Mental Illness and Scuba

[ScubaDoo67]

I want to thank everyone for their kind words and support. I realize in retrospect that overexertion was probably a contributing factor, and that I acted appropriately in calling the dive.

As a result, I'm going to give myself a little pat on the back for doing the right thing, and I'm going to get back in the water as soon as I can.

 

[lulubelle]

Scuba Doo,

You did the right thing in the situation you were in. Well done.

One thing that I didn't see anyone else comment on was whether or not you shared the essential information with your buddy. If ANY medical condition can affect your diving, in my opinion, your buddy should know about it, and perhaps even the DM. Having that information can help your buddy have a better idea of what is going on if you get into some trouble underwater. I learned after the fact of a pretty serious cardiac history in a buddy I dove with once. It would have been helpful to know that should he have had trouble underwater.

With that being said...this particular instabuddy was probably not going to be a good buddy no matter what you shared with him. I vastly prefer regular buddies so that I know what I am getting and vice versa.

 

[idocsteve]

At that point, I terminated my dive. Insta-buddy continued on without me (I did not think this was a good idea, but the operator allowed it, and it was not my place to stop him, of course).

Please explain the following, because it doesn't make sense to me.

You and the instabuddy dude swam out to the buoy. You hung there a few minutes, and decided to call the dive at which point the instabuddy dude who was newly certified with admittedly poor skills, dove SOLO. You go further and say the "operator allowed it". Exactly how did you communicate with the dive op (and get the ok) that you were returning to the boat and the instabuddy would dive solo without the proper training and experience?

 

[ScubaDoo67]

Please explain the following, because it doesn't make sense to me.

You and the instabuddy dude swam out to the buoy. You hung there a few minutes, and decided to call the dive at which point the instabuddy dude who was newly certified with admittedly poor skills, dove SOLO. You go further and say the "operator allowed it". Exactly how did you communicate with the dive op (and get the ok) that you were returning to the boat and the instabuddy would dive solo without the proper training and experience?

After re-reading what I wrote, it was a bit unclear. I was trying to not include too many details that I thought were not relevant to the question.

The boat was tied off bow-first to the buoy that the descent was to be made from. The operator/captain was on the bow of the boat and observed the whole thing. I told the operator that I was scrubbing the dive, he asked if I needed assistance, I said no, I can make it back on board. He told me to return to the stern where a crewman would assist me. I drifted with the current, swimming only to adjust my course and got back on board without incident.

I don't know what words were exchanged between the operator and instabuddy, so perhaps saying the operator "allowed it" is supposition. A 7mm hood makes it a little difficult to hear.

 

[idocsteve]

I don't know what words were exchanged between the operator and instabuddy, so perhaps saying the operator "allowed it" is supposition. A 7mm hood makes it a little difficult to hear.

Ok thanks for filling me in on that.

Seems unusual that a dive op would allow a non-solo certified diver, especially a new one with "poor skills" to continue a dive solo.

A heck of a lot of liability right there.

 

[ScubaDoo67]

Ok thanks for filling me in on that.

Seems unusual that a dive op would allow a non-solo certified diver, especially a new one with "poor skills" to continue a dive solo.

A heck of a lot of liability right there.

No doubt about that.

 

[pasley]

At the risk of threadjacking my own thread...

As a veteran (US Army, 1987-1993), I want to thank you for what you're doing for disabled veterans. What you're doing is important and meaningful work, and I am sure is assisting those you work with to live full and satisfying lives.

Thank you. My current class started with 3 Quadraplegic veterans, 1 double above the knee amputee veteran and 5 TBI/PTSD/Poly-trauma Iraq veterans. It is very rewarding and helps me as much as it helps them (US Army/Army Reserve 1972-2008. Iraq 2006-2007).

Now back to the program. [Rant On]Snorkels, an essential piece of safety equipment. That extra 14 inches of dead air space adds to your CO2 loading on the surface, particularly if you are swimming against a current. So I don't know in you snorkeled or not, but I try to keep the snorkeling to casual snorkeling on surface in easy conditions[/Rant Off].

Exertion and Co2 loading could have contributed to the situation in which you already had well founded reservations before you left the boat. Bottom line, you made the right call for you in the situation. So look forward to the next dive and leave this one behind. Enjoy the diving.

 

[ScubaDoo67]

Scuba Doo,

You did the right thing in the situation you were in. Well done.

One thing that I didn't see anyone else comment on was whether or not you shared the essential information with your buddy. If ANY medical condition can affect your diving, in my opinion, your buddy should know about it, and perhaps even the DM. Having that information can help your buddy have a better idea of what is going on if you get into some trouble underwater. I learned after the fact of a pretty serious cardiac history in a buddy I dove with once. It would have been helpful to know that should he have had trouble underwater.

With that being said...this particular instabuddy was probably not going to be a good buddy no matter what you shared with him. I vastly prefer regular buddies so that I know what I am getting and vice versa.

I agree with what you say about this particular instabuddy. It was my opinion that I was going to essentially be diving solo and that I would be there to assist him, but not vice-versa. My intended dive profile and gas plan were very conservative.

No, I did not share information on my condition with this particular buddy. I see the benefit of doing so. However, that's a bit of a sensitive subject. There's a lot of stigma associated with mental illness, and a lot of misunderstanding about bipolar disorder in particular. I'm cautious about whom I share that information with. So it's a delicate subject, and I'm not quite sure how to approach it.

 

[ScubaDoo67]

Now back to the program. [Rant On]Snorkels, an essential piece of safety equipment. That extra 14 inches of dead air space adds to your CO2 loading on the surface, particularly if you are swimming against a current. So I don't know in you snorkeled or not, but I try to keep the snorkeling to casual snorkeling on surface in easy conditions[/Rant Off].

Exertion and Co2 loading could have contributed to the situation in which you already had well founded reservations before you left the boat. Bottom line, you made the right call for you in the situation. So look forward to the next dive and leave this one behind. Enjoy the diving.

Though I hate snorkels in scuba, I have a snorkel on me at all times, but generally only use it for easy swimming situations. I *love* snorkeling, just without the ~100 lbs of scuba gear, and without the against-the-current swimming. ;-)

I do surface swims either on my back (which I find quite tiring), or more typically on a face-down horizontal attitude using the my regulator. In this particular case, I was swimming on my back. The level of exertion for this particular swim as well as my non-optimal finning technique (too rapid and too shallow) almost certainly was a contributing factor. Pretty easy to realize this in hindsight, of course.

I'm going to be back in the water for my Deep Diver specialty class this weekend and I'll concentrate on proper surface breathing and swimming techniques to try and minimize the exertion and CO2 loading. In addition, I'm going to get out and do some swimming exercise in full scuba to develop better endurance and better surface swimming technique.

 

[idocsteve]

Though I hate snorkels in scuba, I have a snorkel on me at all times, but generally only use it for easy swimming situations..

Consider a folding snorkel. I keep one in my BCD most of the time, it's really easy to pop it out of it's holder and slide it into the round clip that I keep on my mask. The only problem I have found with it is that it tends to droop slightly and I need to tip my head a bit further down into the water and/or hold it upright with my hand while snorkeling. But it sure beats having a snorkel hanging from my mask on every dive.