Matt Spear
Registered
Hey Divers,
Just got certified last week - went way more than I should have on the first dive I know. One thing after my incident I was wondering is how long do you have when you really feel like air is out to when it's really out?
So I went out to Kaʻena Point Oahu on my Kayak with my new scuba equipment - and checking the water frequently it didn't look I was that deep - but it ended up being over 100'. I went to the bottom and quickly realized that my 3000 psi air was running out much faster than my training dives.
I had a speargun with me to try and land something for dinner. The area was baron, however, but I had a mesh experiment bag with me also. It consisted of balloons, spoons, fake rubber squid, and fishing line. Since there was nothing to shoot, I decided to try my experiment. I disarmed my speargun, and fumbled with all my items what were tangled. Well, it must have worked because a moster fish I have always dreamed of landing swam out of nowhere right in front of me. Unfortunately, my speargun was on the ground. I knew my experiment was a success.
After going to the surface (a little bit uncontrolled - I wanted to stop at 15ft but just kept going) - I realized I couldn't pull my anchor up. I only had about 600 psi left - but thought I could make a quick drop back to the bottom and pull it up. Well, I was wrong - when I got to the anchor I "pretty much" ran out of air. The reason I say pretty much is there were still very small breaths coming out. I took the anchor and starting swimming up as fast as I could, deflating my BCD as I went up from the training. I quickly realized that I should be inflating the BCD as I had no air - trying to get air but only a tiny bit of air came out. It seemed to take forever to get to the surface and I knew I messed up. My question now is when does zero air come out? How long from that first warning difficult breath to zero air (Not that I'll ever be in this situation again)? When I got to the surface, I was gasping for air, light headed and wondering if I was having an emergency I couldn't recover from.
I realize I was stupid and didn't have the experience to do what I did. I do take everything I do in life to the extreme but know I should have done a few more shallow dives. Thanks everyone.
Just got certified last week - went way more than I should have on the first dive I know. One thing after my incident I was wondering is how long do you have when you really feel like air is out to when it's really out?
So I went out to Kaʻena Point Oahu on my Kayak with my new scuba equipment - and checking the water frequently it didn't look I was that deep - but it ended up being over 100'. I went to the bottom and quickly realized that my 3000 psi air was running out much faster than my training dives.
I had a speargun with me to try and land something for dinner. The area was baron, however, but I had a mesh experiment bag with me also. It consisted of balloons, spoons, fake rubber squid, and fishing line. Since there was nothing to shoot, I decided to try my experiment. I disarmed my speargun, and fumbled with all my items what were tangled. Well, it must have worked because a moster fish I have always dreamed of landing swam out of nowhere right in front of me. Unfortunately, my speargun was on the ground. I knew my experiment was a success.
After going to the surface (a little bit uncontrolled - I wanted to stop at 15ft but just kept going) - I realized I couldn't pull my anchor up. I only had about 600 psi left - but thought I could make a quick drop back to the bottom and pull it up. Well, I was wrong - when I got to the anchor I "pretty much" ran out of air. The reason I say pretty much is there were still very small breaths coming out. I took the anchor and starting swimming up as fast as I could, deflating my BCD as I went up from the training. I quickly realized that I should be inflating the BCD as I had no air - trying to get air but only a tiny bit of air came out. It seemed to take forever to get to the surface and I knew I messed up. My question now is when does zero air come out? How long from that first warning difficult breath to zero air (Not that I'll ever be in this situation again)? When I got to the surface, I was gasping for air, light headed and wondering if I was having an emergency I couldn't recover from.
I realize I was stupid and didn't have the experience to do what I did. I do take everything I do in life to the extreme but know I should have done a few more shallow dives. Thanks everyone.