It was a fantastic diving day. I was in a giant room fully engulfed in water. All around me there were tunnels and various scientific projects and surveys strewn about the rocky bottom. I was swimming with my two professors and a TA from my field ecology class abroad. We were just having a tour of the area, swimming on scuba through underground tunnels to get from each giant room to the next, just viewing all the projects that were strewn about.
I couldn't tell if I was in a pool or an ocean. The vis was infinite, the rocks on the bottom looked like those at the breakwater metridium, and the surface broke only to a enclosed ceiling 3 feet high. The rooms were ginormous and tropically lit even though there were no lights or sun to be seen. It was like swimming into an olympic style pool. It was weird too. If the area wasn't covered by rocks, it was simply pool stucco.
The water neither felt warm nor cold, it was wonderful. I would have been in scuba heaven had it not been for some terrible series of events. No sooner had our dive begun I went to take a close up look at a slate pinned to a rock. I wanted to see what it was about. My buoyancy and trim were top notch. I was in a textbook DIR position, legs bent at the knee, feet parallel with the surface, arms out in front of me. I felt great, until I reached the slate. I was hovering inches away just reading to my hearts content when suddenly I plummeted face first into the rocky bottom.
My mind raced, something was wrong. I didn't think to inflate, my hands weren't working. I decided to abort and just swam off along with the rest of the group.
But it only got worse. For some reason I couldn't get any speed going at all. I felt like I was dragging a parachute. My professors and TA were just casually swimming away and I was trying my best to keep up. There were already 50yds away and I was going nowhere. I tried frog kicking, nothing, I tried flutter kicking, nothing. I even tried back kicks and even bicycle kicks, nada.
My SMB must have inflated itself, because for some reason my trim was waaaay off. I kept rolling left and my feet kept floating up. I went to feel for my SMB on my right hip ring, it felt normal, rolled up and deflated. But still I was rolling. Even worse I was having an unplanned ascent.
I tried my best to kick down, but I wasn't going anywhere, instead I kept rolling left and floating up.
I must have been 50ft above the rest of the group. They were just swimming away into another tunnel, no care in the world, and I was having the worst time imaginable. Just a few feet from the surface I stopped breathing and just finned as hard a possible. Just as I felt my hip break the surface my mind shot a message across "you just blew your lungs out".
I woke up right after that.
It was HORRIBLE GUYS!
I need to get out there and dive again!
I couldn't tell if I was in a pool or an ocean. The vis was infinite, the rocks on the bottom looked like those at the breakwater metridium, and the surface broke only to a enclosed ceiling 3 feet high. The rooms were ginormous and tropically lit even though there were no lights or sun to be seen. It was like swimming into an olympic style pool. It was weird too. If the area wasn't covered by rocks, it was simply pool stucco.
The water neither felt warm nor cold, it was wonderful. I would have been in scuba heaven had it not been for some terrible series of events. No sooner had our dive begun I went to take a close up look at a slate pinned to a rock. I wanted to see what it was about. My buoyancy and trim were top notch. I was in a textbook DIR position, legs bent at the knee, feet parallel with the surface, arms out in front of me. I felt great, until I reached the slate. I was hovering inches away just reading to my hearts content when suddenly I plummeted face first into the rocky bottom.
My mind raced, something was wrong. I didn't think to inflate, my hands weren't working. I decided to abort and just swam off along with the rest of the group.
But it only got worse. For some reason I couldn't get any speed going at all. I felt like I was dragging a parachute. My professors and TA were just casually swimming away and I was trying my best to keep up. There were already 50yds away and I was going nowhere. I tried frog kicking, nothing, I tried flutter kicking, nothing. I even tried back kicks and even bicycle kicks, nada.
My SMB must have inflated itself, because for some reason my trim was waaaay off. I kept rolling left and my feet kept floating up. I went to feel for my SMB on my right hip ring, it felt normal, rolled up and deflated. But still I was rolling. Even worse I was having an unplanned ascent.
I tried my best to kick down, but I wasn't going anywhere, instead I kept rolling left and floating up.
I must have been 50ft above the rest of the group. They were just swimming away into another tunnel, no care in the world, and I was having the worst time imaginable. Just a few feet from the surface I stopped breathing and just finned as hard a possible. Just as I felt my hip break the surface my mind shot a message across "you just blew your lungs out".
I woke up right after that.
It was HORRIBLE GUYS!
I need to get out there and dive again!
