Hyperventilating?

[Paul Risk]

Went diving yesterday for the first time in 2 years, with my newly-certified 15-year old daughter. We go out and the waves are 4-6 feet, pretty rough. By the time we get to the dive site we are both a bit queasy, but I know it will go away once we are in the water. It’s a wreck dive and there’s a descent line. There’s a strong current going one way, and the wind is 15 kts the other way. We jump in the water with the others and grab on to the line. We start down. Then I realize she’s no longer behind me. Someone else is. I’m maybe 10 feet down. I go back up. She’s having trouble with her descent. As she’s fiddling with the air release valve she lets go of the rope. A rookie mistake. The current starts taking her away. I chase after her, grab her, and we swim back to the line against the current. It’s a struggle to grab back on to the line, but I clamp her hand on it then grab it myself. We start down again.
at this point I realize I’m breathing very hard. Too hard. I think I’m hyperventilating. I’ve never hyperventilated before, so I’m not sure. But it’s definitely disconcerting. So i try to slow down my breathing. To no avail. I surface. Still breathing way to hard and fast and I feel like I can’t get air. They help me on to the boat and my daughter follows me. The breathing eventually settles down. But I feel pretty awful and with the boat rocking and bouncing so hard we get nauseous. A few others in the boat also get nauseous.
Was it hyperventilating? Something else? What should I have done differently? I don’t want my daughter (or myself) to get discouraged from diving (I’ve been diving for 19 years and have my Advanced) and this was my first real emergency situation.

 

[BoundForElsewhere]

Same thing happened to me swimming like a wet cat for a descent line in wicked current. Think of it as task overloading for your breathing.

I don't think there is anything you could have done differently. Just suck it up as a learning experience (for both of you) and keep diving. Kind of like getting back on that horse, no?

 

[James79]

I had a similar issue recently (but primarily stress related) while diving with my 13 y.o. son. Regarding potential to discourage the kid, instead use it as a proof and encouragement that anyone can call the dive... Anytime, any reason, and let her know you have her back if she ever doesn't feel good about a dive.
That air hunger gasping is no fun, and getting out of the water to re-cage yourself sounds like it i was the right idea (was for me when I had it too). I would do a nice, chill dive in benign conditions to get back on the horse (again, just what worked for me).
My advice is always worth what you paid for it!
Respectfully
James

 

[Angelo Farina]

Sorry for me not being native English (I am Italian). Here what we call "hyperventilation" is something different, hyperventilation is a voluntary way of breathing for preparing you to free dive. In some conditions, you can get an involuntary, excessive hyperventilation, which can result in an unpleasant situation, eventually ending in convulsions and even passing out. But during an hyperventilation, the CO2 in your blood becomes TOO LOW. In fact, in case of involuntary hyperventilation, the action to take is to breath inside a paper bag, so you re-inhale the same air, where CO2 grows up, until normal breathing is restored.
What you did experience is called, in Italian, "affanno", which Google translates to "breathlessness".
This conditions occurs when there is TOO MUCH CO2 in your blood (so the opposite of hyperventilation), causing an excessive stimulation for breathing, This results in a very high breathing rate, but each cycle is too short, 0.5 liter or even less. Breathing so short, the "dead space" inside your respiratory system and inside the regulator makes that only a very tiny amount of fresh air reaches your lungs. Hence CO2 continues to accumulate, and there is no way to exit this loop.
This conditions should be prevented, once initiated the only way of interrupting it is to stop exerting the muscular effort which was producing CO2, and possibly emerge, where you can breath without the dead space of the regulator.
For preventing CO2 accumulation specific breathing techniques were developed (in the fifties and sixties), when obsolete pure-oxygen rebreathers were in common use (at least here in Italy). These rebreathers were very bad in eliminating CO2, and so the occurrence of this problem was very common.
I explained the details of such complex breathing control method in another recent post. This was taught in diving courses here in Italy in the seventies, when the usage of these oxygen rebreathers, named ARO, was common.
As American didactic methods landed also here, this training method (requiring at least 6 months training with the ARO rebreather) was abandoned, and of course in short Padi-like courses the student is simply advised to "never stop breathing" and to "breath normally".
This is fine in normal rec diving conditions, but in cases as your, it can result in this CO2 accumulation loop.
So it is not true that you could not have done anything for avoiding the problem. Had you been trained to breath "the ARO way", it is almost impossible to reach the "breathlessness" condition when breathing from a fully-functional modern regulator.

 

[Angelo Farina]

Ah, found the correct medical American term for "affanno": it is dyspnea.
And of course it must not be confused with hyperventilation, they are substantially opposite concepts, as hyperventilation means CO2 is too low, dyspnea means CO2 is too high:
https://www.webmd.com/lung/breathing-problems#1

 

[Jonn]

I’ve been there. It’s all in your head of course, but no less real for that. Make your next dive not just technically easier, but with less social and financial pressure as well. A check-out shore dive with just the two of you will cure what ails you, and I’ll bet you find something cool to look at too!