Panic?

[Still Kicking]

I had a situation where I rushed from work to meet a buddy for a night dive. Showed up a little late so rushed through set up, jumped in. At 90', it became hard to breathe.

Turns out I grabbed a tank the shop didn't fill. I got 2 hard breaths and then nothing.

I could see my buddy's light about 25' away. I remember thinking very clearly, "I have one chance to do this right." I swam to him, signalled OOA, he gave me is long hose and we swam back to the beach.

He said, "Good drill but why did we have to swim all the back?" Lol

I was really surprised at how calm and focused I was in the moment. I have certainly had moments when I felt much closer to panic underwater.

As Samuel Johnson noted, the prospect of being hanged "concentrates the mind wonderfully.”

 

[CG43]

Hello Justinthedeeps

You posted :
Very serious!

Whether we admit it or not, almost all of us can panic within ~5 seconds of having any kind of unexpected breathing difficulties.

Forget your calm drills where you know what's happening. It's totally irrelevant. Same with freediving (though it can help)

That 1-2+ minute breath hold that you thought you had is meaningless when you're caught unaware and other bad things are happening.



Sadly enough you may be right with "almost all of us...."
But is this nessesary ? I don't believe .
I don't like " calm drills " . Make your exercises and your body will learn to do all the
nessesary good changes you can't do alone by conscious . Don't overpace !
And yes , what is only in your head may be irrelevant in a strange situation .
I am member in the D L R G a german water life saving association . My task is to help
if someone has problems with the freediving part of certfikations . The D L R G is member
in the CMAS . Therefore the requirements for diving certifications are easy , you must not
be a freediver . Some divers made apnea courses but don't made freediving part of her
ordinary diving . This cant work properly .
What i try to mediate is that freediving can be fun and only if it is fun you do it right .

Greetings Rainer[

 

[happy-diver]

My theory is if you throw yourself into as many unexpected situations as possible, you panic less more slowly
and its not just a theory I did a course on it in my head and pass it most days diving or not with some colours

 

[Belzelbub]

Whether we admit it or not, almost all of us can panic within ~5 seconds of having any kind of unexpected breathing difficulties.

Forget your calm drills where you know what's happening. It's totally irrelevant. Same with freediving (though it can help)

That 1-2+ minute breath hold that you thought you had is meaningless when you're caught unaware and other bad things are happening.

I don't think the diving world is honest enough about this.

I agree with you to a point. It is one thing to do a drill on command when you are ready to do it. But, I don't agree that it's totally irrelevant. The point of those drills (and why you should continue to practice them) is not to replicate an actual event, but to build muscle memory. I agree that it is not the same.

When my oldest daughter was getting certified, I was able to go along on her checkout dives. I acted as her buddy at various buddy drills, but mostly was just observing. When they were doing the regulator retrieval drills, and mask remove/replace, I was thinking the same thing. This doesn't really replicate reality. I was thinking of how it could be better, and wondering how she would act if she were to find her regulator suddenly out of her mouth. I got my answer the next day. On the fun part of the checkout, another student kicked her with a fin and knocked her regulator out of her mouth. It went into free flow and was behind her. Took every ounce of my willpower to just get close and watch what she did without intervening, unless needed. She did the arm sweep, but it remained out of reach. She then grabbed her octo and resumed breathing. I then assisted with her primary and she swapped.

When I took my Stress & Rescue course, we had an instructor and assistant instructor. The students never knew what the problem was going to be, just that there was going to be one. Could have been relatively benign, or more serious. On one such scenario, the Assistant Instructor (Victim) misunderstood the instructions. He was supposed to signal frantically, and reach for my primary. Instead, he just swam up to me and grabbed it out of my mouth. I definitely wasn't expecting that, but practiced enough so I just grabbed my backup, and we did an ascent.

Comfort in the water and familiarity with your gear goes a long way to reducing panic.

 

[justinthedeeps]

Yes you are right, I should not have said "irrelevant"
The basic drills are relevant, but the are typically under-practiced and insufficient.

Less than ten times in a course, and then never again until something bad happens--that's not entrainment!

The drills should be checked and rehearsed on every dive, Even beyond dive #1000. I strongly recommend that all divers deploy and switch to their other regulator or breathing source at least once while underwater on each dive. This verifies that it is accessible and functions underwater, and continues to entrain the reflexes. Sidemount divers do it all the time as matter of course.

