Hi Beeloved LeeAnne:
Since I was the team leader and your divebuddy, I am going to weigh-in on what you have courageously written here.
Leejnd:
. . . . .On my third dive we'd been down at 45' for about 25 minutes, and had ascended to 25' and poked around in the kelp there for about 10 minutes. But here I found bouyancy to be a bit more challenging. In addition to this, my fins are more bouyant than I was expecting, and at 25' they kept raising up on me when I wasn't moving forward.
. . . actually, our deepest by my computer was 41 fsw at 21 minutes. I decided to do a rolling decompression and took us to 35fsw and then 30 fsw in a leisurely 10 minute fin. I check time/depth/in 30 second increments. We were diving in a three man. . .'er two women and me team. I took the forward position while you two were wing on wing and following. I ascended to 20 fsw while finning and and watched you two following and ascending from 30 fsw. . .as you began having trouble on ascent, I turned and chased you to the surface.
I gentle reminder from basic OW class, the bubble at 71 fsw is compressed 3 times smaller than on the surface. The bubble at 20 fsw is only compressed by a little less than half. There is a gimongously LARGE difference in bubble size from 70 to 60 fsw versus 20 to 10 fsw. This is probably the reason that you had difficulty with your bouyancy as you ascended from 40 to 25 fsw.
Leejnd:
. . . . . He immediately took me back down to 15', and checked me out to ensure I wasn't panicking or feeling ill (I was fine). We stayed there for about ten minutes, and then returned to the boat and surfaced. . . . was it of value to immediately descend to 15'? There were some differences of opinion on this -- some on the boat said that it would have made no difference, as any bubbles in my tissues would have already been formed; others said that if we did it quick enough it might have slowed down the development of bubbles.
I instinctively took you back down as I calculated your time in the water to be 35-40 minutes, with an average depth of 35 fsw without a deco/safety stop. So, I took you down to 15 fsw for 5 minutes and we swam around in circles as we were under the boat. I am eager student of technical diving, and it would be bad form to hurt you, and the team, by ignoring the inviolate laws of physics. I found the second guessing discussion that followed on the deck of the boat ridiculous at best, and reckless at worst.
Leejnd:
So, here are my questions. First and foremost I'd like to know if I was truly in danger of DCS by having an uncontrolled ascent from 25'. I can tell you that I didn't hold my breath --
Good that you didnt hold your breath. . . . and no. Chances are slim that you would take a DCS hit. Not impossible, but not likely. What you set yourself up for with an uncontrolled ascent is pneumothorax, arterial gas embolism, subcutaneous emphysema, and a host of smaller and even more ominious things (pulmonary shunt). Heck, with this cast of nasty maladies, I would welcome type I DCS.
Leejnd:
One thing I will say that I already learned from this incident is that I didn't panic...I knew something was going very wrong, but rather than feel fear (which I recall thinking would be useless!) my mind immediately went to my training, and tried to scroll through what I'd learned. I do hope that's an indication that I'll behave the same way if I encounter an emergency again.
I am so proud of you, I am so humbled by you. I looked into your beautiful hazel eyes for that "deer in the headlights look" and saw joy, fascination, and happiness. Thank you for diving with me, and I would be honored if we could dive together again.
Much warmth,
Tevis