Safety stop : to do or not when panicked?

[houlejon]

I am a long time certified diver with average experience (175 dives) After being told there was (possibly) an old wreck in our lake here in Québec, we decided to do a recognition dive. With a depht of 120 feet, water at 40 F and low visibility it was not an easy dive. using only aluminium 80s we didnt have much bottom time. I am still trying to remember how it all started but I think I had narcosis... When my buddy signaled for the ascent, I realized I had only 500 psi left... This is where anxiety started. It was the first time that I ever felt like this. I started to breath hard with the feeling of not getting any air.. a night mare. I kept the focus on not ascending too fast and trying to stay calm (which I couldnt really achieve) I decided to go out without doing the safety stop. My thinking was that being panicked, I would face more risk in staying in the water. Knowing that I was underwater for less than 12 minutes, with a normal ascent I figured I made the right décision. . which is not exactly the belief of m'y buddy. What should I have done?

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[Lorenzoid]

It is called a "safety" stop because it is not obligatory; rather, it might be considered "optional." That is, whether you omit safety stop or perform a safety stop is believed extremely unlikely to be the determining factor between getting DCS and not getting DCS. Performing a safety stop provides an extra measure of protection. However, if there is any reason why in a particular instance you believe you cannot safely perform a safety stop, then it is better to omit it and surface. If you felt panicked, that seems like a good reason to have omitted the safety stop.

 

[Basking Ridge Diver]

A better question might be what lesson did you and your buddy learn?

 

[boulderjohn]

I don't see any consideration in this discussion of sharing air with your buddy. Why not?

I assume you meant you were under water for 12 minutes when you began the ascent. It does not seem like much, but in the PADI tables, you are only one minute away from the decompression limit for that depth. After that one more minute, you would have been in an emergency decompression situation. It was not a trivial amount of time at that depth.

Given the high rate with which you were going through gas, you were right in that you would not have had time to do a safety stop. If I had been you in that situation, though, I would have done all I could to make it happen. I would have made my buddy aware of my situation and done the slow ascent. At safety stop depth, the two of could have monitored my air and then gone to my buddy's alternate before things got really critical.

I just finished doing that with a tech student who went through his decompression gas shockingly fast. We monitored his gas, and when he was low (but not yet critical), he used my decompression gas while I went on back gas. Then when he as done with his decompression, I took back my decompression gas and he stayed with me on back gas. No problem.

 

[redacted]

If you had enough gas, better to do the SS. You need to ask yourself why you still felt panicked at 15 ft and how LOA happened.

 

[Lorenzoid]

So from others' replies, I take it the answer to the OP's question is: "Don't panic."

 

[houlejon]

Very good question... I think there are a lot... but I am still Wondering what happened exactly... here's a brief list :

- I didnt feel perfectly well before starting the dive. Major headache in the morning. I had a couple drinks the night before.
- Diving with an aluminium 80s is not appropriate for a dive at 120ft
- we should have an additionnal tank at 15 ft.
- this dive is almost a Technical one.. We shouldnt dive it just as if it was a simple saturday afternoon dive.



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---------- Post added August 23rd, 2015 at 01:39 PM ----------

I think the way I analysed it was that I figured my number one problem was the panic and the overbreathing. Missing air was my second priority since I still had around 400 psi at the surface and m'y buddy was à few feet from me...

A very good question from arap is why I didnt noticed i was low on air... I honestly dont have the answer yet. It never happened before.. Not even close. Could that be because of narcosis?


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[Zieg]

To me, the biggest problem here is freaking out because you got to 500.

 

[Steve_C]

Very good question... I think there are a lot... but I am still Wondering what happened exactly... here's a brief list :

- I didnt feel perfectly well before starting the dive. Major headache in the morning. I had a couple drinks the night before.
- Diving with an aluminium 80s is not appropriate for a dive at 120ft
- we should have an additionnal tank at 15 ft.
- this dive is almost a Technical one.. We shouldn't dive it just as if it was a simple saturday afternoon dive.

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Yes on all accounts. Dive was done with little margin of error.

If I am at 100 ft I have a pony.

When deep you need to focus on air monitoring.

Be thankful you lucked out. THIS TIME.

 

[houlejon]

I agree Zieg. I guess we were not prepared enough for the level of dificulty of this dive. I do remember the stress rising when I saw 500 on m'y computer

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---------- Post added August 23rd, 2015 at 01:50 PM ----------

Steve . Good suggestion. My buddy had one.. I am getting one for sure

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