Uncontrolled free ascent

[FATdiver]

I think this is the first post on this thread, but I thought I would post to help me get more recommendations help me understand how not to make this mistake again.

Here is some information of me. I am an new OW diver with less that 10 dives.

I was diving with a dive guide in Hawaii. Dive guide took us down to 126 ft during the dive. On the way, back up I became concerned about my bottom time after looking at my dive computer. It seemed to me that I was out of bottom time. I began to try to surfaced and I pressed the inflate button instead of the purge button (have a seaquest octo-inflator and the two buttons are very close together and easily mistaken). I was at about 45 ft and ended up on the surface in a few seconds. The dive guide had me go down again and take sometime diving and do my 3 min safety stop.

There are a couple of solutions to the problem that I have come up with or suggested by another dive guide on the boat. First, I need to ask what depth the guide is planning on taking me before the dive and indicate to him that I am not comfortable diving to that depth. Second, I am starting to use my dump valve on my right shoulder to empty air out of the bc before ascending and will doing my safety stop. Third is instead of ascending all the way, I should try ascending a few feet to buy more bottom time and more time to assess my situation.

Any other suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Blake

 

[Steve R]

The solution is people need to learn to dive.

Like maybe in 20ft of water or so. Stay there until you can control yourself, then baby-step it out.

A situation like this wouldn't happen if you knew your gear and could control it properly.

An over whelming number of incidents and accidents happen to people that have very little recent dive experience. That category consists of new divers, vacation divers and divers that may have been certifiied for years but have precious few recent dives/took a lot of time off etc.

What happened to you is annoyingly common and is easily corrected. It is no mystery as to why it happens. Welcome to mainstream training.

 

[Dirkadiver]

For starters, stay within the limits of your training. If you're just OW certified, you shouldn't be diving to 126'. Whatever operation took you diving should not have taken you to those depths. You could have very easily ended up with a deco obligation. If that was the case & you had an uncontrolled ascent, you may not have been so lucky.

 

[jon m]

ouch!!!
what island? i had the same thing happen to me (DM trying to take us over 100' on 3rd- yes, 3rd- OW dive after certification.) we didn't do it, and ended up going somewhere else. dove to about 78' ( probably still too deep) it was on Kauii.
you have to remember , NOBODY but you is going to be looking out for your best interests (safety). there are dive ops that will take experience into account, but there are some who won't even ask. or worse, tell you it is o-k. only YOU know when it is
o-k. use this as a learning tool, it took stones just to post it here...
good job

 

[Zombie_Hunter]

Yeah they wouldn't let us deep dive till we had done an Advanced OW. I would say spend some time getting used to where eveything is on your rig. It should be second nature when you dump air from you BC

 

[darthvader]

I think you've done a pretty good job of analyzing your mistakes. Your own suggestions are good ones. I would add 2 things:

1st: when you are ready to begin your ascent, just go ahead and dump all the air from your BC. Use your fins to get up instead of your BC lift. You'll still have to keep dumping air as you go up, but at least you won't get behind the curve.

2nd: when you realized that you escaped alive and unbent, you have bought a lottery ticket as soon as possible, before your luck had a chance to turn.

Glad you're okay. Keep thinking and dive smart.

 

[TSandM]

First off, don't let people put you off asking advice here. You'll get good advice. Some of it won't be tactful.

I did my tenth dive in Molokini crater on Maui, and the instructor (we were being led by an actual instructor) took us to 130 feet. And I followed him, because he was an instructor, after all, and he seemed to think it was okay. I didn't have an uncontrolled ascent on that dive, but it was just luck.

First lesson: Every dive should have a plan. The plan should include the depth you intend to reach, the time you intend to spend there, and how much gas you are carrying (with an implication that you've figured out whether it's enough to DO the proposed dive). Any dive where you haven't gone over those things is a "trust me" dive, because you are trusting someone else to have figured out basic things that are critical to the safety of your dive.

Second lesson: If you don't know your gear very well, you're likely to make mistakes. I had an uncontrolled ascent from 70 feet when I had about 40 or so dives, because I was using new gear, and got it all wound up and couldn't vent my wing. When you change anything in your equipment (and I don't know if you were diving your own gear, or rental gear, and it makes a difference) do a shallow, simple dive or two to shake it all down before you take any risks.

The third lesson is that you don't understand decompression and "no-deco" limits very well, and that's not entirely your fault. Decompression is taught at a very primitive level in OW classes. The fact is that, if you exceed your no-deco limits on your computer, you may be just fine, especially if you are using a conservative computer and it's your first dive of the day. Or you may not be fine, but if you DO the deco that you incur, you most likely will be. The big issue is if you have enough gas. But my point is that seeing the clock tick down on your computer is a reason to signal your buddies and indicate a desire to ascend, but it is NOT a reason to panic and shoot for the surface. My husband's computer got mad at him on a repetitive dive in LA, and we sat in ten feet of warm, clear water and played "rock, paper, scissors" until his computer was happy. You don't turn into a pumpkin because you exceeded your no-deco limits.

Of course, it's not something you WANT to do, or OUGHT to do, and you should have PLANNED the dive so you wouldn't do it. But divers are too afraid of decompression, and a poorly controlled ascent is much more dangerous than a few extra minutes at a safety stop (assuming you have enough gas to do the stop).

Bottom line -- Don't dive without a plan. Know the parameters of the dive -- depth, time, direction, and gas. Have an idea of what you'll do if something doesn't go as planned (contingencies). Don't entrust the safety of your dive to someone else, no matter what their title is.

 

[almitywife]

others have already giving excellent advise..... i thank you for behing so forthright in telling us what happened to you

and a reminder on why i hate those occy/inflater things

goodluck and safe diving

 

[Ed Palma]

Something like that also happened to me. I was using a borrowed Scubapro BCD. I was fresh out of OW, and was used to the thumb-inflator, index finger-exhaust arrangement, and with the side-by-side arrangement of the buttons on the scubapro. On a relatively deep dive, I was trying to vent my BCD but noticed I was heading higher and higher. Good thing I recongnized it and was able to vent my BCD while finning downward. Which brought home a very important lesson: Always get familiar with your gear. With all these variations, I guess its folly to imagine that the quick "hey insta-buddy, here is my inflate/deflate/ weight belt/ release/ alternate air source, etc..." will suffice in an emergency.

 

[Trwmodela]

Plan your dive and dive your plan......this is very important on deep dives! I used several guides in the Florida Keys to dive the deep wrecks. We did detailed dive plans and dove the plan. Also, I took my Deep Diver Course on the deep wrecks and learned about the rule of thirds. I have been lucky to build experience on Nekton Diving Cruises. Live-aboards are a great tool if you can afford them.

But take additional training and built experience slowly. If you are not comfortable with your instructor get another.
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