Newly certified, 2 mistakes

[TSandM]

So there is another error that didn't come out in the original story -- you were by yourself. The combination of deliberately running your gas low AND not being within reaching distance of a buddy to donate to you is a recipe for a CESA at best, and a drowning or embolism at worst.

Diving is an amazingly safe activity, considering that it's a human being operating in an environment that is absolutely lethal without life support equipment. But there is a thing called the "incident pit", where something goes wrong and rather than correcting that small problem immediately, you allow it to push you deeper into the pit. Eventually, you can't get out.

Safe diving is done by recognizing the small things, and fixing them right away. Get a little far from your buddy -- notice it, and close things up. Getting a little low on gas? Signal your buddy to ascend. Getting close to the surface in a place with boat traffic? Get vertical, stop and scan your surroundings for boats, and listen. If you let error after error continue, eventually you will run out of luck.

The water doesn't care what happens to us. That's a really important lesson for divers to learn.

 

[SCUBASailor]

What's odd is, I'm not normally a risk taker but this time for some reason, I had a false sense of security and just made some bad decisions.

...I wasn't trying to run OOA, I just wanted to see how close I could get to it. For the thrill, I guess. Again, totally out of character for me.

So many actions out of character.... Experts, could he have been narc'd at 60 feet?

 

[berk]

Bad things don't happen at depth, they happen during ascent and on the surface. Those are certainly the times to be careful.

You'd feel bad if you needed to help someone or share air during a small flare up near or on the surface and suddenly couldn't do it.

-matt

 

[cdolphin]

Bad things don't happen at depth, they happen during ascent and on the surface. Those are certainly the times to be careful.


-matt

What do you mean? You can have lots of bad things happen at depth. You can run out of air at any depth. O-rings blow out at any depth. Animal encounters. Lost buddy. Entanglement. Loose tank band/slippage of tank. Stuck inflator button/over-inflation of BC. Downwelling current. Medical problem. Weight belt or pouch becoming loose and falling off.

Keep adding on, you get the picture.

 

[spector39]

Please take into consideration that fact that this was my 4th or 5th ocean dive ever, and total dives at that point was around 9. I was pretty much like a fish out of water (pun intended,) and struggling with various issues on many of the dives. I wasn't alone; my buddy was there next to me on every dive. What happened this time is that the rest of the group ducked behind a reef for the SS, and I didn't see them. When I did see them, I was separated from them and when I tried swimming back it was impossible due to the current. I was not far, however, and we all could see each other. Agian, yes I made lots of mistakes and admit to foolish behavior that I don't plan on repeating. By posting I'm hoping other newbies don't make the same mistakes I did.

 

[Bubbletrubble]

So many actions out of character.... Experts, could he have been narc'd at 60 feet?

@SCUBASailor: I don't consider myself an expert...but I'll ask you a related question.
How deep does a person need to dive in order to demonstrate deficits in cognitive ability associated with narcosis?
Most divers would say approx. 100 fsw and qualify the answer by saying that there is a significant amount of variability from diver to diver and also (given the same diver) from one day to the next.

Do some research. There are published studies on this.
The answer will surprise you.

@spector39: It sounds like this incident was a good learning experience for you. Don't feel bad. It's pretty common for a novice diver to be less-than-fully aware of his surroundings. As you gain experience and comfort with the operational aspects of diving, you'll have more mental bandwidth to attend to what's going on with your buddy, the rest of the group, and your environment. Until you get that experience, it's best to dive very conservatively (stay within recreational depth limits, don't get close to NDLs, keep it relatively shallow, stay close to buddy, learn how to calculate and ensure generous gas reserves, etc.).

 

[Selchie in LB]

spector39 I have to give you props for posting your account here. That takes _ _ _ _s! Thank you for being honest to tell on yourself and prevent someone else from trying to see how much air they can use.

Everyone can agree it was stupid. I think to point is don't try this at home kids! I hope you have learned a valuable lesson.

 

[berk]

What do you mean? You can have lots of bad things happen at depth. You can run out of air at any depth. O-rings blow out at any depth. Animal encounters. Lost buddy. Entanglement. Loose tank band/slippage of tank. Stuck inflator button/over-inflation of BC. Downwelling current. Medical problem. Weight belt or pouch becoming loose and falling off.

Keep adding on, you get the picture.

I couldn't argue with you there. I just feel that those are bad things, that potentially happen at depth (and certainly scarier in the mind). The difference in my experience is odds; they don't happen as often and you also think about them more and train for them more.

It's the concept of the "known risk vs. the unknown risk." Running out of air is something that hopefully not many of us have experienced. It's an [unknown risk]; something scary and unfamiliar. Getting back on a boat that is pitching is something we've done many times and is quite a risky proposition. It's a [known risk], something familiar, almost to the point where you don't think it's a risk, like driving; "I've done it a million times, why would I climb down the ladder pre-dive to just take a look at it."

While I have experienced your scenarios about 4-5 times out of the options. I have had a dozen+ incidents with ladders in heavy seas. Someone surfacing and taking the reg out of their mouth only to swallow some water; jumping in without their air off; jumping in and catching the gear on the handrail. Someone missing the boat's tagline in a current. Nothing you train for really; part of the problem. A boat nearby is something you can't control; hopefully you'd easily control a complete gas loss with your trust buddy nearby. You're deco stops get longer and longer as you get shallower and shallower, the CNS clock get higher and higher; the risk of tox goes up geometrically really.

For some reason the surface makes it dicey. As you go deeper, those schrader valves on the inflator have a harder time filling a significant volume of your BC. You have time to respond. When they go on a deco or safety stop, they fill that BC's volume quite fast, actually changing the lift.

Just my experience; I cringe as I approach the surface or jump in.

-matt

 

[berk]

Please take into consideration that fact that this was my 4th or 5th ocean dive ever, and total dives at that point was around 9. I was pretty much like a fish out of water (pun intended,) and struggling with various issues on many of the dives. I wasn't alone; my buddy was there next to me on every dive. What happened this time is that the rest of the group ducked behind a reef for the SS, and I didn't see them. When I did see them, I was separated from them and when I tried swimming back it was impossible due to the current. I was not far, however, and we all could see each other. Agian, yes I made lots of mistakes and admit to foolish behavior that I don't plan on repeating. By posting I'm hoping other newbies don't make the same mistakes I did.

Yeah, I have made all those mistakes and had similar results. You made them and learned from it. If you had 25 dives and taken an advanced class you might not have learned anything more and certainly not experience anything that would cause you to become more respectful of diving.

-matt