Hyperventilating at 110 feet

[violinfather]

Just got back from Cozumel where I had 26 dives in two weeks. On my very last day I was at Columbia Deep and got into a situation where my training worked out but it was a close call.

When we dropped over the reef we immediately saw a very large group of divers below us at approximately 80 feet. The dive leader who has thousands of dives and is like a fish decided to fin hard over the top of the group so that we could drop to our max depth of 110 feet without the other dive group around us. I found myself getting out of breath trying to keep up with the leader as did my teenage daughter which I later found out. Instead of adjusting the air flow on my second stage I continued to try and keep up. I found it was like running on the surface but without the ability to get a good exhalation or deep breath. Instead of just stopping I continued to follow and then dropped down to 110 feet. Immediately upon reaching our max depth I found I could not catch my breath. This resulted in a panicked feeling and even more rapid and shallow breathing. I signaled to my daughter to advise the dive guide that I wanted to surface immediately. At one point during my rapid breathing I felt like I was going to black out. This kicked in my training where all I thought of was STOP, try to calm yourself and breath slowly or you might die. I managed to do this and continue my dive.

I probably should have scrubbed the next dive as I did find myself starting to breath rapidly during a swim through where there was a very narrow exit and a fair amount of silt obscuring visibility. I could feel my heart pounding in my chest. I then decided to switch to my Octo and breath through it for the remainder of the dive as it felt like I was getting more air that way. I was actually too nervous to adjust my 2nd stage G250 given my earlier incident so that is why I used my Octo. My Octo is a second stage regulator that I use as an Octo.

This incident occurred after two weeks of not stop diving including dives such as the Devil's Throat. It taught me four things. One I need to increase the amount of diving I do so that I can respond to such incidents in a calmer fashion, two I should have adjusted my airflow valve or stopped chasing the dive master before I started to hyperventilate, three if you are at the back of the group like I was and not close to your dive buddy this will be an issues if you ever need immediate assistance, fourth and most importantly stop and try and remain calm and use the training you have received.

 

[Allan C Smith]

Sorry for the ****ty dive.I can promise you that you octo is not a first stage. Good thing to work on out of the water would be cardo exercise to try and limit your anaerobic threshold(the point at which you become out of breath). Remember diving is not exercise we exercise to dive. it you see a DM taking off like that to just let him go. Sick with your buddy and continue at your own pace. He will come back for you.

 

[flots am]

When we dropped over the reef we immediately saw a very large group of divers below us at approximately 80 feet. The dive leader who has thousands of dives and is like a fish decided to fin hard over the top of the group so that we could drop to our max depth of 110 feet without the other dive group around us. I found myself getting out of breath trying to keep up with the leader as did my teenage daughter which I later found out. Instead of adjusting the air flow on my second stage I continued to try and keep up. I found it was like running on the surface but without the ability to get a good exhalation or deep breath. Instead of just stopping I continued to follow and then dropped down to 110 feet. Immediately upon reaching our max depth I found I could not catch my breath. This resulted in a panicked feeling and even more rapid and shallow breathing. I signaled to my daughter to advise the dive guide that I wanted to surface immediately. At one point during my rapid breathing I felt like I was going to black out. This kicked in my training where all I thought of was STOP, try to calm yourself and breath slowly or you might die. I managed to do this and continue my dive.

There are a bunch of things involved here. The most likely direct problem is hyperventilation caused by overexertion, which then causes CO2 retention, which causes more breathing as well as anxiety, which causes more breathing . . . you get the idea.

The only real solution is to dramatically decrease your workload, which means stopping and relaxing and getting your breathing under control. In current this might mean actually grabbing something, but in any case it requires a dramatic decrease in workload and a conscious effort to relax. You can't "force" yourself to breathe less. You need to remove the cycle's cause, which is overexertion and anxiety. Once you stop exerting yourself and relax, you should be able to get it under control in a minute or two or three.

It sounds like you had a poorly functioning first or second stage that started the whole process. It makes breathing at depth more difficult as you descend and kicks off the process for you as you increase exertion. In this case, ascending would also be a good idea. When you switched to your alternate second stage and it was better, that was a tip-off.

flots

PS. The next time the DM takes off, just extend your middle finger and wave goodbye, then make sure you stick by your buddy. The DM is there for your pleasure, not the other way around.

 

[boulderjohn]

Here is something you might not realize about the physiology of panic. When carbon dioxide builds up inside us, it triggers a sense of panic. That is why you would feel panic if someone where holding a hand over your moth and nose. Your body has no signal that it needs O2, but it has a very big signal that you have too much CO2.

When you are breathing shallow, rapid breaths, CO2 builds up, and you being to feel a sense of panic. When in a panic, you tend to breathe even more shallow and rapid, thus creating a bigger sense of panic.

The key is not just controlled breathing; it is controlled breathing that includes very significant exhaling to get the CO2 out.

I had a similar situation not too long ago in which I had to make a very difficult surface swim against current before descending immediately. I, too, was breathing for all I was worth. As my effort level subsided, I focused on blowing out the bad air more than on my inhaling and recovered pretty quickly.

 

[spectrum]

It's had to say if there was a fitness issue here but you can rake what you will from the experience.

Scuba diving does not lend itself well to sprints and other high exertion activities. I agree with not letting anyone make you dive in overdrive.

There will come times when you do need to huff and puff like unexpected current or an emergency. If you have to do so the breathe like a steam engine leaving the station with deep long draws and exhales. It will seem counter intuitive to be sucking down all of that air but the point is that you are sucking it down to your lungs. If you are breathing deep you cannot breathe too fast thus thwarting the panic cycle.

pete

 

[farsidefan1]

Biggest issue I saw in the post was this, " if you are at the back of the group like I was and not close to your dive buddy this will be an issue". Number one priority is not keeping up with the divemaster. It is keeping up with your buddy. Sounds like you and your buddy should have a talk. Glad you came out of it ok. Happy diving

 

[violinfather]

Thanks Allan. I meant to put second stage like I had earlier in the message. I edited it. I am quite fit however I can tell you that I will be returning to a much higher cardio based exercise routine following this incident. I have been focusing on weight training but realize that I need to increase the cardio.

 

[TONY CHANEY]

I am not really agreeing with boulderjohn on this one. Sounds more like hypoxemia and yes your body does have a means of detecting low arterial po2...they are called Peripheral chemoreceptors. Rapid breathing does not cause a CO2 build up...not breathing or not breathing properly does (breath holding or skip breathing). why do you think that free divers like to hyperventilate...they blow off CO2 and wait for the low arterial po2 to stimulate them to breathe which is a very good cause for shallow water blackout. So by stopping all additional movement does not help you get rid of CO2 but keeps large muscles from burning more oxygen. It could be a mixture of both but I would stand that it was more of a lack of oxygen than a build up of CO2. OBTW, what FiO2 were you breathing?

 

[violinfather]

Tony it was a regular air mix so 20.9 O2 as far as I know. During the two weeks of diving I had been working on my breath control where I would very slowly exhale and at the end of the breath try to push it all out. Maybe this contributed to my problem when I was under heavy exertion as I did not ever really get a complete exhale.

 

[Hatul]

I also read the lesson here not to chase the divemaster but look after yourself and your buddy. Also there may have been an element of narcosis--it's impossible to know, but in any case just stop with your buddy and catch your breath or safely ascend with your buddy. No need to do what the dive guide does if it's not safe for you.