What divers do VS What divers should do - Emergency Situations

[Lucas Cordina]

So, we all know (or at least, I hope we all know) what we should do in emergency situations:
whether you're out of air, you get a runaway ascent, went past your depth/time limit, etc; but no agency really seems to discuss what divers actually do in these conditions

But, we can't honestly say that panic doesn't get the better of us when we actually get ourselves into these situations, can we?

So, in the interest of the divers in these forums, can anyone share personal experiences with any emergency situations? Whether it was you that was confronted with some hazard, or maybe even someone in your dive group, it really doesn't matter as long as it's a scenario that actually happened.

How did the person react, what should he/she have done instead, what can you do to combat your basic instincts; which undoubtedly just shout "GET OUT OF THE WATER, NOW!"?

 

[windapp]

I once had an anxiety I couldn't shake, and I needed to surface. I was unable to communicate that I was ok in the sense that I didn't need rescuing but needed to surface nonetheless. The rescue diver I was with wouldn't let me have my inflator, and she ascended me way to fast.

In this case, my biggest problem was not being able to clearly communicate. Next time, if it happened again (hopefully it won't since I now know how to handle the situation at depth), if I realize my eyes are showing anxiety, I will clearly point to myself, and indicate that I will swim up on my own.

 

[Lucas Cordina]

I once had an anxiety I couldn't shake, and I needed to surface. I was unable to communicate that I was ok in the sense that I didn't need rescuing but needed to surface nonetheless. The rescue diver I was with wouldn't let me have my inflator, and she ascended me way to fast.

In this case, my biggest problem was not being able to clearly communicate. Next time, if it happened again (hopefully it won't since I now know how to handle the situation at depth), if I realize my eyes are showing anxiety, I will clearly point to myself, and indicate that I will swim up on my own.

I never realized that could happen, you can't blame a rescue diver for going rescue mode, so pointing out that you're still able to surface on your own really is something worthwhile to do

 

[Crush]

If you practice emergency scenarios on a regular basis you are extremely unlikely to panic if that situation arises in real life.

 

[TSandM]

Well, here are two:

The first one was a violent freeflow. I had about 70 dives or so at the time, and I was with my favorite buddy and my Fundies instructor. We had finished an air-sharing drill, and when I dropped my backup reg back into its place under my chin, it began to freeflow, and it wouldn't stop. I tried, and my instructor tried, but it became obvious that it was unfixable. My instructor donated his reg to me, and we began an ascent. I'd like to say that, having practiced lots of air-sharing ascents, it went smoothly, but it didn't. I found out that being enveloped in a cloud of extremely noisy bubbles is quite stressful, and stress messes up your breathing which ruins your buoyancy control. It didn't end up an uncontrolled ascent, but there was quite a bit of yo-yoing involved. The lesson learned was that the stress of real situations means you're never going to pull them off as beautifully as you can in drills.

The second was sailing off the edge of a big wall and grinning a big grin . . . that flooded my mask. All of a sudden I was in midwater, in the dark, and I couldn't see . . . and I couldn't get my mask to clear. Eventually, I got vertigo, and I realized I hadn't asked an important question about the dive -- namely, how deep was the bottom? I couldn't see, I was spinning, and I didn't know where I was . . . but then I felt something under my hand, and grabbed it, thinking that even though I didn't know whether it was a rock sticking up or sideways or what, I'd at least be able to stabilize myself and stop the awful spinning, and then maybe figure out why my mask wouldn't clear.

My big mistake was never, through all of this, signaling my buddy that I was having problems. He saw me sail off the edge of the wall and then do a perfect back flip and end up on my stomach on the bottom, at the top of the wall. He had no idea I was disoriented or couldn't see. Lesson learned: When you are having a problem, it's easy to get perceptual narrowing and forget that you are with a buddy or buddies who both deserve to know you are in trouble, and also might be able to help.

 

[Lucas Cordina]

Well, here are two:

The first one was a violent freeflow. I had about 70 dives or so at the time, and I was with my favorite buddy and my Fundies instructor. We had finished an air-sharing drill, and when I dropped my backup reg back into its place under my chin, it began to freeflow, and it wouldn't stop. I tried, and my instructor tried, but it became obvious that it was unfixable. My instructor donated his reg to me, and we began an ascent. I'd like to say that, having practiced lots of air-sharing ascents, it went smoothly, but it didn't. I found out that being enveloped in a cloud of extremely noisy bubbles is quite stressful, and stress messes up your breathing which ruins your buoyancy control. It didn't end up an uncontrolled ascent, but there was quite a bit of yo-yoing involved. The lesson learned was that the stress of real situations means you're never going to pull them off as beautifully as you can in drills.

