82 deg to 55 deg, 100' down - not good

[rcasey]

Well I learned something from my dive this past weekend (actually alot of things) and thought I would share with you.

Diving a quarry with a buddy. Wearing a 3/5/3 farmer john with 3mil hood. We were going to do a deep water dive and try to reach 100'.

Talked with the owner at the site and asked alot of questions regarding the temps and where to go etc...

We suit up, check off everything, discussed dive plan which was pretty simple.

Jumped in the water, 82 degrees felt great, swam out a little and then descented.

Water is about 15' visabillity and my buddy and I go down. We thought we would touch down at about 50-60' and then head down to the deep area. We didn't, we descented, hit a thermacline which I guess brought the temp into the mid to high 60's. We look at each other and I gave the "got the chills" sign. I didn't have the chills, just making conversation that it was cold. The thermacline was very defined. It was like going through a pane of glass.

Water started getting colder...much colder and I guess we went through another thermacline. The temp was 55 degrees! We made this descent very fast, and my body did not have much time to adjust. I started to have trouble breathing. I guess it was from the cold shock. My breathing got worse and I thought my reg was having trouble in the temps. Looked at my buddy and gave the "my reg is so-so" sign. He came a little closer and noted where his octo was. Now I am having a really hard time breathing. Didn't know this until later, but we were at 91'.

I was considering pulling weights and run to the top or exchange my reg with my buddies. Then I thought, this is a high end reg that should be able to go much lower than this and its only got 8 dives on it and had it serviced 2 weeks ago.

(Amazing what goes throught your mind at times like this)

I soon realized that it was me and not the equipment. I accended about 15-20 feet and got my breathing back. I was fine now and my buddy was with me the whole time.

2nd mistake:

We cruised around in that area (70') and I felt great. The temp was cold but not like the initial shock and the 2nd shock. I signalled to my buddy 1-0-0, meaning let's get that 100' in. We headed that way, very slowly. No problem at all. Breathing was great, the temp didn't bother me much. Reached 102'. Looked at my computer and figured we needed to head up.

We both hit a ceiling stop at around 60' I think and had to wait on that. Mine was shorter than his so I started to accend a little. Watching the computer, I soon realized that I was getting really low on air and I would have to perform a safety stop still. We accended together, computer kept slowing us down and we finally made it to the safety stop. 3 minutes seemed like an eternity. Especially when you are watching your psi dropping. I was in the 500 psi range at the stop. As I went through the stop, I noticed I was having to pull the air out of the bottle. Not sure if this was me or the bottle, but I could sware it was hard getting air. This increased my intake and when I hit the surface I was at 200 psi.

I felt like punching myself, and when my buddy came up we got out of our gear, grabbed our computers and ran the dive again in simulation to find our mistakes:

1) Way too fast to the bottom
2) Allow body to adjust to temp change
3) After a panic situation, don't push the envelope
4) watch air better
5) when low consider sharing with buddy. He ended up with 1000 psi.
6) learn more about the site through safer dives and save the 100' for another day.
7)My buddy which is advnaced and has had training in deep dives, said that I shoul have exhaled as long/much as possible. My lungs were full of CO2 and I was not releasing it. Therefore only able to take small breaths.

I am still new to the SCUBA, this was my 16th dive and I learned alot through it.

I would like to hear anyone's comments, please leave some.

Ryan

 

[Fireguy274]

I had a similar experience back in april or may of this year. I did a dive in a lake for a warm up. The water was chilly round 55 deg when we went in. When we hit 45 feet the water was around 42 degrees. I started breathing heavy. I more i tried to calm my breathing the more I started breathing faster. I signaled my buddy to go up. We did a nice easy decent and by the time we reached the surface my breathing was back to normal or almost. The funny thing was I was not in a panic or anything. I had a clear head and just couldnt control my breathing. I went back down to about 35 feet that day and was fine. I believe the cold water had the effect on me. When i go diving now I always put my face in the water without a mask and get it use to colder water. I have not had a problem since. I am not sure if this helps you or not but I hear where your coming from. It was my first dive of the year so maybe it was a combination of the cold and nerves....Fireguy

 

[Soggy]

quarry = cold pretty much universally. Surface temps don't usually mean much.

