I'm a newly certified AOW with 20 dives under my belt. 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.
I'm out with a DM who is new to the divesite.
On the first dive everything goes well, we dive at 18m the currents are pretty strong but we pass the strong currents just once.
On the second dive, the DM takes us through multiple sections of high current zones where we're swimming against the currents. This is honestly new to me as I've never dived against such strong current and my air consumption is higher than normal.
At around 20mins into the dive I'm reaching the reserve levels in my tank instead of reaching the reserve at 45 mins as is my usual air consumption.
I signal the DM that I'm low on air and she doesn't take notice. I look around for my dive buddy in case I need to swim to him to share air.
After a while I've reached my reserve and I indicate to my DM again that I'm low on air and she just asks me to swim in another section of high current.
Now a sense of panic sets in, I decide to swim into the current straight towards her and show her a low air directly on her face. Now I have 20 bar air left but I'm a bit relieved because she's got the message. We share air but because my tank is so light it drags us both up.
In my sense panic and the rapid ascent I forget to control my buoyancy and we both surface without a safety stop.
So there we go, that was a traumatic ending to 2019 and in all honesty I've decided that scuba in general is too risky for me to pursue. I love swimming and snorkeling is a better alternative for me.
The DM had her version of the story but I was in a state of shock and I didn't argue with her. I was the customer after all.
I spend most of my dives in local quarry just floating around enjoying the sun on the water, the antics of a few fish, the laziness of floating and the fun of pushing off from something and gliding free. I've even gotten fairly good at diving upside down (horizontal but belly skyward) just to watch the surface, the clouds or the night sky above the water. Diving has no need whatsoever to be an adventure sport. Actually one of the things I love about diving is that (unlike trying to ski faster, jump higer, drive faster etc.) you never need to feel afraid: if you are scared, you're doing something wrong and should feel free to stop doing it. Diving IMO is all about relaxation, laziness, going twice as slow and seeing twice as much. You might really enjoy diving like this; I hope you give it a try.