Your Closest Call

[Cayman Lover]

As with almost every sport, there are far more "close calls" than actual fatalities. I want to hear from people who are willing to share (in as much DETAIL as possible) some of the close calls you have had or have witnessed. Also include the number of dives you have under your belt to give a feel for how often this happens in the real world and not just which ones are reported to DAN, etc..

Also, describe what you (or the other person) should have done differently.

I think this compilation of experiences could prove invaluable to new divers like myself. Thanks!

 

[DA Aquamaster]

The only truly close call I had was the result of a chain of really stupid mistakes. Due largely to the complacency that came with having about 1000 uneventful dives and thinking that my wealth of experience entitled me to cut corners.

After completing a dive I stayed in the water to adjust the cable on a mooring bouy after the dive buddies got out of the water (stupid move #1) . It took a lot longer than I thought as the nuts on the cable clamps were badly corroded and I did not check my air after noting about 200 lbs left (stupid moves #2 & #3). I neglected to use the lanyard on the wrench (stupid move #4) and just as I finished I dropped the wrench (stupid move #5) and then decided that I could in fact catch it (stupid move #6).

So I swam down after the thing (stupid move #7) and I managed to gain on it until I got within about 6 inches of it at 90' (going that deep after a $3.00 wrench qualifies as stupid move #8). At which point, as I had been doing on the whole ascent, exahaled all my air (to increase my rate of descent) and then inhaled only to find my reg was completely out of air. It is a very high performance reg that will breathe the tank down to nothing with little warning (a subtle warning that I missed anyway as I was huffing the air so hard on the way down - stupid move #9).

So there I am at 90 plus feet in severe oxygen debt from the hard max effort swim down, with no air in my lungs, very negatively weighted, sinking fast due to suit compression and with very little ditchable weight (possibly stupid move #10 but that is arguable - there are pros and cons each way so we will call it stupid move # 9 1/2).

I then of course realize that before the dive when I broke the o-ring that held the octo to the fastex buckle provided for that purpose on the BC (stupid move #10 1/2 and 11 1/2) that replacing it with a heavy duty zip tie (stupid move #12 1/2) was a really bad idea. With cold hands in cold water it was almost impossible to get the small fastex buckle loose to acess the second stage from my pony bottle and I could not break the heavy duty zip tie (like the o-ring would have done).

About the only thing I did right was to stay calm and get real focused on getting the octo loose on the next attempt. I realized that I was on the verge of blacking out and in no position to ditch my gear and do an ESA and that if I did not get the second stage loose on the very next try that I was very likely going to pass out and end up on the bottom at 110' until the post dive beer drinking buddies noticed my bubbles were no longer coming up.

Obviously I got the second stage loose but I certainly did not deserve to. If I had gotten smart at any one of the 12 points where I made a bad decision, the situation would have been totally averted or at least greatly minimized in its severity. As it was I ended up right on the edge, and I really do not like coming that close or having to rely on things that are not completely in my control.

The good news is that after this event I took a serious look at my diving and a rigorous look at my gear configuration, and most importantly, got back to giving all my dives, even the very easy dives, the respect they deserve.

 

[H2Andy]

my closest call was during a cavern dive at Blue Springs (Orange City, Florida), but
it wasn't all that close. At about 90 feet, on my way up from the dive, i started to let
some air out of my BC but couldn't. i hit the button a few more times, raising the
hose over my head (after unstrapping it) and nothing... ok... i yanked on the hose to
get it to dump... nothing. by this point i was rising a little fast, so i grabbed a hold
of one of the folds on the walls at about 60 feet.

i then tried to work the hose, the button, nothing. i got myself head down, and pulled
on my emergency release, and the darn thing came undone on my hand.

i had plenty of air, so no biggie, but i was way too positive, so i had to grab and
hold on the wall as best i could not to shoot up. as you can imagine, every foot i went
up increased the speed with which i wanted to go up.

i eventually hit the last fold, right by the old tree, and hung there as long as i could,
until literally my hands couldn't stand it anymore, and then let go and screamed
*something kids shouldn't read* all the way to the surface. the last fifteen feet took
like, a nanosecond.

at CaymanLover's request, I add the following:

t's kind of puzzling and a little embarrasing, but the incident
seems to have been of my own making.

once i got out of the water, i fiddled with the release button and it worked
perfectly. i inflated, deflated, inflated a bunch of times, and ... it worked.

so i thought maybe it had to do with being under pressure, so my buddy and i
planned an exploratory dive and down we went. the thing worked beautifully
at depth. i worked the crap out of it at 100 feet and it worked really well.

that was on a saturday. on monday, i took it to the shop that does all the work on my stuff, and they couldn't find anything wrong with it. they went ahead and did maintenance anyway, but they couldn't find anything wrong.

so... if the equipment was ok, that only leaves me. my guess is that i must have been a lot more stressed than i thought and did something or somethings wrong. what, i dont' know. i have used that BC for two years and i am very familiar with it, and i had done that dive a bunch of times before.

so.... it must have been me, but i am still not sure how so.

