Why didn't I handle a freeflow situation?

hi im an advanced openwater diver with 50 dives under my belt not much i know so clearly still a novice.

The other day me and my buddy was diving a local site when after 5 minuits into the dive i had a freeflow situation. I hadnt had to deal with anything like that before. in my training i totally understood what i would need to do in this situation, however the other day i totally lost it and instead of being calm i paniked and started to hyperventilate at 25 mtrs. i grabed my buddys octo and exchanged for my freeflowing reg. Now i should be ok knowing that i now was reasonably safe but i couldnt get enough air as i was paniking still, so i tried to get to the surface as quick as i could, with my buddy!!! we failed to hold a safety stop we are both ok but i put my buddys life in danger and am now thinking weather or not to carry on diving.

any thoughts would be greatly appreciated
thanx

P.S sorry buddy

Next time you won't panic, you'll remember that panicking was worse than the free flow. No use to give up. In diving, more than any other thing I have done, I see that experience is the greatest teacher.

divemaster2011:

and am now thinking weather or not to carry on diving.

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highlandfarmwv:

Next time you won't panic, you'll remember that panicking was worse than the free flow. No use to give up.

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This isn't so much a diving question as it is an issue of self analysis.

You can sit there right now and tell yourself what will happen if and when it happens again. Only you can decide how you are going to respond in a situation- even something 10x more life threatening than a simple free flow- and believe me, there are a dozen things that will likely happen in that category.

I like your SCUBABoard name, DiveMaster 2011. Sounds like a plan. Are you 100% behind it and do you have the physical presence and mental control to be of service to others when the S.H.T.F.?

Only you can know.

Good to hear you are OK. This is why you were taught to deal with a freeflow and other common problems. Trouble is, most divers never practice any of their skills once out of class- honestly- when was the last time you removed your mask underwater or shared air just for practice? And when they do have a problem what should have been just a pain in the rear becomes a full blow emergency, yours is a prefect example. Practice your emergency skills and work on your mental conditioning. With the possible exception of being chewed on by a huge shark, there is pretty much no diving problem that can not be delt with if you keep cool and THINK.

For me it is a question of experience: if you had , let's say, 100 dives more, all of them without incident, you would have handled the situation way better. Just because you would have been more at ease with diving.

So: dive more, have that regulator checked and (if you can) get a second first stage.

Cheers!

Now that it's over I would talk to your buddy think about what the 2 of you could do together if the suituation occurred again, what you guys felt went right, what you could do differently. (if you haven't already done so)

From your description, regardless of what you think, it doesn't sound to me like you went into all out panic, to me, that would have been bolting to the surface, remember you controlled the panic enough to get air from your buddy. Focus on that being a positive part of the experience you had, and not the whole situation being a negative diving experience.

Next, Herman brings up a good point, practice the skills on a normal dive, not just in clear pool like conditions, agree with your buddy that you will do this on normal dives in less than perfect conditions (i.e. not in the swimming pool), for example, tap them on the shoulder while hovering and sign them to stop while you take off and clear your mask or what ever skill you intend to do, i.e sharing air and ascending at the end of the dive.

I know this sounds odd, but to me, you are really trying to build both a muscle and mental memory of doing these things (not every dive) to give you reserves to call on *if* it should ever happen again, for me, doing those things helped take the skills into a "dive" situation.

Or, if you are a little shaken up by this experience, go back into the pool and start practising the skills there before you try them on a dive...

But take heart, I did a DM course a few years back to help improve my diving and understanding of the sport I'd become passionate about (I never sent off the paperwork), but while practising skills with another DMT, we were doing the sharing air skills in about 1.5 meters of water, my buddy freaked (she even had the air at the time) and hit the surface.

We talked about it after, practised every time we dived together and she learnt from it because as she said, she learnt what it felt like to panic, and then learnt to "talk" herself out of it mentally.

You have the unique position of having felt that, knowing what your reactions were, now its time to give yourself a learned response to help you handle the situation in the future.

Good luck on your future dives

What Herman said. You do enough drills when it's easy and you are in a calm controlled environment that when it really happens, the muscle memory is so ingrained that the response will be no big deal.

I have a buddy that I have trained with so much that we are very comfortable doing surprise drills on each other (don't try this at home). Yesterday he swam above me and turned off my gas on me. Again. And really, my response was, ho hum... been here, done that so many times.

It really is disconcerting to me how many people do a few drills on their knees in Open Water class, and then that's the last time they do them. Of course when the real thing comes, any normal person would freak. I know I would.

Last fall I was in the St Lawrence river finishing a deep wreck penetration, and when my buddy and I came out of the wreck at 200', off on the distance there was a light flashing emergency at me. Instantly I was moving full speed toward the light with my primary reg out in front of me, ready to donate. When I got close enough to see what was going on, there was a diver and his instructor doing a drill, and the instructor was waving me off - "Dude, thanks, but I got it here." But I'd done so many out of gas drills deep in the last couple of years that I don't think my heart rate went up a bit. Really, it felt like a non-event to me, and I am basically just a big chicken! But you can even train a chicken like me enough to turn what should be a scary event into feeling like just another drill.

No one can predict when they will panic, and everyone (except the rare super hero) has a panic point. But we can train that panic point to be very far away.

Training. You can't expect to do it a couple of times in the pool, and then a hundred dives later remember what to do. That scares me just thinking about it...

What Rick said. But I'd like to add that a real freeflow is an extremely noisy and chaotic event, and it's easy to lose buoyancy control when you're surrounded by it. At least I did, when I had my first one.

Whether you should continue diving is something only you can decide, but it is definitely true that a panic response and bolting to the surface really shouldn't be the first strategy for ANY kind of underwater issue. If your temperament is the kind where your first reaction to any problem is to freak out, you probably know that about yourself. If you're normally pretty capable, then what you need for your diving is probably more training and more practice.

Just turn off your tank valve, and your uncontrollable free-flow is solved. All that noise & bubbles does is just add to the stress level --as well as waste precious breathing gas-- so just shut it down.

Breath your buddy's octo . . .or worst case being by yourself --breath your own octo or back-up reg and do a CESA. When you have to take in breaths during the ascent, feather/modulate your tank valve as needed and then shut it down (if your other reg is still free-flowing). Pause at 6m and perform a safety stop if you can with a slow ascent to the surface, remaining gas permitting . . .all the while feathering/modulating your tank valve again as needed for breaths.

A great drill for you and your buddy to practice. . .

divemaster2011:

...The other day me and my buddy was diving a local site when after 5 minuits into the dive i had a freeflow situation. I hadnt had to deal with anything like that before. in my training i totally understood what i would need to do in this situation, however the other day i totally lost it

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For the same reason I sucked 39 degree seawater on a bad roll-off last week. In an emergency your mind does NOT re-run the last six courses while searching for an immediate best response. Real training is diving. We both knew what to do, we both did something somewhat short of optimal. Keep at it.

Stay safe.