How easily a situation can get out of hand!

Reading about the trainee DM who wouldn't bin the dive when asked made me think about a recent dive I did with my more experienced buddy.

Last week I did my first dive in what I thought was a strong current. Having never had experience with a current before I was getting quite nervous in the water, even though I had been told how to deal with currents during my training. Anyway the point is I was not happy, I didn't feel in control and was having a hard time slowing my breathing down so after twenty minutes I turned to my buddy and signalled that I wasn't happy. He made me stop in the water, shelter up against some rocks to try and calm down a bit and asked what I wanted to do, when I gave the thumps up he didn't ask any questions, didn't try and convince me to continue the dive, he sent up the surface marker and we ascended normally.

The point I am trying make here is that in that short dive I realised a number of things!

1) The importance of good training and self reliance - this dive made me sure of the fact that I want to do my rescue course at some point in the near future. If for some reason the current had seperated my buddy and I, I like to think I would have had the presence of mind to do the right thing.

2) The importance of a buddy who pays attention - he was there for the whole dive knowing I'd never dived these kind of conditions and the minute I said I wasn't happy he helped me to somewhere where he could safely assess the situation and sort things out one way or the other. He never once made me feel bad about cutting the dive short. On the other side of this I was paying enough attention to myself to know I wasn't happy and wanted to bin, had I not done this I could have put both of us in danger.

3) Most importantly it made me realise how easily and quickly a situation can go from a mild and easily solvable problem to a full blown disaster. More than once I felt like all I wanted to do was bolt for the surface or take off my mask or spit my hood out, or thought I was going to swept away by the current and be lost at sea, lucikly for me I kept my wits about me and was reasoning with myself that it wouldn't help to do any of those things and that of course I wasn't going t get swept away. I was breathing quite heavily and although I stopped and tried to calm myself I just couldn't get comfortable with my breathing.

This dive was a lesson for me....never be afraid to call a dive and if some-one calls one on you never try and stop them - a split second can turn a small problem into a life threatening situation for you and your buddy

Yup, good call on aborting the dive if you didn't feel right. If that was your first dive in a current, you learned something. You now have a better idea of what it's like to dive in those conditions. At least better than you did before the dive. Who knows, maybe a few dives later you might handle that same current much better. Sometimes a different mindset can be all the difference.

He can dive with me or be a safety diver for any of my classes, anytime! He did great! Florida might not be such a bad change for you guys!!!

Ah yes....seems like it should be a golden rule...someone wants to thumb a dive....thumb the damn dive...things will only get worse if you are not honest with yourself and your team.

Your buddy did a damn good job of controlling the situation and, most of all, being there for you to help calm you down when things weren't quite right.

Lastly, you too did the right thing by communicating with your buddy that somethig was wrong. All too often, I watch OW students try to convince the other in the buddy pair that things are going to be "ok" if we press on....or the guy who is having the problem is not communicating it to his buddy...

All around a successful dive...and good training....keep wet my good man.

Agreed ... you both did the right thing.

I have a friend who had a similar experience recently. He's a relatively new diver (although a really good one for his experience level).

Current can be a scary thing to get used to ... it's really a matter of feeling like you're not in control of the dive. Most divers react as you did on their first current dive ... although many haven't the sense to thumb the dive before it develops into a more serious situation. My guess is that your buddy has seen it before and knowing this was your first experience with current recognized the symptoms.

Good job ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

jiveturkey the first thing my buddy did on getting out of the water after making sure I was okay was ask me what I learned on the dive. We didn't tear the dive apart or anything but his concern was that if I didn't sort things out in my own head that I might convince myself that I was scared to dive again (not likely!!!)

NetDoc he is getting so fed up with the way the club he does some instruction for is being run that convincing him to move to Florida may not be that hard

All the time I wasn't happy I was thinking my god I can see why people want to tear off masks and spit out regs etc. but yes as it was a very good experience for me - it happened on the first dive of the week but it didn't stop me getting back in although I did check with the skipper what the current was like on every subsequent dive I went on to have a fabulous weekend seeing some of the most amzing things - I nearly had kittens with excitement when I spotted my first Conger eel and he was a biiiig Conger!!

Right on, every dive is a successful dive when you come back alive, aborting the dive is a command decision and when you call it for good reasons, you adapted to the changing conditions of the dive and have acted accordingly, and will yet dive another day ===> zeN||