Personal Incident

[b1gcountry]

I thought I post a picture so people know what she looks like:

 

[Scott04]

Scott04-
I wouldn't exactly call her a newly certified diver. She had 23 dives before we left, and she'd been diving on several different trips, including a weekend live-aboard. Going from cold water to warm is a big difference, but not terribly difficult. You have to get your experience some way. What better way than a week-long dive trip in warm waters.

I'm not sure what toll 2 dives a day takes on you...especially when you are on vacation and have nothing else to do for the rest of the day. We have done some Cycling trips, and after a couple days, 50-100 miles DOES wear on you, but two easy dives when you have nothing else to do all day, and you don't even have to carry your own tanks, Come on!

We both got up every morning excited to dive, and we even did two afternoon dives on Tuesday (the day this happened) at her request. The only day we missed was Friday due to storms.

B1gcountry,
Sorry if I rubbed you the wrong way, but I'm only quoting you,
"my wife is a pretty new diver (OW <1year ~25 dives). We are both signed up for 6-days of 2-tank diving. Day 1 goes well-her first time in the ocean."

If this isn't the case, then so be it. As for the toll on repetative dives, you'd be surprised at the amount of stress (not physical) this causes some people (especially newbies).
I was just trying to you give some things to think about that may have led to the situation you had.

Scott

 

[Gombessa]

I thought I post a picture so people know what she looks like:

Ooooh. I finally got it!

 

[Willie]

I thought I post a picture so people know what she looks like

I love it! Very good.

Willie

 

[mark2299]

I thought I post a picture so people know what she looks like:

I was going to say at least she didn't lose her head but..... nevermind.

Thanks Bc it was a great post.

 

[tonka97]

Thank you for sharing your experience; you guys worked it out so that you were both safe, and that is the main thing. Here are my observations:

...she gets to her LOA point, and since we are diving with a group and a DM, I tell her to go up to the safety stop, while I tell the DM. I guess I never taught her that signal, since she follows me back down to the DM, and we tell him we're going up.

You goofed; your wife correctly stayed with her buddy.

... We get to the safety stop, and she vise grabs my hand. She isn't controlling her buoyancy very well, and we start going down, then up. I have to rip my hand out of hers to get to my dump valve.

Safety stop is Optional; skip it in this case. Ripping your hand away could have created full blown panic. Suggest purging air from your BC, and swim up to surface with your wife. Remind your wife to exhale as you ascend.

I tried to get her to let go and do the safety stop on her own, but she keeps holding onto me, and I get pretty fixated on my depth guage trying to maintain buoyancy for both of us.

Sounds like you were in early stages of panic; narrowed focus, target fixation. Proper solution would have been to slowly ascend to surface.

Then I feel her grab my octo, and start breathing from it. She said she gave me the OOA signal and I missed it. Probably. We finish the safety stop, and head up. When we get back on the boat, and I checked her SPG, and she had about 500psi. I think she just panicked, but I know I also messed up some.

Skipping the safety stop would have eliminated further stress and panic progression.

BTW, ... we had a great dive on the second tank.

Oops; better plan would be to practice buoyancy control, communication above and below water, evaluate asthma status, exchange regulators if needed, agree that buddies should ALWAYS stay together, understand that 500 p.s.i. is a still a lot of gas at shallower depths, practice grasping BC instead of hand if air sharing.

 

[F106A]

b1gcountry,
1. Just curious; what did you see on her SPG when she signaled LOA? -
2. Magna Doodles are neat. -
3. Some years ago this guy asked me to be his buddy for a shore dive off Eden Rock. He gave the most precise, clear, obvious hand sigs I've ever encountered. (Like my own!) After the dive he told me he was a former F-15 driver. Discipline and confidence; it showed. -
4. There's this saying in flying: First fly the plane. In case it isn't obvious, this implies do the important things then worry about the other stuff (like telling ATC about your problem) later. Perhaps you might have considered telling your guide what happened after you were all back on the boat. -
5. I see you're a "moderately experienced diver," DM-C, 100+ dives. Your wife, an OW "pretty new diver" with ~25. Me, I'm a newby and realize there is so much more to learn and I think about that prior to every dive. -
6. I hope you're not offended by this post.

 

[DoItRite]

Just like in a marriage, you have to learn to read and communicate with your buddy. You did a great job of keeping the situation in check and everyone made it to the boat OK. But you need to dive more, read each others body language, etc. For me, if I ever have dove with a significant other (and it works with most of my students), I can read eyes very well. Once glance is all I need to understand the situation.

 

[b1gcountry]

B1gcountry,
Sorry if I rubbed you the wrong way,
<SNIP>
Scott

You didn't rub me the wrong way. I can see your point. When we dove 4-dives a day, yes, it was definitely stressful. Actually, one of the things that gets to me most is the sun and the dehydration. I don't deal well with too much sun living in the midwest.

I probably wouldn't have signed up for 6 dives except the price break you got at the dive op was pretty good. I think the extra sixth dive was only $15-20. Compared to $65 for getting a single 2-tank dive. Considering the fact that this is my second time at the same resort, and that they give non-expiring rain-checks, I just paid a little more for the sixth dive, figuring if we didn't use it, we will next time. I also figured if she wanted a day off, I could use her dives in the afternoon, and give her some time to sleep in and comb the beach...the best laid plans.

I must say I was pretty impressed by her excitement about the diving. She got up every morning excited to go out on the boat. The last morning she got up and said "oh, I wanna dive today" or something.

 

[b1gcountry]

b1gcountry,
1. Just curious; what did you see on her SPG when she signaled LOA? -

Her signal to me was '7' '0' '0' 'pressure' I don't look at her SPG myself anymore. We ask each other. When I looked at the SPG we were already on the boat, and the BC was off.