iamrushman
Contributor
don't beat yourself up ...you did well considering your experience...great write up and you'll learn well from that.....now just dive, dive, dive.
Bit of a moment with an uncontrolled ascent
- Thread starter Littorally Diving
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nolatom
Contributor
A "runaway ascent" from 10 feet?? We've all done this, it's common in shallow training-type dives.
Staying neutral between one atmosphere (surface) and two Atmospheres (30-33 feet) is much "touchier" than when you're deeper. it's easy to get un-neutral, and harder to get back to neutral, because while going up or down 10 feet when you're at, say, 80', will affect your buoyancy very little, in shallow water it will make a huge difference.
You've learned, you'll keep learning, that's good...
Staying neutral between one atmosphere (surface) and two Atmospheres (30-33 feet) is much "touchier" than when you're deeper. it's easy to get un-neutral, and harder to get back to neutral, because while going up or down 10 feet when you're at, say, 80', will affect your buoyancy very little, in shallow water it will make a huge difference.
You've learned, you'll keep learning, that's good...
@Litorrally Diving
Been there done that. I was a disaster on my first couple of dives.
So point 1. Go weight check yourself, you know the drill you've been taught it and can do it (with a full cylinder I like to sink until my head is just below the surface, then exhale to prove you can descent - remember you only need to go down a couple of feet before the weight of the water above you take hold
Point 2. The body has a natural reflex, it's called "The Fight or Flight" reflex. You'll no doubt have experience the second stage of it before, when you've had a scare and the adrenalin has kicked in?
For the first part, your diaphragm drops to increase your lung volume, allowing you extra oxygen to run. For us divers this means a sudden change in buoyancy. It happens a lot with new divers because their brain hasn't relaxed to the underwater environment. It doesn't need much to trigger it.
You'll have been told (probably) that when you get more experienced and relax more you'll reduce the amount of lead you need. This is why.
Point 3. You were shallow. Pressure changes are quite large for small changes of depth so everything happens fast.
Final point, take time in your gear to run your hands around in - both on you buddy check and in the water. It does take a little time to be able to instinctively put your hand on the right place, so don't beat yourself up. Rome wasn't built in a day
You've had a learning experience, we all have them. You'll have a few more as you get more experience. A sign of a good diver is that they recognise it and try to address the issues as you have done.
Keep smiling and keep having fun
Been there done that. I was a disaster on my first couple of dives.
So point 1. Go weight check yourself, you know the drill you've been taught it and can do it (with a full cylinder I like to sink until my head is just below the surface, then exhale to prove you can descent - remember you only need to go down a couple of feet before the weight of the water above you take hold
Point 2. The body has a natural reflex, it's called "The Fight or Flight" reflex. You'll no doubt have experience the second stage of it before, when you've had a scare and the adrenalin has kicked in?
For the first part, your diaphragm drops to increase your lung volume, allowing you extra oxygen to run. For us divers this means a sudden change in buoyancy. It happens a lot with new divers because their brain hasn't relaxed to the underwater environment. It doesn't need much to trigger it.
You'll have been told (probably) that when you get more experienced and relax more you'll reduce the amount of lead you need. This is why.
Point 3. You were shallow. Pressure changes are quite large for small changes of depth so everything happens fast.
Final point, take time in your gear to run your hands around in - both on you buddy check and in the water. It does take a little time to be able to instinctively put your hand on the right place, so don't beat yourself up. Rome wasn't built in a day
You've had a learning experience, we all have them. You'll have a few more as you get more experience. A sign of a good diver is that they recognise it and try to address the issues as you have done.
Keep smiling and keep having fun
Don't beat yourself up. You went up a total of 11' and recovered it. Embarassing, maybe. But given where you're at, this is not a big deal. You'll get better with experience.
Do check your weight, as others have mentioned above. It's a little tricky since you'll become more buoyant as your tank empties, but even old guys like me get surprised. I usually dive cold water in a drysuit, but on tropical excursions I wear a 5 mm wetsuit and thought I knew how much lead I needed. Let's just say I was wrong, though nobody every questioned me until a DM at the end of the summer thought I was overweighted.
Do check your weight, as others have mentioned above. It's a little tricky since you'll become more buoyant as your tank empties, but even old guys like me get surprised. I usually dive cold water in a drysuit, but on tropical excursions I wear a 5 mm wetsuit and thought I knew how much lead I needed. Let's just say I was wrong, though nobody every questioned me until a DM at the end of the summer thought I was overweighted.
OP
Littorally Diving
Registered
D'oh! Thanks. Of course at 15' the entire dive was one long safety stop...
Thanks above for the kind comments. You're all right. Lots of good advice here. Other than the weighting, the most reassuring thing for me in the replies is the trickiness of fine control in shallow water. It's very clear to me what happened now, and even more clear that continued shallow dives like this will serve as excellent experience builders. Can't wait to get wet again.
If you can stay flat in the water, not only will be be able to dump air from the rear dump, but you'll be in a position to fin down without having to take the time to "reach this orientation".
since the obvious points have been well established (overweighted, familiarity with gear, lung volume etc..), Id like to point out one minor thing that might help.. If your from NY and acclimated to northern temps, then a 7mm is awefully thick for 69 deg water. Maybe try 3mm suit with a hood while your still getting bouyancy figured out so that there is less neoprene volume change when you go up or down in the water column. In ohio i rutinely dive 3mm when temps are around 70 deg.
People already mentioned overweighting, but I find that most rental BCDs are a bad fit for skinny/lean people especially if you are tall.
When I am using rental BCDs, I often get a M which is a bit small just becuse the belt strap on a L cannot be tightened enough for me. This cause wiggling at the bottom of my BCD and make it harder to find the bottom valve. Maybe you have the same issue ?
To illustrate why overweighting is really bad when you are close to the surface, remember the balloon picture from the OW manual (or click here https://goo.gl/images/2Bf71y).
When you get from 20 to 10 meters, the balloon size increases by 50% but from 10m to 0m/surface the balloon increases by 100%.
This is why if you are overweighted, the air you have to put in your BCD to compensate will expand really fast close to the surface and make you shoot up even faster.
When I am using rental BCDs, I often get a M which is a bit small just becuse the belt strap on a L cannot be tightened enough for me. This cause wiggling at the bottom of my BCD and make it harder to find the bottom valve. Maybe you have the same issue ?
To illustrate why overweighting is really bad when you are close to the surface, remember the balloon picture from the OW manual (or click here https://goo.gl/images/2Bf71y).
When you get from 20 to 10 meters, the balloon size increases by 50% but from 10m to 0m/surface the balloon increases by 100%.
This is why if you are overweighted, the air you have to put in your BCD to compensate will expand really fast close to the surface and make you shoot up even faster.
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