty four years.

He must dive in the wonderfully interconnected Ocean of Life.

I think when you realised your position along what
you now know as the chain you handled it well.

It's far healhier to have anxious underwater moments early in you diving
than later, perhaps yours was a bit to early, and as you go deeper within
recreational depth, doff and don is far easier, than on or near the surface,
and considering a slipping tank will never again be an issue,
(one that I have never had even squeezing big tanks into small bcds)
it will probably never be required during any of your diving exploits.


Your lack of panic may suggest a healthy diving future.

 

[peterbj7]

I haven't read all of this thread, I'm afraid. But I see divers all the time who may or may not have removed and replaced their gear on their Open Water course, but they certainly have no confidence doing it. During that skill I get my students to remove the tank from the BC (leaving the reg on of course) and then re-assemble and don it. And I get them to do it at least twice, on separate occasions. There's a big difference between doing something once as a party trick, and doing it with sufficient confidence that you could do it again when the occasion demanded, just as in the OP's case.

 

[John C. Ratliff]

Hey, doesn't John C. Ratliff look young for his sixty four years.

He must dive in the wonderfully interconnected Ocean of Life...

Don't I wish. Recently, the daughter of one of my Vietnam PJ buddies, who did not make it (Jim Thomas) sent me a Facebook photo of myself in DaNang in my 20s. I had apparently been tagged, or something like that. The contrast was striking to today (see below). The photo I included was taken in about 1976 or 1977, as we had the integrated parachute harness.

I will say, though, that scuba diving is a great sport for people who want to keep their bodies and lungs healthy. Living actively, plus not smoking and exercising daily, helps keep the aging process in check. I did 12 miles on my bicycle yesterday, and was going into the pool today for some diving, but it was closed. My son teased me, after he had completed a 50 mile bicycle ride, that they had one person who kept up with them who was older than me. Well, I need to do a bit more to ride with my son. But diving is something I really enjoy, even now.

underthedeepblue,

I'm glad to see you back. We all have those things happen. I was on a parascuba jump one time in 1967, a night training jump in school. My risers had an overhand knot in them, so I could not steer or pull. I forgot to pull the forks (two forks keep the risers straight while the parachute, an S-10 is opening, but need to be pulled in order to steer). I was having enough trouble trying to figure out what had happened that I did not pull them, and consequently could not release my right riser group on landing. This resulted in me being pulled for about 200 yards on the surface before I could finally deflate the parachute. I then had all the lines around me in the water, and got very tangled in the lines before the recovery boat could get me. They helped me out of the situation. The PJ in charge asked me what I would have done on a real mission, tangled like I was. I told him that I would pull out my knife and start hacking away, and free myself. I didn't do it then as we were in a training session, and I didn't want to ruin a valuable parachute. He looked at me with skepticism, until I showed him the knife I was jumping with--my own Sportsways with a stainless blade and razor sharp edge that I had used for several years prior to joining the USAF (the PJ knives were USD knives, which did not hold an edge well). He then knew that I was telling him what I really would have done.

Concerning your situation, don't fret so much--get wet again at least in a pool. We tend to over-think these things, and not simply chock them up to experience. You did well with the resources you had. It's time to go back and enjoy the diving.

SeaRat

 

[DevonDiver]

I am the Original Poster of this issue and your first sentence is exactly correct. There were a chain of events that could have ended up with me dead and I am not going to dive again until I work it out.

I was basically too shy to insist on safety because I was on my own and was embarrassed to take control. There were other issues too. The dive master was cavalier and I was too stupid to check my equipment.
Never again.

I came back into this forum today because I honestly think I couldn't think about it until now.

Had one more thing gone wrong I may have drowned. I am astonished I didn't panic

Try not to over-think the scenario. It happened. Good lessons were learnt.

As per Friedrich Nietzsche's famous quote "That which does not kill us makes us stronger"

You may be more aware of the dangers now, but that makes you a better, safer diver than you were before. I'm always happy to dive with a cautious, risk-aware diver, who percieves their limitations. I only get worried by divers who blindly assume that nothing could go wrong, or who feel they could easily deal with anything that went wrong.

Ignorance, complacency and arrogance are bad traits in a diver. You show none of these.

I guarantee that all of the experienced divers on this thread had their share of incidents as they developed. Those divers that continue to push their comfort zones still have incidents that we learn from.

Don't let this deter you from diving. It's part of the process. We learn from our mistakes. Novice divers are expected to make mistakes.... that is why the agencies and instructors recommend certain limits (depth/time/overhead etc) to their diving.

Don't worry too much that you "could have drowned". That realisation lies at the end of every potential accident chain analysis in scuba diving.

For a recreational scuba diver, who adheres to the recommended limits and dives conservatively... there are a lot of 'links' in the accident chain that separate you from death or injury. The system and recommended limits are designed to put many 'links' into the chain. If any of those links are broken, then the chain is broken and the diver is safe. You'd need to get really really unlucky to see any accident chain progress to a lethal end.

Not panicking is the key to breaking the chain.... you didn't. That's a good sign.

Dive safe...don't stop diving

 

[farsidefan1]

Thank you all so much! My first experience was so similar to that of the OP that I suspect we were both experiencing our first dives at the same site, and with the same dive op. Only real difference is I stupidly entered the long swimthrough with my light and followed the other, more experienced divers. Although in the last 3 yrs I've been able to compile over 150 dives without incident (knock on wood) I have decided that before I go to Palau I'm going to hire a DM to review some skills I want to "lock down". With my surgically repaired shoulders I want to be sure about removing and reentering the bc along with half a dozen other skills (such as how to clear the reg when I have no air left in lungs, actally do a CESA from more than 15 feet down and some other little things that might come in handy). Things I can sort of do but would like to practise with a good DM. This thread has convinced me that this is absolutely necessary. Thanks again.