hI everyone

[Soozie2]

Been lurking on this forum for a while and decided to register and post a greeting to you all. What a fantastic source of information this is.

I've had a bit of a bad experience at depth in cold water recently and am now 1. (still)trying to find an acceptable explanation for it, and 2. arranging a week's recreational diving in warm water to get some confidence back and finish the last AOW dive so at least the certification is complete (and I will get 10 more logged dives in lovely conditions).

Briefly got to 30.4m in cold water (in wetsuit), had trouble when felt ice cold in my chest and then felt as if I couldn't take in any air at all. Felt scared+++, went to instructor, signalled trouble with reg and chest and wanted to go up, did a buddy breathing ascent but I panicked at some stage and took some water in. I was terror struck and don't want a repeat.

Suggested explanations from others include: nitrogen narcosis; cold water narcosis; sheer pressure on chest at that depth; reg not suitable for that depth; going from OW in warm water to immediate AOW in cold water with no preparation for cold water diving and no intermediate dives to reinforce skills; combination of cold water, different site, poor viz, psychological overlay because of the bad reputation that particular site has for near misses/fatalities, fact that someone brought out with no breathing and no pulse just as we were going in (helicoptered to hospital and apparently OK), etc. etc.

Feels like unfinished business at the moment and would love to draw a line and move on to just enjoy it!

Soozie2

 

[CaptSaaz]

Hi Soozie and welcome to the board!

All of the possible explanations are plausible especially the sudden change from warm to cold, low vis, etc. Too many new tasks and sensations to handle all at once.

I hope you take the time and effort to get back in the water. Take a step back and get back in warm water and build up to the cold water AOW. Discuss your issues with your instructor and work on getting wet again.

 

[Scott Riemer]

Hello Soozie2 and welcome. Sorry to hear about your scare. Hope you can get out there and overcome the fear. You already know what a great sport it is. Take it slow and easy.

 

[Far_X]

Hi Soozie, welcome to the board. If you are from the Midlands (I am originally from Gateshead - not in the Midlands, I know ), whereabouts did you go diving? What was the temperature at the bottom? If you are looking at diving through the year, then I would look at getting a dry suit with polar fleeces for the sharper months. What kind of reg. did you use? I checked out my AOW today and temp. here in New York was 67F which is about 19.4C and that was most comfortable. Everyone dove dry except one of my buddies and he said it wasn't bad at all in a 7mm. Good luck in the warm waters - you know you are going to enjoy it and that preparation for colder water is essential and looks forward to you when you return Safe diving.

 

[Soozie2]

Thanks for your replies and for the encouraging comments.

Far X - it was a quarry site in Leicestershire, but really it wasn't the location it was just that the water was so really cold (well, to me anyway!). It was like diving into a cold swimming pool, just seemed to take your breathe away (figuratively speaking). We seemed to be wearing so much more gear, some of the procedures were slightly different from what we'd learned in the OW course (just slightly, but it can throw you), and it just seemed so different to what we'd been doing before.

Having said this, my son completed everything brilliantly so it was my problem.

I had respect for the situation during the OW in warm water and certainly wasn't cavalier about it all, but now I'm very aware of how things can go wrong so quickly and, despite the practice drills in OW, when something untoward happens it's so easy to go with instinct (i.e. I want to get out of here) rather than training (Stop, Breath, Assess, Do).

I'll only be doing holiday type diving and don't think cold water stuff is for me. I have a bit of a problem with cold even above the surface - didn't think about this in relation to diving in cold water but now realise that it was a bit foolhardy to even contemplate going there for the AOW especially without a couple of recreational orientation dives.

Have spoken to our local dive club who are happy to provide the type of support I need for the next couple of dives and hopefully will be joining them on a group trip to the Red Sea in a few weeks' time.

I'm afraid I don't know what the temp was or the type of reg used.

Was a bit surprised that PADI requested my training records from my OW instructor. Presume this is part of quality control procedures, but there was nothing wrong with the initial training and felt concerned that there was some suggestion from the AOW instructor/course director that the OW training wasn't up to scratch. There were quite a few remarks made about the quality (or lack of) of training in Red Sea resorts when we arrived on the first day but I just put this down to professional sniping.

I was also a bit fed up that the dive plan was changed without warning on the second attempt to do the deep dive a week later (which I executed OK but wasn't comfortable with). Particularly given the situation, it was suprising that the CD went down first instead of buddying me as planned, then the DI descended faster than I was so that I couldn't even get his attention when I decided to resurface from 3m just to recompose myself at the beginning of the dive. He noticed eventually that I hadn't gone down to the 5m buoy and did come up to see if I was OK, but it wasn't a good start.

I suppose we all have our stories to tell, and someone else might have seen things differently...

 

[Far_X]

Doing diving on just holidays is not a bad thing - think of all the things you can see whilst the land bound whales are sizzling in their deckchairs...lol. Cold water diving is not everyone's cup of tea for the very reasons you have mentioned. I belong to a dive club and many of the members just dive on the trips and not locally at all. I can't dive enough and now that I got my AOW, I will be pestering my buddies to go on yet another boat dive - winter or summer!!!

As to the LDS checking out your training - was this before your dive or after it? I have not experienced the Red Sea operations but I was looking at doing that before I moved to the States. I got my OW qualification down in Florida wearing just a 3mm in November and strated my AOW in January - again with a 3mm. When I moved to New York in March, the first thing I did was invest in a dry suit as the water up here is much colder. When I was checking out apartments in January, the bays had frozen over and it was 16F!!! I got training in the pool for my dry suit and my first couple of dives here I was "looked after" though they were not part of my AOW training. My training was not questioned other than verbals questions so it could be the people training you or it could be that the Red Sea operators are not training people to dive in English waters and wouldn't cover everything requried to do that. However, I would have thought you'd have received some intermediate dives first rather than "throwing you in at the deep end".

It sounds like you know what you want from your diving. Has this experience made you decide that it is only holiday dives from now? What spurred you into diving in England? It certainly sounds like your son did well!

Good luck in the next couple of dives and enjoy yourself in the Red Sea!!!

 

[DandyDon]

Howdy!

And welcome to SB - the biggest, the best, the fastest growing, and the friendliest!

I was fine in my 5 mil jumpsuit and 2 mil beanie in last month's dives, but women often need more. Especially going with your "I have a bit of a problem with cold even above the surface..." statement. I'd certainly suggest 7 mil jumpsuit or 7 mil farmer-jane for you in 67F, and dry suit for anything colder. Being a vacation diver is better than nothing, but you may want to dive some locally?

Check out our New to Scuba and UK forums. PM me if I can help you learn your way around.

don

 

[Kayla]

Hi there and welcome to ScubaBoard!

 

[mrjake]

Welcome to SB! I am also going to do my first cold water diving next weekend. Sorry to hear of your experience with it. I will be diving in a quarry where water temps at depth can reach into the low 60sF. My dive buddy, however, has dove this site many times and assures me that a 7mm with a jacket and hood will be plenty warm. We'll see.
Hope you can once again get comfortable with diving. Its been the greatest adventure that I've been on.

Bob Jacobs

 

[headhunter]

Welcome to ScubaBoard! :happywave

Sounds like your doing the right thing to get back on track. I think you'll be fine once you get more comfortable by doing a lot more diving. Here's to taking care of that unfinished business!

Dive safe!

Christian

P.S. Due to the high volume of new posts in the Introductions and Greets forum, it's not always possible to keep up with all the new posts here. So, please help me out and send me a PM if you post anything you want me to read or repsond to in this forum.
almtree: :sunny