CuzzA
Wetwork for Hire
I'll preface this by saying I'm a little embarrassed writing this, but I believe it may help someone else in the future. I've been actively involved with engaging and studying scuba diving before I was even certified August of last year. I've dived every chance I've got. I had the training. I knew the correct procedures, yet I allowed myself to get side tracked and the result could have been terrible.
The story:
Saturday April 23rd we launched from New Port Richey, FL at 0700 heading out 35 miles to do 3 jug/drift dives in 50 ft. of water. Marine forecast was excellent with seas at 2 feet and winds at 10 knots or less. We also anticipated current may be an issue due to the full moon; however, there was only a mild and easily manageable current. This will play a role later. So, once we got a little past the channel, seas were sloppy. 4/5ft. short interval white capping rollers. We pushed through it and were completely soaked by the time we arrived at the first ledge we intended to dive. It started to calm slightly, but I decided to scratch the first dive and two of the four divers on board made the dive. No issues.
We moved to another ledge near by and by now seas were around 3/4 ft. and you could tell it was going to calm down and make for an excellent day, which proved to be true weather wise. I decided to make this dive. We kept the boat live and tossed a buoy. I felt good and I was really excited to dive as it had been a while due to the winter fronts. I dropped in next to the buoy and made my descent solo with another diver (never saw him, never planned to) in the water and everything was perfect. I'm in good trim and maintaining good buoyancy, no issues, and below the first 20 feet of water the viz opened up to a nice ~50 ft.
We were spearfishing and this was the first time freeshafting (no line connecting my gun and shaft) for me and I was a little concerned on how I would perform. I didn't want to start losing shafts right off the bat so I made sure to maintain laser focus on shot placement. I proceeded to begin my hunt and found I was in the "zone". Stone cold killing anything I wanted to harvest. Every fish was nailed at the perfect angle in the sweet spot and pretty much dropped like a rock with each shot. I had a decent stringer on my hip. I think I was doing pretty good. Did I mention I was in the "zone"? I was feeling confident and having an excellent dive as I followed the outer rim of the ledge... and here is where the trouble begins.
I approached my set tank reserve and began my ascent. As soon as I hit the bottom layer of the reduced viz at 20 ft. to perform my safety stop I see cobia come in and proceed to circle me. My first thought was, "Okay, cobia equals sharks, be on the look out." 1:30 into my safety stop and I get this feeling I'm being stalked and I decided to abort the safety stop and surface expecting the boat to be right there and quickly pick me up.
As I breach the surface and look around, I quickly realize there's no boat. After a few attempts at searching as I come up on the crest of the waves, I finally spot it. "Ah ****! The boat is a quarter mile away." It doesn't take but a short moment for me to realize I'm in trouble. I didn't bring my snorkel, I haven't ever needed one before. I'm scuba diving, who needs a snorkel, right? Wrong!!! Fortunately I still had around 500 psi in my tank and while it helped a little, it wasn't the right tool for the job.
Once I spotted the boat I faced that direction and began to attempt to swim towards it, but I also know I'm now a siting duck and I just saw a cobia below me. I need to look down and make sure nothing is stalking me. So I look down and immediately the adrenaline starts pumping through my veins. Sure enough an ~8 ft. shark is flying straight up below me, my gun is upside down and I have no time to turn it around so I throw the butt of the gun down as he gets within ~10 feet of it and peels off. Now I start to become really concerned as I realize I'm going to immediately become heavily task loaded. I need to keep an eye on the predators below who want my stringer of fish and I'm not going to ditch my gun so I need to manage it, I need to continue to swim to the direction of the boat or at least try to maintain my position and I also need to signal the boat, all without hyperventilating and over exerting myself.
Well, easier said than done. I'm over exerting myself by swimming, blowing my whistle and watching the shark(s) (I believe there were two) and watching the boat. Despite the fact my BCD was already full of air and I was positively buoyant, the 10 lbs. of lead on my back are not helping me and with a toothy predator I could possible loose my BCD's ability to hold air. Also the weight is creating drag and counteracting the BCD. So I ditch weights. I immediately feel like I have better control over my surface swimming and I'm not exerting myself as much. I proceeded to deploy the most easily accessible 4 ft. SMB from my waist pocket. The shark(s) is still circling me, I'm still swimming, blowing the whistle, still trying to keep my gun trained on the shark, trying to keep the SMB upright and now I'm out of breath. I literally stop everything, do nothing and lay on my back and say out loud, "Think, think, think!" And so I did.
The shark is creating the distraction and complicating my attempt at signaling the boat. I could not anticipate how long I would be a drift, I was already 15 minutes into this ordeal and while it took a lot for me to give up my fish, I think I made the right call. So I ditch the fish and never saw the shark(s) again.
Now I can focus on the one and only important goal, signal the boat. Like I said, I've been a drift for 15 minutes now. I have an 8 ft. SMB on my butt D ring. So I deploy it and hang my gun from it. I put the 4 ft. SMB under my arms and continue to swim with no progress, but fortunately after another 5 minutes the boat spotted the 8 ft. SMB and came and picked me up.
