Would you let a near death experience stop you? My encounter

[Tigerman]

...
Any time your buddy has a problem,or the suspicion of a problem ,it takes very little time to offer the reg. Most of the time he probably does not need it,but he will thank you on that one time in a hundred where he is close to losing it.
...

Been there, done that, been happy to see my buddy beging safe rather than sorry afterwards...

Where doing a long shallow dive (<30 ft) last summer and signaled my buddy I was very low on air. At this time we where at only 6-7 meters, no deco obligations and close to shore. The air I had would be enough to ascend but not much more. I didnt think much of it really, due to the conditions and the fact that I wouldnt have any problem getting to the surface, but what my buddy did was simply to give me his octo and I accepted it. Used the situation to practice both buddy breathing from one reg and ascended using the octo.

 

[Teamcasa]

Your Instructor, should have controlled the situation better, I&#8217;ll agree TSandM that you may be cutting him to much slack.

Don&#8217;t fret over it and contacting his agency is not worth the trouble as well. I would however, sit down and have a conversation with him. Go over what happened in detail, how it should have been handled and go dive with him again and practice the same scenario.

Diving and learning how to handle your gear is very important. Try not to do too much or add additional items, reels, bags and pony&#8217;s are too much to get used to in one dive. Add them one at a time until you can handle them reflexively.

Dave

 

[mrjimboalaska]

Boy, I think you are cutting this instructor way too much slack.

It wasn't your responsibility to "show him" which regulator you were breathing. You were the diver with the problem! It's the responsibility of the unstressed, supposedly calm and in this case supposedly very trained support person to VERIFY what regulator you are breathing before they turn off the gas!

And reading that you guys were down there with reels, lift bags and ponies you weren't used to gives me the willies. At 25 dives, if you'd hung a pony, a lift bag and a reel off me, I'm not sure I could have dived at all. That's a TON of task-loading equipment to manage and keep track of and deploy and use and stow, for somebody with that little experience underwater.

The more you tell us, the less I like the way this class was run.

Ditto,
Instructors either make great divers of their students, or divers that really need to be watched over and babysitted.

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

I deff think the dive instructor was a great teacher, but I will also agree if I was more aware he was shutting my air off, this would have ended up different. but again I didnt show him I was on my safe second and not the pony. Mistake by both of us I guess.
I would deff trust diving with him again. It was just a messed up situation and I made it worse by freaking out

I disagree ... the instructor may be a nice guy ... he may be someone you look up to and admire. But if he did this ...

He went behind me I was assuming to shut my tank off for a sec and to put it back on to see if that helped the free flow. He apparently thought I had my pony in my mouth.
I didnt feel the air go off, so I figured he was looking for something else.
All the sudden on my next inhale I felt no air. To say the least I freaked out cuz I was at full exhale.

... he is NOT a great teacher. In fact, he made a serious mistake that could have cost you your life.

Instructors simply are held to standards much higher than that ... or they shouldn't be instructors. This instructor did not manage what should have been a routine situation well at all ... in fact, he mishandled it to the point where he turned a minor issue into a potentially fatal one. That's not something that should be excused. We all make mistakes ... but when you make one that big, you damn well better learn from it and make sure it never happens again.

You ... and your instructor ... BOTH doged a major bullet this time. Don't excuse it ... you might not be so lucky again. Discuss it frankly with him, go over the whole scenario in detail ... and look at every action with the question in mind ... "what should we have done differently to avoid this problem?"

Dive accidents are rarely caused by just one wrong thing ... they are usually a chain of events that ultimately lead to a bad conclusion. Break the chain at any point, and the accident doesn't happen.

Don't gloss over this chain of events ... both you and your instructor have something important to learn from it. Until that happens, I wouldn't go deep with him again ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[Stonecrab]

Anyone here come to a close call like this and feel Ok about getting back into the water? I love diving and all, but my brother in law drowned like 2 weeks ago and I saw his face the whole way up thinking this was it. its all over. Im still somewhat yooung and I know my wife doesnt like me diving at all let alone after I told her this.
How would you all handle this?

