First dive off of GA coast

[Keith.M]

Glad you made it up.

But you did not follow your protocol. You followed your contingency.

 

[drrich2]

Oh, my impression your buddy practices were insufficient was based on this:

Nah was diving with someone he was within sight but I prefer to not have to plan on someone else being there in an emergency situation because as we all know stuff happens. Easy to lose track of people especially in 15' vis etc.

Coupled with the other circumstances of the dive. Now, maybe you guys had fine buddy system performance going on, but I'm kind of doubting it.

Richard.

 

[PhatD1ver]

Things I learned: I will pay more attention to my air pressure, did I panic? Nah, I have planned for this and I am able to keep calm in situations others would freak out in. I know most view this as completely unsafe and for most people it probably is. I also need to concentrate on air consumption. I know all you expert divers will completely disagree and dissect what I have said and I understand where you come from. I don't see the dive as a failure, I just see some experiences learned. Way I see it is if you are able to not panic in a situation that might not be ideal but manageable then it's not that big of a deal. If I have air to get to the surface and make my stops the rest is trivial. Keep calm and it will be ok if you follow protocol! I followed mine. Dive within the limits you feel comfortable and i'll do the same.

My friend, beside being a new diver, I'm an old aviator, and I'm just going to pass along this to you. You are lucky. It wasn't your superhuman skills at managing panic, or the fact you planned to need a pony bottle. Relying on those factors is going to get you injured or dead.

If this is your first dive after cert, you have no idea what your limits are, especially at 115feet, you haven't learned about narcosis, you haven't seen or felt it's affects, and things could have gone very, very bad for you if you'd been affected much this time.

That, and fighting a fish and not monitoring your air...

You can tell us all to piss off if you want, but we'll be reading about you in an issue of Diver or Scuba soon enough if you don't wise up.

 

[dumpsterDiver]

Things I learned: I will pay more attention to my air pressure, did I panic? Nah, I have planned for this and I am able to keep calm in situations others would freak out in. I know most view this as completely unsafe and for most people it probably is. I also need to concentrate on air consumption. I know all you expert divers will completely disagree and dissect what I have said and I understand where you come from. I don't see the dive as a failure, I just see some experiences learned. Way I see it is if you are able to not panic in a situation that might not be ideal but manageable then it's not that big of a deal. If I have air to get to the surface and make my stops the rest is trivial. Keep calm and it will be ok if you follow protocol! I followed mine. Dive within the limits you feel comfortable and i'll do the same.

You have ONE (failed) dive after certification and you think that "following protocols" will assure your safety while spearfishing?

Diving 115 ft is no big deal really, but trying to shoot large fish like you attempted (and failed to do) can be very challenging and dangerous.

With ZERO experience in spearfishing, you have NO protocols to follow when spearing.

 

[MattJ]

How fortunate that the OP, not DandyDon, is posting this summary.

 

[TN-Steve]

How fortunate that the OP, not DandyDon, is posting this summary.

For the OP, you may not be fully cognizant of all the ways that things can go sideways in a heartbeat while diving. If you do nothing else, please get this book from Amazon (also available as a Kindle download) Diver Down: Real World Scuba Accidents and How to Avoid them by Michael Ange

I found it to be a real eye opener, and really helped to give me a perspective that I didn't have before. There really is no substitute for doing it by the numbers and being squared away.

Steve

 

[wspalding]

For the OP, you may not be fully cognizant of all the ways that things can go sideways in a heartbeat while diving. If you do nothing else, please get this book from Amazon (also available as a Kindle download) Diver Down: Real World Scuba Accidents and How to Avoid them by Michael Ange

I found it to be a real eye opener, and really helped to give me a perspective that I didn't have before. There really is no substitute for doing it by the numbers and being squared away.

Steve

That book is on my reading list. Glad to see it being recommended. I'm currently reading "Last Dive" authored by a frequent SB contributor.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk