Terrible dive today!Opinions?

[DivetheRock]

Well, today my brother and I went for a dive. Here's how it went, and how it is playing on my mind.
We swam out from shore on the surface. I was using my snorkel, and accidentally hit my reg on the water. It started to forcefully hiss out air. I checked the SPG, and the PSI read ~2500 (there was ~2700 to begin, and I coudln't reach my reg quick enough, hence the large decrease).
We reached a point from surface at which we descended to ~20 feet (I believe). I played around with my camera for a couple mins. We swam out a fair distance, watching our direction on compass, but neglecting to note our distance out from shore. My brother is in much better shape than me, and had much more air. When we realized we needed to turn around, I read my gauge at ~1000-1200 PSI. When I looked at my computer, I could see our depth was at 41 ft. (our max for the dive, BTW), but I could not tell the time. I struggled to find the correct screen, but was still unsuccessful in telling the time (at this point I began to notice a cramp in my left calf, but nothing too serious). When we got to about 20 ft. in depth, I checked my gauge and it read ~500 PSI. I was a little panicky, but counted off about 1 - 1 1/2 minutes in my head for our stop. We continued towards shore, but were not achieving much of a difference as far as shallow depth is concerned (this part of the swim in took ~2-3 mins., I'd say, as we thought we were extremely close in). Then looking at my gauge I noticed I was at ~200 or less PSI. I could feel the air getting harder to breathe, but tried not to panick (too much, anyways!!!). Then, I signalled to my brother that I was out of air, and we quickly attempted to retrieve his Octo. By the time we did this, I "all of a sudden" noticed we were gently breaching the surface; we had ascended without realizing it, albeit fairly well controlled. This was at ~15 ft, to my best recollection. On top of all this, I had to hold onto my brother, manually inflate my BC, and then I had a re-visitation of the cramp, except now it was bad. After my BC was inflated, I swam back to shore on my back. I collapsed on shore and was frightened to death about not doing a 3-5 min. level-off at between 10-15 feet (which is what we always do when swimming into shore).
I replayed in my mind the entire dive, and how I went out too far with too little air. I neglected to ensure my computer was set to the correct mode. - Summary: I was too caught up in the pleasure of diving to realize I was at risk of running out of air (and putting my brother at risk, too). - Profile: Our max was 41 ft.; 1 stop at ~20ft. for 1 - 1 1/2 mins.; then, ~ a 2-3 min. swim at 10-15 ft. towards shore; concluded with a fairly gentle, controlled ascent, although we didn't realize we were ascending; dive duration was 23 mins., start to finish.
I feel fine as far as aches and pains go. Perhaps the scattered one I do feel is from anxiety, and hauling around my gear (plus the ones that one's mind imagines). My brother feels fine, too. We got out of the water ~8 hrs. ago.
I realize my mistakes now, and will correct them in future dives. I guess I'm safe from DCI this time. BTW, I'm 33 yrs. old, strong and muscular but out of shape aerobically/anaerobically speaking, do not drink alcohol, do not smoke (anything), and always well hydrated. I don't expect anyone to give me any medical advice, I would appreciate advice on this particular dive profile and its safety measurement, however.
Thanks, guys...appreciate your input very much.

 

[Charlie99]

There were lots of dangerous things about that dive.

The profile wasn't one of them. You would have been relatively safe even if you had done the entire 23 minutes of bottom time at your max depth of 41', and then directly ascended at 30fpm to the surface.

Charlie Allen

 

[*Floater*]

Yeah, the 3-5 min shallow is just a safety stop, not a mandatory deco stop and even if it was mandatory deco that's not much. I've heard of some people blowing off hours off deco due to some emergency or problem and nothing happened, others (supposedly) did everything right and still got (an undeserved) hit.

On another note, you might want to practice air shares at around 10' with your buddy to make sure you can do it immediately while maintaining buoyancy control. I personally just donate the reg I'm breathing because that's right there in my mouth (pretty easy to find) and working for sure... I then reach for my backup to use myself.

 

[dcs917]

Suggest you find a buddy that has a little more experience, and gradually work your way into this new diving experience. Monitoring air consumption, depth, and bouyancy are skills that need to be learned and practiced often for all divers.

Another helpful point may be to maintain a visual (and physical) reference if at all possible (mooring line, float line, etc.) during descents and ascents. As opposed to diving in open water, this helps you to give you a reference point to monitor and control your dive.

Experience is the best teacher - and based on this dive recommend you think about what you can do next time to make your dives safer and more enjoyable!