My mistakes:
Navigational awareness: While I did descend on the buoy line, I became so focused on being a hero stone cold killer that I was not paying attention to how far I was swimming away from the buoy. Many of the ledges I've dived so far aren't very large in terms of length and I usually come right up next to the boat when I end my dive. This particular ledge went on for who knows how long. While I thought I circled back around to where I began, the mild current (it tricked me) must have pushed me further down the ledge and I didn't realize it. I was too much in the "zone" and wasn't paying attention. Having a 130 cuft of air didn't help either as I had a ton of bottom time. From now on I will always remain aware of my distance/heading from the buoy line and never venture too far off. It is absolutely essential that I surface near the boat when Gulf jug/drift diving. I should have taken a compass reading, swam out and then back.
Gear choices and configurations:
The snorkel. I will never dive without a snorkel again. It would have made this ordeal so much easier to handle. Even though I had plenty of air, the reg simply couldn't provide the amount of air I needed to handle the exertion. I was over breathing it on the surface and consequently had a minor headache after the incident.
The SMB. Thank God for my 8 ft. SMB!!! The guys on the boat said they never saw anything until I deployed the big SMB. The 4 ft. SMB was useless and I should have deployed the 8 footer first and done so immediately upon surfacing. I will be adding another 8-10 ft SMB and will keep one easily accessible and one on my butt D ring.
The Whistle. Absolutely useless at any sort of real distance. They never heard it. I will be buying a Dive Alert.
Finally thoughts... Compounding issues. I knew the day would come that I would have my first interaction with a shark. I imagined it would happen at depth where I would have more ability to control the situation; however, that would not be the case for me. While I knew the shark was not after me, rather my fish, its presence completely complicated the situation. It created a sense of urgency and created a task heavy situation. Had the shark not been present I would have not been so rushed to deploy the small SMB knowing it was likely going to be useless given the distance to the boat. I wasted time and effort. I should have deployed the big one from the beginning and I likely would have been retrieved promptly and kept my fish. Also, yelling to get the boats attention is futile. Don't bother.
I will say, I never panicked and I'm looking forward to my next dive trip in a week or so. However, being out of breath, even on the surface, sucks. I won't let that happen again. As many of you know, I'm a new diver so go easy on me. Btw, I did have my PLB attached to my hip, so in the event I was truly lost at sea I could have signaled rescue.
Here's a short video of this dive. The camera angle was off so you only see the shark(s) a few times, but I can assure you it made several passes at me invading my space and trying to stay behind me. Unfortunately this doesn't make it into the final edit.
I hope others can learn from this story. Stay safe.
The story:
Saturday April 23rd we launched from New Port Richey, FL at 0700 heading out 35 miles to do 3 jug/drift dives in 50 ft. of water. Marine forecast was excellent with seas at 2 feet and winds at 10 knots or less. We also anticipated current may be an issue due to the full moon; however, there was only a mild and easily manageable current. This will play a role later. So, once we got a little past the channel, seas were sloppy. 4/5ft. short interval white capping rollers. We pushed through it and were completely soaked by the time we arrived at the first ledge we intended to dive. It started to calm slightly, but I decided to scratch the first dive and two of the four divers on board made the dive. No issues.
We moved to another ledge near by and by now seas were around 3/4 ft. and you could tell it was going to calm down and make for an excellent day, which proved to be true weather wise. I decided to make this dive. We kept the boat live and tossed a buoy. I felt good and I was really excited to dive as it had been a while due to the winter fronts. I dropped in next to the buoy and made my descent solo with another diver (never saw him, never planned to) in the water and everything was perfect. I'm in good trim and maintaining good buoyancy, no issues, and below the first 20 feet of water the viz opened up to a nice ~50 ft.
We were spearfishing and this was the first time freeshafting (no line connecting my gun and shaft) for me and I was a little concerned on how I would perform. I didn't want to start losing shafts right off the bat so I made sure to maintain laser focus on shot placement. I proceeded to begin my hunt and found I was in the "zone". Stone cold killing anything I wanted to harvest. Every fish was nailed at the perfect angle in the sweet spot and pretty much dropped like a rock with each shot. I had a decent stringer on my hip. I think I was doing pretty good. Did I mention I was in the "zone"? I was feeling confident and having an excellent dive as I followed the outer rim of the ledge... and here is where the trouble begins.
I approached my set tank reserve and began my ascent. As soon as I hit the bottom layer of the reduced viz at 20 ft. to perform my safety stop I see cobia come in and proceed to circle me. My first thought was, "Okay, cobia equals sharks, be on the look out." 1:30 into my safety stop and I get this feeling I'm being stalked and I decided to abort the safety stop and surface expecting the boat to be right there and quickly pick me up.
