danurtnowski
New
Hello, everyone.
Having gone through these forums a bit, now, I have absorbed a lot of great and useful information and I thought I might share a story of my own that others may learn from.
I am a relatively new diver, but I grew up on the coast in Southern California, and I am very comfortable in the water. I consider myself not prone to panic, at all, but it is something that I did not plan on testing myself with while underwater.
The story really starts in Cozumel, where the crew on the boat cracked the faceplate of my reg. It still functioned and seemed secure to me. I was in the middle of a wall dive when I felt the crack in the plate. Everything operated properly and I had no issues.
Diving again with my regulator like this was mistake #1. I was with a large group of people doing various certifications in the Valhalla missile silo. I was doing the deep specialty for PADI and my second dive found me at the bar they had lowered to 60 feet surrounded by people. I was not comfortable with so many divers around me (4 students in my group + instructor, plus an AOW class and an altitude class in the water). Too many people had obvious issues with their buoyancy and the moment I decided to move away from the bar I was kicked in the reg by someone who was ascending far too rapidly.
The reg came out of my mouth, which was annoying and painful, but not a big deal to me. I recovered it and used the air in my lungs to clear the reg.
What I didn't know was that the plate had been smashed and when I cleared, I blew the diaphragm out of the front of my reg. When I breathed in, I unexpectedly took cold water into my mouth and lungs. The adrenaline kicked in and I quickly grabbed my octo.
I held the purge button as I put it in my mouth, but I was coughing and sputtering and, essentially, vomiting up water and it was a terrible, terrible feeling. My fear response was taking over, but I managed (barely) to get the air that I needed. A few moments had past, and I began intellectualizing the incident and focused on regaining control over my breathing and getting the rest of the water out of my lungs. I don't know how long it took, but it seemed like forever.
No one noticed. I made my way up to 45' to find my instructor. My instructor and my instabuddy both had lights attached to their masks and the entire dive was annoying since they blinded me every time they looked at me. Because my instabuddy was the one having problems (he rented a dry suit and had terrible buoyancy), my instructor had to follow him up to help him resolve his issue. When he saw me again, I was on my octo and was waving my busted reg at him. He did not put two and two together. I made my way up to the hang bottles at 15', where I did my safety stop for three minutes. Still, no one noticed.
After my safety stop, I exited the water onto the platform and contemplated how close I had come to having lungs completely full of water. I can't say that I maintained my cool, but I was able to maintain a presence of mind enough to manage a bad situation to the best of my abilities.
The lesson I took away is to 1) don't use a reg that is not in perfect condition and 2) avoid diving with kooks whenever possible. I have taken too much time to learn lesson 2, because I have had nothing but problems with instabuddies in rented gear. I always bring my own gear, which I have had since I started diving and I hate to recall how much time I have spent getting other people sorted out in gear they are unfamiliar with. I suppose I will be much less likely to let crew handle my gear in the future, as well.
Feel free to criticize and share your thoughts, knowledge and experience.
Thank you,
Dan
Having gone through these forums a bit, now, I have absorbed a lot of great and useful information and I thought I might share a story of my own that others may learn from.
I am a relatively new diver, but I grew up on the coast in Southern California, and I am very comfortable in the water. I consider myself not prone to panic, at all, but it is something that I did not plan on testing myself with while underwater.
The story really starts in Cozumel, where the crew on the boat cracked the faceplate of my reg. It still functioned and seemed secure to me. I was in the middle of a wall dive when I felt the crack in the plate. Everything operated properly and I had no issues.
Diving again with my regulator like this was mistake #1. I was with a large group of people doing various certifications in the Valhalla missile silo. I was doing the deep specialty for PADI and my second dive found me at the bar they had lowered to 60 feet surrounded by people. I was not comfortable with so many divers around me (4 students in my group + instructor, plus an AOW class and an altitude class in the water). Too many people had obvious issues with their buoyancy and the moment I decided to move away from the bar I was kicked in the reg by someone who was ascending far too rapidly.
The reg came out of my mouth, which was annoying and painful, but not a big deal to me. I recovered it and used the air in my lungs to clear the reg.
What I didn't know was that the plate had been smashed and when I cleared, I blew the diaphragm out of the front of my reg. When I breathed in, I unexpectedly took cold water into my mouth and lungs. The adrenaline kicked in and I quickly grabbed my octo.
I held the purge button as I put it in my mouth, but I was coughing and sputtering and, essentially, vomiting up water and it was a terrible, terrible feeling. My fear response was taking over, but I managed (barely) to get the air that I needed. A few moments had past, and I began intellectualizing the incident and focused on regaining control over my breathing and getting the rest of the water out of my lungs. I don't know how long it took, but it seemed like forever.
No one noticed. I made my way up to 45' to find my instructor. My instructor and my instabuddy both had lights attached to their masks and the entire dive was annoying since they blinded me every time they looked at me. Because my instabuddy was the one having problems (he rented a dry suit and had terrible buoyancy), my instructor had to follow him up to help him resolve his issue. When he saw me again, I was on my octo and was waving my busted reg at him. He did not put two and two together. I made my way up to the hang bottles at 15', where I did my safety stop for three minutes. Still, no one noticed.
After my safety stop, I exited the water onto the platform and contemplated how close I had come to having lungs completely full of water. I can't say that I maintained my cool, but I was able to maintain a presence of mind enough to manage a bad situation to the best of my abilities.
The lesson I took away is to 1) don't use a reg that is not in perfect condition and 2) avoid diving with kooks whenever possible. I have taken too much time to learn lesson 2, because I have had nothing but problems with instabuddies in rented gear. I always bring my own gear, which I have had since I started diving and I hate to recall how much time I have spent getting other people sorted out in gear they are unfamiliar with. I suppose I will be much less likely to let crew handle my gear in the future, as well.
Feel free to criticize and share your thoughts, knowledge and experience.
Thank you,
Dan