Newbie issues. What is your dive problems stats?

[Noemi]

@Colliam7, thank you very much for your reply! I didn't have a chance to dive the ocean since the last time when I had mask issues (got sick before one scheduled dive and got ear inflammation after the pool practice). The longer the break I am having, the more anxious I am about further dives.

Did get that pool practice though (a refresher course even being newly certified), and it did take away a great deal of anxiety about my skills and gear. I wanna go to the ocean soon, and I am still worried about going there with like-able buddies without the instructor, but remembering how amazing it is underwater keeps me going.

In addition to being a newbie and worrying about my skills, it's after the dive what gets me nervous as well. So many warnings about DCS everywhere (and posts here on ScubaBoard) that I keep on alarm 24-48 hours after the dive and think of every little thing as being the symptom of DCS.

I called DAN after the pool session and asked them to calm me down. I am ashamed of that. I know I am too anxious about this. I am not usually that hypochondriac, but every time after diving is the same story. Trying to remedy my fears, I got a conservative computer (Suunto) and I know that I dive well within my limits. Still nervously reading about the undeserved DCS cases online though. The only hope that this will pass with the experience, too...

 

[BreeAbyss]

I have a long story ...I have had lots of very minor issues that caused no panic or fear, like a perpetually leaky mask etc. but only one major one, it was during my 10th dive or around that number. I hate sharing this story because it is filled with stupidity. I was diving La Jolla shores during vacation soon after certification. Visibility was awesome, temperatures warm, calm water.. did a couple days of diving then was invited to do a night dive with the local club at the shores. OK I definitely should have declined but this club goes every Tuesday evening for this dive so I was like oh why not (stupid decision). The plan was to surface swim out to near the top of the canyon and descend, then swim along the top of the canyon and a bit along the wall. I did this same dive around 6 times already so I knew what to expect. Being new, I wanted to descend a bit sooner than the edge and then swim along the slope down so that we don't miss the edge and plunge into the forever deep. Everyone said no, they didn't want to waste air. Stupidly I went along with it. We surface swam forever, then we rested for a few min and started to descend, everyone below my buddy and I. Everything is perfect now, I feel great, totally calm. We get to around 50 -60 feet and neither my light or the group below me had lights hitting sand. They should have been lighting up the sand because we were only supposed to be going to 70 ft. I KNOW we went too far and were over the canyon, I signal to my buddy who was a few ft below me that I wanted to go up. I signal and start a slow controlled ascent, completely calm. My buddy grabs my fin and yanks me down to him, anxiety starts to occur, I shake my head and thumb up once again . He shakes his head and points down and keeps holding my fin. Panic starts and I start kicking to get loose of him and he won't let go , I am literally fighting him now and finally break free and start to swim up now faster than before. He swims up and catches me and forces me to do a safety stop by holding me under the water, I don't even know how he held me down, must have dumped his BC. Longest few min of my life and I've never breathed so hard in my life and I had no rational thought in my mind except to hold my reg in my mouth with my hands while I'm trying to get to the surface . All I could think about was "up" and that I was going to die. It was full blown panic and the only positive about it is that I now know what it feels like and can understand why it must be avoided and how it can have deadly consequences. Lots of lessons learned that night and I am truly lucky to be alive. If I would have spit out my reg I am sure I would be dead, especially since he was holding me under water.
Back on shore I found out everyone else had a bad dive.. went too deep and got swept far away by some deep current. They went way deeper than the plan. I learned early that experienced doesn't mean smart or good. Ugh

 

[Noemi]

@BreeAbyss, thank you for sharing! I am glad that you were fine after this dive. It does sound like it could've ended in a disaster.

Were you comfortable with your day dives at that time? How did you overcome the anxiety for later night dives after this one? I cannot imagine myself even agreeing to a night dive at this point...

 

[BreeAbyss]

@BreeAbyss, thank you for sharing! I am glad that you were fine after this dive. It does sound like it could've ended in a disaster.

Were you comfortable with your day dives at that time? How did you overcome the anxiety for later night dives after this one? I cannot imagine myself even agreeing to a night dive at this point...

I was totally comfy with the day dives, they were awesome!
Well after I cried and yelled at my buddy when we finally surfaced, it was a very long surface swim back so when we got close to shore, like 10 ft deep and our lights shone on the sand I could see leopard sharks so I wanted to go down so we did on the agreement that my buddy not touch me and I ended up having a wonderful shallow night dive with leopard sharks. Stupid to not just get out of the water, but I like to think I'm smarter now. I am never hesitant to call a dive if something feels amiss.
I love night dives now and although it wasn't the darkness that started the panic, it definitely added a whole other level. I don't think it would have been so extreme if it wasn't pitch black that's for sure.
I've never had anxiety for night dives after, but I will never do one with an insta-buddy again. They have since all been with buddies I've doce with before.

 

[BreeAbyss]

Can't edit my post but wanted to add it was stupid to agree to a night dive, big mistake. You are smart not to imagine yourself doing so

 

[Rapid Star]

BreeAbyss: I'm quite curious, what was your buddies explanation for his actions? Once you thumbed the dive he should have accompanied you back to the surface not tried to hold you down or continue the dive! Go up means just that, go up! Not I don't feel like it and I'm keeping you with me in spite of the fact that you repeatedly gave me the signal to surface.

 

[BreeAbyss]

His reasoning was crazy. He pulled me down to be at eye level with him so he could see if I was scared and could calm me down and then kept holding me so I could do safety stop. We had been in the water less than three minutes at that point so not sure why you would fight with someone to keep them at 15 ft! Afterwards he was truly surprised he was the cause of my panic. I told him I was calm until he acted like he wanted to drown me

 

[Rapid Star]

That logic makes no sense, why not simply ascend with you if he wanted to see your eyes. As long as you maintained a slow controlled ascent, that alone would be a good indication that you were not panicked. I can certainly see how his actions would cause someone to panic given what he was doing to you.

 

[Marie13]

Bree, I was wondering the same thing about the buddy holding you down. I would have given him a piece of my mind afterwards, that's to be sure!

 

[Frontpointer1000]

Melaslithos:

I get cold easily. I have three suits I wear, depending on the water temp. Full on 7 ml wetsuit, a shorty, and a lava core suit.

But this is what I love: I have two hoodies, one small, one thick and it covers my shoulders and gets tucked under my suit. Try getting a head covering, it may help.