As I breach the surface and look around, I quickly realize there's no boat. After a few attempts at searching as I come up on the crest of the waves, I finally spot it. "Ah ****! The boat is a quarter mile away." It doesn't take but a short moment for me to realize I'm in trouble. I didn't bring my snorkel, I haven't ever needed one before. I'm scuba diving, who needs a snorkel, right? Wrong!!! Fortunately I still had around 500 psi in my tank and while it helped a little, it wasn't the right tool for the job.
Once I spotted the boat I faced that direction and began to attempt to swim towards it, but I also know I'm now a siting duck and I just saw a cobia below me. I need to look down and make sure nothing is stalking me. So I look down and immediately the adrenaline starts pumping through my veins. Sure enough an ~8 ft. shark is flying straight up below me, my gun is upside down and I have no time to turn it around so I throw the butt of the gun down as he gets within ~10 feet of it and peels off. Now I start to become really concerned as I realize I'm going to immediately become heavily task loaded. I need to keep an eye on the predators below who want my stringer of fish and I'm not going to ditch my gun so I need to manage it, I need to continue to swim to the direction of the boat or at least try to maintain my position and I also need to signal the boat, all without hyperventilating and over exerting myself.
Well, easier said than done. I'm over exerting myself by swimming, blowing my whistle and watching the shark(s) (I believe there were two) and watching the boat. Despite the fact my BCD was already full of air and I was positively buoyant, the 10 lbs. of lead on my back are not helping me and with a toothy predator I could possible loose my BCD's ability to hold air. Also the weight is creating drag and counteracting the BCD. So I ditch weights. I immediately feel like I have better control over my surface swimming and I'm not exerting myself as much. I proceeded to deploy the most easily accessible 4 ft. SMB from my waist pocket. The shark(s) is still circling me, I'm still swimming, blowing the whistle, still trying to keep my gun trained on the shark, trying to keep the SMB upright and now I'm out of breath. I literally stop everything, do nothing and lay on my back and say out loud, "Think, think, think!" And so I did.
The shark is creating the distraction and complicating my attempt at signaling the boat. I could not anticipate how long I would be a drift, I was already 15 minutes into this ordeal and while it took a lot for me to give up my fish, I think I made the right call. So I ditch the fish and never saw the shark(s) again.
Now I can focus on the one and only important goal, signal the boat. Like I said, I've been a drift for 15 minutes now. I have an 8 ft. SMB on my butt D ring. So I deploy it and hang my gun from it. I put the 4 ft. SMB under my arms and continue to swim with no progress, but fortunately after another 5 minutes the boat spotted the 8 ft. SMB and came and picked me up.
My mistakes:
Navigational awareness: While I did descend on the buoy line, I became so focused on being a hero stone cold killer that I was not paying attention to how far I was swimming away from the buoy. Many of the ledges I've dived so far aren't very large in terms of length and I usually come right up next to the boat when I end my dive. This particular ledge went on for who knows how long. While I thought I circled back around to where I began, the mild current (it tricked me) must have pushed me further down the ledge and I didn't realize it. I was too much in the "zone" and wasn't paying attention. Having a 130 cuft of air didn't help either as I had a ton of bottom time. From now on I will always remain aware of my distance/heading from the buoy line and never venture too far off. It is absolutely essential that I surface near the boat when Gulf jug/drift diving. I should have taken a compass reading, swam out and then back.
Gear choices and configurations:
The snorkel. I will never dive without a snorkel again. It would have made this ordeal so much easier to handle. Even though I had plenty of air, the reg simply couldn't provide the amount of air I needed to handle the exertion. I was over breathing it on the surface and consequently had a minor headache after the incident.
The SMB. Thank God for my 8 ft. SMB!!! The guys on the boat said they never saw anything until I deployed the big SMB. The 4 ft. SMB was useless and I should have deployed the 8 footer first and done so immediately upon surfacing. I will be adding another 8-10 ft SMB and will keep one easily accessible and one on my butt D ring.
The Whistle. Absolutely useless at any sort of real distance. They never heard it. I will be buying a Dive Alert.
Finally thoughts... Compounding issues. I knew the day would come that I would have my first interaction with a shark. I imagined it would happen at depth where I would have more ability to control the situation; however, that would not be the case for me. While I knew the shark was not after me, rather my fish, its presence completely complicated the situation. It created a sense of urgency and created a task heavy situation. Had the shark not been present I would have not been so rushed to deploy the small SMB knowing it was likely going to be useless given the distance to the boat. I wasted time and effort. I should have deployed the big one from the beginning and I likely would have been retrieved promptly and kept my fish. Also, yelling to get the boats attention is futile. Don't bother.
I will say, I never panicked and I'm looking forward to my next dive trip in a week or so. However, being out of breath, even on the surface, sucks. I won't let that happen again. As many of you know, I'm a new diver so go easy on me. Btw, I did have my PLB attached to my hip, so in the event I was truly lost at sea I could have signaled rescue.
Here's a short video of this dive. The camera angle was off so you only see the shark(s) a few times, but I can assure you it made several passes at me invading my space and trying to stay behind me. Unfortunately this doesn't make it into the final edit.
I hope others can learn from this story. Stay safe.
Last edited:
