Great thread with lots of interesting stories and certainly food for thought.
Being a fairly new diver, I haven't had much of an opportunity to find myself in many intimidating situations but thus far my most intimidating would be my first dive after getting my Scuba Diver cert in Jamaica (third dive overall).
This was at a Sandals, so most everyone else on the boat was either a DSD or occasional vacation diver. There was a French fellow that I had kind of buddied up to on the boat previously and this was the last dive before heading home for both of us.
The DM had us all meet at the bottom in a circle before heading out to the reef (yes, on our knees in the sand, which I no longer do). I was at the direct opposite point in the circle from the DM and so the farthest away and my French pal was to my right.
The DM gave the signal to head out and everyone started to do so. Being the farthest away, I was the last to start. As my instafriend started to kick off, he also made a big sweeping stroke with his arms. You can probably guess what happened - his left hand hooked my hose and swept my regulator out of my mouth. Wouldn't have been so bad, but it happened right as I was inhaling and I got a good breath of seawater.
So, here I am 40' down and choking with my reg floating somewhere behind me. Since I was the last of the group, everyone else (my friend included) had no idea and was merrily swimming off toward the reef. Visibility was 80-100' so I could see the bottom of the boat just above me. Mild panic set in. I wanted to shoot for the surface but fortunately my training kicked in and I remembered what the instructor had repeated many times - "Don't remove your regulator! If you need to cough, even if you need to vomit, do it through the regulator!"
So, I did the backsweep and caught my reg, put it back in my mouth and coughed up the water. Thought about ditching the dive then but I took a couple of minutes to calm myself and said, "Screw it, I'm fine now and I'm not going to waste this dive!" Went on to have an otherwise nice relaxing dive and never said a word about it to any of the group (although I told my instructor the next day as I was preparing to leave and thanking him for his training!).
In the end, I was actually kinda "glad" that it happened. All throughout training I had thought to myself, "This is all well and good, but will I remember it when the time comes?" So in that respect, it was actually reassuring and a bit calming (afterwards of course, not so much during the event).
Being a fairly new diver, I haven't had much of an opportunity to find myself in many intimidating situations but thus far my most intimidating would be my first dive after getting my Scuba Diver cert in Jamaica (third dive overall).
This was at a Sandals, so most everyone else on the boat was either a DSD or occasional vacation diver. There was a French fellow that I had kind of buddied up to on the boat previously and this was the last dive before heading home for both of us.
The DM had us all meet at the bottom in a circle before heading out to the reef (yes, on our knees in the sand, which I no longer do). I was at the direct opposite point in the circle from the DM and so the farthest away and my French pal was to my right.
The DM gave the signal to head out and everyone started to do so. Being the farthest away, I was the last to start. As my instafriend started to kick off, he also made a big sweeping stroke with his arms. You can probably guess what happened - his left hand hooked my hose and swept my regulator out of my mouth. Wouldn't have been so bad, but it happened right as I was inhaling and I got a good breath of seawater.
So, here I am 40' down and choking with my reg floating somewhere behind me. Since I was the last of the group, everyone else (my friend included) had no idea and was merrily swimming off toward the reef. Visibility was 80-100' so I could see the bottom of the boat just above me. Mild panic set in. I wanted to shoot for the surface but fortunately my training kicked in and I remembered what the instructor had repeated many times - "Don't remove your regulator! If you need to cough, even if you need to vomit, do it through the regulator!"
So, I did the backsweep and caught my reg, put it back in my mouth and coughed up the water. Thought about ditching the dive then but I took a couple of minutes to calm myself and said, "Screw it, I'm fine now and I'm not going to waste this dive!" Went on to have an otherwise nice relaxing dive and never said a word about it to any of the group (although I told my instructor the next day as I was preparing to leave and thanking him for his training!).
In the end, I was actually kinda "glad" that it happened. All throughout training I had thought to myself, "This is all well and good, but will I remember it when the time comes?" So in that respect, it was actually reassuring and a bit calming (afterwards of course, not so much during the event).