Diver Panic (Video)

[tarponchik]

I bet she ran out of air (or her reg malfunctioned). There are almost no bubbles coming out of her from 0:36 to 0:40 when she takes her reg out. Before this she tried to paddle with her hands, likely, because her BC failed to inflate.

 

[kelemvor]

The guy that posted it stated she was not a student. She was a tourist in Cape Town, SA.

For some reason she was on her yellow octo instead of the black primary before she rejected it. A crummy octo with poor performance may have contributed to her panic.

 

[Dizzi Lizzi]

She would have to accept the regulator into her mouth, or at least mostly in her mouth in order to get air. Forcing her to take purging air is dangerous and may also require restraining her- expending time and energy and perhaps even causing greater panic. The least dangerous option at that point would be to let her go and reach the surface. I think one of the divers did well to stay beside her and have a reg at her lips at the ready. Beyond that it was complete cluster*.

yes, I understand not forcing, what I am asking is IF she took a breath and the reg was bubbling near her mouth is there a possibility of her getting air instead of water? I don't imagine there is anything but a hypothetical answer...

 

[Bogtrotter]

yes, I understand not forcing, what I am asking is IF she took a breath and the reg was bubbling near her mouth is there a possibility of her getting air instead of water? I don't imagine there is anything but a hypothetical answer...

She would inhale a lot of water. It needs to be in her mouth or mostly in her mouth.

 

[Bogtrotter]

I see her the octo attached to her chest at 42s no ..? If not a student she is surely a new a diver, even an OOA shouldn't lead to that immediate level of panic and gear rejection. It didn't help that her buddy was behind her though.

 

[Basking Ridge Diver]

yes, I understand not forcing, what I am asking is IF she took a breath and the reg was bubbling near her mouth is there a possibility of her getting air instead of water? I don't imagine there is anything but a hypothetical answer...

Why hypothetical? When is your next dive? Try it out... stand on the shore if you dont trust yourself - and see what happens...

 

[Dizzi Lizzi]

i think not. but if i was drowning.....

 

[Basking Ridge Diver]

lol - so you would rather wait until you were dying to see if it was viable? lol good planning...

 

[dumpsterDiver]

I like the comment about.. It wouldn't happen around me because I wouldn't allow it..LOL... We are not in control of other divers. Someone can lose it without a whole lot of warning.

I watched again and noted that one of the divers pulled his mask off his own face when reaching the surface. Why do that? Because it is NATURAL to do that when you are uncomfortable.

I would like to think that I personally would have been more attentive and "in the face" of a diver who was exhibiting the hand swimming and MIGHT have prevented it.. but who knows?

Look also at her buddy (the guy with the perfect trim and hand placement). When she loses it, he is closer to her, but the filmer had to swim down and grab her. Look at the buddy's kicking when the situation explodes. He looks to have gone into a panicked bicycle kick himself. It certainly looks like he provides zero help and is totally ineffective in positioning himself.

As mentioned previously, I had a very similar incident with a panicked women who rejected my donated regulator. It scared me terribly, so much so that I held my breath on ascent. I was totally involved in her rescue and forgot to use my octo after trying to donate my primary.

Instinct kicked in and i held my breath, failed to secure a regulator for myself and kicked as hard as possible for the surface with her. After a considerable portion of the ascent, I felt the uncomfortable pressure in my lungs and finally exhaled and then that reminded me to secure my own reg, but my hands were very full with the situation. I was 100% focused on getting her to the surface from 70 feet ASAP and having no regulator in my mouth did not really come into my mind as a priority or a concern. I'm not brave, just stupid.

You can train for a lot of situations, but when an emergency develops super fast, it is so very easy to revert to instinct - rather than training. Don't kid yourself with excessive confidence that you or your buddy will always respond appropriately. One reason why I use a pony bottle - even in 60 ft of water.

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

What we have to remind ourselves constantly is that scuba diving is artificial and goes against all natural human instincts. For instance, breathing underwater, that's about as unnatural as it can get. Next, breathing with water on your face with no mask, that goes against every instinct we have as humans (or any animal) to hold your breath because we are underwater and you can't breathe water. It takes some very specific and specialized repetitive training to break this natural barrier. Some people are naturally better at scuba skills than others, but I do believe that everybody has a maximum panic threshold that they can not go beyond. Show me the best DIR diver, the most seasoned old schooler around, the best caver or wreck diver and all of them will have a panic threshold. Perhaps maybe there are some extremely trained military divers maybe in the .001 percentile that are able to retain composure all the way to death, but I certainly don't know any such people personally.

In the case of this video I think the threshold of panic was very low, low enough that I think the girl was probably at an unacceptably low level and shouldn't have been diving in open water before some of the comfort and skill issues were resolved.
I wanted to comment on a few of the above posts while I'm at it. If she ran out of air, which is a possibility judging by the bird wing flapping with the arms, then monitoring air supply is one of the skills that is critical to remember.
Next, situational awareness is another critical skill. She obviously lost track of the rest of the crew as she was sinking away because her buoyancy was in an out of control descent, another critical skill to constantly monitor.
I'm still trying to figure out what she was so stressed about to cause such a freak out? The dive was over, they weren't very deep at all so I seriously doubt narcosis was a factor. I have a feeling she was one of those that had to lie to herself to believe she could do this and was on the edge the entire dive then finally just had enough after 45 mins or an hour and completely lost it.
I'm just not seeing anything but a very ill trained individual and a very poor candidate for scuba diving.
Not everybody can be a scuba diver, the industry needs to understand this!
Yes I'm blaming the agencies, they and their agents are the ones giving these people the pass.