Been a bit reluctant to share this little bit of stupidity on my part, but here goes anyway.
My wife and I went to Casino Point in Catalina about a month ago, just after completing our OW class. We planned two dives, very conservative profiles. My wife was still learning to control her buoyancy with her new Seaquest Libra BC, but was doing ok. I, on the other hand, had it down, and was playing watchdog to make sure she stayed with me.
On our second dive, we swam through the kelp for a bit, everything was going well. About 15 minutes into the dive, at about 30fsw, she started to float up a bit. When her waist reached my head, I reached out to grab her by the waistband to help her stop ascending. Here's where the stupidity comes in...instead of her waistband, I got a handful of surelock weight pouch release, and quickly relieved her of 10lbs of lead, and she had a quick ride to the surface. Meanwhile, I now have an extra 10lbs in my hand, and descend rather quickly ten feet or so to the bottom.
After gathering my thoughts, I realized I had enough lift in my BC to get to the surface with the weight pouch (although I woulda dropped it in a heartbeat if not), and took my time getting there. When I surfaced, my wife was floating right next to me, mad at herself for not being able to stay under. Luckily, we had had a great instructor, and she instinctively did an emergency swimming ascent, dumping air and breathing out the whole way up, and was fine. She was stunned when I handed her the weight pouch, didn't even realize I had removed it.
We called an end to our day of diving after that, and spent a lot of time discussing what had happened, and how to avoid it. We were able to schedule a pool session at our LDS, and spent a couple of hours really honing her buoyancy.
Since then, we have logged 15 dives, and she has her buoyancy nailed. This whole incident really made both of us realize how quickly things can happen underwater, and we definitely learned from it.
My wife and I went to Casino Point in Catalina about a month ago, just after completing our OW class. We planned two dives, very conservative profiles. My wife was still learning to control her buoyancy with her new Seaquest Libra BC, but was doing ok. I, on the other hand, had it down, and was playing watchdog to make sure she stayed with me.
On our second dive, we swam through the kelp for a bit, everything was going well. About 15 minutes into the dive, at about 30fsw, she started to float up a bit. When her waist reached my head, I reached out to grab her by the waistband to help her stop ascending. Here's where the stupidity comes in...instead of her waistband, I got a handful of surelock weight pouch release, and quickly relieved her of 10lbs of lead, and she had a quick ride to the surface. Meanwhile, I now have an extra 10lbs in my hand, and descend rather quickly ten feet or so to the bottom.
After gathering my thoughts, I realized I had enough lift in my BC to get to the surface with the weight pouch (although I woulda dropped it in a heartbeat if not), and took my time getting there. When I surfaced, my wife was floating right next to me, mad at herself for not being able to stay under. Luckily, we had had a great instructor, and she instinctively did an emergency swimming ascent, dumping air and breathing out the whole way up, and was fine. She was stunned when I handed her the weight pouch, didn't even realize I had removed it.
We called an end to our day of diving after that, and spent a lot of time discussing what had happened, and how to avoid it. We were able to schedule a pool session at our LDS, and spent a couple of hours really honing her buoyancy.
Since then, we have logged 15 dives, and she has her buoyancy nailed. This whole incident really made both of us realize how quickly things can happen underwater, and we definitely learned from it.
