Close call in the dressing room

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boulderjohn

Technical Instructor
Scuba Instructor
Divemaster
Messages
31,772
Reaction score
30,042
Location
Boulder, CO
# of dives
1000 - 2499
So I went into the dressing room to try on a new hooded vest. It had some kind of a slick inner lining that is supposed to cling to your skin. It certainly did. It was a tad tight, and I had a difficult time getting it on.

Getting it off was even harder, I pulled on it with everything I had, and my now heavily perspired skin seemed to make moving it impossible. I managed to get it halfway off, and then I realized two things:
  1. It really wasn't going anywhere.
  2. I couldn't breathe.

The mouth and nose area were surrounded by wet suit. As the hypercapnia breathing reflex swept over me, I managed to pull the hood down and breathe. Once my breathing returned to normal, I gave it another shot. Same result. I thought I was having a near death experience, but the light at the end of the tunnel turned out to be coming through the face hole in the hood.

I managed to pull it back on fully and went out to the floor, where I got help to peel it off.

Questions:

If I had died, would this have been considered a scuba accident?

Should I notify DAN?
 
I tried on my new Bare hooded vest for the first time at home by myself. The Bare vests have a glideskin material that really sticks to the skin if you are not wet. I had the same experience of getting the hood half way off and then nearly freaking out as I thrashed around like a dog with a blanket placed over him. Nearly dislocated my shoulder in the process. Moral of the story, don't try on hooded vests by yourself.
 
I had a similar embarrassing experience in the Henderson outlet once. Unfortunately, I wasn't in the dressing room when it happened. I was in the middle of the store, trying on a hood. I looked like a bloated tick in the thing and thought I'd have an aneurysm before I got the dreaded thing off.

I wonder if this would have counted as a dive fatality? :wink:
 
Too funny,

I was outfitting a couple with gear for the OW checkouts one time and gave them wetsuits to try on. The guy, politely he was heavy-set, gets the wrong wetsuit and goes into the dressing room. He comes out like 20 minutes later with a rear-entry womans wetsuit pulled on backwards and is trying zip the front. I have no idea how he got all 4 appendages into that suit, but it scared the crap out of me when he came out of the dressing area, totally red faced and appearing on the verge of a coronary. At first I tried not to laugh just at him having it on backwards, when I realized he'd grabbed the small I'd meant for his SO I think I did laugh out loud. By the time it was over all 3 of us laughed so it turned out ok.
 
Shallow Draft:
Did you leave the dressing room to fast?
you should have stoped a few feet from the show room floor for at least 3 minutes

:lol: I think he stayed in the dressing room too long and should do a required deco stop. sorry couldn't resist. :D

glad you're ok. Sounds like something that would happen to me.
 
Where was your buddy? :wink: Always dress with a buddy :D
Ber :lilbunny:
 

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