EireDiver606
Contributor
This incident went fine and thank god nothing else happened. This may seem like it only applies to newer divers like myself but I’m sure older guys need to be reminded every now and again, so I’m putting it in here to emphasise clearing your ears, often and in good time.
Last Wednesday, I went on a boat dive with my club to a small island with a max depth (if you looked for it) of about 28 meters (90 feet).
There are some faults in what I did and I fully acknowledge that I was wrong to do what I did and take full responsibility.
First of all, the previous weekend I went to fill my tank when I already had 80 bar of air left in my tank. I filled with 40% of eanx nitrox (with help). I analysed my gas but the analyser was letting air in somewhere because it was off the compressor and missing a piece of it so it wasn’t an accurate reading as it moved the whole time. When I went to go diving I couldn’t analyse my tank as no one had any. So I had at a guess 35% nitrox in my tank but there was no way to find out exactly. As I only use one tank and it couldn’t get mixed up ( I know this is still bad and definitely NOT recommended) I proceeded to pretend as if it was 40% to be safer as it was the max the nitrox membrane could go to. So first, I didn’t know what I was breathing.
Second, when we got there I was slightly dehydrated and found it hard to spit in my mask.
Third, I was put with a slightly more experienced guy than me, and we did our buddy checks, including me telling him that I’m on 40% nitrox and we’re sticking to a max depth of 24m just in case (as I couldn’t analyse). We descended and I would have preferred to descend slower but I didn’t tell him and forgot to mention it before we got in the water so it wasn’t his fault, it was mine. I was equalizing every 1 metre I would say instead of every 40cm so that was bad. I felt fine though. We got down to the bottom, did some checks and headed east away from island. We got to 20m and I signaled level off in good time and pointed to my depth as I knew he was heading down a slope. He signaled “ok”. For some reason, he misinterpreted me and kept heading down to 23m. As MOD for nitrox 40 is approx 24m, I once again signaled to him that we aren’t going deeper than 23m. He ascended about 3m above me without communication instantly. I went to go up to him and.... bang... *really* *really* dizzy and confused on where I was. I could see just barely but I felt like I was being spun around 360 like on a roller coaster. The balance in my ears was completely gone. Strangest and one of the most unpleasant things I have ever felt. Basically, I wasn’t scared or panicked as I could see my computer and could feel my inflator but wasn’t sure what the hell was going on and was obviously concerned for my safety. After the initial confusion, I calmed down a little bit and realised there’s no point worrying too much as if I get taken out to sea with the currents or entangled, there’s nothing I can really do at the moment to prevent that. I began to make a slow safe ascent without an smb staring at my computer as I *literally* couldn’t deploy it if my life counted on it. Then I saw a light below me and realised it was my buddy still down there. I went down to him because I don’t like people being on their own even though I was still dizzy but it was starting to get better (and equalised fully). I signalled “abort the dive” and we began to slowly ascend. Other than that apparently I was signaling “I am ok” the entire time even though I of course was not. My buoyancy and trim was rubbish as I was still confused. We agreed before the dive i would do the smb, but I was still unable so he did it. During the smb deployment, he nearly got us entangled (not blaming him just stating) and I would’ve been absolute rubbish help to him if he did. My buoyancy was bad and I kept sawtoothing, going up and down as we ascended and the last 5m I couldn’t hold it and went to surface. This was all in very very dark water with entanglement hazards.
I came up to surface and felt really tired and still slightly dizzy. I explained what happened and was put on O2 (we knew it wasn’t dcs but used it as a precaution) but we hadn’t a clue what it was and it was a faster than normal ascent from 23m after 20 mins with a gas that wasn’t entirely known after vertigo, should I have went on O2? . I know this sounds completely dumb. There was probably more things that happened badly in this dive that I can’t remember.
I found out after that I think I didn’t fully equalise enough going down as we went fast even though I didn’t feel any pain in my sinuses. This created an imbalance in my eustachuan tubes. When my team went up, I followed and the part of my ear that hadn’t equalised fully became equalised and threw off the balance in my ear so much so that I got vertigo. It was highly unpleasant for about 3 mins(?) I also didn’t have a good perception of time) especially when it was almost pitch black and I wasn’t sure what was wrong with me, all I could do was hope for the best.
Thank god I didn’t get entangled . Why didn’t my buddy stay with me? I don’t know. There was a current.
Lessons were learned. Even for divers with a little bit of experience, the importance of full equalisation cannot be overestimated. Learn to do signal checks before even if you’re conifdent they know the signals.
