That initial "oh god" moment.

[rollintrollinsharkie]

My "oh-dear god" moment was on my 5th dive, the dive right after OW course. It was on Tulamben Bali, USAT Liberty wreck. Had a beautiful Australian instructor as my dive leader. During descent, my focus was completely on her, not knowing where the bottom was & didn't realize dark-brown, long 'tentacles' right below me. Hit those strange things with both of my feet & one of my arms but it was way too late (wore short sleeve, short legs wetsuit). I believe it was the most painful experience ever, hurts like thousands of bees/mosquitoes bites in a time. I gasped & almost let my reg out from my mouth (thankfully it didn't). I didn't want to show any weakness to her, so I pretended nothing happened & continued the dive. After around 5 mins, I felt extreme itchy sensation all over my feet & arm. After 8 mins, I saw dark veins around my feet & arm & decided to tell her. Wasn't really panicked (I managed to swim in control, with occasional scratching), but I got mad at her because she kept giving "I'm watching over you" hand signal ("OK" signal was all I need - culture differences). Turned out it was fire coral, and I prefer fishes more than corals ever since.

 

[francousteau]

From all your posts, I got the impression that you were a very experienced and accomplished NJ Wreck diver.

He is

 

[rockystock1]

My "oh-dear god" moment was on my 5th dive, the dive right after OW course. It was on Tulamben Bali, USAT Liberty wreck. Had a beautiful Australian instructor as my dive leader. During descent, my focus was completely on her, not knowing where the bottom was & didn't realize dark-brown, long 'tentacles' right below me. Hit those strange things with both of my feet & one of my arms but it was way too late (wore short sleeve, short legs wetsuit). I believe it was the most painful experience ever, hurts like thousands of bees/mosquitoes bites in a time. I gasped & almost let my reg out from my mouth (thankfully it didn't). I didn't want to show any weakness to her, so I pretended nothing happened & continued the dive. After around 5 mins, I felt extreme itchy sensation all over my feet & arm. After 8 mins, I saw dark veins around my feet & arm & decided to tell her. Wasn't really panicked (I managed to swim in control, with occasional scratching), but I got mad at her because she kept giving "I'm watching over you" hand signal ("OK" signal was all I need - culture differences). Turned out it was fire coral, and I prefer fishes more than corals ever since.

You descended into this because of a great looking instructor


My heart goes out to you


Rocky

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

It took about six months to a year before the pre-dive apprehension went away, but I'd never call it an "Oh, God" moment. On the other hand, it took about five years before the heart pounding when any direct ascent was started went away. Too, too many control losses (a lot of them instructor-induced) created ascentophobia, and it took a long time to fix.

... as I recall, all it took was a jellyfish ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[TracyN]

Not my first Oh God moment but definitely my most intense Oh God moment. I got myself good and stuck in a cave today head down. It was a high flow cave going down a round tube. I had one tank out in front of my trying to pull my way in. The first thing that happened was my lollipop pressure gauge snagged and in the process of trying to figure out what was causing that the flow started to push my superman tank up under me and by that time the rear of my left tank wedged. Yep I was stuck trying to live with a wet breathing regulator contemplating the meaning of life. I had plenty of air and access to both tanks so as long as I had air there was no real emergency. I just waited for someone to miss me so that they could come and pluck me out. It was only about 6 min but it sure felt longer than that, lol. That was a situation where panic could have easily killed me. New divers.....remember there is no emergency as long as you have air, so relax. It's just an inconvenience. When you start running out of air, then you can worry, lol!

 

[Freewillow]

Although it was a bounce, it was my third dive of the day to 130fsw, on a short SI as well. I do like to make a minute or two stop on such a dive.

Got it, makes sense . Thanks for your time

 

[Diver0001]

B) At what dive did you finally have your first "oh god" moment?
And what caused it?

I had two early on.

First was when a buddy and I (both AOW trained) were making a deep dive. At the time (1985) we weren't so risk averse as modern divers are.

We descended to 40m and "landed" on top of another group. They were diving in a line and we slightly above and behind them. The last diver in the group was a little deeper than the others and suddenly started waving his arms around and such. At one point he stopped waving and started sinking. We were at 40m (about 130ft) but it was a wall and we knew that the bottom of the wall was essentially "bottomless".

I saw this happen and signed to my buddy that I was going after him. My buddy came after me. .... we managed to pin him against the wall at a depth that my analogue depth metre couldn't register. It was "pinned". It turned out that he was wound up in a big bloody ball of discarded fish line.

Neither myself not my buddy had a knife. I picked up my console and looked at it and thought "OMFG" and the let it fall again... and forgot what it said.... so I picked it up again and thought "OMFG" and and dropped it again.... my buddy arrived on the scene and had another plan. He didn't want to know how deep we were...... his advice was ASCEND.... FFS... ASCEND.....

so we did. Short story. Everyone lived and nobody got bent.

////

Second story.... I was diving with a buddy on a wreck in about 100ft of water. Buddy contact was sloppy but normal for those times. I went to swim through a door and got 1/2 way though .... before I got snagged. I couldn't go forward, I couldn't go back. I couldn't turn or twist... it was like the finger of God was holding me in place.

What had actually happened is that a hanging bit of metal had slipped precisely between the A clamp on the 1st stage and the tank valve. There was no way go get out.

My buddy was off somewhere else doing something else.... and as much as I struggled I couldn't break free.... I had, in fact, an "Oh God" moment and decided that I needed to escape. By the time my buddy found me I was almost out of my gear and planning on making a CESA and leaving my scuba kit behind. He helped me get out and we finished the dive normally.

R..

 

[rockystock1]

Christ R. That's some crazy ****..
I think being trapped would feel worse,


Rocky

 

[TMHeimer]

Christ R. That's some crazy ****..
I think being trapped would feel worse,


Rocky

Yeah. Entanglementof any sort is the one thing I really worry about diving solo (even on my usual 20-30' dives).

 

[rockystock1]

I think if I got tangled in old bloody fishing wire, I think I'd go straight for BCD inflate, and worry about getting bent later.

My next purchase a razor sharp knife...


Rocky

---------- Post added October 19th, 2014 at 09:37 PM ----------

I thank the op, absolutely loved this thread.


Rocky