Thank God for diving buddies......

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Redtexan7

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Messages
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Location
Sasebo, Japan
# of dives
100 - 199
Well, I want to start out this thread with thanking my dive buddy Stephen and of course my dive instructor Rich who taught us what we know today about the underwater world and the "what if's"!

This dive was a typical dive area that I have gone many times before to get away and get underwater. My buddy Stephen was actually leaving to San Diego because of change of duty station and he wanted to go dive one more time before he left. Being that there were time constraints and distance, we decided to go out to Fort Pickens' jetties and to get underwater. We parked at the jetties about 0635 (high tide 0735) and put our suits on, bc and tanks, and in the water by 0639 (no playing around when we want to dive!!) :D Gear all checkout great and I looked at Stephen, gave the nod, and went under. Right when we hit about 10-13' we saw a couple of good size jellies but didn't think anything about it. We started moving East towards the fishing pier swimming between a couple more basketball size jellies and ran into a school of bait fish. Saw some nice size grouper, a couple of redfish, and of course spades....We got to the golf cart and saw a Atlantic Torpedo (Electric Ray) sitting on the bottom. Went over and said hi and he let us rub his back before taking off.

Continuing on our journey, we soon ran into a line, hook, and bait. (went further then wanted to) I was thinking about giving the fisher man a run for his money by grabbing on and yanking hard, but I decided to let him be and we turned around and headed back West going a little deeper to see some more marine life (too bad I didn't know it was the rise of the jellies!!.) Hit about 45-50' and saw a softball size jelly with a good 8" of tentacles . Went up to give the jelly a shot of air and that's when the fun started. My reg decided to start a free flow that was un-controlling. I tired to stop the flow by sucking in a deep breath/blowing in a forced mouthful but it was just nonstop flow. I look up at my buddy and he was already on his way with his octo in his hand. He shoved it in my mouth and let me suck a nice breath of controlled air. My reg was still flowing high speed so he cut off my tank to stop the chaos of air loss. He turned it back on and free flowing again. ***?? So, we gave the thumbs up and started to go up. Hit the 20' mark and of course computer says to do a stop so we did. (mind you jellies are coming out of the sand :no ) I looked down at my computer to see how much time is left with the safety stop, took a deep breath of Stephen's octo and it was straight water. I looked up at him and was like ***? All I had in my mouth was his octo's mouth piece (the zip tie was broken and it must have popped off when looking over to my computer) He shoved his reg in my mouth and we started another buddy breathing routine with 2:30 to go on our safety stop.(getting stung by the now pissed off cousin's of the jelly I messed with :angrymob:, passing a reg back between the two of us and trying to maintain 15-20' for a safety stop was quite a task!!) I found his octo (minus the mouth piece) and stuck it back in my mouth to finish up the stop. Count down was finished and we come up to the surface, inflated our bc's fully, did a fist pound, and gave out a sigh of relief!

I would have to say that this dive was a quick reminder of just because you are going to regular dive spots/ relaxed area, it's always great to have a dive buddy who knows what he is doing, have the proper training, and stay relaxed regardless of the situation so you can dive another day!:scubadive: P.S. O yeah, don't mess with the jellies!!
 
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Thanks for sharing!!!! We always need a good reminder.
 
Thanks for the story!! That's unfortunate you couldn't have finished the dive, sounds like it was a good day at fort pickens.
 
I need to get out to Fort Pickens for a dive, i'm glad you guys got your dive in before your buddy leaves, mine just left for Cali.

Just to throw 2 cents in, if your in that kind of situation, i would not worry about a saftey stop, it is just a recomended and in an emergency situation, can be left out with no real reprocusions.
 
Great read and a great thread to remind people to stay sharp on their skills
 
Yeah, good story. You are lucky to have had such a great buddy.
 
One of those if can it will things...dives like that make you relish the days when you always find the anchor line, the gear always works and everyone makes it back. Glad you both kept your cool through the whole situation, hope it's a while till you have to practice again!
 
Thanks for all the thoughts and insight guys!! Sometimes you need to get grounded for a split second before you hit the turbo again!!
 
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