Your scary OW experiences

Until recently I had no knowledge that I had any fear of the water at all.
I grew up in the pool and could swim from almost the time I could walk, swam competitively for 10+ years but, as I've read, that definately doesn't automatically make me a pro at diving! (Although every part in the pool, even the mask clearing, was a cinch for me.)
But when the time came to go into murky water with 5 ft. viz I was NOT happy about it. So I am considering waiting until I get somewhere in warm water with pretty fish as opposed to the wonderful diving available in the midwest.
Anyone else feel this way? I know, I'm a wuss - I await flames...

I would say that if local diving for you isn't that enjoyable, and you gave it a fair shot, then don't do it. The whole idea is to have fun and a good time. I know someone that just recently sold me their barely used 7mil farmer john because he said he just simply dives warm water only...that's just what he prefers and enjoys.

If you can't get to the warm water frequently, you should keep in mind to try and dive often enough to keep up on your basic skills. Look into some local wrecks, maybe that will give you a little more to enjoy rather than just hovering around aimlessly in low viz hell.

We were trying to find a sunken boat in a cove in a lake and didn't know the area well. We had a depth finder on our boat and knew the cove could vary from 10 to 80 ft with our reckoning of the wreck being in 50 near the 80ft drop off.

We set a buoy and went to try to drop down where we thought the wreck was. At about 30ft, the water went black and I freaked. I called the dive and my buddy and I came up to the surface.

We decided that since it's some of the last diving of the season that we wouldn't call it a day and that we would stick in the shallows near the bank. We were following the edge of the cove in sight of the bottom, in about 30ft. I looked ahead of us and the water was pitch black.

There were large sparkles in the water that looked like bubbles and my mind put a large shape in the blackness. I lost my ****, started yelling "no, no" into my regulator, and my buddy grabbed my hand and started pointing into the blackness.

I fought and got away from him and started *kicking* toward the surface without releasing air from my BC and hyperventilating the whole way.

Needless to say, I came out of the water up to about my shoulders.

I know I did a *LOT* of things wrong in that situation, but at least I lost my **** in a relatively safe environment. I suspect almost everyone will have a episode of losing their cool underwater, so I'm not beating myself up about it too much. I'll use the experience to learn from.

My point is, yes, it does happen to others. You have to use your ability to work through situations.

My fear was awfully silly. My buddy told me later that the 'bubbles' I saw was a school of silvery fish flashing in the sun. I don't know what the dark was, probably shadows from the trees since we were in a cove, but I do know that the lake monster isn't real and he wasn't there that day.

What I think you need to do is to talk to more experienced divers about situations like you're nervous about, and when you get more comfortable with the concept, keep diving.

How realistic is it that you would only dive in warm pretty water? Would you get to do all the diving you would want to do in that situation or would you be severely limiting your experience?

Keep at it, once you're over the initial shock it'll be worth it.
Certainly give it more than 1 or 2 dives.

I can remember clearly my first OW dive. It was off a large RIB with the air temperature about 10c and water temperature 6c.

I rolled off the boat into 17m of water, did the surface check,signals and descended. As soon as my head went under the water i very nearly paniced and bolted.

I wasnt ready for the cold that made my face sting, it was like descending through milk in approx 1-2m visibility and we hit kelp at 6m which we had to batter through. That descent was the longest 1 minute of my life and i considered giving it up there and then. I was later told i was wide eyed and the instructor debated several times whether to abort but didnt.

However, we got to the bottom, i collected myself and had a very enjoyable 40 minute dive through rocky gullies and outcrops of kelp.

The second dive of the day was onto a wreck. As we descended down the shot line which was at 45 degrees the current was strong and my brief was "Roll off, get to the shot, get down it and meet on the bottom". I did, once again what i thought was extreme cold, poor vis and current got to me but once again once i got to the bottom i was fine.

The point im making is i COULD have given up diving there and then on that first descent but went through it and am now VERY VERY glad i didnt quit.

The 6 months of weekly pool training and drills is all very well but open water with poor vis, the cold, the bulky kit and currents is totally different and id venture no amount of pool preparation will get you ready for it - its something you just have to do and get through.

Underwater is an alien world and it does take getting used to. Even now before i dive i get a little bit jumpy and run scenarios through my mind and i think thats good - respect the sea, realise it CAN hurt you if you are complacent but other than that realise if you stick to training and plans along with practice it'll tolerate you.

As for other scarey experiences, mercifully those have been very few and the only real incidents ive ranked as annoying as opposed to scarey. Things like buddy separation aborting a dive after only 3-4 minutes, minor entanglement and so on.

The only one i can think of this year that id class as dicey is we were dropped onto what should have been a wreck but wasnt. We drifted around the lee of the islands and got caught in a VERY strong and infamous current. We put the DSMB up as pre-briefed so surface cover could follow us but as we were drifting so fast rocks were coming up off the bottom and we were being pulled into them as we couldnt see them coming. We attempted to rise above them and reel in some line but even with 2 of us pulling the current was too strong to reel in. At 2 points we got "trapped" pulled tight against rocks and twice considered the pros and cons of realeasing the reel (major con - surface cover wouldnt find us). Eventually we got separated, i surfaced and my buddy hadnt. After 5 minutes he still hadnt surfaced and we all got worried in the boat - he wasnt carrying his own DSMB. Eventually though he appeared some 200m off the boat and we got him on board.