 

[chrpai]

Met Fred and Greg this Satuuday and suited up for a dive. Vis was
probably about 15-20' and the temp at the bottom we all agreed to be
35f. After the first ( and only ) dive the sun actually started to
shine a little bit and I no longer felt the need for my sweat pants
as I packed up and shipped out. Fortunatly it didnt rain at all like
the forcast had called for.

Now for me the dive was fun, but not that good. I broke a couple of
my own rules and as such could have gotten myself in trouble.

The problem started with me being dry for 5 months and then
attempting to jump right back in. I normally dive a 2pc 3mil and
AL80 and I know my weighting in fresh water to be 16lbs. I rented a
7mil and guestimated 24lbs. Now this is only my second time in that
thick of a suit. I'd done it once before last summer diving surface
interval with a LP104 tank. On those dives I had done a fast
neutral bouyancy check (full tank though) with Darryl Boyer watching
and settled on 24lbs. The dives went well but it really was a new
and unsettling feeling to have to put that much air in my BCD as my
thick wetsuit compressed at depth. Well going from salt to fresh
and steel to al I figured was probably about a wash so I estimated
24lbs for diving the quarry this weekend.

So down to the water final. Brrr its a little nippy. I try to
flood my suit and hood good. Dip my face into the water and relax.
We give an ok and I start my descent. Well I try to start my
descent. I was a bobber not a sinker. I try to squeeze the air our
of my BCD, flood my suit again, flood my hood, exhale fully,
completly relax... this ain't working. So Greg pops back up and
donates another 5lbs to me and this time its alot easier but I still
kinda swim down to compress the suit a little to get past the first
15 or so.

So I look at my Suunto Mosquito to verify that it activated at water
contact.... hmmm the damn thing flooded and shutoff. Ok fine, I'm
diving a 33mix I should more NDL then Air or warmth. I'm not
planning on doing a repetive dive so I just let it go and kept
diving.

Well I didnt have a bottom timer but somewhere around 1000psi and
60feet under the surface I started to just get a little nervous. I
wasn't paniced, but I was nervous and my breating was starting to
get out of control. I signalled to Fred with my flash light and
told him that I was going up and that I was ok. He signaled ok and
up I went. As the water got warmer and brighter I started to
relax. I let the air out of my bcd and tried to do my safety stop.
I didn't stop, I just slowely floated up to the surface. I did a
minor surface swim to the exit and started standing relaxed when the
water was shallow enough. A couple minutes later my 2 buddies
surfaced and when Fred looked my way I gave a ok sign which he
returned.

So that was my first dive of 2003. Not exactly proud of it but all
turned out well. Happy Diving people.

 

[Gary D.]

Years and years ago.

I was working on my own ship and was super involved with what I was doing. When I started there was plenty of room.

The problem came when the tide was going out and the ship settled into the mud on the bottom. It was so slow and the mud/bottom gunk soft enough I didn't realize what happened until my partner started tugging on me.

That was in the days of no BC's so cutting a strap to slip out of the gear was easy. I'm glad my partner was paying attention.

Gary D.

 

[scubasean]

Years and years ago.

I was working on my own ship and was super involved with what I was doing. When I started there was plenty of room.

The problem came when the tide was going out and the ship settled into the mud on the bottom. It was so slow and the mud/bottom gunk soft enough I didn't realize what happened until my partner started tugging on me.

That was in the days of no BC's so cutting a strap to slip out of the gear was easy. I'm glad my partner was paying attention.

Gary D.

I'm not sure I understand...Was it that you were working on a boat that was floating, and it ended up settling on your gear somehow?

Assuming the first was true, the watter must have been really shallow? what am I missing?

glad you are okay...

 

[FredT]

Previously posted elsewhere

------------------------

I guess it’s time to type this one in again. There have been 3 times that I have almost resigned myself to being fish food. 2 were working underwater, so those don’t really count here. The third happened while fishing in the “Hell Divers” spearfishing tournament out of Empire, La. 12 to 15 years ago. Zieg and I were out with a fellow named Carl Lowe on his boat and the owner of a now defunct dive shop in Slidell LA. Carl is one of those types that is indomitable and fun to watch, but you never want to buddy with him. I’ve been at 160’ in 200’ vis and all I can see of him below me is well-expanded bubbles coming into view. At any rate the rules of the Hell Divers Rodeo is that all fish must be boated by a single diver. Buddies can’t help even by laying a hand on the line. At the time I was diving with a relatively new JBL 450 Magnum with a classic cable rig. That is SST cable with quick disconnect halyard clip at the cable attachment to the muzzle, no shock line.