First thing, you probably had your brother-in-law on your mind...it may have been too soon after his drowning for you to be comfortable diving. I'm sorry to hear he drowned...

I would say that it can be a positive thing that you at least you have the basic instinct to go for the surface...!
When I had a octo reg free flow situation (due to current from using a scooter) and went OOA at 75' alone, I had to make a conscious decision to go to the surface. I hate to say it, but I think the main reason I decided to go up was because I had a borrowed scooter and didn't want the owner to lose it if they never found my body!! (this was out in the ocean).

That was my second OOA situation, and my basic instinct is to try to breath water... So, at least you haven't forgotten you're a land mammal!!

I think if you want to keep diving, you just need to practice sharing air A LOT, and always dive with a buddy you can trust. If you dive a few times with the intent of practicing skills only, you probably won't be as apt to panic. Maybe you could practice free ascents (but don't hold your breath!!) in fairly shallow water. You can ascend slowly (not slow enough for your computer, but slower than your bubbles), even if your completely OOA. I did it easily from 75 ft, and had only tried it once before, in my OW class 20 yrs earlier...

Maybe if you practice these things, you'll feel safer and be less apt to panic. I think the panic itself is what actually kills divers a lot of the time - causes mistakes in judgment. Anyway, best of luck to you if you decide to jump back in the water!

 

[PM-Performance]

The reason for the gear is we were doing Wreck, limited vis, deep and nav all weekend.
In wreck diving we were told to have reels and lift bags and spare air. Lights should be a common thing I guess too. Esp where we were diving.
When this happened we did not take the lift bags and reels since we were just doing a deep dive. Deep was the last dives of the weekend. We just had the pony's because they said to have ponys or spare air for deep dives.

I talked with him last night and he checked up with me to see how I was doing. I dont blame him at all, but I will agree it all stemmed off when my air was shut off. So I will say something about that next time I see him. If that wasnt done, the dive would have been aborted and I would have swapped regs on land or planned for a diff day
I deff do not doubt his judgement and training, but I will agree it might not have been the best call to shut off the air and he didnt realize which reg i was on. As I should have been on a different one. Both our mistakes, but I lived out of it and will talk to him about his practices for stuck regs and communication about shutting off tanks.

i deff wont hold a grudge, and will dive with him again. but I will agree on some of the statements above on how it could have been avoided

 

[Walter]

Well I was finishing up my AOW dives on Sunday.

The reason for the gear is we were doing Wreck, limited vis, deep and nav all weekend. In wreck diving we were told to have reels and lift bags and spare air.

I deff do not doubt his judgement and training

You should. It is inexcusable to be trying to train someone in penetrating wrecks when they are at this point in thier diving history.

Wreck penetration is not to be taken lightly. You are not ready to be laying lines. This is a good way to get someone killed. This "instructor" should never be allowed to teach again. He is dangerous!

 

[sunnyboy]

The reason for the gear is we were doing Wreck, limited vis, deep and nav all weekend.
...

What the ??? training was this, anyway? This does not sound like an AOW from any agency I've heard of.

At this point, I think it would be really beneficial to name the agency that was going to provide the cert card after this weekend was over.

Agency aside, I think the instructor tried to cram WAY too much into a single course, IMHO.

-S

 

[Drewpy]

First off-My condolences on your brother...I'm sorry for your loss!

Why are so many new divers in such a rush to get the advanced certifications..?
Ive got over 200 dives and Im in no rush for AOW-I think its important to get your water wings so to speak before you run out and start penetrateing wrecks,etc..?

I hope you continue to dive..just take it easy for awhile..?

 

[Tigerman]

PADI AOW does NOT include wreck penetration. If you did PADI AOW and did wreck penetraiton there was a violation of the standards. The PADI AOW book even clearly states that for wreck penetration you should go a specific and much more thorough course..