Spatial Disorientation

[Akimbo]

What's the problem? The only direction you must keep track of is where the surface is. Bubbles do a very reliable job at that.

 

[Remy B.]

At night time without a light been the worse case scenario, and why I asked the question, will that work as well, for what I had read it appear that the diver can have a dislodge from what his brain interpret (spatial disorientation) and what his eyes see, this appears to be the big problem, even if you see your bubbles go up, it doesn't get to you, while deploying a SMB you only can follow the line up it gave you I believe a more physical pointer of a vertical indicator, I'm speculating here but seems what makes sense and it is what I understood from TsandM

As well this spatial disorientation affects more the inexperience divers. I guess you throw in narcosis and it makes it a lot worse of what your brain can make sense of.

 

[Lorenzoid]

Do you get vertigo/dizziness? That's the only difficulty I can envision from disorientation. It's difficult to focus on a compass, one's gauges, deploying an SMB, or any other task while the world is spinning.

 

[Remy B.]

Not that I know of, but then I guess I have not pushed my self to that point, everybody have their limits I guess

 

[Akimbo]

At night time without a light been the worse case scenario, ….

I don’t recall not being able to see open-circuit bubbles on recreational night dives due to bioluminescence. Hmm, that may only be in sea water though??? The exception at any time of day would be black water, which would be the worst case of all.

Disorientation is the least of the problems that divers inexperienced in black water have. The link above describes it and suddenly being lost in black water can induce panic in some people pretty quickly.

There is another way to find the surface on a no-overhead dive. Just inflate your BC or drop lead. It won’t matter if you are in black water, your ear drum [-]pops[/-] blows out and have severe vertigo, can’t find a buddy, or you are in full panic mode. Archimedes will rescue you.

It is highly improbable that a recreational solo diver will find themselves in black water that isn’t highly localized. I suppose it can happen on a mud bottom that you have stirred up. However, you know the surface and clearer water is in the opposite direction from the bottom you are mucking up. As for significant narcosis, that is improbable for recreational solo divers since that requires a greater depth than recommended.

Sure there are solo divers that exceed these depths. They are not likely to be diving deeper than they have inexperienced before and are able to manage their narcosis.

Diving in general, and solo in particular, requires some common sense. It is inadvisable to make a night dive before you are comfortable and confident in daylight, just as it is inadvisable to solo dive in conditions significantly outside your daylight experience. However, Darwin is always standing by for those who choose not to engage their gray matter.

 

[TSandM]

Disorientation is not necessarily vertigo, although it can end up there. I can remember a dive where I watched in befuddlement as my instructor receded away from me rapidly, and I was thinking, "That's one WEIRD current.". But in the end, it turned out I was vertical, head down, and losing buoyancy control, and totally unaware of the fact that I had my axes of orientation off by 90 degrees. I had the same thing happen to me during Bob Bailey's infamous AOW class, where you have to swim a polygon with described headings and times. One buddy keeps track of depth and time, the other does heading. I looked over at my companion and found him bolt upright, vertical in the water -- and I realized he was MUCH too experienced to be doing that, and it must be me, straight head down again.

I watched one of the best divers I know, lose orientation and buoyancy control on a free ascent in clear, black water in Cozumel. That was the last time I did a free ascent without shooting a bag.

 

[Nemrod]

I'm posting here in Solo, because I believe that it is probably a lot more dangerous and specially with deep bottoms.

Any light on this, is their any way to confront this, I guess night diving been the worse, referencing to Aircraft articles the best is to watch your instruments but this is not always guaranty that it will get to your brain to realize where you are, it suppose to be one of the big killers of pilots, I was wondering if this can also be the case in diving and it may be pointed wrong only to Nitrogen narcosis, can this maybe likely to be a deathly combination of both???

What is your opinion?

I cannot recall being spatially disoriented while SCUBA diving and I am not much into the narcosis thing. Some make a big deal over, it, I do not.

When I was in college I sometimes made a little money on salvage, seems people heard I had some of that fancy underwater swimming gear. I have made many dives during that time, solo, in less than zero viz. I kinda enjoyed feeling my way along a sand bottom looking for whatever with giant catfish nibbling on my toes.

Night diving in the Cayman or Coz, I can see the stars. That is usually the way up.

I am instrument and commercial rated, I do not see much similarity at all. Yes, several times I have had disorienting moments in the cockpit. I decided long ago that I love flying but as an amateur (with good many hours) I just do not need to be in cloud, on purpose. But I still practice my approaches etc. just incase. SCUBA and flying are not very good analogies I have come to think.

N

 

[Lopez116]

Disorientation is not necessarily vertigo, although it can end up there. I can remember a dive where I watched in befuddlement as my instructor receded away from me rapidly, and I was thinking, "That's one WEIRD current.". But in the end, it turned out I was vertical, head down, and losing buoyancy control, and totally unaware of the fact that I had my axes of orientation off by 90 degrees. I had the same thing happen to me during Bob Bailey's infamous AOW class, where you have to swim a polygon with described headings and times. One buddy keeps track of depth and time, the other does heading. I looked over at my companion and found him bolt upright, vertical in the water -- and I realized he was MUCH too experienced to be doing that, and it must be me, straight head down again.

I watched one of the best divers I know, lose orientation and buoyancy control on a free ascent in clear, black water in Cozumel. That was the last time I did a free ascent without shooting a bag.

Totally right. Some times I get disoriented in bad viz, heavy surge, little reference points. Usually it goes away without issue. Some times, though, it's like your eyes and brain are struggling to make sense of it and if they can't, I get brief vertigo. I've had it on land in other scenarios with busy backgrounds and underwater before, so I know not to panic and it will go away momentarily. Good learning experience I think.

This past weekend I dove in heavy surge. The sand on the bottom was moving slightly, so was the sargassum and detritus on the bottom, so was I. It was very disorienting and stressful. I usually just look to my gauges/compass and keep swimming away from the thing that's disorienting me.

Night diving is not fun for me for that reason.

 

[Kharon]

Diving in general, and solo in particular, requires some common sense. It is inadvisable to make a night dive before you are comfortable and confident in daylight, just as it is inadvisable to solo dive in conditions significantly outside your daylight experience. However, Darwin is always standing by for those who choose not to engage their gray matter.

+++++++1 Hope you don't mind - I'm going to put your quote ("Darwin is always standing by for those who choose not to engage their gray matter.") into my collection of awsome quotes. I will attribute it to Akimbo unless you would prefer your real name. If so PM me.