Diver anxiety

[Belzelbub]

I know what you mean, one time I could have sworn I saw a skeleton on the bottom at HG. Really freaky.

Definitely not a place I care to go again. So many better places in the area. It served its purpose, though. Not many other places in the area where you can do a deep night dive during the day.

 

[wnissen]

I have certainly found that any time I can't see my fins I start to get anxious. But that's more or less universal, I think. If you watch the Our Planet episode on coastal waters, they show dolphins hunting fish in the shallows of the Everglades by swimming circles around them. The turbulence of the swimming stirs up the bottom, cutting off the visibility of the fish, who panic and jump in the air, into the waiting mouths of the canny dolphins.

 

[ontdiver]

I have been in a couple of silt out situations. The first time it happened I had a brief flash of anxiety but then got my bearings. The second time I was just really p*****d at the negligent diver for messing up the dive.

 

[TMHeimer]

I have certainly found that any time I can't see my fins I start to get anxious. But that's more or less universal, I think. If you watch the Our Planet episode on coastal waters, they show dolphins hunting fish in the shallows of the Everglades by swimming circles around them. The turbulence of the swimming stirs up the bottom, cutting off the visibility of the fish, who panic and jump in the air, into the waiting mouths of the fish.

Yeah, that's it for me. If I can't see more than a couple of feet ahead I have no idea what lurks out there to kill me (like sharks, etc.). It's not a real paranoia, just a little uneasy. Haven't ever seen a shark...yet...

 

[EFX]

You want paranoia. I've got some left over for you all after a dive I did in Cape Cod. It was a boat charter. I remember the dive shop asking people if they wanted to rent spears to be used to spear flounder in an area that was touted as being loaded with them. There were about 12 of us with at least 9 renting spears. At the dive site the captain said to go to the bottom to find the flounder because the vis was only 6 inches. I didn't think anything of it; I just wanted to dive. After about 10 minutes on the bottom my nerves got the better of me and I said to myself, "What happens if I run into a shark? That led to: Wait a minute. What the hell am I doing down here with all these divers with spears? Forget the shark. What happens if I run into somebody or they run into me?" Well, that did it. I popped up tall. The DM said "What's wrong? Are you OK." To which I said "I'm fine. I just can't dive anymore."

 

[Belzelbub]

Yeah, that's it for me. If I can't see more than a couple of feet ahead I have no idea what lurks out there to kill me (like sharks, etc.). It's not a real paranoia, just a little uneasy. Haven't ever seen a shark...yet...

Yeah. I hear you. Though, I’m not quite so lucky as not seeing a shark. Though it did take quite a few years. Then, it always seemed to be when my video camera wasn’t working for one reason or another. Lately, I’ve seen my share. For the most part, I don’t mind them. Just not a fan of the bull sharks.

Similar to the low vis is when a remora decides to show up. Always has me wondering what it just peeled off of.

 

[EFX]

On another dive where I got a good dose of paranoia was a wreck dive off of North Myrtle beach in the Atlantic. The DM said there was a current and warned us to stay on the down line to the wreck in 50 ft of water, and not to leave the wreck under any circumstances. My buddy who was part of a father-son team was assigned to me because the son was blowing lunch from the moment we left the dock, through the dives, all the way back to the dock. I felt really sorry for him. The Dad had some trouble getting into his gear so they told me to go down to the 15 ft line and wait for him. After about, what seemed like 10 minutes, here comes a diver who wasn't the Dad. I thought, "OK, something happened to the Dad, so I've got a new buddy." My new buddy comes next to me and while grabbing the line gets his octo reg stuck in the corner of the 15 ft line and the line coming down from the boat. I thought to myself, "Oh great. What else can happen." I helped him free himself from the line and we ended up heading down but drifted off the down line. We found ourselves on the sandy bottom in about 5 ft of vis. My buddy is happily swimming along the bottom picking up sea shells with not a care in the world. I thought to myself, "This is not good. This...is....not....good. Now what?" I formed a picture in my mind of where the wreck should be relative to where we were. I tapped my buddy and gave him the turn around sign. We abruptly swam in the opposite direction for what seemed like too long of a time. All of a sudden there was the DM on top of the wreck directly in front of us. We finished the dive safely and came back to the boat. I asked the DM what happened to my original buddy and he said that they got the Dad in the water but because of the 3-4 ft seas he flipped and came back to the boat. So, they sent "happy-down-blueberry-lane" to me and you know the rest.

 

[Scraps]

I know what you mean, one time I could have sworn I saw a skeleton on the bottom at HG. Really freaky.

What a coincidence!
I imagined the exact same thing at Hudson!

 

[TMHeimer]

On another dive where I got a good dose of paranoia was a wreck dive off of North Myrtle beach in the Atlantic. The DM said there was a current and warned us to stay on the down line to the wreck in 50 ft of water, and not to leave the wreck under any circumstances. My buddy who was part of a father-son team was assigned to me because the son was blowing lunch from the moment we left the dock, through the dives, all the way back to the dock. I felt really sorry for him. The Dad had some trouble getting into his gear so they told me to go down to the 15 ft line and wait for him. After about, what seemed like 10 minutes, here comes a diver who wasn't the Dad. I thought, "OK, something happened to the Dad, so I've got a new buddy." My new buddy comes next to me and while grabbing the line gets his octo reg stuck in the corner of the 15 ft line and the line coming down from the boat. I thought to myself, "Oh great. What else can happen." I helped him free himself from the line and we ended up heading down but drifted off the down line. We found ourselves on the sandy bottom in about 5 ft of vis. My buddy is happily swimming along the bottom picking up sea shells with not a care in the world. I thought to myself, "This is not good. This...is....not....good. Now what?" I formed a picture in my mind of where the wreck should be relative to where we were. I tapped my buddy and gave him the turn around sign. We abruptly swam in the opposite direction for what seemed like too long of a time. All of a sudden there was the DM on top of the wreck directly in front of us. We finished the dive safely and came back to the boat. I asked the DM what happened to my original buddy and he said that they got the Dad in the water but because of the 3-4 ft seas he flipped and came back to the boat. So, they sent "happy-down-blueberry-lane" to me and you know the rest.

That's quite the story. Was that the General Sherman wreck? If so, I too was there for a couple of dives in 2011. The 2nd one was solo as my instabuddy quit. I too was scouring the sand near the wreck for shells (as always).

 

[yle]

You want paranoia. I've got some left over for you all after a dive I did in Cape Cod. It was a boat charter. I remember the dive shop asking people if they wanted to rent spears to be used to spear flounder in an area that was touted as being loaded with them. There were about 12 of us with at least 9 renting spears. At the dive site the captain said to go to the bottom to find the flounder because the vis was only 6 inches. I didn't think anything of it; I just wanted to dive. After about 10 minutes on the bottom my nerves got the better of me and I said to myself, "What happens if I run into a shark? That led to: Wait a minute. What the hell am I doing down here with all these divers with spears? Forget the shark. What happens if I run into somebody or they run into me?" Well, that did it. I popped up tall. The DM said "What's wrong? Are you OK." To which I said "I'm fine. I just can't dive anymore."

Getting out of the water when there were nine divers with spears in zero viz? That's not paranoia, that's solid common sense!