Build it up to trickier things (safely). Take off your mask completely and then clear it. That wasn't something you do just once in the course and then never again. Do the reg switch drill without your mask on. Lose your regulator on purpose, swim 9 metres / 30 feet, then use the backup reg. Take off your gear, check that the tank valve is fully open, and then put the gear back on. There are a lot of drills possible.

Some of the best drills are when the instructor (or buddy) makes it trickier, prompting the drill when your awareness is compromised. "Task loading." Do you get the skill right when you are already flustered? Keep making it trickier until you begin to struggle. This is the improvement zone.

 

[happy-diver]

My first drill was to unencumber myself from the basic diving chrysalis diaper and now all I do is go diving
with all the energy I save not doing any drills used to get out of my many predicaments more experienced

Faced with drills I may as well use my time more wisely on the couch in full gear tipping water on my head
and on ScubaBoard


Know your gear intimately yourself as intimately as you can dive ahead of yourself and go experience stuff

 

[CG43]

Hello

happy-diver posted :
Know your gear intimately yourself as intimately as you can dive ahead of yourself and go experience stuff

Know yourself intimately ist an excellent idea .

Interested in an easy and quick test ?
You don't need imaginations , couch , diving gear , water on your hesd , simply lay down on the floor .

Breath deep and slowly until you are calm and relaxed .
Now take three deep breaths , exhale and try to hold your breath for three minutes .

May be you don't succeed , although you can do three minutes , and it's not dangerous on land .
But your body wants you to breath and most times he is stronger . Don't let your body be your
enemy , it's much better to cooperate . You control (close) your throad and relax your skeletal
muscles , that's your buisiness . Pass the control of the breathing muscels and the diaphragm to
your friend called body . If he moves your brest and diaphragm up and down , ignore , that's
is not your buisiness . This is good for you because your body does a lot of regulations to save
oxygen . As soon as this "Zen Mode" is established you are safer because your body slows you
down if there is a problem with your air supply . This is the opposide of drive you in panic .

I have used the imagination of breathold under water to slow me down in examinations ,
before my first paracute jump and . . . . . It's a sleeping pill for me .
In my occasionally task as personal trainer i try to mediate this "Zen Mode" .
Sometimes with success , sometimes not . I see the same at divers who made apnoe courses .
As there is not much time for exercises this may be the reason .
I recommend 5 times a week for at least 5 weeks . This is only accessibel
if you do some exercises alone on land , for exable as i described above . But don't use
a watch often . It's better to stop your breathhold if you feel distingctly uncomfortable .

Diving with rebreather , technical diving , overhead enviroment , long deco dives ,
stong currents , fear from the dark , claustrophobia , insuffizient breathing , hard
efford and medical problems are real or imaginated dangers that may drive a diver to panic .
As they are not directly related to the abillity to hold the breath other abilities are
just as importand .

Greetings Rainer

 

[scubadada]

I had a situation where I rushed from work to meet a buddy for a night dive. Showed up a little late so rushed through set up, jumped in. At 90', it became hard to breathe.

Turns out I grabbed a tank the shop didn't fill. I got 2 hard breaths and then nothing.

I could see my buddy's light about 25' away. I remember thinking very clearly, "I have one chance to do this right." I swam to him, signalled OOA, he gave me is long hose and we swam back to the beach.

He said, "Good drill but why did we have to swim all the back?" Lol

I was really surprised at how calm and focused I was in the moment. I have certainly had moments when I felt much closer to panic underwater.

As Samuel Johnson noted, the prospect of being hanged "concentrates the mind wonderfully.”

How could you possibly jump with an empty tank? No pressure check when you turned on the tank? No prebreathe before you jump? This is just so hard to believe.

I have made most errors. I have jumped with my air off, that is easy to fix. Prebreathe became my norm.

 

[Still Kicking]

How could you possibly jump with an empty tank? No pressure check when you turned on the tank? No prebreathe before you jump? This is just so hard to believe.

I have made most errors. I have jumped with my air off, that is easy to fix. Prebreathe became my norm.

I didn't check pressure so it was totally on me. I find it hard to believe too in hindsight. Rush, rush, rush!

A lesson learned that i remember every time i turn on a tank. I am very lucky I lived to learn from it.

It passed the prebreathe check because there was 500+/- left in the tank. A completely empty tank would have actually been better because I would have caught it before I got to depth.

My purpose in recounting the story was to point out that in a real life-or-death situation, the brain can sometimes bypass panic and allow us to make rational decisions that might result in survival. I have heard this once or twice from people who have experienced combat.

If our actions fail, or no options present themselves, then I suppose panic is the next and ultimate step.