My first underwater emergency

[Blitz]

Glad that it worked out for you, Lynne. Experience is only gained after you need it, I would say that you did quite well for the situation that you were in.

....as I keep chanting my mantra..... I love my doubles, I love my doubles.

 

[TSandM]

Yeah, well, one of the thoughts that went through my turbocharged brain while all this was going on was, "If I were in doubles, I'd only need to shut down the offending post . . ."

 

[Doc Intrepid]

...well Lynne, at least now you know why you want to eventually be able to shut down your left post! See? Look hard enough? Silver linings! LOL

Good job. Hope you get the reg issues resolved. I think you should talk Peter into sacrificing your Suunto Cobra under a full moon, and then wrapping it and burning it in an old BC while you walk around it three times and chant deco schedules! It drives out the evil spirits...

 

[Blitz]

Don't put the cart before the horse. Think of it this way: handling an air supply emergency with one tank well is a good way to build knoweldge, experience and confidence for doing so with two.

 

[TSandM]

Well, you know, this wasn't particularly FUN, but it was just about as close to a dry run as you can get in a real problem. We were shallow, I had two attentive buddies close by, and we all knew each other and I had confidence in both of them. It really was an excellent learning experience, and I will be the better for having been through it.

But I'll tell you, having something like this happen brings home that what we do has risks, and having the right people in the water with you makes all the difference.

 

[Doc Intrepid]

actually that isn't a bad lesson learn this way...much better than learning it more traumatically!

 

[HBDiveGirl]

Thanks for the you-are-there report!

You described perfectly that amazing combination of "uh-Oh", and "I'm OK but I don't like this", and "I'm not doing great, but I'm holding on and not panicking, because my teammates are doing the right thing."

During my fundies class, I was given the opportunity to learn how disconcerting it is to manage a problem while hearing and feeling LOUD bubbles rushing from the base of my primary hose next to the first stage. My instructor had so perfectly simulated a hose cracking during my two tugs deploying the long hose, that I "fell" for it completely. I remember thinking, "Oh, great, my hose cracks during Fundies class... how perfect is this? At least I'm surrounded by awesome teammates."

It was really, really very hard to concentrate with all that noise.... being caused by an air gun activated out of sight, just behind my right ear. Good one, Maestro!

I hope I learned well, and that I might someday stay as rational as you did in the event of a situation like the one you so effectively described.

Thank you for taking us all along on your learning experience. I'm so glad all of you are safe.

Claudette

 

[Snowbear]

(except turning off my valve, which I can't do yet).

"If I were in doubles, I'd only need to shut down the offending post . . ."

Still gotta be able to actually REACH it

From what Steve said, you did very well. And listening to the other stuff he was telling you, it sounds like you'll have no trouble passing when you do your re-eval

 

[Darnold9999]

Amazing how fast the air comes out!!! Having that much air blowing by your face as you were trying to ascend sure would have distracted me. Wouldn't be too hard on yoursef for that.

I tend to dive with people I don't normally dive with (solo trips out of town etc) so this has got me thinking. I need to be a bit more self reliant.

For all of those who say "you should never run out of gas" here is a real life OOA situation that while handled well could easily have been a lot more difficult to resolve with another set of dive partners.

Thanks for shareing

 

[tjc]

It's the way that you respond to (and prevent the preventable) "emergencies" that help determine what kind of diver you are. Just consider this a great experience.
I had the same problem on an ice dive. But we were taught that a free-flow is not an emergency (so they don't deploy the rescue diver) and that we should breathe from the flowing reg so not to waste any air. So I eventually made it back to the hole, where they poured hot water on my first stage (as that was the problem). I was glad that it happened cause I got some great real scenario training. So make sure that when your reg gets checked out they look at the first stage too.