Time to hang up my wetsuit after near death on NYE

[dlofting]

Lots of good advice in this thread. So if you do decide to continue diving go through it in detail and make a list of the things you want to learn/practice so you are comfortable in the water and confident in your skills and knowledge. If you want, share that list with this community. If you decide to get some more training there are people here who can recommend great instructors.

 

[drbill]

Assuming the OP is accurate on this recounting, I disagree with some of the posters here who do not assign much blame to the DM. The OP signaled the DM they were low on air more than once. The DM apparently did not respond initially. Yes, the OP is responsible ultimately for their diving and should have aborted the dive but it sounds like the DM was negligent as well.

 

[Aviyes]

IMO your story is at least in part a result of the diver training model used by a lot of agencies. IMO nobody with as few as 20 dives should not be AOW certified, that's just not enough diving experience IMO.

AOW has nothing to do with overall dive experience and never has for most cert organizations. In PADI, all it certifies is that you did 5 dives under supervision of an instructor to experience five new aspects/gain new or increase diving skills. If OW is a 101 course, then AOW is a 102 course and nothing more, with a few organizations being exceptions.

Regardless, OP don't give up, it was a learning experience that may cause you to slow down and seek some mentorship or instruction from a good instructor. You successfully used the skills you had been taught to recover from a poor situation. Keep pushing on through.

 

[divad]

Keep pushing on through.

Do not "keep pushing on through"..........unless you want to.

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

Assuming the OP is accurate on this recounting, I disagree with some of the posters here who do not assign much blame to the DM. The OP signaled the DM they were low on air more than once. The DM apparently did not respond initially. Yes, the OP is responsible ultimately for their diving and should have aborted the dive but it sounds like the DM was negligent as well.

Yes the DM was probably not doing her job up to par, but as you said, the individual diver is ultimately responsible for their life. To put one’s trust and life entirely into someone else’s hands is a very dangerous and risky practice. I don’t know the cultural background of the OP, but maybe in that part of the world that type of thing is more accepted than here, who knows?
I don’t believe in blindly following the standard “buddy” system. I think it needs a lot more work to improve that concept, especially how they teach it and treat it in today’s standard training. It can become live by the buddy die by the buddy, unless it is thoroughly understood and perfected.
In this case I would have headed up, did my stop and surfaced solo. If the other buddy or DM was following protocol they should have surfaced about one minute later to regroup and a discussion would have followed to the tune of “I tried to show you I was low on air and you ignored me”

 

[markmud]

The conditions were exceptionally benign, but I still realized that if I'm going to do this I need more experience. I found an amazing instructor.

Hi @Edwon1,

Bagoose has it right. Only dive in benign conditions. Find an instructor who can teach you to be self-reliant. Learn to use your thumb (if you thumb the dive, your buddy's dive is also over). A dive buddy who gets upset that you thumbed a dive is no buddy--he/she is an asshat.

Most important thing ever is you are your own keeper. This whole buddy and DM thing are great concepts that you shouldn't rely on. We teach it, it works but there's two sides to it - one side doesn't do it's job, time to CYOA.

Low on air and DM doesn't respond, time to go up - plain and simple. Grab a buddy if possible and go up - otherwise go up alone.

ChuckP is also right on.

Here is my advice:

Don't quit. Diving can be a lifelong hobby that brings you joy and travel.

Find a DM who can mentor you. Find an instructor who can teach you to be self-reliant. Also, interrogate future dive-ops and make sure that they understand your limitations.

If need be, hire a vetted DM for yourself.

Once you get over the "learning curve" you will probably love the sport as my wife and I do.

Most people feel super comfortable with different recreational diving situations after about 100 dives.

You have learned the most important lessons that OW was not designed to teach you:

1. You can get hurt or killed doing this sport;
2. your DM or buddy may not care about your life, or your issues;
3. that you need to become self-reliant while u/w; and,
4. as Jack Palance gestured in a movie, worry about number "1" in all of these situations:
   1. first,
   2. last,
   3. and all times in between!

The best thing you can do for your DM or buddy, is to take care of yourself! They don't want to deal with your injuries either!

@Eric Sedletzky,
We posted at the same time. Right-on, could not have wrote it better! Time to hang up my wetsuit after near death on NYE

cheers,
m

 

[Storker]

On the eve of new year I decided to go for a fun dive with a dive center that had pretty good reviews on TripAdvisor.

If you decide to come back to diving (and that's totally up to you, you should feel fairly confident under water. A little apprehension is good, it sharpens your mind. Fear is not good, because no matter what you do, if you're fearful and insecure you will have a higher risk of getting hurt), take "pretty good reviews on TripAdvisor" with a couple of pounds of salt.

Where I come from, independent diving is the norm. Every buddy pair is responsible for their dive, their dive planning and their safety. The first time I started to read up on TripAdvisor to find a suitable op to dive with while on vacation, I learned that the point scores are meaningless. Too many muppets expecting to be led by the hand, too many incompetent divers who didn't have the faintest about dive safety. Read the reviews and make up your own mind about the op. An arrogant SOB who expects that their customers are competent may well get poor reviews on TripAdvisor from the muppets, but may equally well be the perfect fit for a reasonably competent diver.

 

[Tournesol2000]

As a new diver, I can relate. I am not AOW, but I can totally understand the feeling when swimming against a strong current and getting stressed and over exerting onself. It is a bad feeling and can certainly make new divers re-consider the sport. In my experience, I signaled my dive buddy and we ascended immediately. I felt bad as he is a seasoned diver, but he was totally fine about it as he understood the situation. That helped me get over calling a dive early and ruining another diver's day, especially a friend. My lesson from that experience was to be weary on all future dives about strong currents (I will sit out a dive if the DM says the currents are strong. I changed my fins to my old pair that are better suited for flutter kicks. next several dives were in shallower and less current areas. I am building my way to stronger currents now.

My take away from your story was not discussed, and that was that you were too buoyant at the end of the dive and could not control your ascent. I think that if this had not happened, you would be in a better mental place after the dive, and could manage the experience of the strong current and running low on air, but that , coupled with the uncontrolled buoyancy can certainly shake a new diver.
Glad you are ok.

 

[seeker242]

Not a reason to quit altogether IMO. Don't let yourself get low on air again and it won't happen again. The DM sounds like they didn't do their job well, but you should never let yourself get low on air, regardless of what someone else is doing or not doing. Once you hit your minimum, you go up no ifs, ands, or buts about it.

 

[M-Cameron]

1) you ran out of air.... you didn’t “nearly die”.... we train for out of air emergencies in OWC.... and it sounds like it went fine....as for a SS, they are recommended, but not required. Jarring experience sure, but no need to tell fishing stories here.

2) you are responsible for your safety, not your DM..... you put yourself in your situation by not thumbing the dive, even when you knew better....barring some catastrophic emergency, there is 0 excuse for running out of air.... especially when you are actively checking your SPG.


If you learn from it, this experience will make you a better diver