Went to the local quarry for a dive today and had an issue

[fisheater]

Not sure about the mask "strap tension" advice. AFAIK, your strap should play no roll in your mask seal during a dive. I just use the strap to hold the mask around my neck at the surface.

A properly fitted mask shouldn't need any external pressure, other than water pressure, to keep it dry and in place.

Just make sure the mask fits well and that you keep the hood over or away from the mask skirt.


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[hmarashi]

I agree with the hood causing problems. Here in California, we're always using hoods.
Were you wearing your mask strap under or over your hood? I wear my strap under. When I start the dive, the integrated hood is off, once I drop and hit the thermocline, I put the hood on.
Also agree that 38 deg is too cold for a wetsuit.

 

[Scott]

My buddy made sure I was good up till about 30' and then she let me go and continued. I was ok with how this went down, do you think she should have done something different? What would someone expect of a buddy in this case?

I believe you know she should have done something different.
When you dive with a buddy that buddy is yours from descent to the time you are back on the boat/shore, not to 30'.

 

[CamG]

Greetings scottb27 this was not a training dive and making a safe ascent was the best possible option when you could no longer control the situation underwater.
Wearing a hood is a simple fact of life in cold water and if would be wise to gain familiarity on shallow dives first.
Never attempt to add new gear for pushing the limits of your training or experience.
Even with DM's or Instructors it does not matter!
10' of vis is no place to have a serious issue and being a new diver IMHO your buddy should have exited with you.
Been there happened to both sides of the fence, NO EXCEPTIONS!

Safe diving rules dictate this very clearly.
Training, experience, comfort in the water, and progressional learning will to build you into the diver you wish to be.
Be patient and keep diving as much as you can.
Be goal oriented and do not draw lines or limits but instead move in planned progressive dives that are within your training and experience.
Follow the safe diving rules and you will find yourself moving forward at your pace.

CamG Keep Diving....Keep Training....Keep Learning!

 

[doctormike]

Yup, just to echo some of the sentiments here... 38 degrees is not wetsuit territory, and I'm not sure if your rental reg was the optional cold water version. I also agree that a buddy should not leave you in a potentially dangerous situation - a new diver in 30 feet of cold water with limited visibility.

I just wanted to add something that was touched on by one other commenter. One of the most experienced dive boat captains in our area once advised me to wear my mask under my hood, and I always have since. It's just as comfortable, and you don't have the risk of losing your mask to another diver's inattentive fin kick or other underwater collision. Also, you can easily take your hood off underwater if necessary.

 

[DivemasterDennis]

As you give additional information, I think the hood /mask use was the reason for the mask problem. Mask must be touching your face, not the hood. Second, if you sucked in water though your nose, you were nose breathing, a problem that also led to water in the mask. Stress from the conditions of cold water, new equipment (hood) and depth all likely led to your higher anxiety level, probably rapid breathing ( including nose breathing). Your pretty high rate of air consumption on the shallower dive suggests that you need to check your proper weighting, and have better buoyancy control. So... don't get spooked by the experience. Work on some things: proper weighting, maintaining neutral buoyancy, mask clearing and removal and replacement. Do some pool work where you wear no mask, and breath through the scuba unit for several minutes to overcome that nose breathing. I am a little underwhelmed with the competence level of your buddies on this dive. on several levels, but that's another issue. One final tip- I actually do a lot of cold water diving, and I put my mask on under the hood. If you did not do that, try it next time.
DivemasterDennis scubasnobs.com

 

[LowDrag]

Scott...thanks for starting this thread. Reading things like this are making me think about things I have not thought about yet. Keep on diving and remember to learn from these experiences rather than let them chase you away from diving.

 

[scottb27]

Thanks for all the responses guys.

Im going on a warm weather trip to the carribean in 2 weeks and I think I will be fine down there; as I wont need a hood and wont be going deep.

When I get back I will talk to the LDS about using the pool when they rent it out and working with them on a few other things. This certainly isnt chasing me away, and Im sure in the long run this will help out my learning curve.

 

[herbdb]

I think that the biggest issue was how you reacted to the mask flooding. Practice mask removal and recovery drills until your only reaction to a flooded mask is mild annoyance. You can lose a mask at any time for any number of reasons and need to calmly fix the problem.

 

[Bubbletrubble]

My instructor said something about the 60' dive and we spoke about it before we went down. Knowing that I wanted to do deep dive cert, he said that we would count this as one and I would come home and do the book and next week do the second deep dive.

What an "awesome" bit of instructing you were given! There was no discussion about the considerations of "deep" diving (gas planning, narcosis, etc.) prior to the dive in question. 70 ffw isn't very deep, but if the instructor is counting it as a "deep" dive, then he should be treating it with a little more respect. Asking you to do the dive first...then read the book at home...is really doing things in the wrong order. He/she really shouldn't be cutting corners like this.

My buddy made sure I was good up till about 30' and then she let me go and continued. I was ok with how this went down, do you think she should have done something different? What would someone expect of a buddy in this case?

I'm a little confused by the ambiguity of your statement. After letting you go at 30 ffw, did your buddy continue her ascent to meet up with you on the surface (to check on you in case you were experiencing a medical emergency) or did she continue the dive without you? The former would be the proper buddy response. The latter qualifies as buddy abandonment.