Anyone ever had vertigo? What did it feel like for you?
Thanks for reading.
Last Wednesday, I went on a boat dive with my club to a small island with a max depth (if you looked for it) of about 28 meters (90 feet).
There are some faults in what I did and I fully acknowledge that I was wrong to do what I did and take full responsibility.
First of all, the previous weekend I went to fill my tank when I already had 80 bar of air left in my tank. I filled with 40% of eanx nitrox (with help). I analysed my gas but the analyser was letting air in somewhere because it was off the compressor and missing a piece of it so it wasn’t an accurate reading as it moved the whole time. When I went to go diving I couldn’t analyse my tank as no one had any. So I had at a guess 35% nitrox in my tank but there was no way to find out exactly. As I only use one tank and it couldn’t get mixed up ( I know this is still bad and definitely NOT recommended) I proceeded to pretend as if it was 40% to be safer as it was the max the nitrox membrane could go to. So first, I didn’t know what I was breathing.
Second, when we got there I was slightly dehydrated and found it hard to spit in my mask.
Third, I was put with a slightly more experienced guy than me, and we did our buddy checks, including me telling him that I’m on 40% nitrox and we’re sticking to a max depth of 24m just in case (as I couldn’t analyse). We descended and I would have preferred to descend slower but I didn’t tell him and forgot to mention it before we got in the water so it wasn’t his fault, it was mine. I was equalizing every 1 metre I would say instead of every 40cm so that was bad. I felt fine though. We got down to the bottom, did some checks and headed east away from island. We got to 20m and I signaled level off in good time and pointed to my depth as I knew he was heading down a slope. He signaled “ok”. For some reason, he misinterpreted me and kept heading down to 23m. As MOD for nitrox 40 is approx 24m, I once again signaled to him that we aren’t going deeper than 23m. He ascended about 3m above me without communication instantly. I went to go up to him and.... bang... *really* *really* dizzy and confused on where I was. I could see just barely but I felt like I was being spun around 360 like on a roller coaster. The balance in my ears was completely gone. Strangest and one of the most unpleasant things I have ever felt. Basically, I wasn’t scared or panicked as I could see my computer and could feel my inflator but wasn’t sure what the hell was going on and was obviously concerned for my safety. After the initial confusion, I calmed down a little bit and realised there’s no point worrying too much as if I get taken out to sea with the currents or entangled, there’s nothing I can really do at the moment to prevent that. I began to make a slow safe ascent without an smb staring at my computer as I *literally* couldn’t deploy it if my life counted on it. Then I saw a light below me and realised it was my buddy still down there. I went down to him because I don’t like people being on their own even though I was still dizzy but it was starting to get better (and equalised fully). I signalled “abort the dive” and we began to slowly ascend. Other than that apparently I was signaling “I am ok” the entire time even though I of course was not. My buoyancy and trim was rubbish as I was still confused. We agreed before the dive i would do the smb, but I was still unable so he did it. During the smb deployment, he nearly got us entangled (not blaming him just stating) and I would’ve been absolute rubbish help to him if he did. My buoyancy was bad and I kept sawtoothing, going up and down as we ascended and the last 5m I couldn’t hold it and went to surface. This was all in very very dark water with entanglement hazards.
I came up to surface and felt really tired and still slightly dizzy. I explained what happened and was put on O2 (we knew it wasn’t dcs but used it as a precaution) but we hadn’t a clue what it was and it was a faster than normal ascent from 23m after 20 mins with a gas that wasn’t entirely known after vertigo, should I have went on O2? . I know this sounds completely dumb. There was probably more things that happened badly in this dive that I can’t remember.
I found out after that I think I didn’t fully equalise enough going down as we went fast even though I didn’t feel any pain in my sinuses. This created an imbalance in my eustachuan tubes. When my team went up, I followed and the part of my ear that hadn’t equalised fully became equalised and threw off the balance in my ear so much so that I got vertigo. It was highly unpleasant for about 3 mins(?) I also didn’t have a good perception of time) especially when it was almost pitch black and I wasn’t sure what was wrong with me, all I could do was hope for the best.
Thank god I didn’t get entangled . Why didn’t my buddy stay with me? I don’t know. There was a current.
Lessons were learned. Even for divers with a little bit of experience, the importance of full equalisation cannot be overestimated. Learn to do signal checks before even if you’re conifdent they know the signals.
Anyone ever had vertigo? What did it feel like for you?
Thanks for reading.
