Near Miss and Psychological Impacts

[jadairiii]

It required me to buddy breathe from a DM who was only coincidentally close by. My buddy was too far away to help in the current..

Reading this I am assuming this was not the result of a catastrophic gear failure. Therefore, it was possibly just poor dive planning on your part. Good news is, if that is the case, they are all very easy fixes.

Break the dive down to what actually went wrong:

1. Failure to monitor gas
2. Failure to monitor buddy
3. Failure to monitor environment

And just maybe some reluctance to "pull the thumb" on the dive. But one thing I would not do, do not feel that adding equipment will "fix" the problem. Pony bottles do not make you any more diligent or smarter, nor do AI computers or any other gear. Getting a good intuitive idea of your SAC rate is key, number one, in solving this issue. Also grasping how much gas you really need to get you and your buddy safely to the surface. Getting back to shore or the boat with 500psi is NOT good dive management.

Just based on what you wrote, your max dive time for that dive was likely about 10 min or less (conditions and SAC).

 

[caydiver]

Go with a DM if you are not comfortable yet with your own skill set or judgements. It is supposed to be fun and should remain so. After a few guided dives where not everything is on your shoulders you can chillax and improve you skills and awareness.

 

[nhughes]

a bit more context will help, why did you end up OOA? its all about mitigating the risks, a stage, or twinset, for example, often eliminates OOA issues, so that 'oh ****' moment would have been more of a ' oh ffs have to switch to another source' instead, making a stressful situation into just a minor inconvenience.

 

[ajduplessis]

It was an important experience and one that will serve you well in the future. Understanding how quickly things go wrong, how panic sets in and how disabling it is, is priceless.

You really only learn when you make mistakes or experience real problems while diving. Uneventful dives teaches you nothing new...

Your experience teached you many things you typically would not have considered so seriously before. Learn from them and you will be better prepare next time to avoid similar situations. Just by sharing your story here already indicate a better, thinking diver.

 

[Billy Northrup]

I've only had moments of concern while diving, but I've had the crap pummeled out of me elsewhere and here is a tool that worked for me.

Journal it down with old school pen and paper and promise yourself you don't need to think about it anymore, it's in the book. When you feel like you must think about it, write it down and set a timer like 5 minutes and when it's done, it's done.

PS: I like the idea of additional training to get your sea legs back.

 

[Dan_P]

During the bombardments on London during WWII, English authorities (and German ones) expected and prepared for mass migration away from London in the wake of the bombardments by the Luftwaffe.

The mass migrations never came, to the great surprice of High Command on both sides.

The reason was subsequently described as the result of “near misses”;

That is, people who’d been bombed would usually be dead, and some (relatively few) in immediate proximity terrorized or wounded.
But the vast bulk of people effected by the bombings, wouldn’t be killed or injured, rather “near misses” - they’d experienced the bombings but not been directly wounded by them.

The result was a reported sense of invulnerability, that is, the intended purpose of the bombings (terror) was defied entirely.

In this perspective, one could argue that a diver who’s hit one or a series of near-misses would be more likely to consider factors leading to them, inconsequential (to that diver).
Obviously, this is Turkey’s Logic as that diver is every bit as susceptible to death, but will have simply struck a series of good luck and survived.

This is why it’s important to large-scale good practices.
That’s something that other industries do very well (automotive, medical, aviation), but scuba as a field largely neglect.
Instead, most standards, protocols and equipment configurations in wide application in the industry, are based in diving anno circa 1960-1970.

 

[Scary Terry]

Thanks everyone for sharing your views here. I have read through each in detail and appreciate your contributions.

Based on your views and advice I have set up some time with an Instructor who I trust who wasn't involved in the incident to do a walkthrough. I will also talk to a counselor / therapist for strategies to prevent going over the incident in my head all the time. Will try to work through that before I get back in the water.