my near drowning

[Scubydoo713]

Because she didn't express distress until after inflating her BCD and starting her ascent:



I'm not saying she did anything wrong, just noticed that the first thing she did once she decided to head up was inflate her BCD. I understand there are situations that call for that, and this certainly could have been one.

My question was more out of curiosity about how others had been trained to ascend. I'm not throwing stones.

I apologize if I sounded like I was questioning you. You were right about her ascending first and then realizing that she was breathing water. I read it too fast and assumed that she hit the up button after breathing water.

She mentioned that her mask was leaking and she tightened the strap. It's possible that she had some hair, or part of her hood (if she was wearing one) caught in the seal that caused the leak to start. By tightening the strap, she may have made it worse, since quite often overtightening a mask strap will distort the seal and cause it to leak. A leaking mask is, IMO something that should be addressed immediately, rather than ignored because it takes your attention away from the dive and can lead to the snowball effect, where 1 little annoying thing leads to another and the next thing you know... dive emergency!

 

[TheRedHead]

She's had 70 dives in almost 6 years which says she is an infrequent diver. That is the highest risk category for having an accident. It seems to me a simple matter of rusty skills and doing the scuba tune-up before diving would have prevented this incident.

 

[BIGG_BUDD]

I apologize if I sounded like I was questioning you. You were right about her ascending first and then realizing that she was breathing water. I read it too fast and assumed that she hit the up button after breathing water.

No worries amigo.

 

[Doubles]

She's had 70 dives in almost 6 years which says she is an infrequent diver. That is the highest risk category for having an accident. It seems to me a simple matter of rusty skills and doing the scuba tune-up before diving would have prevented this incident.

Spot on! 10 or 11 dives a year won't keep your skills honed. And if there were only a few dives in the first year, it would be even worse as those skills were really mastered.

Glad it all turned out well and even happier that she went back for training and got right back into diving.

I know divers who dive this infrequently and none of them ever take a tune-up class. Would be an interesting survey to conduct amongst divers, how often do you dive in a year, how often due to you take refersher classes?

Cheers

 

[H2Andy]

She's had 70 dives in almost 6 years which says she is an infrequent diver. That is the highest risk category for having an accident.

just can't be said enough

 

[ShoalDiverSA]

The part of the story that I can identify with is that her buddy was not aware of what was happening with her. I have read it again and again on SB, and it is so true - the times when accidents are most likely to happen during a dive are the descent and the ascent from and to the surface. And this is the time that the (dare I say it) majority of buddy pairs are split up.

I used to be a "meet you at the bottom" buddy to my wife and insta-buddies. Some comments from my fellow SB'ers about one of my dive reports made me realise the dangers of this practice. Now, my wife and I get together at the back of the boat, signal each other, then descend. I hang at about 5m and watch her to make sure that she is equalising OK (struggles sometimes). Once she signals that her ears are OK, we descend further, face-to-face. We got to the reef 4 minutes into the dive on our last dive. Sure, this may not be the most ideal way to do things in a roaring current, for example. But it beats abandoning your buddy at the times when the buddy system is most likely to be needed.

[I am not saying that the OP's buddy abandoned her. I am just observing something she said and echoing my experiences as a buddy.]

Cheers,

Andrew

 

[spectrum]

-You mentioned inflating your BC before ascending, is that what you meant or did you surface and then inflate?

She probably did need to give it a good shot of air. Remember that she was dropping down at this point. So she should have been truly negaive in buoyancy.

When were diving at some depth adding neutral a little extra lung volume and maybe an upward kick will initiate a ascent thanks to Boyles law. We subsequently vent to control the ascent.

I'm happy to hear that all of the responders were there to make for a good outcome.

I'll echo what TheRedHead said and urge leeawinters to become a frequent local diver. With an Orlando location it would be a shame not to do so.

And leeawinters, congratulation on planning and completeing a logical and safe return to diving.

Pete

 

[leeawinters]

I think I breathed in thru my nose and then spit the reg ( a huge mistake on my part) the DM said when I broke the water, he saw me even before I signalled for help that my reg was not in my mouth

 

[leeawinters]

Quiescence at MM 103 Top flight dive shop, and max 6 divers on boats. That's also where we went back to refresh and dive for LAbor Day.

 

[leeawinters]

That's exactly what we worked on this trip. HAd 1:1 with DM and then he went with me on afternoon dive.