Question Made some bad decisions, advice appreciated!

[darwinaward]

Some context - I went solo shore diving at midnight with little overall experience (less than 10 total dives logged) and no redundant air source. Yes, I know how bad that sounds but it went fairly well overall. I know just the first sentence alone is enough to merit my username but I did take precautions to make sure I was reasonably safe.

I researched the site I planned to dive and it was incredibly shallow, going from around 10ft-25ft in depth. After that, I was told that there'd be a steep drop off to 60 feet. I planned to just descend early and swim out to the drop off then back so that at any point if I somehow did panic or had an emergency I could surface immediately without any big issues.

During the dive, I reached the drop off point and decided to swim along the edge before heading back, but the drop off was visually much less steep than I expected so unbeknownst to me, I was descending much faster than I thought. When I checked my gauges again, I was already almost at 50ft. I didn't completely panic but I did make the poor decision of immediately inflating my BCD a bit (didn't fully inflate but I did hold the inflate down for a solid second or so). I began to ascend a bit too quickly and I immediately realized my mistake so I deflated a bit but only enough to slow the ascent. The visibility was poor and it was night so I didn't have much to judge my ascent rate once I lost site of the bottom. I surfaced soon after and although I'm a bit hazy on how long the ascent took, I didn't feel like it was particularly fast, definitely not shooting to the surface at least, but it was much faster than I would have liked.

I made a second bad decision and instead of swimming on the surface back to shore, I decided to descend back down to around 20 ft and swim back to shore underwater. Upon surfacing and reaching the surf zone I immediately felt a little nauseous but I attributed that to my general motion sickness and the 3 feet swells. However, I'm now slightly concerned about DCS since I've also been a bit itchy and now have a bit of back pain although the nausea is mostly gone now. It's been a couple hours since I finished the dive.

I know I'm most likely overreacting and the best advice would for me to learn some common sense and not put myself in positions like this to begin with, but I'm just wondering how likely it is for me to have minor DCS and if so, if it's necessary for me to seek treatment. Thanks in advance!

 

[boulderjohn]

I agree fully with what you were told by DAN. DCS is close to impossible on the dive you did, but the consequences of holding your breath on the ascent are very possible.

Let's talk about your inability to control that ascent. When you realized you were ascending because of too much air in the BCD, you tried to slow or stop the ascent but failed to do so. You don't give a lot of details, so what I am about to suggest might be completely off base, but perhaps it will help.

One of the most common mistakes I see with new divers when they try to dump air from the BCD is they forget that air needs to go up to vent. If you are using the inflator hose to vent, it has to be held up. Dumping it from chest level will not work. If you are dumping from a different vent, there has to be an air bubble below that vent for that to happen.

 

[OTF]

Sounds like a valuable learning experience. Your analysis of the issues makes me think you'll be an excellent diver with time. We all have a few dumb dives we regret. With time, training, and incremental practice solo night dives like that can be routine and safe. It's actually my favorite way to dive.

My non-medical-professional guess is that the nausea was either due to "seasickness" from surge (especially if there is seaweed moving with the swell it can be disorienting) OR minor alternobaric vertigo from your ears not fully equalizing. Mild vertigo can definitely make you feel sick like that. Dive profiles with rapid depth changes can cause it, as can cold, infrequent equalization, hoods or lack thereof, or infrequent equalization.

The itchiness and back pain could be mild DCS, or just from wearing scuba gear. Were you diving with a computer? What does the log say about bottom times and ascent rates? DCS is possible even on "benign" profiles depending on your personal physiology so watch out for signs and symptoms on future dives.

It is always best to consult DAN via a free phone call or find a dive medicine professional if you are concerned. The internet is great but will not be as accurate or quick.

 

[NW Dive Dawg]

Glad you're OK, glad to hear that you called DAN...... and glad to hear that you are evaluating your decisions and learning from the experience.... We all do. Based on my understanding in reading your story I take it that this night dive was was the first time ever diving this site..... I'd suggest that a day dive to first familiarize yourself with the site would be a better plan...

 

[johndiver999]

The biggest worry is that you found yourself a little deeper than you expected and you hit the up button. That, to me, is a really terrible response, and is indicative that you are way, way over your head in this kind of dive. You need to take 3 steps back and remember how screwed up it felt alone and at night.

If you were presented with an actual problem, like an adverse current, equipment failure, it sounds like your response would be unlikely to be correct. But what ever, you can learn a lot by surviving your screw ups, but it is important that you dive solo in conditions that you are comfortable in. If that means dialing it way back, not a big deal. Go slow and progress within your comfort level.