 

[DivetheRock]

Charlie99, thanks for your reply. You're right - there were lots of things wrong with the dive, in hindsight. It's kind of crazy. After the dive, my brother said "Why didn't you/we just ascend where we were in a controlled manner?" It's so true, as you said, but between the cramp, low air, and thinking we were right in to shore (almost at 10 ft. depth), my mind was totally clouded. I will be doing that from now on. Habitually, we swim to shore with lots of air remaining so as we may extend our time while still taking in the scenery at a safe depth. I will be adjusting my dive profile(s) from here on in, and be paying more attention to my computer's setting from the get-go.
*Floater*, also thanks for your reply. We were taught well to do our air shares as you described. Today, I don't think my brother saw it coming, and us both being newbies I caught him off guard. In fact, I don't think he realized what the problem was even though I was making the dreaded signal OUT OF AIR!!! We are always cautious in everything we do. We always use commonsense, and today I violated our cardinal rules and blew him away with my stupidity. I just look at it as a classic textbook mistake, lesson learned, and thank God (quite literally and in all spiritual senses of that expression) that I survived to learn from it.
I was quite upset after the whole ordeal - wondering would we be O.K. and if we should in fact go to hospital to get checked out for DCI. My brother laughed at me there, and suggested that they'd think we were insane hypochondriacs.
dcs917, point taken...will do for sure (as for the buddy part, that we'll work on together...experienced buddies are hard to find where I live).

 

[WarrenZ]

Sounds like you had a hell of a dive dont worry your air comsumption will get better with time. Dont feel bad safety stops are recomended but you can blow them off if you have to. You should NEVER blow off a required deco stop but that kind of diving is more advanced than your dive was.

 

[dbombtek]

Thanks for your post, so I will not badmouth this. I would recommend going to the local lds and get a few more dives with an dive master before you do this sort of thing again. Also read your books that you got during class they will explain alot of what not to do and give a lot of good safe examples of how to plan and conduct a dive. YOU DEFINATELY NEED TO PAIR UP WITH AN EXPERIENCED DIVER TO GAIN SOME MORE EXPERIENCE.

 

[shakeybrainsurgeon]

A minor point considering what might have happened, but make sure you have the tank checked. A tank run to empty can become contaminated and should be serviced before further use.

I second the above opinions that dives with an experienced buddy will help. I did my first 10 or 15 dives after my OW dives with either an instructor or a DM.

Were there other divers there or just you two? If both had gotten into trouble, for example, was there anyone around to help or call for help? Not only does having an experienced buddy help, but diving in groups would offer a little more security.

 

[dumpsterDiver]

I would not buddy breath from a depth of 20 feet unless there was required deco to do. Just come up slowly. Your brother and you need to communicate air pressure better. You need to turn the dive sooner also. One thing that I noted when diving with a wetsuit in cold water, was that toward the end of the dive I became chilled. I would usually not allow my breathing rate to increase, but found that my air consumption was much higher at the end of the dive, compared to the beginning. I finally figured out that this was due to the fact that I was breathing deeper as I got cold; not really faster. It is strange when the last 800 lbs goes much faster than the first 800.

Swimming in Canadian water with scuba gear and without surface support can be more stressful than maybe some people realize. If you get caught in a current or can't swim, you can't just float there because you will freeze pretty darn quick (in a wetsuit). Having a cramp (or an impending one) and being low on air and an unknown distance from shore is the definition of a stressful situation.

As others have said, the decompression aspects of the dive at that depth and time are not an issue.

You seem to have exhibited an irrational fear of ascending. If I was that low on air, I would have ascended from a depth of say 30 feet (and 500 lbs) and then looked for how far the shore was. If it was "far" then I would snorkel in for a while. If it was "close" I would go back down and swim (or crawl) toward shore until my air was really low (200 psi) and make the final ascent. Pulling across the bottom is much easier than snorkeling, especially if you have a cramp in the leg. I used to often ascend half way through a shore dive just to get my bearings; from a depth of 35 or 40 feet the risk of bends due to a mid-dive ascent is pretty low.

 

[TxHockeyGuy]

First off, thanks for posting. It takes guts to post mistakes here on ScubaBoard. There were obviously a few mistakes that were made here but the major one is that you should have surfaced earlier. The goal is to reach the surface with 500 psi at the end of the dive. If you saw you were at 500 psi regardless of how far out you were from shore you should have thumbed the dive and surfaced. A long surface swim is much better than running our of air at depth, any depth. This also calls into question why your buddy didn't know you were running out of air. You should not only know how much air you have you should also know how much air your buddy has, and vice versa. That is part of the safety factor of buddy diving. Make sure you two are communicating your PSI throughout the dive.

A less serious problem was the gas management. Ideally you should be using the rules of thirds and you will probably get a few different opinions on how to use that rule here. The rule of thirds basically states you use 1/3 of your gas to get to your destination, 1/3 to get back, and 1/3 as a contigency. Try to use that rule based on your starting PSI to allow yourself plenty of air for the dive.

You mentioned you couldn't determine how long you had been at depth on your computer. Try to familiarize yourself with your computer more so that you have one less stress factor on your next drive. If this means finding a pool and playing with the computer, so be it.

The bottom line is you survived, you obviously learned from this, and I highly doubt you'll ever let yourself run out of air again. Try to communicate your air better and plan your dive such that you can be back on the surface with 500 psi and you will be fine. Others have suggested you hire a DM or Instructor to dive with. If your confidence has been shaken this is a very good suggestion. If you feal comfortable diving your current buddy you should discuss better communication and planning. Whatever happens do not be afraid to thumb a dive early. Remember that you should always be able to call a dive at any time, for any reason, or no reason at all, and without any questions. Do not be afraid to call a dive.