My first experience with panic

[Kingpatzer]

I have always told students who I'm working with in class because they are having difficulties with a skill that result in moments of panic or high anxiety that everyone has a threshold of events they can tolerate beyond which they will react that way. I explain that no one is immune and that having a moment of high anxiety just shows your brain and body are working correctly to recognize and react to situations that are potentially dangerous for you. I tell them that what we need to do is not worry about their reaction but to reach the point where they are comfortable enough to know they can deal with the situation safely.

But I had an experience in my first deco class that has me questioning that view. And it's been bothering me because it's the first time in my diving life that I've ever had a moment where I reacted irrationally.

I spoke about it on the board in the tech section when I described my class experience, but it has been on my mind more and more as I work with students in the pool and open water.

The situation was simple enough: swim underwater simulating an out of air event, reach my buddy, perform an S-drill and breath off the donated regulator. I've done so many swims underwater without my regulator or doing a simulated CESA or buddy breathing or whatever that I can't begin to count them. This skill should have been a cakewalk.

I made the swim just fine, but when I reached the DM who was my buddy, he didn't do an S-drill and hand me the regulator as I expected, but just handed me the mouth piece directly. I took it but then he pulled the hose to get it free, popped it out of my mouth and I ended up getting a mouth full of water. I couldn't get the regulator fully back in my mouth and didn't have the air to purge the reg. I completely failed to realize I could just hit the purge button. I lost any sense of the situation and started swimming hard for the surface. After about 10' or so I realized I could hit the purge button and I was able to stop my ascent and calm down. I had been going so hard up that I had dragged my buddy with me, and he was on the verge of freaking out as well.

I had to take a minute to calm down, and as I looked around I saw that the instructor was holding on to me as well. I had gone up with such focuse that I had dragged both of them with me.

I got back down. Calmed down. Played the part of the donor a few times, then did the skill perfectly myself. I practiced it over and over again after that and I still practice it in shallow water on every dive.

The problem I'm having is that I'm not sure what I learned here. Sure, I learned I could panic. I learned that no matter how well you understand or know a skill something unexpected can happen. I learned how students feel when they panic. But somehow I now feel more disconnected from students having that experience than I did before. I am not sure about my own advice and council, and somehow after my own experience that I too can panic, I'm feeling that my advice to students doesn't means anything.

I've always appreciated that I could panic, but I was also always confident that I wouldn't, if that makes sense. Now I know that isn't the case, and that's not a comforting thought.

Anyway, that's my near miss story. I'm not sure that I have a question or point, but it's been bothering me and I felt like writing it down . . . so there it is.

 

[Walter]

Not having air can cause anyone to panic. Understanding you don't need air right this second can prevent it. How are your skin diving skills? Have you practiced clucking to clear a regulator?

 

[gypsyjim]

Possibly now, in time, as you are teaching students with your experience in mind, you will find a better way to reach them on this subject.
Experience can give your teaching that extra impact, that just words, without the experience, lack.

 

[Bubbletrubble]

Crisis of confidence. Panic. It can happen to anyone.

I'd try to focus on what you learned from the incident. Needless to say, this air-share was not one of the smoother ones in your experience. You have every right to be upset that the DM yanked the reg out of your mouth during inhalation. That's definitely something that he should avoid doing. Good technique on the part of the donor involves providing a reliable source of gas and minimizing stress on the recipient. Perhaps you could have done a couple of things differently, too. You may consider taking a stronger grip on the second stage with your hand when it's presented for air-shares -- to prevent it from getting dislodged from your mouth (should the donor shift position, yank on the hose, etc.). You may also want to take a more guarded first breath if possible. Practicing alternate methods of clearing the reg would be very helpful as well.

Processing this incident is going to make you a better instructor. It sounds like it was a humbling experience, and that's why you feel like you don't have much to "offer" students. That couldn't be further from the truth. You'll realize that in time.

Hang in there. Thanks for sharing the story so that we can learn from your experience.

 

[Kingpatzer]

Not having air can cause anyone to panic. Understanding you don't need air right this second can prevent it.

I think part of my lesson was that rational thought is only marginally useful once an irrational response gets triggered. I knew I was fine. I knew how to resolve the issue. But it took me long enough to fight back my irrational response that I had already started down the path of further endangering myself.

How are your skin diving skills?

Fairly solid. I'm no free diver by any stretch of the imagination, but I can go down and swim around for about a minute to a minute and a half. I easily make a 25m pool length and swing back a bit when demonstrating the skill in class.

Have you practiced clucking to clear a regulator?

I have, but just as I didn't even consider the purge button at first, that response never even occurred to me.

 

[carlcz]

Panic can and probably has hit all of us at one time or another. The trick that I have found is to evaluate these "life defining" moments and extract whatever information I need to stop me from repeating the same errors/mistakes again.

 

[openmindOW]

Sure, I learned I could panic. I learned that no matter how well you understand or know a skill something unexpected can happen. I learned how students feel when they panic.

Thank you, Kingpatzer, for sharing your experience.

This experience will make you a better Instructor.

 

[TSandM]

The important thing, to me, is that you stopped yourself.

I had a similar experience in Mexico, but not in a training dive. I was doing a dive with a stage, and descended on the stage reg without turning the stage on. I got two or three breaths from the hose and then nothing. My very first response was to swim hard for the surface, although within one or two kicks I had recognized the problem and begun to turn the tank on. I was really shaken by the whole thing, because I really ought to have way more than enough training not to view the surface as my first and best option. But the important thing was that I DIDN'T go to the surface -- I turned my gas on. And you purged your reg and settled down.

I don't know what anyone can do to extinguish that first burst of adrenalin. All you can do is work to control it. Very, VERY experienced technical and cave divers have died from panic -- Sherwood Shiles is an example. Knowing we're all human and that training only goes so far is part of what keeps us from pushing limits, I think.

 

[Walter]

I think part of my lesson was that rational thought is only marginally useful once an irrational response gets triggered.

Excellent point! That's why it's important to drill ourselves so that responses become automatic. We need to prevent that irrational response from being triggered.

Another thing that I've found helps is to anticipate trouble. Especially if I'm sharing air, I expect things to go wrong. If I'm expecting a problem and them I have a problem, I'm already thinking about how to solve it. I'm less likely to panic.

I have, but just as I didn't even consider the purge button at first, that response never even occurred to me.

More practice might be in order. They need to be automatic responses.

 

[Jim Lapenta]

One of the things I have found that really fosters comfort with air sharing is doing it often and under different conditions. With OW students once they have been shown blast, purge, and now clucking as Walter described I have them do it with the octo and even more useful seems to be buddy breathing. I have a new class starting in two weeks and will be using all of the above. What really makes one more comfortable is to do the unexpected. Pull drills all the time between other skills, during the free swim portion, etc. I will tell students if they are just swimming to come up and give me the OOA signal whenever they feel like it. I've been toying with the idea of during OOA buddy breathing drills to require them to do 3 cycles with blast clear, 3 with purge, and 3 with clucking. Your experience just helped me make the decision. Next OW class will be doing it! Thanks and don;t feel bad about this. You just helped my OW students! And me! But I agree that maybe more practice is called for. An instructor is human but we should be anticipating these things and be less likely to react by bolting.