Pride is destroyed but walked away with no injuries...

[trippingpara]

Being a new diver, I learned a hard lesson the other day. My wife and I were out on a dive in a natural spring. The spring is located around 70ft and is an in-flow spring (and a very powerful one at that). I got caught up in the spring's flow which was pulling me into a cave that led downward to a narrow tube. I was finally able to get my hands on some overhanging rocks and pull myself up and away from the current. I was now huffing and puffing like a marathon runner, trying to calm myself down as well as catch my breath (first time I was in a current that powerful). As I was doing so, I opened my mouth too much trying to slow my breathing and got a mouthful of water. No problem I thought. I remember my regulator recovery drills. I immediately reinserted my regulator and tried to purge by exhaling. Problem is, I had no more air in my lungs. Or should I say, my lungs were not giving away any air that was left in them. Meanwhile, my brain was still screaming for more air. Immediately after I tried to purge the reg, I took another breath. More water. My brain went into full panic mood. I immediately signaled to my wife that I was out of air and heading for the surface. As I ascended (didn't drop my weight belt or inflate my BC, just kicked my way up), I attempted to pull out my Oct reg. Same problem, I couldn't purge it by exhaling. Don't ask my why I didn't just purge the reg or octo by using the button on the front. Apparently, that particular brain cell was not working at the time. As soon as I surfaced and was able to get air, it dawned on me that I could have just purged the reg or free flowed the reg instead of trying to purge it by exhaling. I'm happy that I was able to keep my head enough not to jettison my weight belt and inflate my BC and rocket to the surface and rupture my lungs or get DCS. Nonetheless, it was a completely avoidable event that very well could have seriously injured or even killed me. Also thankful my wife didn't fully realize what was going on as there would have been two divers in a full blown panic mode.

I think I'm going to stick to shallow waters and practice emergency recovery and other safety drills until they become second nature to me. We love this sport but would really prefer to die of old age not stupidity.

 

[CT Sean]

Sounds scary. Am I reading correctly that you swam up from 70 feet without exhaling?

 

[Doppler]

Good lesson... not sure when the lesson actually started... on reflection, should that have been on the surface before the dive?

Mind sharing the name of the spring?

 

[Wookie]

Holy crap!!

 

[Laurie S.]

Why didn't you get air from your wife?

 

[Wookie]

Why didn't you get air from your wife?

Girl air has cooties?

 

[Peter_C]

Whenever practicing reg removals, we always purge the reg with the button as this builds muscle memory. Always helps to keep doing the standard drills we were taught in open water just in case. How many folks still blow their BC's up with their mouths? We do and it got reaffirmed by someone local drowning when they couldn't stay at the surface when OOA. Same goes for cutting the weight belt loose. Drills need to be done often.

 

[DandyDon]

Sounds scary. Am I reading correctly that you swam up from 70 feet without exhaling?

With empty lungs if I read correctly. Scary.

 

[dpaustex]

I am glad you're both okay.

This brings up a couple of points, you mentioned yourself:

Diving in high current is not the same as the calm open water diving most people do. As a new diver, you were probably taught in a pool, with your check out dives in fairly controlled conditions.

The proximity of caves is a "warning, warning". Obviously, any cavern/spring/sump requires the proper training. This includes knowing if it is a "flowing" spring, or just a sump (underwater lake). These are absolutely not recommended for beginning divers, much less if you're on a guided trip (lack of buoyancy skills is an issue, for one).

As you found out, the current was an issue. With a cavern, this becomes a life-and-death issue, as if you got sucked into the cavern, and taken for a ride to who-knows-where, you could have easily died. Diving in current is NOT the same as doing a drift dive; you have to compensate for a whole lot of things. If the current is high enough, free-flow of regulators can happen, with the water passing over the exhaust ports and back of regulator, creating enough back-pressure to cause the regulator to flow freely, under certain orientations.

It is VERY important to know what you're getting into before you actually do it. A dive plan would dictate (like on a boat), you have route, know current direction, know maximum depth, know planned depth, etc.

Very glad you shared this, as hopefully it will keep other newer divers from ignoring much of the stuff you shouldv'e been taught in class. When an instructor tells you about dive planning, they're not kidding.

 

[DA Aquamaster]

Good lesson... not sure when the lesson actually started... on reflection, should that have been on the surface before the dive?

Mind sharing the name of the spring?

That was my first thought. Dive-able Cave in RI?!?!

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I'll restate what's been said above regarding proximity to a cave and the cautions that need to go with that. Even cave certified divers use special precautions with caves that are siphoning (water flowing in to them) as it creates greater challenges in getting back out safely.

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What the incident should also tell you is that you've got a long way to go in terms of skill development as well as psychological preparation. Ideally, a diver will learn to address an immediate issue at depth whenever possible then abort the dive with a normal ascent. And for a technical diver diving in either a hard or soft overhead environment, the tendency to bolt in a crisis has to be completely extinguished and the problem resolved at depth as an immediate ascent is either impossible or will result in serious injury or death.

In your case, I'd advise keeping the depth shallow until your responses to gas related emergencies, loss of buoyancy, buddy separation, etc are down pat and are second nature, so that when something new is thrown at you, you'll have the mental bandwidth needed to address it.