It would seem to me that, as we gain experience and go through some minor glitches on dives, we should increase our capacity to tolerate issues underwater. I'm wondering what could cause an experienced (say, more than 200 lifetime dives) diver to become distressed enough to lose rational thought. Has anyone here (who meets those criteria) been through a panic event? What caused it, and what did you do?
Question Panic in the experienced diver?
- Thread starter TSandM
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Dody
Contributor
A very experienced diver told me that he once experienced a first stage joint burst. He knew what to do but what he did not expect was that there were so many bubbles that he could not see a thing. He was literally blinded and the sound was like deafening. He panicked and froze for several seconds, his senses overwhelmed. After a while, he got himself together, took off his BCD and closed his valve. Fortunately, his buddy was around and they both surfaced safely. Training is one thing. But sometimes, when a catastrophe happens for real, it is very different than practise and we are not well prepared.
This is an inherent limitation of drills because the diver skips the critical problem diagnosis phase. This is an argument in favor of harassments dives, though this particular problem is harder to simulate without the trainee being alerted to what is happening.
This is another reason I dive with my isolation valve shut. The risk of loosing all my gas while figuring it out is significantly reduced.
Dody
Contributor
There is a muck area that I dive regularly. I am usually strolling around the muddy bottom in low visibility (for Mediterranean sea at least) looking for tiny creatures (nudies, shrimps, etc).
Normally the biggest living thing I would see in that area is maybe a scared 1ft grouper or so and even that is quite rare there. The problem is that there is also a fish farm nearby which attracts bigger fish (going after farmed fish that manage to escape now and then). So while I am 100% focused on examining microscopic creatures on the bottom, I've been visited a couple of times by bigger fish (3+ft tunas, amberjacks etc) to very close proximity without me noticing them on time. I felt a shadow, Ι turned my head and I saw these monsters staring at me almost within touching distance. Holy cr*p... Although I would love to spend time with them (assuming they have friendly or at least neutral stance) usually my spontaneous reaction was to scream LOUDLY through my regulator which was enough to scare the poor fish away in a blink of an eye.
The said area is also near a big Greek Navy repair facility and a US Navy support facility. Usually those don't bother me other than maybe a passing ship at far enough distance now and then. One time though out of the blue during a dive I heard a VERY loud (but thanks God very short) noise. Something like a gunshot - probably some kind of machinery but who knows. It scared the sh*t out of me as I was alone at around 100ft in low vis. Seconds later, as I was thinking what the heck could it be, there goes a second one. Time to get out of here I thought, so I ascended to shallow water for my ss. Since I didn't hear the bang again during the ascend or the ss I continued the dive at 20-30ft ready to abort if needed.
These and a couple of times that I have felt something touching my back or sides unexpectedly are the only times I've been scared/panicked during a dive. I would just freeze for a couple of seconds (or scream in case of unexpected close encounters with bigger fish) before my brain starts working again.
One of the fears I have in diving is how good or bad I will manage to handle a real underwater emergency because I have never actually encountered one so far. I have managed to handle things like: broken 2nd stage diaphragm (lucky me I noticed it on the surface), slightly sticky/leaky inflator button etc quite ok, but I wouldn't call these emergencies.
Normally the biggest living thing I would see in that area is maybe a scared 1ft grouper or so and even that is quite rare there. The problem is that there is also a fish farm nearby which attracts bigger fish (going after farmed fish that manage to escape now and then). So while I am 100% focused on examining microscopic creatures on the bottom, I've been visited a couple of times by bigger fish (3+ft tunas, amberjacks etc) to very close proximity without me noticing them on time. I felt a shadow, Ι turned my head and I saw these monsters staring at me almost within touching distance. Holy cr*p... Although I would love to spend time with them (assuming they have friendly or at least neutral stance) usually my spontaneous reaction was to scream LOUDLY through my regulator which was enough to scare the poor fish away in a blink of an eye.
