Hello All,
I wanted to get some feedback on this from a scary situation I experienced. First the details about myself. I am a new diver with approx. 20 dives under my belt both fresh and salt water. I am confident in my skill but not over confident. I am very comfortable in water also. The incident took place at Dutch Springs in PA. I was diving with a group of 10 and one paticular diver about 55-60 years old was new to the group and no one really new his experience, but we did know before we went that his power inflator was broken and he said he felt comfortable with the manual inflation process. So we started the dive, during this dive five of us split off including this gentleman. I was not paired with him but during are dive I kept noticing he was falling back then he pointed to his air which was about 1200psi, I signaled OK, plenty to get back. I kept looking back as we were swiming and noticed he was starting to panic and wanted to blow the surface from about 35-40 ft. I tried to get him to focus on me with no luck and the he started to spit his reg out 2 times. I tried to shove it back in his mouth and purge it but he just spit it out. He took a couple of big gulps of water on the way up then we blew the surface. On the surface he was choking and gasping for air. I started yelling for help and then realized he was negative so I stuck his octopuss in his mouth and start to tow him 50-60 yards to the rock wall were the boat came and got him. He spit up a bunch of water but he is fine and we both live to dive another day.
Now my concern, the very next day I was on a dive with a very experieced diver on a typical dive in Dutch Springs and all was going great and then out of the blue it came over me like a title wave, my heart was beating like a locomtive, and it felt like I could not get enough air. I had to get out immediatley and wanted to blow the surface from 60ft. I was able to keep my composer and keep myself logical. Barely. I let my buddy know I wanted to head back. When we got I confided in him and told him what I went through and he said he could not tell and I handled very well. I could see that guy's face I resuced the day before, his eyes, the shear terror on his face, gasping for air. I know what he was feeling now. I am worried to get wet again but I will. How to battle this?
Thanks in advance for any advice.
I wanted to get some feedback on this from a scary situation I experienced. First the details about myself. I am a new diver with approx. 20 dives under my belt both fresh and salt water. I am confident in my skill but not over confident. I am very comfortable in water also. The incident took place at Dutch Springs in PA. I was diving with a group of 10 and one paticular diver about 55-60 years old was new to the group and no one really new his experience, but we did know before we went that his power inflator was broken and he said he felt comfortable with the manual inflation process. So we started the dive, during this dive five of us split off including this gentleman. I was not paired with him but during are dive I kept noticing he was falling back then he pointed to his air which was about 1200psi, I signaled OK, plenty to get back. I kept looking back as we were swiming and noticed he was starting to panic and wanted to blow the surface from about 35-40 ft. I tried to get him to focus on me with no luck and the he started to spit his reg out 2 times. I tried to shove it back in his mouth and purge it but he just spit it out. He took a couple of big gulps of water on the way up then we blew the surface. On the surface he was choking and gasping for air. I started yelling for help and then realized he was negative so I stuck his octopuss in his mouth and start to tow him 50-60 yards to the rock wall were the boat came and got him. He spit up a bunch of water but he is fine and we both live to dive another day.
Now my concern, the very next day I was on a dive with a very experieced diver on a typical dive in Dutch Springs and all was going great and then out of the blue it came over me like a title wave, my heart was beating like a locomtive, and it felt like I could not get enough air. I had to get out immediatley and wanted to blow the surface from 60ft. I was able to keep my composer and keep myself logical. Barely. I let my buddy know I wanted to head back. When we got I confided in him and told him what I went through and he said he could not tell and I handled very well. I could see that guy's face I resuced the day before, his eyes, the shear terror on his face, gasping for air. I know what he was feeling now. I am worried to get wet again but I will. How to battle this?
Thanks in advance for any advice.