problems in water and happy about it?

[David P]

Ok, I went diving friday down in San Diego and did Scripps Canyon. I had a great time and it was a fun dive. I took my doubles, not because I wanted to do a major long dive, but just fun practice and the extra weight doesn't bother me (until returning to the truck that is...) I then finished off a great long weekend on Sunday diving Farnsworth Banks. I buddied up with 3 friends and had a great dive. We decended swam around the point and the plan was to come back up to the anchor line. We came back up but I couldn't find the anchor line, no biggie I thought, just a little practice on free acent...(I was for some reason sorta happy at the challenge, but I was a bit disapointed that I couldn't find the line though) So the 4 of us started our ascent, when we got around 20 feet or so we saw the silouette of someone hanging on the line doing a safety stop. Not bad, we were only off by maybe 10 feet at the most. We swam over and hung on the line before going up. The second dive we decided to descend and swim the other direction. As I was descending I kept feeling something hitting my feet, so I kept looking above me to see if one of my buddies was trying to get my attention but it wasn't them. It felt like I was hung up in some kelp, but there was no kelp here. I thought maybe I'm getting tired and my kicks are real sloppy and I'm just kicking myself. Once I made it to the pinacle I stopped and really checked my fins, turns out one of my spring straps broke at the attatchment point (when you wear size 16 shoes, squeeze into 15 rock boots, those 12" springs are pretty tight). I signaled to my buddies what happened (by waving my turtle at them with a floppy spring) and I was going to ascend alone. I knew that if I were in trouble and needed both fins I could stick it back on my foot and it would stick (I have to wrestle to get the things off) so I would be fine. During my free ascent, I carefully watched my ascent speed while sculling with one fin to keep proper attitude. This is a cool test! Then things started getting interesting, for some reason my mask strap came loose, flipped over my head and temporarily blocked my vision. No prob, while watching ascent speed I simply put the thing on the back of my head again. Oops, some how my thumb caught the long hose behind my neck and pulled it loose from my belt, now the hose is coming up over the back of my head (hey this is getting fun!) No biggy, straighten out the hose and tuck it in my belt. Oops a little too tight and Im looking to the right, readjust and all is cool. Oh yeah and for some reason the mask is leaking after I put the mask strap back on... I guess my hood is under the skirt of the mask. I made it up safe and sound with the biggest smile on my face. The DM asked why I was up so early with such a large smile. "Oh it was a great dive, everything just went wrong!"

Is this normal or is my wife correct in calling me crazy?

 

[kjundvr]

Nah your not crazy! I have had my fair share of murphy dives and while everything was happining it was a bit stressful however once reaching the surface you cant help but have a big grin. Its always a good thing to know you can handle the murphy dives. I love and hate them equaly.

 

[AquaPixie]

When it starts to go south it does NOT take ONE step at a time..

it always falls apart in multipals - sounds like you handled it well

 

[mfalco]

Murphy is always 1 step ahead

 

[sskasser]

IMHO, you're not crazy. You were tossed a challenge and you came through with flying colors. That gave you a great sense of accomplishment, which always feels good.

 

[David P]

well I'm glad to hear I'm not the only one who enjoys it when things go wrong.

 

[gregor1234]

Overcoming adversity is perhaps the most common theme in human adventure.

When one thing goes wrong during a dive and you fix it or just thumb the dive, that's not so special but when you're hit with a triple or quadrupal wammy and still are able to think things through and work them out, then you feel a sense of accomplishemnt.

I have been camping on and off with Boy Scouts for the last decade (3 boy scout sons) and have found that very few have fond memories of the trips where the sun was shining, the scenery spectacular and to food just great.

When asked which trips were "best", the boys will invariably tell of the trip where everything fell in the river or when it was summer but got cold and snowy in the mountains and everyone only had shorts and t-shirts, or when all the food fell into the fire or the time when they had to hike 20 miles in a torrential rain. These memories of adversity overcome are the fondest and also produce the greatest bonding within the group.

You're not crazy and in fact his response to overcoming adversity is used to train for leadership and unit cohesion in the miliatry all around the world.

 

[K9trnr]

You're crazy. Just kidding. It sounds like you handled everything well, and you should take confidence in that. However, and many here will disagree, I believe that being with a buddy means you're with a buddy even if there are four and one needs to abort.

You were at the beginning of the dive and had plenty of air, but look at how many things went wrong. My cousin almost died when he and his buddy were swimming back to the boat just 3 feet below the surface with low air because it seemed safe...until he got wrapped up in kelp and trapped 3 feet below the surface with his buddy far ahead because they were close to the surface and it seemed safe. IMHO, someone should have ascended with you and then either stayed with you or rejoined the others (if the others ascended as well to the point where the one that joined you could rejoin them safely).

Don't dive afraid, but remember your training. I find those that are the most experienced tend to relax their caution the most, and the dives end up with increased risk at times when there's no real risk/reward payoff for not taking the extra precaution.