This may not be too entertaining but during these first couple of months of diving worst scare happened on our first independent dive. It was a good learning experience, so maybe some newbies want to hear it. It was way worse for my buddy in the water but I win hands down when we climbed up after the dive.
We were trying to be good buddies and stay close. Buddy was on my right-hand side and took a peek at her right while I happened to be taking in the scenery on my left-hand side. Naturally, glances were accompanied with good body twists when poorly-fitting rental jackets shifted around resulting in our tanks rolling and nearly kissing between us.
I was about a foot behind my buddy but when we both straightened back to horizontal, I noticed I was mysteriously stuck to her side. And there I stayed for what felt like ages, and I am starting to get annoyed that my buddy is not pulling away. I am trying to get my right hand up enough from nearly carving the bottom to aid by nudging her off. My head is nearly buried into her armpit, I cant see a thing but all of a sudden I feel that her movements are not as calm as usual.
It was a stupid entanglement, probably gauge somewhere looped in other ones hoses or poor-fitting equipment. The nastiness came from the fact that every time I yanked, I was pulling the regulator off my buddys mouth (indeed I was quite oblivious we were even entangled for awhile I was like whats she playing at because I assumed she was able to see the situation better that I was). My buddy sure knew what was going on but could not really get a push executed. Noway could she get her hands to the offending hoses while I was moving, and even though she could get to her sea snips what was there to cut? I was just considering should I go limp when we did break loose (I am really happy I did not limp up because we discussed it later lifeless buddy in a situation like that would spell sheer terror).
So what I/we learnt and did as a result
Never assume too much and if something suddenly changes you need to get that OK from your buddy, and not rush into anything. And what was said about staying close to your buddy might need some optimizing! (We still struggle with this issue because of this incident). We revised our signs for cases we cannot quickly establish eye-contact are-you-OKs with each other. (What do you guys use when motion-limited, and you need to negotiate how to start and/or if there is urgency yet?) Also, my buddy was pissed at herself for thinking of slipping out of her gear before considering that sticking an octo into her mouth would have given her more room to think. (We had plenty of air which we both remembered, and we were in about 15f of water, so we gave ourselves some points for not surfacing but going through several if not all so great options dealing with the crap underwater).
Since that I have been staring at my buddy's hoses with new found respect - not just because they are not rental anymore
