Thought I'd share one of my close calls

[PvtStash]

how practicing this at say 20' in a quarry with a buddy is tantamount to suicide... maybe its just cus' I'm new, but I'm not seeing the catastrophic danger here... is it danger free? well no, but neither is scuba... is the danger mitigated as much as possible by using a controlled enviroment (quarry vs. lake/ocean) and good buddy briefing? yep.

So... walk me through how this is going to (potentially) kill me again?

 

[battles2a5]

It can get you killed in the open water. That is my definition of a really bad idea.

In a pool with an instructor watching you, then fine.

Otherwise, not only no, but ... no.

Entanglement can get you killed in open water. OOA can get your killed in open water. Knowing how to ditch/don your gear underwater is a SKILL that can possible save your life in one of the above scenarios, not end it.

That being said, it is obviously prudent to practice the skill with an attentive buddy and use your head when doing so.

 

[ScubaSteve]

....i must have worked hard to get down to the bottom because i was out of air when i touched. so calmly (but rather quickly fumbled for my reg, picking up my octopus i fumbled it and it began to free flow. im at the bottom out of air and gasped and took in a bunch of water. My buddy grabbed me by the hand and gave me my reg..i stayed on the bottom and gathered my thoughts for a second before putting on my mask and everything.

morals of the story:
you can survive a little longer than you thought you could without air.
if you have a free flow, dont freak out. have a buddy help you out while you fix it.
always dive with a buddy and have fun

that to date was the closest call i've ever had with anything.

Why did you not breathe off the free flowing octo? While I agree with some that the fact that you are practicing skills is great, breathing from a free flowing reg is a pretty basic skill. Maybe I (or you) missed something in your story. A breath or two off the free flowing reg would have given you the air you needed to "fix it" as you say. I think this is an easy but important skill to practice. It can be very valuable and very easy to happen and practice.

 

[ScubaSteve]

I did this as part of my OW training, and again in Rescue. I don't think it's limited to ITC and personally, I think its a great drill. The more comfort you have with your equipment, the better. You never know what situation you will find yourself in, and practice like this may one day be the difference between a slight inconvenience and a major catastrophy.

I did not do this as part of my OW certification per se. It was NOT part of the course, but on my last skills dive, my head started to pout part way through, so my instructor, my buddy and I all worked to get the gear off my back and my instructors gear onto me while he took mine. This was just in case their was something wrong with the air. There is a lot of problems with this scenario I know, but it was a good example of NEW "not quite" divers slowly working through a problem with the involvement of an instructor. After surfacing, he indicated that that was a skill taught in the Instructor certification (he might have said DM) and applauded us for our ability to get through it calmly and safely, It was in about 45 feet of water so it was not too deep but still deep enough to get into trouble.

 

[Tortuga68]

is the danger mitigated as much as possible by using a controlled enviroment (quarry vs. lake/ocean) and good buddy briefing?

Buddy briefing was bad from what I read

 

[nereas]

how practicing this at say 20' in a quarry with a buddy is tantamount to suicide... maybe its just cus' I'm new, but I'm not seeing the catastrophic danger here... is it danger free? well no, but neither is scuba... is the danger mitigated as much as possible by using a controlled enviroment (quarry vs. lake/ocean) and good buddy briefing? yep.

So... walk me through how this is going to (potentially) kill me again?

You are breathing compressed air, and you are down quite a long ways. Several things could have gone wrong, and you could have become the next statistic. It was not a smart idea, just own up to it.

 

[battles2a5]

You are breathing compressed air, and you are down quite a long ways. Several things could have gone wrong, and you could have become the next statistic. It was not a smart idea, just own up to it.

So by that logic, should we not be teaching CESA? 8 meters is less than what PADI teaches the CESA iirc. At some point you have to stop "protecting" somebody from theirselves so that skills can be developed. The first thing you learn when you start scuba is to not hold your breath on the way up. Since that is a given, what was "not a smart idea"?

 

[PvtStash]

and you are down quite a long ways.

We're talking 20' here. You dont Truely believe that to be "quite a long way" Do you?

 

[ScubaSteve]

We're talking 20' here. You dont Truely believe that to be "quite a long way" Do you?

I will qualify this statement as NOT being in defence of its intended member. But, depending on what happens, 20' can seem like a very long distance. The bolded works are the key. It is not, but if you do somehow get pinned or trapped it can seem like miles.

 

[seaducer]

We're talking 20' here. You dont Truely believe that to be "quite a long way" Do you?

Its 2/3's of an atmosphere, so that is quite a pressure differential.