Request for information not covered in any course

[FreeFlyFreak]

To the OP.
In that you were extremely vague and want to know anything that might happen and anyway you might deal with it I would suggest start here:

Read every thread:
Near Misses and Lessons Learned

Also be a constant reader here:
Scuba Diving Incident Reports and Prevention | DAN

Last but not least, you will find some food for thought here:
Accidents and Incidents

That should get you started.

What can go wrong will go wrong, learn from other people's mistakes.

I scuba dive, skydive, and fly aircraft.
The best way to not get hurt or dead in a pursuit that has a higher than average risk or getting hurt or dead, is to learn from others mistakes. The best way is reading accident/incident reports. Then learn from them and think what you would do differently if in the same situation or best of all how to keep yourself out of that situation in the first place. Though some things can't be helped you can lower the chances.

Follow established procedures and best practices, they are normally written in blood.

Play "what if" often, run through scenarios and what you might do if you found yourself is a scenario that you read about.

After that, its all about having fun.
If you are no longer having fun diving, consider this....
We are all dying we just don't know of what.
If the thought of dying stops you from fully living..........
Well for me, there is no fun in that.

Lastly.
You talk about "rare, unexpected or unthinkable"
Rare is unlikely to happen, but probably has in the past, learn what those rare events may be. Prepare for them.
Unexpected will not be unexpected if you expect it on every dive.
Unthinkable..... Not sure what you mean by that, I can think of just about anything.
Hell, I hear the Jaws theme in my head every time I get in the water.

 

[Altamira]

@Kharon. You are alive, so you must have done the right thing, and now have a valuable addition to the lessons learned file in your brain. Start there. Evaluate what you did right that allowed you to survive, examine what you did wrong, or what you could have done that might have improved your odds, and mentally develop alternative plans to solve your problem. My aviation background has given me a firm foundation in coming up with as many back up plans as possible for a situation, but age has demonstrated whatever plans I thought were sufficient, never are. Unfortunately, no matter how well trained you are, or how much you think about the "what ifs", life has a way of coming up with things neither you or others have considered. In those situations, you will have to rely on your past training, experience, diving skills, analytical ability, judgment, and trusting your gut instincts. Some of the best advice I ever got was this: "Don't do stupid stuff, and if your gut is telling you that you might be doing stupid stuff, you probably are."
P.S. Don't give up diving. You are going to be really pissed if you kill yourself falling off a ladder, and had missed all the joys of underwater adventures.

 

[ScubaWithTurk]

@Kharon

I'd recommend looking into Human Factors in Diving (Human Factors Skills in Diving - Home). I wish I could describe the tremendous benefit of the course. It will have you look at not just diving differently, but everything you do if you apply the principles.

I took the Human Factors micro-class and loved it! I hope to one day take the full course with Gareth.

It appears to imply that if you dive often, you have no need for a formal skills review. My viewpoint is that the basic emergency skills learned in Open Water should be reviewed and practiced periodically. If the only time I ever practiced with an alternate air source or disconnecting a run-away inflator hose was 20 years earlier in class, am I really prepared to deal that emergency if it were to happen today? Look past the dive count.

This is exactly why I train skills on every dive. One dive I will do OOA gas sharing maybe even with an ascent and the next dive I may work at shut downs (when diving Sidemount) or disconnecting a LPI hose.

On many dives I will often take my mask off and dive for a couple of minutes, replace it, clear and continue the dive just to get in practice.

I feel it is key to work skills on every dive and if you have a regular buddy you dive with, you can plan these out as to what skills you will work on during the dive. You make it part of your dive plan.

It can be as simple as "on this dive I will work on my back kick" but these are all skills that you can't just learn in a course and never do again.

 

[KathyV]

@Kharon...Don't give up diving. You are going to be really pissed if you kill yourself falling off a ladder, and had missed all the joys of underwater adventures.

Your post reminded me of the poem "George Gray" by Edgar Lee Masters, it portrays the thoughts of a dead man pondering upon the image that was chosen for his headstone - a boat under sail in a harbor.

Sometimes when I am scared to take a chance on something, I remember this poem and it helps me to make a decision.

George Gray

I have studied many times
The marble which was chiseled for me—
A boat with a furled sail at rest in a harbor.
In truth it pictures not my destination
But my life.

For love was offered me and I shrank from its disillusionment;
Sorrow knocked at my door, but I was afraid;
Ambition called to me, but I dreaded the chances.
Yet all the while I hungered for meaning in my life.
And now I know that we must lift the sail
And catch the winds of destiny
Wherever they drive the boat.

To put meaning in one’s life may end in madness,
But life without meaning is the torture
Of restlessness and vague desire—
It is a boat longing for the sea and yet afraid.

Edgar Lee Masters

 

[TrimixToo]

A hierarchy of priorities may help. I'm told pilots use:
*Aviate: is the plane still flying.
Maybe for scuba: no broken bones, ruptured lungs, still able to breath, in control of depth generally, of sane mind. Period.

