LilmanHSU
Contributor
Greetings fellow posters:
I thought I should share my weekend experience as it were a first for me and maybe some of you more experience folk can offer me a suggestion should it happen again.
Before I get to that though. For any of you who dive or are planning on diving S. California, now is a better time than any. The cool water is offering a magnatude of fish and bottom life. I have never seen more sheephead that large (at least a good 24-30 inches) in my life! Not to mention the 300 LB Giant Sea bass that was lounging around.. But enough of that! ;-)
Our diving all day was nothing more than 25 feet, and my last dive was only at a max of 15-18 feet, so I wasn't too concerned about what happend, but should this happen in deeper water, I think I would of been a tad bit more concerned.. Luckly for me I had a buddy to help me!
Either case, what had happend, was on my second dive, we were crusing around looking at the wildlife when all of a sudden, I tipped over and my right side of my body started floating towards the surface! The last time this happend, I was in the pool learning how to dive, but it hasn't happend since. So I figured something went wrong with my B/C so I kicked back down and grabbed onto a rock for support while I checked myself out, but I didn't see or hear anything out of the ordinary. The current was rather strong, so it was making a grip rather tricky, but something caught my eye as I was struggling to regain buonacy control. (Lets see how many of you got this right as to what happend?) =)
Well low and behold, one of my weight pouches was sitting on the ocean bottom.. Apparently while I was looking in a hole, I must of kicked my pouch loose enough where the overall weight opend the velcro and the pouch fell on the floor. So as I was tossing and turning trying to get it, I called my buddies (I had two that dive) and pointed. They picked it up (and rather amusingly dropped like a stone to the floor) and looked themselves over and shrugged at me as those as they had no clue who's it was.
I polietly (smirk) pointed at my own wasit and then he gave me a nod and tried to put it back in. However I couldn't keep still long enough to do it. After thinking about it, maybe I should of asked my other buddy to sit on my legs to give me some added weight.
Either way, we decided that the dive was over anyway (we were down for 45 minutes) so he gave me the pouch to hold on to and we all went up together. No problem making a normal ascent.
Now the next fun part. The boat was about 30 yards away up current! They had a current line out, and we couldn't get the pouch in topside either (I mistakenly put air in my BC and didn't realize it.)
So I attempted to swim back against the current holding my weights in my hand. I knew I was going to miss the ladder, so I headed towards the current line and luckly caught that. The next attempt was to pull myself hand over hand while holding my weights and the fact I was already exhausted from kicking to maintain some negative buonancy. Well that was more of an adventure than I care to share (mainly because a lot of fowl language was involved hehe)
I made it about 10-15 feet from the boat, when I gave in and motioned to the DM (who was watching me) to pull me in and I held up my weight pouch. She acknowledged and kindly reeled me in the rest of the way. (Gotta love boat diving)
I didn't have to have her jump in though. Although another diver was very dizzy after his first dive that morning and signaled for a rescue. So she got wet earlier that morning.
Anyhow that is my story... I think I handled it quite well considering the conditions. Important thing, I didn't let myself shoot to the surface. I remained calm the entire time, and let my buddies try to assist me. When that didn't work, we went in together, and they kept an eye on me to make sure I wasn't having problems holding my weights in my hand.
Anyone have any suggestions myself or anyone reading this may need if your integrated weight pouch falls out? What to do? Obviously not having any air would of helped, but any other suggestions from all the instructors out there.
Take care All!
Paul
I thought I should share my weekend experience as it were a first for me and maybe some of you more experience folk can offer me a suggestion should it happen again.
Before I get to that though. For any of you who dive or are planning on diving S. California, now is a better time than any. The cool water is offering a magnatude of fish and bottom life. I have never seen more sheephead that large (at least a good 24-30 inches) in my life! Not to mention the 300 LB Giant Sea bass that was lounging around.. But enough of that! ;-)
Our diving all day was nothing more than 25 feet, and my last dive was only at a max of 15-18 feet, so I wasn't too concerned about what happend, but should this happen in deeper water, I think I would of been a tad bit more concerned.. Luckly for me I had a buddy to help me!
Either case, what had happend, was on my second dive, we were crusing around looking at the wildlife when all of a sudden, I tipped over and my right side of my body started floating towards the surface! The last time this happend, I was in the pool learning how to dive, but it hasn't happend since. So I figured something went wrong with my B/C so I kicked back down and grabbed onto a rock for support while I checked myself out, but I didn't see or hear anything out of the ordinary. The current was rather strong, so it was making a grip rather tricky, but something caught my eye as I was struggling to regain buonacy control. (Lets see how many of you got this right as to what happend?) =)
Well low and behold, one of my weight pouches was sitting on the ocean bottom.. Apparently while I was looking in a hole, I must of kicked my pouch loose enough where the overall weight opend the velcro and the pouch fell on the floor. So as I was tossing and turning trying to get it, I called my buddies (I had two that dive) and pointed. They picked it up (and rather amusingly dropped like a stone to the floor) and looked themselves over and shrugged at me as those as they had no clue who's it was.
I polietly (smirk) pointed at my own wasit and then he gave me a nod and tried to put it back in. However I couldn't keep still long enough to do it. After thinking about it, maybe I should of asked my other buddy to sit on my legs to give me some added weight.
Either way, we decided that the dive was over anyway (we were down for 45 minutes) so he gave me the pouch to hold on to and we all went up together. No problem making a normal ascent.
Now the next fun part. The boat was about 30 yards away up current! They had a current line out, and we couldn't get the pouch in topside either (I mistakenly put air in my BC and didn't realize it.)
So I attempted to swim back against the current holding my weights in my hand. I knew I was going to miss the ladder, so I headed towards the current line and luckly caught that. The next attempt was to pull myself hand over hand while holding my weights and the fact I was already exhausted from kicking to maintain some negative buonancy. Well that was more of an adventure than I care to share (mainly because a lot of fowl language was involved hehe)
I made it about 10-15 feet from the boat, when I gave in and motioned to the DM (who was watching me) to pull me in and I held up my weight pouch. She acknowledged and kindly reeled me in the rest of the way. (Gotta love boat diving)
I didn't have to have her jump in though. Although another diver was very dizzy after his first dive that morning and signaled for a rescue. So she got wet earlier that morning.
Anyhow that is my story... I think I handled it quite well considering the conditions. Important thing, I didn't let myself shoot to the surface. I remained calm the entire time, and let my buddies try to assist me. When that didn't work, we went in together, and they kept an eye on me to make sure I wasn't having problems holding my weights in my hand.
Anyone have any suggestions myself or anyone reading this may need if your integrated weight pouch falls out? What to do? Obviously not having any air would of helped, but any other suggestions from all the instructors out there.
Take care All!
Paul