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

[AfterDark]

Glad you made out ok. Where is this place? I've been diving RI all my life, mostly ocean. I'd like to check this spot for myself.

 

[trippingpara]

Sorry I didn't mention this in my original post. I wish these locations were in RI! My wife and I took a short dive trip down to Crystal River, FL. This particular spring is in Chiefland, FL and is called Manatee Springs. Generally, its a pretty easy dive unless you venture in too close to that spring! I appreciate all of the comments. That's why I posted it here so others can learn from my mistakes and experiences as well has hoping for me to learn some other tips and tricks from all of you. We did have a dive plan that we were following. However, our big mistake in that dive plan was not knowing or understanding how to quickly and easily identify an inflow spring and we really had no business venturing into a cavern in the first place (since we're not cavern certified). Everything we read about the springs put us at too much ease and we didn't identify the dangers beforehand. And yes, I ascended up 70 ft without exhaling as I had no air in my lungs to exhale. I've always practiced holding my breath under water (not when diving!! - only in a pool while swimming). And to answer the question as to why I didn't use my wife's air to breathe, is I would have had the same problem (unable to purge the reg). I also committed another boo-boo by signaling to her that I was okay when I was breathing heavy and trying to catch my breath after my escape from the spring. I should have signaled to her that I was 'okay' but not doing too good and called off the dive. Its that Marine in me that needs to be big and macho all the time. This dive definitely taught me a lot and one of them is to get over yourself. If things aren't good, don't pretend they are. It can turn deadly in a heartbeat! Please keep your tips, tricks and comments coming, I really do appreciate all of your advice! And I do appreciate your comments on what I did right too (its nice to know I did some things right)!

 

[MSDT476614]

good experience, glad you are ok!

 

[manni-yunk]

One thing I can say about these sitations - is - if you are smart, you will now be a much better, safer diver.

Every situation where I made a mistake, or something went wrong, or when something bad happened - has made me a MUCH better diver.1 in particular immediately changed everything about the way I dive.

Although scary - take it as a learing experience,benefit from it, and move on.

 

[Garth]

Also important is to learn from other peoples experiences as well such as your dive buddy.




Sent from my she-er water pre-datorr

 

[soltari675]

I've been to that dive spot and nearly had the same issue. It's the one and only time I was completely ok with grabbing onto something around me under water. I was lucky and as soon as I felt the pull, turned away and grabbed onto a rock ledge and pulled myself away from it. It spooked me a little, but nothing like your experience. I'm glad you made it out ok. Even happier you learned from it and recognize parts of your training that need practice. So many blow it off and end up back in the situation again and unfortunately luck doesn't last forever.

One thing my dive buddy and I do is we have have a quarry near us where we dive often. It's the local mud hole that we know each fish by name by now. But our agreement is whenever we dive there, which is a lot, we may or may not randomly do drills. For example, I may at any point during a dive, pretend I am out of air, and we do a drill. Or he'll inflate his dry suit too much and get the air in his feet. Or something random so that both of us get regular exposure to different situations underwater. The water there is shallow, average of about 25 feet, so we are fairly safe if things don't go as planned. But what it does do is prepare us for when an emergency may happen when we dive anywhere else. We are so conditioned when we dive together to know what is normal and what isn't and anytime something seems not right, we know exactly how to react. It makes the situations less stressful which eliminates panic. And everyone comes out alive. Thankfully we've not had a real emergency yet aside from me getting tangled in fishing line like I was in a spider web Not an emergency, just annoying. But I am confident we'll be just fine if we do have one.

 

[Ayisha]

Then nor do you breathe off both your second stage regs before ever getting into the water, which we consider a requirement at the surface. Both are condition dependent drills.

That's true, especially if you're ice diving. I don't ice dive and the coldest I typically dive is 38F, and the air temp is at least fairly warm, and I do always breathe off my regs before splashing. For ice diving, it's done just below the surface in order to not have moisture enter the regs, causing them to freeze. Pressing the purge or an air horn or more than a short burst to an inflator in extremely cold water can cause a freeflow. We also learn to not take large breaths or inhale and inflate the BC at the same time as the demand can cause the reg to freeze open. Yes, the practice of skills is area and condition specific.

 

[ianr33]

We did have a dive plan that we were following. However, our big mistake in that dive plan was not knowing or understanding how to quickly and easily identify an inflow spring and we really had no business venturing into a cavern in the first place (since we're not cavern certified).

Yep,that comes into the "You don't know what you don't know' category.

Incidentally an "inflow spring" is not a spring it's a siphon. Not common but potentially very dangerous.

Is there a "Reaper" sign at this location? (Never been to Manatee)

 

[Mike]

Wow, so scary!

Thanks for posting your experience for myself and others to learn from it. Please really learn from this experience also, since an out of air emergency ascent means every fail safe has failed! You've got 3 other regs to breath off of, your back up and your buddies 2. To have to explode to the surface in a panic means a complete failure of the buddy system and redundant air policy. Thank God your story ended safely. Hope this is a huge wake up call to always try to be able to remain calm and think, think, think before reacting. Easier said than done sometimes.

 

[DandyDon]

Incidentally an "inflow spring" is not a spring it's a siphon. Not common but potentially very dangerous.

That makes more sense, for communication purposes. I'd probably call it a drain, but I guess siphon is preferred?

The Wikipedia page may or may not be accurate, but mentions...

Manatee Springs State Park - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Certified Open Water divers can dive the head spring with lights, as well as the catfish hotel cavern without lights. Certified Cavern divers can dive the catfish hotel cavern with lights, but are not to explore beyond the daylight zone. Cavern divers should also exhibit caution when nearing the siphon side of the catfish hotel cavern, as the flow is immense. Certified and qualified cave divers are able to explore several miles of underground caverns which feed into the spring.