The second was sailing off the edge of a big wall and grinning a big grin . . . that flooded my mask. All of a sudden I was in midwater, in the dark, and I couldn't see . . . and I couldn't get my mask to clear. Eventually, I got vertigo, and I realized I hadn't asked an important question about the dive -- namely, how deep was the bottom? I couldn't see, I was spinning, and I didn't know where I was . . . but then I felt something under my hand, and grabbed it, thinking that even though I didn't know whether it was a rock sticking up or sideways or what, I'd at least be able to stabilize myself and stop the awful spinning, and then maybe figure out why my mask wouldn't clear.

My big mistake was never, through all of this, signaling my buddy that I was having problems. He saw me sail off the edge of the wall and then do a perfect back flip and end up on my stomach on the bottom, at the top of the wall. He had no idea I was disoriented or couldn't see. Lesson learned: When you are having a problem, it's easy to get perceptual narrowing and forget that you are with a buddy or buddies who both deserve to know you are in trouble, and also might be able to help.

Thanks for sharing those experiences, getting vertigo and being unable to see really seems to be a hard situation, especially when it's a wall dive.. Weren't you able to open your eyes and try to see what was happening? Or do you, like me, wear contacts?

And I gotta admit, if I were in that same situation, signalling my buddy would be the last thing that comes to mind, when really, it should be one of the top priorities, thanks for helping me sort them out

 

[Laurie S.]

I can think of one occurrence, when I was swimming an expanding square during my rescue diver training ironically. My buddy was running compass and I was following, looking for the "body" of our instructor. After two squares, I was breathing way too rapidly to where I couldn't catch my breath and had the strong urge to shoot for the surface. I fought it, slowed my swimming way down and let my buddy go ahead, and then concentrated on slowing my breathing down. I knew that if I surfaced, I would fail the course. It worked. Then, suddenly my buddy stopped because the same thing had happened to him. He was swimming way too fast and acknowledged that when we eventually surfaced.

The funny thing is that when we surfaced we saw our instructor sitting on the boat ladder. No wonder we couldn't "rescue" him!

 

[Lucas Cordina]

I can think of one occurrence, when I was swimming an expanding square during my rescue diver training ironically. My buddy was running compass and I was following, looking for the "body" of our instructor. After two squares, I was breathing way too rapidly to where I couldn't catch my breath and had the strong urge to shoot for the surface. I fought it, slowed my swimming way down and let my buddy go ahead, and then concentrated on slowing my breathing down. I knew that if I surfaced, I would fail the course. It worked. Then, suddenly my buddy stopped because the same thing had happened to him. He was swimming way too fast and acknowledged that when we eventually surfaced.

The funny thing is that when we surfaced we saw our instructor sitting on the boat ladder. No wonder we couldn't "rescue" him!

Yeah overexertion can be a pain, I swim way too fast, with the grace and efficiency of an obese ballerina, so I experience that quite a bit!

So I'm curious, if there was no body to be found, what was the criteria for passing the course? Or was he just watching from a certain spot to see if you did the search patterns rights? Because that seems like it would make you panic if you're still looking around and there's nothing to be found!

 

[Dive the World]

I once had an anxiety I couldn't shake, and I needed to surface. I was unable to communicate that I was ok in the sense that I didn't need rescuing but needed to surface nonetheless. The rescue diver I was with wouldn't let me have my inflator, and she ascended me way to fast.

In this case, my biggest problem was not being able to clearly communicate. Next time, if it happened again (hopefully it won't since I now know how to handle the situation at depth), if I realize my eyes are showing anxiety, I will clearly point to myself, and indicate that I will swim up on my own.

Please never swim up on your own. Anything could happen in those few minutes where you are alone! believe me when I say that.

You go down as two you come up as two.

 

[Kilili]

If you practice emergency scenarios on a regular basis you are extremely unlikely to panic if that situation arises in real life.

Exactly. In an emergency situation, you will respond according to your conditioning. If you have not continually practiced specific behaviour, you'll not do it when you need to. With panic, thinking shuts down, and you merely react.

It also helps to mentally work thru different scenarios of thing that could go wrong, and decide what your response should be, but really, practice is what's needed.

There was once a posting on here about a cave diver who had a reg failure and found his octo filled with mud from dragging on the bottom. No chance for direct ascent here. He patiently took the octo apart, cleaned out the mud, reassembled it, and lived. How did he manage this? He had practiced doing so.

Also, practicing meditation and yoga will help you achieve a more relaxed and aware state of mind.

One must learn to be proficient and self-sufficient. In such situations, the only person you can really count on is yourself.