Major Freak Out - What should I have done differently?

[scoobajay]

Dirty-Dog. I knew exactly how much air I was carrying and what the mix was, I just don't know tank lingo and sizes - Sorry I also know that my air consumption is usually incredibly efficient. We decided as a group that if anyone had less than 10 minutes of no deco time, we would ascend to a much shallower depth to avoid deco. The plan was that we would not go into deco, we were just heavily encouraged to constantly be aware (which I always am anyway)

Just to clarify, I'm not uncomfortable with swimthroughs in the slightest. I AM uncomfortable in pitch black, enclosed spaces where there is no visible exit and this has never been my experience on any other swimthrough. Now that I know some people equate this with any ole swim through, I'll be sure to alert the DM that I'm not comfortable with it. Looking back, I did know there was a possibility for some low light areas and maybe some longer tunnels, but it didn't occur to me that I would panic in that situation.

I do think it's important to understand that panic can happen to anyone at any time..Most of us know what situations might potentially trigger panic for us, but sometimes, there's no warning. I've spoken to divers with thousands of dives who have still experienced panic under water.

I guess my point is, it might be impossible to always know your limits. Sometimes a situation occurs that very clearly defines them for you!!!

 

[AdivingBel]

IMHO a dsmb is more of a hazard than a benefit if you are not trained and practice regularly. I've seen folks in Coz wad themselves up completely unnecessarily trying to shoot one untrained. The DMs at the OPs I dive with are more than happy to shoot a bag whenever necessary. I wouldn't dive in a mud puddle without a smb (surface deployed) and a light. If you get separated in Coz, look and listen before you surface, then deploy your surface smb ASAP. If your boat isn't in sight, another one will be and most of these guys know each other. You shouldn't have a hard time getting back to your boat. Many OPs include their radio monitoring channel in the briefing for just such situations. To the original poster: good job keeping your head, but get to the surface after your quick buddy search and sort it out later. As one of the earlier posters mentioned, you were probably more at risk hunting around solo at depth with out redundancy than at any other time during the dive and certainly more at risk than at the surface.

 

[Macan]

I'm not familiar with Coz or the diving practices there. My question is, how is it that Dive Shops and DMs at Coz, allow OW and AOW divers to dive sites like DT since this is beyond the Diver's training and certification limits?

From what I understand, and I may be wrong, DT is a "Cave" dive -- exceeding even Cavern limits. See post #25 for max standards. If these are 5 Star PADI shops, why are they not being reported to PADI or to the agency that the DM or Shop belong to.

 

[scoobajay]

You're right, surfacing was the right thing to do. While I was down there panicking, I had this strong feeling that bolting to the surface was the "panicked" thing to do. For some reason, I kept telling myself, "you're fine, you have air, just wait for them to come back out". In the back of mind, I was also thinking, we are at the very South Point of the Island where currents are strong. I also remember no boats in sight - It's the low season in Coz and this is a rare spot for ops to take cruise ship passengers! I was picturing myself as the stupid panicked diver who surfaced without an SMB and got lost at sea!!

You all have helped me establish I SHOULD HAVE HAD AN SMB. Trust me, it's the next thing I'm buying

Thanks SB

 

[AdivingBel]

Not a bolt, but a safe controlled ascent with plenty of air is the ticket. Just like "no crying in baseball," "no ego in diving." Getting to the unlimited air supply (surface) in a controlled fashion when the s*** hits the fan is part of thumbing the dive at anytime. That's part of the safety in rec NDL diving. IMHO, floating off the end of the island with or without an SMB is still better than underwater in a panic or near panic situation. If a Disney cruise picks you up, enjoy the ride and say hi to Mickey.

 

[Storker]

You all have helped me establish I SHOULD HAVE HAD AN SMB. Trust me, it's the next thing I'm buying

I'm not trying to tell you what to buy, but at least consider a dSMB with a spool and a double-ender. And practice shooting it. It ain't rocket science. Watch a couple of the many good videos on YouTube and practice on a few dives once in a while.

A noticeable chunk of my diving is from my own boat, with the wife serving as the boat tender. She really appreciates us shooting the sausage when we're on our safety stop, both because she gets a heads-up that we're fine before we actually surface, and because it's a lot easier to spot a meter-high orange phallus sticking out of the water than spotting two small, round, black heads in the surface. Since I have a dSMB, I bring it on vacations as well. It doesn't take up much of my baggage allowance, and even if I haven't needed it yet on my vacation dives, it's nice to know that I have it, just in case. If you need to surface in an area where there's boat traffic, IME most boats at least try to miss that orange thingy a little bit, which means that they probably won't run right over you as you surface. Otherwise you might risk that your head and their propeller occupy the same volume of water at the same time, which definitely isn't a good thing.