* Navigate: are we going the right way.
Not lost, not silted out, ..., able to get back to, and onto, that solid ground thing.

* Communicate: talk to ground/others.
Order might be a bit different with buddies on communicating vs navigating.

If you can breath and are not way deep in a cave/wreck, you likely can sort it out.

I think you're onto something here, and though I'm an inactive pilot, I have never heard this in the context of diving before.

"Aviate" means more than "is the plane flying." It means reacting to immediate, life-threatening situations first, before anything else, and ignoring everything else if need be, not incidentally including screaming passengers in panic who want to know what's wrong and think they have the right to know immediately. Am I about to hit something? Is the engine running (if there's one) or can I climb on the remaining engines (if there are more than one)? Is the plane on fire? Is ice accumulating on the airframe? In the context of diving, I'd start with breathing. Next would be entanglement. There's other stuff here, and I'm not sure what pithy term to use for diving to represent what pilots mean by "aviate."

"Navigate" is more than going the right way, too. It's a situational awareness thing, not merely an "am I flying the right heading" thing. It's about things like being at the right altitude and away from obstructions. Radio towers. Mountains. Stuff like that. Also, about knowing you have enough fuel to arrive at the intended destination (plus a reserve), and where you'll go if the destination happens to be unusable. "Where's the boat" and "how do I get out and back to open water" are in this category, but gas status vs. current and time vs. decompression status are in it as well. Likewise, I can't immediately come up with a one-word, pithy term in a diving context to replace "navigate."

"Communicate" is perfect as-is in either context, though sometimes the response to one of the things above is "ask for help, right NOW!" Pilots can declare urgent situations (pan) or emergencies (mayday), or ask for non-emergency help like practice direction-finding (DF) steers to an airfield. Divers can ask for air, terminate a dive, indicate a turn, and so on.

A short, understandable, written priority hierarchy would be a valuable thing in my opinion.

 

[FreeFlyFreak]

A short, understandable, written priority hierarchy would be a valuable thing in my opinion.

I thought there was one.

Stop
Breathe
Think
Act

 

[tursiops]

I thought there was one.

Stop
Breathe
Think
Act

Yes, it is our equivalent to, "Ready, Aim, Fire." Notice the sequence!

 

[Kharon]

Thanks everyone for your input. It's given me a lot to consider and the idea to learn from reading incident reports and evaluating them is a great suggestion.

As far as evaluating what happened to me - I've done that and am continuing to do that. When I get it all sorted out I will probably post. However, I have no intention of subjecting myself to the kind of trashing common at times on this board. While most replies are attempts to be helpful. Too many are not. Sorry, I just don't need that right now.

What was unthinkable was that a boat would not respond to a repeated distress signal (which they heard and were aware of) for 20 minutes because other divers had not finished their dive. Waves were 4-5 feet and the other divers had instructers with them and a mooring to support them on the surface.

Were there a lot of things I did wrong - absolutely, beginning with splashing in the first place and not immediately aborting in the second. I ended up swept away from the boat, out of air in the main tank and my pony, in conditions where my snorkel was useless. Still there were things I should have done to make the situation better. I was clearly not thnking at that point - I was desperately fighting to survive. I will do whatever I can to avoid a repeat.

 

[rhwestfall]

I thought there was one.

Stop
Breathe
Think
Act

Ours was: Stop, Breathe, Think, Breathe, Act, Breathe.... If you have air, you can then figure something out....

 

[KathyV]

Thanks everyone for your input. It's given me a lot to consider and the idea to learn from reading incident reports and evaluating them is a great suggestion.

As far as evaluating what happened to me - I've done that and am continuing to do that. When I get it all sorted out I will probably post. However, I have no intention of subjecting myself to the kind of trashing common at times on this board. While most replies are attempts to be helpful. Too many are not. Sorry, I just don't need that right now.

What was unthinkable was that a boat would not respond to a repeated distress signal (which they heard and were aware of) for 20 minutes because other divers had not finished their dive. Waves were 4-5 feet and the other divers had instructers with them and a mooring to support them on the surface.

Were there a lot of things I did wrong - absolutely, beginning with splashing in the first place and not immediately aborting in the second. I ended up swept away from the boat, out of air in the main tank and my pony, in conditions where my snorkel was useless. Still there were things I should have done to make the situation better. I was clearly not thnking at that point - I was desperately fighting to survive. I will do whatever I can to avoid a repeat.

I am sorry that you had such an awful experience, it must have been truly terrifying. Taking time to sort things out and making a decision about diving sounds smart to me. We are all saying that you shouldn't give up diving - but that might not be the right choice for you.

BTW, I had to learn to ignore a few jerks, and shrug off know-it-alls, and those people that must have he last word, while posting on this board - and sometimes that's been difficult to do. I just keep reminding myself "Do not feed the Trolls!" but most of the folks here just want to be helpful. There will always be differences of opinion but they can be shared and discussed amicably. Come back when you are ready (or not) it's entirely up to you. Good luck with your decision.