The said area is also near a big Greek Navy repair facility and a US Navy support facility. Usually those don't bother me other than maybe a passing ship at far enough distance now and then. One time though out of the blue during a dive I heard a VERY loud (but thanks God very short) noise. Something like a gunshot - probably some kind of machinery but who knows. It scared the sh*t out of me as I was alone at around 100ft in low vis. Seconds later, as I was thinking what the heck could it be, there goes a second one. Time to get out of here I thought, so I ascended to shallow water for my ss. Since I didn't hear the bang again during the ascend or the ss I continued the dive at 20-30ft ready to abort if needed.
These and a couple of times that I have felt something touching my back or sides unexpectedly are the only times I've been scared/panicked during a dive. I would just freeze for a couple of seconds (or scream in case of unexpected close encounters with bigger fish) before my brain starts working again.
One of the fears I have in diving is how good or bad I will manage to handle a real underwater emergency because I have never actually encountered one so far. I have managed to handle things like: broken 2nd stage diaphragm (lucky me I noticed it on the surface), slightly sticky/leaky inflator button etc quite ok, but I wouldn't call these emergencies.
Most of the time, when available. My rigs for local diving are valve-down doubles, which makes access to the isolation valve easy in a drysuit. I can easily reach it with "valves-up" doubles in a 3mm wetsuit — one of the few times I could get doubles in the tropics was on the Odyssey in Truk Lagoon.
I used adaptor bars before isolation manifolds were available, which had individual valves on each cylinder. It only supported one regulator but progressive equalization techniques could still be used.
Most doubles (twins) in Europe also had individual cylinder valves.
May I speak to you about our Lord and Savior Sidemount?
Tried it, hate it. I'm too short for the ergonomics to work out well. The valves end up in my arm pits or the bottles interfere with swimming... or both. I also dislike slung bottles.
I could never understand how anyone could like front-mount pure O2 rebreathers favored by combat swimmers until it dawned on me that all they ever look at is a time piece, depth gauge, and compass. From my perspective, that is transportation not diving.
NAUI Wowie
Contributor
Interesting, Im the exact opposite. I dive locally in Monterey CA where the water quite often can become very murky with visibility dropping to as low as 5 to 7 feet with flashlights during the day. The hardest part is the first dive trying to get to the bottom which off the boats is about 60ft deep. Once I can see the bottom and im there an extreme relief and calm come over me. It also feels in such low visibility like im on the surface of the moon with sand in all directions and using my compass to guide someone to where the coral outcroppings should be.
Once there you need to use compass to find your way back to the boat.
NAUI Wowie
Contributor
If you have ever been coming up to a safety stop on a dive in low viz and you have a couple divers below you then you will notice its very dissorienting to be swimming up through a mass of bubbles. Kind of uncomfortable
Ce Stanley
New
I was an experienced diver with 50+ dives in a diverse range of situations. My wife got her certification so I took her diving in one of the lakes surrounding Phoenix AZ. We had been down about 15 minutes and were at 40 feet of fresh water. I kept my eye on her except when I had to turn my head to see her as she changed sides often. I turned my head to see my wife with no regulator in her mouth. I freaked! I gave her my buddy regulator. She put it in her mouth then spit it out! I freaked again! I ripped my regulator out of my mouth and gave it to her. She took it and spit it out! At this point I quickly calculated that we could go to the surface and have no issues with the bends, so I grabbed her and pushed her up as hard as I could. I spent the whole time going up without a regulator as she did the same. Total freak out on my part. But I got her to the surface and only lost a fin in the process. We have been together for 22 years and will hopefully get 20 more.
I talked with her after I had recovered my senses and she had settled down. She had spit her (Very expensive, easy to breath) regulator out of her mouth because it had water in it. She spit out my extra regulator because it had water in it. She spit out my (far less expensive) regulator because it also had water in it. She had forgotten the purge valve. Needless to say, she survived as did I. She has had enough of diving and doesn't enter the water. In my 200+ dives, this is the only time I have freaked out and hopefully the only time I freak until I die.
Dody
Contributor
This reminds me of some thoughts that I had during my Rescue training about all those things that you do while handling a distressed diver like pushing away, moving away, going down,… My usual buddy is my wife and I kept wondering if I would apply that if the distressed diver was my wife. I know that I should if that happens and I would not have any second thought with anybody else. With my wife, I hope that I would not panic.
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