Lessons Most frightening moments

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After seeing how the post I wrote about the reverse block resonated with people, I would like to make another post today, namely about the most frightening moments I've ever had.

It's easy, particularly for novice divers, to think that people like myself, with decades of experience, thousands of dives and a deck of c-cards have everything under control and nothing bad ever happens.

I wrote about the reverse block because of that. I wanted to show that I am still human and I can still make mistakes. On the internet there is a strong tendency for (technical) divers and instructors with a lot of experience to project an image of themselves as always solving problems correctly, always making the best decisions, and in the case of instructors in particular, having a monopoly on good ideas that lead to perfect students diving perfectly.

None of that, of course, reflects reality at all.

So I will start. I urge experienced divers to share their own stories.

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First
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1985. I was certified as AOW and we were making a deep dive along a wall. The bottom, for all intents and purposes, at the bottom of the wall was unsurvivable. A diver who diving with a group slightly ahead of us got caught in a large ball of discarded fishing line that he didn't see. He started sinking. The incident started at 42 meters. My buddy and I had just started our dive and we saw this happening. Nobody in his group did. We went after him. This was the first time I had dived deeper than 42 meters. I couldn't tell how deep we were when we caught him because the (analogue) depth gauge I was using was pinned at its maximum depth. This was also my first deco dive or at least my first dive where I was "off the tables" and unable to to know how to ascend. I was, at that time, unaware of oxygen toxicity, gas management and ascent protocols. We returned (at a rapid pace) to 30ft. (10m) and waited there until our tanks were empty on the assumption that any damage done by our deep incursion would be fixed by that. Upon surfacing we didn't know if we were going to get the bends or not. I was, frankly, scared. It still gives me the heebiejeebies to think about this incident more than 30 years later. We did something there that was completely out of control (also the rescue) and we got off easy.

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Second
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2002, I think. I was working as a DM. We temporarily lost a diver during a dive. The situation was that we were on a platform at 25m and doing some exercises for the AOW (deep) dive. A group of divers (maybe 6) descending LANDED on us and kicked up so much silt in their attempts to slow down before impacting the bottom that the visibility went from 5m to black-out in a matter of seconds. I grabbed the two divers right in front of me and dragged them out of the silt cloud. One of them turned out to be our diver and the other one turned out to be one of the idiots who landed on us. We were missing a diver. We surfaced. Naturally our divers were told to surface if they became separated but this diver did not. He remained where he was and waited to be rescued. On the surface we decided that I would search for the missing diver because I had the most experience of everyone (including the instructor). At that point I was a DM but I was already technically trained. I had very limited time. I went back down and eventually found him but it was luck. He survived and my beard got grayer overnight. If I couldn't have found him in the next 5 min his death would have been on my conscience until I died. This was so frightening to me that I nearly abandoned all plans I had to become an instructor.

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Third
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The accident. My team saved the life of a diver who ran out of air during an AOW training dive (by another group, not mine) and was left for dead on the bottom at 18m. We acted quickly and professionally and got him into the hands of paramedics within about 10 min. As an aside, the fact that the Dutch paramedics were able to be on scene so quickly was no small part of this! He looked dead when we retrieved him. He lay in coma for several weeks after the incident. Doctors had basically written him off when -- unexpectedly to all -- he woke up and subsequently made a reasonable (albeit not full) recovery.

The impact on myself and on the members of my team was substantial, particularly because of what we viewed as our 'mistakes'. One diver (the DM) stopped diving. He started hyperventilating during the descent to find the "body" and after that he started to hyperventilate on EVERY dive. He stopped diving.

To me it changed EVERYTHING about how I view training and my role as an instructor. I didn't organize things on the surface as well as I could have, if I had had a second run at it. Yes, I had the EMS on site in 10 min. Police, paramedics, trauma doctor, helicopter, fire department with a boat, a private boat.... all of that I had..... but I was overwhelmed and not communicating as well as I could.

Someone tried to chase my (uncertified) OW students into the water to go search. He didn't know that they were uncertified and I ripped him a new one in a way that I regret, giving in to the emotion. An NOB (CMAS) instructor showed me by example how to control the dive site in a way I had never learned, I missed seeing a diver (the DM who caused the accident) displaying passive panic. It only became apparent to me when they had to take him away by ambulance when he collapsed.... it was MUCH more messy scene than I had ever imagined and I was not in control as well as I would expect from myself. At one point, once the EMS had control of the surface situation I grabbed another diver (a DM) and went searching myself. This was a mistake. I can't get over the mind set that drove me to ACT when I SHOULD have been coordinating! I'm like the guy who charges into a burning building because I can't fight the urge to DO SOMETHING! I HATE that about myself.

Since that time (it's been years) I've been replaying that event in my mind and thinking, "if I had only done XXXX then YYYY". It drives me CRAZY to think that if we were sharper we could have found him 30 seconds or a minute earlier and his recovery could have been better. The fact that he survived is utterly astounding. These things never end like that.... but I feel responsible for the fact that it took so long.

This was a formative moment in my diving. I considered stopping as well but eventually decided not not to. To this day I cannot -- and will not -- teach or participate in the Rescue course, even though I may be the one instructor in my circle who is most qualified to talk about the differences between theory and practice. It's just too intimidating.
 