The difference between an SMB and a dSMB is the overpressure valve, so a dSMB can be used as an SMB. The simplest dSMBs have an open bottom as their "overpressure valve", though, so they require some care to stay upright after you surface.

 

[scoobajay]

I'm not familiar with Coz or the diving practices there. My question is, how is it that Dive Shops and DMs at Coz, allow OW and AOW divers to dive sites like DT since this is beyond the Diver's training and certification limits?

From what I understand, and I may be wrong, DT is a "Cave" dive -- exceeding even Cavern limits. See post #25 for max standards. If these are 5 Star PADI shops, why are they not being reported to PADI or to the agency that the DM or Shop belong to.

Macan, this is where I'm really torn about the whole situation....I really don't put any blame on the dive op. It is one I know and trust. I think the DM really just felt that we were a competent group who would love the challenge of the dive. He reiterated after the accident that he never would have taken me there if he didn't think I had the skills and experience. He also asked why I didn't let him know I might be uncomfortable with this. All valid questions. I respect this DM immensely and went on to have many excellent dives with him. He had seen me do lots of swim throughs the day before and knew I had great buoyancy. I guess neither of us could have known I would go into full blown panic when confronted with that entrance.

I do wish I would have known that some places would be really tight or that I should definitely have a torch, or even "hey, right where we go in is really dark, but it opens up pretty soon after that".... But I was well aware of the inherent risk of a deep dive. That part was my responsibility to speak up on, but I felt comfortable doing it.

Also, if I had done the dive with no problem, I would never dream that the DM did anything wrong. This is the type of feedback I was looking for though...I wanted others opinions on whether dive ops should be taking people there.

 

[ScubaBros]

Things are a little looser in good ol Mexico.

 

[Dirty-Dog]

Dirty-Dog. I knew exactly how much air I was carrying and what the mix was, I just don't know tank lingo and sizes - Sorry

See, the thing is, these two statements are mutually exclusive. If you don't know the tank size, it is absolutely impossible to know how much gas you're carrying. 3000PSI in an AL80 is not the same as 3000PSI in an HP120. It is, in fact, an enormous difference, even ignoring the fact that 3000PSI is a partial fill for an HP120.

I also know that my air consumption is usually incredibly efficient. We decided as a group that if anyone had less than 10 minutes of no deco time, we would ascend to a much shallower depth to avoid deco. The plan was that we would not go into deco, we were just heavily encouraged to constantly be aware (which I always am anyway)

I think you said you were PADI trained? The PADI dive tables have an NDL of 10 minutes at 130'. So you automatically had less than 10 minutes of no deco time by the time you entered the tunnel... Admittedly, this is one area where a computer makes a big difference.

Something else I found interesting was that your group apparently entered through the lower end. In my experience, the Throat is generally entered from the top (at around 90' or so), you work your way through and out the bottom, then back up the wall to the top of the reef.
I don't think this was a factor in your experience, I just found it interesting. I believe this is customary simply because a group entering from the bottom encountering a group that entered from the top could be problematic...

 

[dshorwich]

I've done this dive three times; the first time I did it, I was at roughly the same stage of my diving career as the OP (had done ~130 dives, all warm-water). It was definitely the most advanced dive that I'd done to that point. Our dive op had given us a good idea of what to expect (props to Christi and Blue XTSea), so we all had lights, and a couple of the divers in our group decided not to make the dive in the first place.

scoobajay, I applaud you for making an excellent decision at the critical juncture of your dive, when you decided not to leave your comfort zone and turned back instead. And it sounds like you managed to hang on to your situational awareness despite being freaked out - you kept an eye on your air and didn't just go clawing for the surface (which, from that depth, could end up really badly) - so well done there, too.

On the boat were myself and two other customers (one of which was very advanced and one who had been certified OW a few days earlier but picked up on diving easily-these two were buddies and had been diving together all week).

I can't say I'm shocked to hear an op took a freshly-minted OW diver on this dive, but I will say I don't think it's a very good idea, however much of a 'natural' the newbie might be. I enjoyed my dives at the site, but it was plain to see that if something went wrong while a group was strung out single-file in a deep overhead environment things would get messy in a hurry.