I checked my contents gauge and id really sucked through the air on that dive with the exertion, my SAC was nearly twice normal and id given myself a headache im guessing from CO2 retention as well.

All in all though not a good dive and its not a good feeling surfacing and several minutes later your buddy who you saw only a few minutes ago is nowhere to be seen.

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Id just say, give your local diving a few more goes - give it a chance. Once you get used to dark, murky waters you may well be surprised as to how good dives can be. If you dont like it then fair enough, stick to warm, clear waters but you could be missing out if you stick to that straight away.

I would say tough it out for a bit if you can. I got OW certified here in the midwest and we have the worst conditions you can imagine. Dark rubble in quarries. I look at it as an opportunity to be in heavy situations the tropics might not provide. Your getting a dive training experience many folks on the coasts are not getting. Get used to the scary things here and cabo will be a snap. You will be able to truely appreciate clear water in those places.

In my twenties I was a surfer in rhode island. The waves SUCKED. Conditions were messy. When I moved to Hawaii I could drop into heavy storm swells the locals couldnt because they were spoiled on pristine conditions. Its the same deal. Rise to the occasion bro - remeber stress builds character, youll be a better diver!

During my AOW training I kinda freaked during the Deep Dive (once at the bottom) and started kicking to the surface from about 100 feet. For some reason or another at about 20 feet I got a grip on myself and did a safety stop for about 20 minutes. It was scary... Till this day I havn't gone back to that site and I keep my dives to within 60 feet..it's all psychollogical...slowly but surely, as I gain more experience, the depth of a dive will have a lesser affect on my psychy and I'll start going a bit deeper..I take it all in strides..hey, Einstein flunked highschool!

5 ft viz is about normal in my lake, the thing to do is follow the bottom so you can stay oriented, and stay OFF the bottom so you don't stir up the silt, you can have a lot of fun in a lake, esp if it's a choice between the lake and no diving, also, viz will change depending on the location, look around for the best spots zeN

put off diving in Scotland for years thought it would suck, cold water low viz. Have completed my first couple of ow dives, had viz 6 to 8 metres, saw loads of stuff and was not even cold in my drysuit. Best dives i have ever had, and the only diving i have done before hand was in warm water. Turkey, lanzarote, greece. They don't compare, so stick at it give it a good go and you might find it more to your liking. Learnign to dive here is the est thing i have ever done.

Two weekends ago I was in the Channel Islands on the Vision of the Truth Aquatics fleet (off Santa Barbara). This was the first dive of the trip and my 4th bow gate entry, I wasn't too worried. Conditions were choppy, current was strong and vis was bad. I entered, lost my fin, retrieved and donned it, and had a bit of swimming to do to get back to the anchor line.

I was huffing and puffing when I got there and didn't rest, so decent was difficult as I was very bouyant thanks to full lungs. Had to force myself down the anchorline which was tossing horribly. My mask filled, let go to clear and bounced right back up. I called it at that point. I was stressed and uncomfortable and VERY ashamed when I got back on the boat. I quickly learned to get over that... Rest of the dives were great and I am glad I called it. Boy was I startled though.

The bad part was later in the trip... out of the water. We were anchored close (if not in) an anchorage the second night of our trip. Dinner was done and night divers about to enter the water. I was on the upper deck reading and put my book down because I heard a vessel approaching. I mentioned to a friend how it was getting closer......sounds like it is heading straight for us. Then out of the fog appears this huge park services boat HEADING STRAIGHT FOR US! He yelled to the skipper in time to get two whistles out, but to no avail. This large steel hull ship, that was larger than ours, did not slow down or turn (that I saw) before it hit us. I seriously thought I was going to be swimming or dead very soon. Our vessel held true. There was a lot of structural damage but we were not taking on water and no one was seriouly hurt. We were all very lucky to walk away from this trip. We were hit on the forward portion of the port bow, just behind the bow gate. The night divers would have entered there 5 mins later. She hit us at a 45 degree angle and slid down the entire port side. If she had hit us at a 90, I believe we would have been swimming. The crew was fabulous and professional and very good and keeping us focused on the still scheduled events of the evening and cleaning up as quickly and efficiently as possible. My hat is off to those great folks.

Everyone asks the same question... Why was that boat doing 15 knots (her top speed) in the fog in an achorage? Why didn't they see you on radar? I do not have answers to those questions, but I hope that is the scariest diving related incident I encounter for the rest of my life.

As for cold and bad vis...my heart has been pumping pretty good an several occassions when decending, as all my dives are in cold water so far. My Mantra on ALL those occassions...."solve your problems under water"...over and over again. I focus on my breathing and clearing then all of a sudden I am on the bottom or at the wreck and nothing else matters except blissful bottom time.

Safe diving...in and out of the water.

In my experience most people just starting out are going to be a bit freaked by 5ft vis. If you did really well in the pool including mask clears you are waaayyy ahead of a many people already. Rack up some dives with some decent visibility and get some experience. You may well find later when you are more advanced and experienced that low vis is not a problem. Low vis bothered me in the beginning, but now low vis is no problem.