Near miss at 90 foot.

[getwet2]

Now lets go for some depth ! At this point I'm down here and I didn't come here for nothing, I want a big number to put in my log. (See #2 above) I knew time was short and I had burned a little more air than I thought I would, but I was ok, lets just hurry and get some depth. (working harder=on gassing faster) I pushed past the 70' mark extatic about my new record I was setting and didn't think to pay attention to my air guage. My buddy noticed this a fue min later and grabed me. Looked at my computer and gave me the thumbs up. No problem, I was happy as a clam, overjoyed, ect... at the new record I had just set. Now remember the on gassing ??? I was so happy because I was NARCED !!! But I didn't realize it...

Getwet2...
I don't think looking at my guages would have helped the problem of having the flow valve turned down on the mask. The panic was from actually suficating in the mask due to a greatly reduced flow of air fromt the second stage. Knowing i had 900# wouldn't have made the reg breath easyer, opening the valve would would have helped the panic. Due to the hypoxia I was not able to think clearly enough to think of that.

I guess I misunderstood, but from the way I read the first paragraph above, that I quoted from your original post, you made it sound like the whole mess started because you didn't check your guages and your buddy called the dive because you were getting low on air. You started to ascend, incountered a problem that could have been solved in a number of ways but mainly by just switching to your octopus.

I have to disagree with you when you say that knowing your air pressure would not have made a difference, knowing how much gas you have left is pretty much the most important thing you need to know when you dive.

If you had looked at your guages and seen that you had 900+lbs left in your tank that might have forced you into realizing that there was a problem with your new mask and that in turn might have been enough to make you either switch to your octopus or turn the valve on the mask. Panic doesn't just all of a sudden happen it's caused by a number of little things strung together.

Sorry for the confusion.

 

[Tigerman]

OR, seeing he had 900+ lbs left coulda made him think "damn, the gauge is screwed too"...

 

[daniel f aleman]

Gas management issuses here amongst the eight or nine other mistakes made - having 900# of air (guage noted) at any point of the dive is a no-no.

 

[getwet2]

OR, seeing he had 900+ lbs left coulda made him think "damn, the gauge is screwed too"...

Yes it might have but then that would come back to the point of sticking with his buddy.

 

[getwet2]

Gas management issuses here amongst the eight or nine other mistakes made - having 900# of air (guage noted) at any point of the dive is a no-no.

Even on the surface?

 

[timle]

He said he surfaced with 900 PSI - How much would you reserve for the safety stop? - the only thing he skipped was the safety stop.

If this was an 80 cu ft @ 3000 PSI - thats almost 1/3 in reserve at the end of the dive. I don't know about you but 900 psi on an 80 at 15 feet will last me a long time.

 

[all4scuba05]

To the OP...after reading all your posts twice, I advise you to make believe you are not Deep certified. Take the deep specialty again with a better instructor. You're confused on some issues about deep diving...

It wasn't narcosis that caused all this. It was panic. Going on that dive not feeling good about it is a good way to end up in panic when something small happens. If you ever fear a dive, don't do it.

From what I read here, I dare to say that you need to take diving real slow...I mean reeeaaallll slow. I wish you luck and hope to never read about you in the condolences thread.

 

[cmalinowski]

...Not realizing I was almost hyperventilating (nerves=on gassing fast)...

...lets just hurry and get some depth. (working harder=on gassing faster)...

...Now remember the on gassing ???...

...I had to stop several times to draw hard on the reg a fue times just to get a little air (working harder= Still on gassing) ...

I am curious as to what you mean by "on-gassing". Most people I know associate the term with nitrogen-loading (or helium-loading or any other 'inert gas'-loading). One's respitory rate does not affect that. "On-gassing" is a function of time and pressure, not volume.

Just curious if you understood that or were possibly mixing terms and you meant something else.

Chris

 

[james croft]

I am not a big fan of Ocean Reef FFM. Do a search on their inherent problems. You experienced why the mask is not used by the professional divers. Sell it on EBay.

I also agree there was no narcosis at the surface. I have been on dives where I was a little freaked out and often people in this situation get tunnel vision or panicky. You will not be narced on the surface. CO2 may be a culprit. If I was your buddy I may or may not have blown off the safety stop, depending on the variables. Do I know you were having a problem ? Can I keep an eye on you when you made it to the surface and I am below you?

Just because you know your buddy made it to the surface does not mean he is OK. The vast majority of the emergencies I have had to deal with were with divers on the surface having problems. Depending on the proximity and visibility of your buddy it may have been OK to make the safety stop but if he knew you were distressed he should have stuck with you. It is not clear to me whether he should have known of your distress or not but if he knew you had a problem he may have felt he could keep a close check on you from below. I am reluctant to second guess him.

I guess I have made more dives w/o a safety stop than with a safety stop. I have been diving for about 40 years and clearly remember in the late 80's coming up an anchor line and encountering a mob of divers hanging at 15'. I did not know what the hell was going on. I later learned what a safety stop was all about. But I feel that the safety stop can be eliminated when you need to get to the surface. IMHO, there are thousands of divers that never heard of a safety stop and have never experienced DCS by not making a safety stop. I dive with folks who religiously stop at 15' even though they have been diving no deeper than 30 feet and burned only 40 cubic feet of air. Totally unneccessary but it seems like a religion to them. This stuff ain't voodoo, it's physics.

I would forego the safety stop to help a diver with an emergency in almost any situation.

 

[Gombessa]

To the OP: I'm glad you made it out OK, that you critically assessed what happened, and that you continued to dive but with a conscious effort to understand and eliminate the dangerous factors that caused your problems. I doubt anyone here can say they've been faultless in their risk tolerance while diving, and I can only hope we all appreciate and approach our problems like it seems you've done.

Dive safe!