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Fyi, that's the sign for 50 bar in CMAS.
Nope, that's the CMAS sign for "danger".
50 bar is an open hand showing five fingers.
A clenched fist bumping against your head is "low on air", whatever the corresponding pressure is.
 
Nope, that's the CMAS sign for "danger".
50 bar is an open hand showing five fingers.
A clenched fist bumping against your head is "low on air", whatever the corresponding pressure is.
Does CMAS has an official reference for hand signals?
 
Nope, that's the CMAS sign for "danger".
50 bar is an open hand showing five fingers.
A clenched fist bumping against your head is "low on air", whatever the corresponding pressure is.
That's weird. I got my cmas certs in the Netherlands and we definitely use fist to signal 50 bar. Apparently France is different?
 
That's weird. I got my cmas certs in the Netherlands and we definitely use fist to signal 50 bar. Apparently France is different?
I was wondering if CMAS has no official definition for some hand signals.

Then it would be up to the instructor or divers to agree on the signals.

This is why I asked if we have an official CMAS source for hand signals.
 
This event happened early on in my teaching career.

It was day 2 of an O/W course and we were spending the day on a charter boat. The plan was to venture to a distant site for dive 1, then stop at another site on the return leg of the trip.

I was blessed that day to have several DM's to assist with the class. One of them was a young Lad who was a very competent & experienced diver. He approached me & asked if the boat could make a stop at another wreck en route, where the DM's could make a quick, :20 dive, as 3 of the DM's had never seen the wreck. I told him that shouldn't be a problem but added the student group would make the decision, as it was their charter. The class unanimously agreed to the request.

The divers for this jump numbered 5, as the DM who made the request was going to take his girlfriend with him.
I didn't know the young Lady, so I asked him if she was experienced enough to make the dive. He assured me she was, as they had made several 100'+ dives in recent weeks, in Florida.

En route to this wreck, I noticed the girlfriend seemed a bit quiet and pensive, so I plunked down beside her and we talked about the forth-coming dive. She assured me she was fine and was excited to see the wreck, but I still had reservations and my spidey-senses were tingling. I again spoke to her DM boyfriend and expressed my reservations to him about his girlfriends readiness to make the dive. He was effusive in his praise for her skills and a re-assured me she was good to go; so, despite my reservations, I allowed her to make the dive based on my confidence in this young man's abilities & judgement.

We arrived the wreck site, tied off and the group entered the water. I noted the time of their decent, then gathered my students together for a briefing of their next dive. Perhaps :5 had elapsed when I heard the most blood-curdling screaming I'd ever experienced. I looked out onto the water to see my DM's girlfriend floating face-up on the surface, drysuit super-inflated and her screaming / crying non-stop. My first thought was: "If she' can scream, her lungs are intact"; the Captain of the vessel grabbed a life-ring and was preparing to throw it when the DM/boyfriend popped up near his girlfriend. He signalled for help, the ring was tossed and we quickly brought them on-board.

As I am a Diver-Medic, I quickly assessed her. Other than being scared half-to-death, she had no medical complaints to speak of. As a pre-caution and to help settle her nerves, I put her on O2. I had the Captain radio for a boat to come out & take the young Lady to a clinic for evaluation by a physician. I took copious notes and did several vitals analysis while we waited for the boat to arrive. She was soon on her way to shore and I turned my somewhat consternated attention to her boyfriend.

Turns out this young man wanted to show his buddies how 'cool' it was to de-fin on the wreck & "run around on top of the ship's railing", something he had done previously on this wreck. When they reached the main deck ( about 55' ), he led the group off at a quick pace to "show them how it was done". The girlfriend related to me she started to panic when the group started moving away at a quick pace and she was falling behind. Her panic then escalated very quickly & she started a mad-dash for the surface, in open water.

The boyfriend looked back for her in time to see her scrambling for the surface, so he set off after her. Then ensued a 'battle royal' between them - she rejecting her mask, scratching & clawing, rejecting her regulator - him replacing it with his second, all the while trying to control her rate of ascent & insure she didn't hold her breath - a nightmare scenario by anyone's standard. To his credit, he got her to surface alive, he ashamedly admitted he was the un-witting architect of the incident. To quote Tom Cruise in the film 'Risky Business': "I !@#$-up - I trusted him."

We received word from the attending physician that his patient checked out fine and was resting comfortably. We then set off to complete the day's training, but not before I discussed the incident with the students, who were understandably upset. All agreed they were fine to carry-on & the remainder of the day passed without further incident.

So...I swore that day to NEVER AGAIN allow myself to put my intuitive thoughts aside based on my perceived confidence in another person's judgement. We were very fortunate that day, as things could have been much, much worse.

DSD
 

Selected for the ScubaBoard Knowledge Base.

This thread was selected for the ScubaBoard Knowledge Base on 26 September 2021. Special rules discouraging off-topic and counterproductive replies apply after this date. A link was left in the original forum
Don't be confused if you suddenly find yourself in the Knowledge Base forum.

 
I studied a fair bit of first aid and safety in Boy Scout waterfront work. The teachers always said, "Maybe one person in 10 gives a damn about safety." (I would expect the percentage is quite a bit higher among divers and especially among participants in this site.)
 
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