 

[Boogie711]

Sir, you had no business being down there.

To begin with, I'm assuming you have your advanced if you're diving to 100 feet. Yet you only have 16 dives, including this one?

Which means you have only 5 unsupervised dives to your credit, since OW and AOW are 5 dives each.

Secondly, you didn't adequately plan your dive, with consideration for SAC rates et al, if you're surfacing with 200 psi.

 

[nyresq]

mistake #1) trying to get a "#" on your computer for no other reason then to say "I went down to # feet"... when your dead the number will only be in an evidence bag on your computer.

mistake #2) diving in an unfamilliar site to which you had no idea of needed thermal protection. Cold will kill you even after you get out of the water.

mistake #3) you were down to 91' with no idea of where you were until you looked at your computer. what would have happened if the dirt was at 220'? would you have kept going untill you were too narced to realize it?

mistake #4) your buddy's air is HIS, not yours, do not go down thinking I can breathe some of his on the way up if I run low. take enough air to get the dive done. this is part of planning your dive.

good job #1) you didn't dump your weights and run for the surface. if you were having trouble breathing there's a good chance you would have held your breath and wound up with an emboli or a lung expansion injury.

good job #2)you kept your buddy in sight if the situation got worse.

good job #3) you lived to think how stupid that dive was and how you'll never do it again.

stupidity isn't against the law, but it might carry a death penalty

 

[japan-diver]

)My buddy which is advnaced and has had training in deep dives, said that I shoul have exhaled as long/much as possible.

From this I assume you are not advanced or had training in deep diving. So add this to the list of mistakes. Classes are offered for a reason.

The nice sawtooth profile wasn't the best either 90 than 70 than back to 100.

The positives were stated already by others with the best being You lived to tell about it and hopefully learned a very valuable lesson.

 

[DeepSeaFox]

Ever thought about Potpouri Basket weaving as an alternative ?

Once you have survived that for a few years you might want ot move up to embroidery, but those needles are dangerious.
;-)

Excuse the sarcasm but WHYyyyy??? would you feel the need to push on down to 100' AFTER having problem ?

If your car brakes felt spongy would you feel obliged to drive at exactly the speed limit on the way to the repair shop ?

 

[Fireguy274]

I bet your sorry you asked huh!

 

[rcasey]

No not sorry. When at surface, I wanted to learn from my mistakes. I was eager to run through my computer and see what an idiot I was. We busted out the tables and made sure we were ok for another dive. I could only go for about 30 minutes at 40' max which was fine and was a great dive. As far as the 100' depth, I think everyone can relate...we all want to reach the next plateau in the sport. I just went about hitting 100' the wrong way, at the wrong place, and too early in my diving history. I thought advanced diving with deep diving cert./nitrox would take you past 100' to 150' and that 100' was ok for the rec diver. This may be true in the tropics.

At the end of the day, I did and are learning from my mistakes and appreciate the comments and especially Fireguy274 - what thermal protection were you using at 55-45 temps? I would imagine that would be a semi-dry suit and up. If so, how did your breathing get messed up? Cold on the face?

Thanks again and keep posting.

Ryan

 

[Fireguy274]

I actually had a dry suit on that day, but i do wear a wet suit down to as low as 43 so far. I had just got certified at the end of last season. The dive I was talking about was the first dive this year. It was like I said around 42 degrees and it was a shock but I am not sure why my breathing picked up the way it did. I asked alot of people and no one could say for sure. I would tend to guess it was a combination of the cold and anxiety being the first dive of the year and lack of experience. I did around 55 dives this year and was in 43 degree water with a 7 mil wet suit and my breathing was ok. It was a little higher CFM than normal but still fine. The more I dive the more relaxed i am and the better my breathing is. I still after over 50 dives am in no hurry to reach 100 feet. Ive been to around 45 feet several times and perhaps ill go deeper when im totally comfortable and feel i will actually enjoy my Advanced open water class. Im getting close. Good luck and be careful. Depth isnt everything. Everyone tells me there is more to see at 35 feet than 100 feet......Stay safe