pretty sure I'm screwed

[divermatt]

Well guys and gals,

I have't been diving yet this year. See, I had a small problem on a check-out dive last year and have avoided my hobby/passion/happy place since.

I went to check out my new tanks in a local pond. Figured it would help me work out any problems, since the tanks are steel 100s and I hadn't used them yet.

They ruined me. I was diving solo with a flag, and my dad was on the shore, just watching for me and helping me into the water. Within 20 mins. I was "bicycling" underwater just to stay on top of stuff. I was sucking so much air that my regulator wasn't meeting my demand. At this point, I decided to bottom out and take a moment--I have good air supply and I need to rest before I do anything.

I hit the bottom and didn't like that I made a giant silt mushroom cloud. I also was really pissed that I dragged the flag under. This isn't working for me. However, I can breath at this moment.

I took 5 and then surfaced and swam back to my entry point. So the discussion can go well, here is what I did wrong:

Dove solo without backup equipment
Dove in fresh water with salt water weighting
Dove an unfamiliar location without a buddy

I'm not really sure I can get back in the water...I used to love diving, but at this point I'm scared to "get back on the horse" that just threw me.

 

[Abidon]

I'm not really sure I can get back in the water...I used to love diving, but at this point I'm scared to "get back on the horse" that just threw me.

Sounds more like you got back on a rhino! You seem to know exactly why your dive went wrong. That's half the battle right there.

Perhaps a refresher course would put you back on track. Contact a local dive shop/operation and find out if they offer such a course. Diving is not exactly rocket-science. We just need to practice, practice, & practice some more until it becomes second nature.

 

[vladimir]

I'm having an odd premonition that TS&M will be here in a few minutes to say what I meant, only more eloquently.

 

[TSandM]

I'd highly recommend a refresher, and perhaps hiring an instructor or DM to do your first couple of open water dives with you, until your confidence is restored. Sounds like you were grossly overweighted and probably badly out of trim as well, and were having buoyancy issues and got anxious. It can all be worked through, if you want to do it.

 

[divermatt]

Sorry guys, but I wanted to enter 1 last detail: These tanks (Fabers) have a -14/-7 swing. I am thinking of getting a new instructor to help, but really, how do you do your weights??? I was weighted for the end of the tank....

TSandM, we're about the same weight. How would you deal?

 

[don Francisco]

Two things at work here, you need technical assistance with things like weighting and trim that a refresher course would help with, and you need to re-establish enough confidence to get back into the water.

Boston has a large dive community, so ask around and find yourself an instructor who you feel you can trust, go over your problems on land, reviewing the theory, then do some dives with him/her. After that, dive in the company of and with the support of more experienced divers until you're ready to be more independent.

In the sailing world they have something called a "confidence course" where essentially you sail solo except with an experienced person on board as backup, who also gives you a critique aftarwards. When you're ready you might ask an instructor to dive as your buddy doing something similar.

 

[TSandM]

Well, in our local water, using an LP95, I need 26 pounds of ballast to be correctly weighted with 500 psi in the tank. So I could probably dive one of those Fabers comfortably (I've got about 13 pounds on my back, with the steel backplate and the camband weights I use.)

On the other hand, in a 3 mil wetsuit in fresh water, I'd be so negative with that tank that I would be quite uncomfortable, with a ton of gas in my wing.

 

[Kim]

Was there something wrong with your wing/BCD?

 

[DandyDon]

Matt, I don't have a clue to your dive training or experiences; I looked at your profile - nada; so forgive me if some of my thinking is wrong here. I think you brought all this on yourself, as I have done to myself at times. You're a fun guy and all, but damn did you set yourself up for a wreck - with your dad as a helpless witness no less?! :11: Reminds me of some of my self planned dive wrecks, but at least I didn't take family to be the first to realize I may have crashed. Now when I have screwed up royally, it took me some time to allow myself to admit it - I tried to rationalize that I was a victim dealing with problems and work hard to avoid admitting that I created most of my problems with some bad plans and poor decisions. I hope you don't take offense here and come to find some of my thots of some benefit in time at least.

I think you're list of mistakes is more involved...

• Got new toys, always fun, but did not check them out in a pool.
• Dove solo - period. Backup equipment may have just got you in deeper trouble with a poor plan; I know this mostly from my own classic experience.
• Dove in fresh water without thinking it seems.
• Dove an unfamiliar location with new gear at a sensitive time after a long dry spell initiated by a problem you had - and I don't have a clue what that was.
• Dove without a buddy - period.
• When you got into trouble, you bottomed out when you should have got positive - take your break on the surface, not sitting in mud alone.

Sure you can dive again, just as soon as your mind is in the mood to learn rather than barge ahead on full speed bluff. That could be today or it could be some other week or month, I dunno - up to you, but when you're ready to learn from each mistake, that will be a good time to suit up.

I think I'd book one private lessor first tho. You have two of these new tanks? Ask your Instructor to dive the other one so you can see him/her doing it while helping you deal with it. A 7 pound swing is no biggie if you have a macho BC or Wing to support it, and don't ever forget for a moment that weights are ditchable for a good reason, not just because a book said so.

I'm about to leave for a camping trip with my kids & grandkids (Lord give me strength please) so I won't be here to discuss this for a while, much less eat my words if I said something excessive, but I wanted to offer a little at addressing the problems as well as the solution.

BTW, since you mentioned not being sure if you can saddle up again, two more suggestions...

• You were not throw off, you fell off. Haha, I was never thrown by a horse all my wild cowboy years, but I fell a few times - loose cinch causing a saddle to slip on a tight turn, another time making a hard turn on loose footing taking the horse down on me, etc - but it was never the horse, always my mistakes as I knew better. There again admitting my part in those wrecks helped me recover quickly;
• However, if you really feel that way, our approach was to feed the horses, spend time with them even if afraid to mount one, as long as it took. I'll leave you make what you wish out of that one.

Best wishes on getting over it.

 

[MikeFerrara]

I took 5 and then surfaced and swam back to my entry point. So the discussion can go well, here is what I did wrong:

Dove solo without backup equipment
Dove in fresh water with salt water weighting
Dove an unfamiliar location without a buddy

It sounds like not having control over your position and movement in the water column was the real problem. There's a good chance that you would have just lost a buddy with all that strugling and silting anyway. It can be hard to stay with and aware of a buddy when you're so busy having problems controling your own position and movement.

I'd suggest spending some time in confined water (pool or pool-like conditions) working on the basics...specifically buoyancy control, trim and propulsion technique.

Others have recommended a "refresher" and that sounds good but I fear that it'll be more of the same. If you weren't taught this stuff in your original class, it may be unlikely that you'll learn it in a "refresher".