Advanced Deep Dive Fail

[Brian G]

Is your AOW course in Lake Tahoe? What is the water temperature? Diving in cold water can add to any stress you might be feeling. As others have said, more practice will make diving easier, but I have to say the diving in Lake Tahoe can get old if you are sensitive to cold. Monterey is not too far away. The water is still cold but there is more to see. There is also a lot to learn about shore entries with waves, surface swimming, and kelp. All of this will make Tahoe diving seem simpler in comparison and may ease any anxiety you have when going deeper.

 

[TMHeimer]

Is your AOW course in Lake Tahoe? What is the water temperature? Diving in cold water can add to any stress you might be feeling. As others have said, more practice will make diving easier, but I have to say the diving in Lake Tahoe can get old if you are sensitive to cold. Monterey is not too far away. The water is still cold but there is more to see. There is also a lot to learn about shore entries with waves, surface swimming, and kelp. All of this will make Tahoe diving seem simpler in comparison and may ease any anxiety you have when going deeper.

I'm not familiar with L. Tahoe, but if the dives are in summer it may well be warmer than the CA Pacific, though probably a thermocline. Lakes take less time to warm up with hot weather.

 

[Schwob]

I'm not familiar with L. Tahoe, but...

It's a deeep lake (thirteenhundredsome feet or so). Slide 8.3 in the pdf in this link below should answer all temperature questions for all depth and all months...

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&sou...9DXIQFggmMAE&usg=AOvVaw2Ja8rNSLLzyJs9RpjDim4I

 

[tcpip95]

Hi everyone; I just became open water certified last month, this weekend I went for my advanced open water certification; long story short when we started decent for the deep dive to 70 feet because we are diving at altitude; I experienced my first real panic attack. Combined with the fact that I have a hard time with water around my nose, clearing my mask and equalizing, I started to freak out when we were about 50 feet down I was dizzy, disoriented and had feelings of vertigo; How do I prevent this panic/ disorientation from taking place in the future; does anyone have any tips for deep dives and also for clearing masks when you have an issue with water around your nose?

To help with the panic/anxiety, just remember: the only emergency you have underwater is being out of air. Everything else is just an inconvenience. Take your time, remember your training, and work through it.

During a recent (and first) night dive I got slightly disoriented. I immediately looked at my depth gauge. To handle the confusion, I just stopped doing what I was doing, and look at my depth gauge. Am I rising, falling, or staying at constant depth? In my case I was neutral buoyant, so gave myself a slight bump of gas into my BCD. This immediately righted my attitude and got me back on orientation. I don't know if that was the right thing to do or not, but it worked for me. I then dumped some air to get me neutral again, and confirmed with my dive partner that all was well.

 

[Grouchy Old Sarge]

Getting comfortable underwater is the biggest hurdle you can overcome. I agree with those who advised to do more shallow diving.

As far as water around your nose:

1. Assuming that the mask fits you, make sure the mask strap is not too tight. If the strap is too tight it will distort the skirt and allow water to enter.

2.Make sure you do not forcefully exhale when clearing your mask. This is the biggest problem I see when learning mask clearing. People that do not like having water around their nose are in a hurry to blow the water out. Blowing too hard will blow the air past the mask skirt and outside the mask. Try using gentle pressure at the top of the mask and hum. Hum any tune you would like, Happy Birthday, Looney Tunes, whatever. If you hum you have to breathe out through your nose and you decrease how hard you are blowing. This will allow you to keep all the air in the mask and get rid of the water out the bottom. A nice steady hum will empty the mask much quicker than you think and certainly quicker than blowing hard through your nose.

 

[lowviz]

Slow down, calm down. The biggest 'mistake' that I see is trying to clear a mask without looking up.

Look up, way up. One finger on the mask where the bridge of your nose would be. Gentle pressure from your finger and gentle exhale. All water should clear with almost no effort.

 

[AfterDark]

Hi everyone; I just became open water certified last month, this weekend I went for my advanced open water certification; long story short when we started decent for the deep dive to 70 feet because we are diving at altitude; I experienced my first real panic attack. Combined with the fact that I have a hard time with water around my nose, clearing my mask and equalizing, I started to freak out when we were about 50 feet down I was dizzy, disoriented and had feelings of vertigo; How do I prevent this panic/ disorientation from taking place in the future; does anyone have any tips for deep dives and also for clearing masks when you have an issue with water around your nose?

I think that's the trouble right there I just became open water certified last month. Slow down, dive a lot, do AOW later, you'll probably get more out of the course if you have more diving time.

 

[TMHeimer]

Of course I agree with the recent posts about a gentle blow to clear the mask. Before, I was only suggesting one big blow to clear a fully flooded mask (which would only happen if you had a mask come off uw). Only in that case should you blow forcefully--otherwise it will take more than one , perhaps several blows. A gentle blow in the proper manor will get trickles of water out.

 

[rsingler]

The biggest 'mistake' that I see is trying to clear a mask without looking up.

Look up, way up.

At the risk of offending, I will disagree, and ESPECIALLY with this diver. Without trying to brag, as an old diver/instructor/anesthesiologist whose business is airways, I have to gently disagree.

Here's the deal. Without a mask that is almost COMPLETELY empty of water already, what happens when you look "way up"? Air bubbles (in your nose) rise and are replaced by water (in your mask), that then trickles down your nose/throat and increases the very sense of panic that worsened this diver's dilemma.

Second point: how do divers in perfect horizontal trim clear their mask? They can't look "way up". They stay horizontal, look out at the horizon and clear. The nose cup is the lowest part of the mask, and when they replace all the water with air, the lowest part is dry. There is NO NEED to look higher than horizontal. Additionally, this provides the added benefit of making the nasal passages HIGHER than the nares (nose holes). That means that it keeps this area dry, and keeps panic down.

Since I'm a PADI Instructor, I know it is professional suicide to tell my students that their textbook and videos and pictures are wrong. The pictures and my required training technique is not wrong. But finding that one phrase in the manual or video that instructs the student to look up AT THE END, is hard to do.

I teach my students to start by looking DOWN at about 45° (keeping water out of the nose). As they exhale thru the nose and the mask empties, ONLY THEN do I tell them to look up, and I explain why (to keep drops from trickling back). As soon as they try their second mask clearing drill while hovering horizontally, they realize that they don't have to look way up, they stay drier in their nose and have less panic.

I'm always reluctant to say that a given post is incorrect, but in this case I feel strongly about this technique, and hope I have adequately explained why.

 

[lowviz]

At the risk of offending, I will disagree, ...//...

No offense taken. People come in a bell curve of sensibilities. What is magic for some is death for others.

Two options, where is the disconnect/offense?