As an FYI. I have always been extremely challenged by slopes when night diving. In the day, with decent lighting and visibility, I have never had trouble following a discernable slope. Must be something to do with the ambient lighting and your ability to judge what is straight up or down? At night, with a gradual (but normally discernable slope) you (or at least I) will just mentally view that slope as flat. I can't tell you how many times I screwed up at night trying to follow a sloping ocean bottom along the shore which was trivial in the day and impossible at night (without constantly double checking depth). I got lost a bunch of times before I learned not to trust my eyes at night on this issue.

 

[tursiops]

Good judgement comes from experience. Experience often comes from bad judgement.​

Variations on this quote have been around maybe a 1000 years.

 

[BlueTrin]

Aside from this, you can initiate ascent by either breathing a bit fuller, i.e. in the breathing cycle keep the part where you inhale a bit longer (don’t block the gas in your lungs) or kick a bit more upwards.

If you ascent by inflating, you must be ready to dump a bit and regularly as you ascend. If you choose to initiate ascent by adding gas then do it by tapping and adding really a tiny bit of gas and wait.

As soon as you ascend your BCD will become more buoyant accelerating the ascent.

 

[Duke Dive Medicine]

Some context - I went solo shore diving at midnight with little overall experience (less than 10 total dives logged) and no redundant air source. Yes, I know how bad that sounds but it went fairly well overall. I know just the first sentence alone is enough to merit my username but I did take precautions to make sure I was reasonably safe.

I researched the site I planned to dive and it was incredibly shallow, going from around 10ft-25ft in depth. After that, I was told that there'd be a steep drop off to 60 feet. I planned to just descend early and swim out to the drop off then back so that at any point if I somehow did panic or had an emergency I could surface immediately without any big issues.

During the dive, I reached the drop off point and decided to swim along the edge before heading back, but the drop off was visually much less steep than I expected so unbeknownst to me, I was descending much faster than I thought. When I checked my gauges again, I was already almost at 50ft. I didn't completely panic but I did make the poor decision of immediately inflating my BCD a bit (didn't fully inflate but I did hold the inflate down for a solid second or so). I began to ascend a bit too quickly and I immediately realized my mistake so I deflated a bit but only enough to slow the ascent. The visibility was poor and it was night so I didn't have much to judge my ascent rate once I lost site of the bottom. I surfaced soon after and although I'm a bit hazy on how long the ascent took, I didn't feel like it was particularly fast, definitely not shooting to the surface at least, but it was much faster than I would have liked.

I made a second bad decision and instead of swimming on the surface back to shore, I decided to descend back down to around 20 ft and swim back to shore underwater. Upon surfacing and reaching the surf zone I immediately felt a little nauseous but I attributed that to my general motion sickness and the 3 feet swells. However, I'm now slightly concerned about DCS since I've also been a bit itchy and now have a bit of back pain although the nausea is mostly gone now. It's been a couple hours since I finished the dive.

I know I'm most likely overreacting and the best advice would for me to learn some common sense and not put myself in positions like this to begin with, but I'm just wondering how likely it is for me to have minor DCS and if so, if it's necessary for me to seek treatment. Thanks in advance!

Hi @darwinaward ,

First, please do not beat yourself up. Sometimes we don't know what we're up against until we actually run up against it. It takes a lot of courage to post something like this on the internet. It does sound like you made an effort to plan the dive, including considering some emergencies, so kudos for the safety mindset. I'm very glad to have read the constructive comments on buoyancy control above, and I hope that you can use the feedback and incorporate it into your diving practice.

A rapid ascent in the setting of a provocative dive (one that is more likely to produce symptoms of decompression sickness), could have resulted in DCS. I wouldn't call a dive to 25-ish feet with a short excursion to 50 provocative though. So, if you were to suffer a diving injury from a rapid ascent, it would have more likely been a pulmonary barotrauma, which would have resulted in much more noticeable symptoms.

For what it's worth, having personally dove in large swells, if they really were at three feet, swimming back to shore under water was probably a better decision than fighting them on the way in.

Have your symptoms resolved since posting this? If not, you can PM me your location and I'll try to direct you to someone who can evaluate you.

Best regards,
DDM

 

[scrane]

Hi @darwinaward ,

First, please do not beat yourself up.

What?
A guy with 10 dives under his belt diving solo in the middle of the night?
This must be the kinder, gentler ScubaBoard.

 

[Duke Dive Medicine]

What?
A guy with 10 dives under his belt diving solo in the middle of the night?
This must be the kinder, gentler ScubaBoard.

Or, a recognition that flogging someone rarely leads to actual learning or behavior change. And, maybe a desire for dialogue on what risk mitigation looks like to new divers, and an opportunity for education and growth? Does that make me idealistic?

 

[scrane]

“Yes, I know how bad that sounds but it went fairly well overall.” : OP.