I was at about 110’ on the second rig when the grandfather of all AJs swims by. This fish was about as long as Zieg, with his XL Jets on. Zieg was diving with a smaller JBL “sawed of magnum” at the time. Zieg was actually closer, but didn’t have the gun for that size fish. I _thought_ I did. I got a shot at the brain, and missed it low by about an inch. This put the shaft cleanly through the head right at the roof of the mouth behind the eye. I owned the fish since I had a shaft through his skull, but I hadn’t actually hurt him enough to kill him this week. The fish did as AJs do and headed to the bottom. Did I mention the bottom was about 800’ down? I didn’t want to go that deep and the next cross member was near 200’ and too deep for me to be fighting a fish that size with a partially used steel 72 on my back. I inflated my BC (Scubapro BCP batwing) and swam around a pile to foul the cable. In this I was partially successful. We removed ALL the barnacles from that pile from about 120’ to about 140’ as the wrapped cable and I slid down it. The fish hadn’t slowed down much. In the effort to turn the fish I was also holding on to the 3' diameter piling with both legs and my left arm. Somewhere in the middle of this "Minute (month?) From Hell" I managed to kill a large bristle worm by crushing it with the inside of my bare left arm. Zieg later recalled one very mangled one about 10” long drifting down when he came back to look for me. That could well be the culprit. I found out something about bristle worms that day. The silica spines also carry a neurotoxin! Suddenly the left side of my body didn’t work; this included the portion of my diaphragm on that side. This is not to say the right side worked much better but I still had a little control of it. Suddenly I was at 140’, couldn’t inhale, had a full BC to the point the overpressure valve was cracking, and to top it all off if felt as if someone had poured molten steel on my left arm. Zieg was off chasing a cobia that had come in to see what the ruckus was all about at the time.

I did the only thing I could do. I opened my hand. The fish and my “new” gun went to 800’ pretty fast. I on the other side of the game was now headed up with a speed to challenge the AJ’s downward rush. We had about 15’ of Mississippi River water murk with about 3-5 inch vis floating on top of the clean water we were hunting. I attempted to remember where the cross members were in it and tried to angle my trajectory to miss them. I got lucky then and made it to the surface without hitting a cross bar. If I had hit one at least the fully inflated BC would have made the body recovery possible. I got clipped off to a galvanic protection cable where it went into the water and just floated for a while. There was enough surface chop running so that as long as I could keep the airway open the waves helped me breathe enough to stay conscious. The toxin wore off some in about 15 minutes and I could breathe enough to get to and into the boat. This was NOT a good day.

BTW the arm healed in about 6 weeks. Zieg and I team hunt now, and no longer go for the biggest fish _every_ time. If Zieg had been there I may well have tried to get to him for help. We found out later that that may have been the last thing I would have done. I NEEDED the wave action to keep me breathing. To try to handle this emergency UW would have been fatal. In 30+ years of diving this is the ONLY time I can remember where handling an emergency underwater would have been more dangerous than bolting to the surface.

FT

 

[FredT]

Previous close calls:

1. Having a joint of 60" concrete pipe dropped on me with no buddy, Black water and a crane that wouldn't restart. I spent about 2 hours wiggling out from under that one. I never did see the crane operator again. Thank God for Everglades muck!

2. Back injury 40' down in black water. It took me 15 minutes to find the inflate button on my BC. It felt like having the body dipped in boiling oil from the nipples down + other more unpleasant sensations. It is easy to bite through a mouthpiece. I was transportd to the hospital on a backboard I was strapped to while still in the water, followed by the ER cutting off my wetsuit and 3 days on some drugs that would have been a lot more fun if I hadn't hurt so bad. PT type moved the bones back where they belonged then. I still have a weak spot there 30 years later.

FT

 

[OneBrightGator]

We had just done so pretty cool dives at Orange Grove and were on our way back home to Gainesville, all three of us were in my truck. The two other guys feel asleep, then I did, and the next thing I remember was the sound of my tires on the rumble strip on the side of the road, looking up to see the structure of the bridge on Rt. 51 right in front of me.

Definitely the scariest thing ever.

Ben

 

[H2Andy]

FredT:

:dropmouth