Diver Panic Story

[Dizzi Lizzi]

AMEN!!

 

[InselAffe]

I am a diver with 20 years of drysuit diving in the uk & europe, living near Munich we have lake Starnberg about 30 minutes away after work. We dive it regularly and always on the east side due to the sheer cliff faces underwater (~120-140m), all my buddies are techies, we all dive 2 independant tanks and the profile is normal drop to 40m and keep 2-3 minutes above the NDL, temperatures vary between 2-7oC at this depth. Basically this is our standard dive we do after work for the last 5 years, nomally a 50 minute dive in pitch black conditions.
Then 1 day about a year ago... we were in a 3 but I had arrived separately the other had new lamps of the 4500lu variety so I decided to stay at the back of the chain, we are about 42m and my NDL is coming up, so I rise to about 36m, they don't, a minute passes, they still don't, clearly they planned a deco dive and didn't say, so I'm a little pissed. However at that point they are blur of light under me and as the cliff banks where I was I am in absolute blackness with no reference, the strangest feeling of vertigo hit me and my heart went into overdrive. Clearly I was now in panic, what surprised me was the thought that popped into my head, which basically said 'spit your reg and head to the surface' (I've seen the "Dive panic (video)" thread on here and would probably think what kind of muppet spits the reg if not that I also had the thought), common sense kicked in and I picked a safe depth of 24m, upon reaching it all issues subsided but I had to really work hard to bring breathing under control from fast shallow to fast full breaths before it subsided.
My mates joined me and we continued the dive, I would say the panic was for about 3 minutes and cost about 25bar from a 12 Ltr. Since then on my next night dive I had the same feeling that lasted 30 seconds and now I would argue its now trained out of me. But only after 20 years can I now say I have a healthy respect for stress and panic underwater. I have rescued enough insta-buddies from cramp, vertigo or other stresses, I just never figured I would have to rescue myself... though I hold it as a valuable lesson.

 

[Dizzi Lizzi]

the strangest feeling of vertigo hit me and my heart went into overdrive. Clearly I was now in panic, what surprised me was the thought that popped into my head, which basically said 'spit your reg and head to the surface' (I've seen the "Dive panic (video)" thread on here and would probably think what kind of muppet spits the reg if not that I also had the thought), common sense kicked in and I picked a safe depth of 24m, upon reaching it all issues subsided but I had to really work hard to bring breathing under control from fast shallow to fast full breaths before it subsided.
My mates joined me and we continued the dive, I would say the panic was for about 3 minutes and cost about 25bar from a 12 Ltr. Since then on my next night dive I had the same feeling that lasted 30 seconds and now I would argue its now trained out of me. But only after 20 years can I now say I have a healthy respect for stress and panic underwater. I have rescued enough insta-buddies from cramp, vertigo or other stresses, I just never figured I would have to rescue myself... though I hold it as a valuable lesson.

I guess anyone "can" be a muppet, but training and sheer will I think sure helped you through it. Do you think that choosing a specific a specific depth to go to helped in that you were going up, but in a safe manner? Or was it that at 24m you knew you would no longer be affected by the depth? Was it depth alone, or depth with unforeseen circumstances that triggered the anxiety?

I think this deserves it's own thread

 

[KevinNM]

I ran across this video yesterday, where a girl talks about her panicking on the surface during her open water class. Luckily she made the completely reasonable decision to not go under water feeling like that, but I can imagine people who were a bit more determined pushing the whole "I'm not doing this diving stuff any more" moment to the point where they were putting themselves in a lot of danger.

 

[Storker]

I know I'm probably coming over as obnoxiously elitist here, but gorram! That girl should never have taken a diving class. And I mean that seriously. If you're not already comfortable with going underwater, getting water in your eyes and your nose, you should really reconsider whether going diving is a good idea. I know that the PADI approach has brought diving to a lot more people than those who could endure the old school harassment routines, but there's a limit.

One of the stories I love to tell is how I lost my mask on - I believe it was- the third OW class dive. We had a kind of a melee, and suddenly my whole world goes foggy. I see a mask tumbling in front of me and realize it's mine. I grab the mask, put it on and clear it, and that's about it. I found out later that another of the students had managed to kick my mask off. What would have happened if I wasn't already comfortable with being underwater and getting my face wet? I might well have bolted to the surface in panic, which generally isn't considered the best of ideas.

 

[KevinNM]

That was pretty much my thought. She was doing it mostly for her friends. I suspect with a better instructor with a better student/instructor ratio and possibly a better dive site choice she could have done OK during training, but would she have been a safe diver after that? Since I'm not an instructor it's not up to me, but if you are not reasonably comfortable in the water with scuba gear on by the end of your training I'm not terribly comfortable with the idea of you diving with another new diver.

 

[InselAffe]

Do you think that choosing a specific a specific depth to go to helped in that you were going up, but in a safe manner? Or was it that at 24m you knew you would no longer be affected by the depth? Was it depth alone, or depth with unforeseen circumstances that triggered the anxiety?

I picked 24m because I would say I start feeling the effects of pressure at about 32m, I assumed the problem was aggravated by narcosis.
I think the wish to keep my buddies in sight put me into a situation of no point of reference, narcosis & the fact I got upset about the change of plan, helped the vertigo manifest.
I've been in this situation solo diving & it's never been a problem.

 

[KiwiFi]

I thought that woman was incredibly articulate and intelligent.
What a great example of how bulk open waters don't work.

If she had had a chance to spend some time one on one, skills without 6 others, had someone personal to say come along with me, let's make this happen, I think we would have had a new diver.

She says all the things that a divemaster is supposed to look out for, I suspect it's almost a rigged video.

 

[lermontov]

I am a diver with 20 years of drysuit diving in the uk & europe, living near Munich we have lake Starnberg about 30 minutes away after work. We dive it regularly and always on the east side due to the sheer cliff faces underwater (~120-140m), all my buddies are techies, we all dive 2 independant tanks and the profile is normal drop to 40m and keep 2-3 minutes above the NDL, temperatures vary between 2-7oC at this depth. Basically this is our standard dive we do after work for the last 5 years, nomally a 50 minute dive in pitch black conditions.
Then 1 day about a year ago... we were in a 3 but I had arrived separately the other had new lamps of the 4500lu variety so I decided to stay at the back of the chain, we are about 42m and my NDL is coming up, so I rise to about 36m, they don't, a minute passes, they still don't, clearly they planned a deco dive and didn't say, so I'm a little pissed. However at that point they are blur of light under me and as the cliff banks where I was I am in absolute blackness with no reference, the strangest feeling of vertigo hit me and my heart went into overdrive. Clearly I was now in panic, what surprised me was the thought that popped into my head, which basically said 'spit your reg and head to the surface' (I've seen the "Dive panic (video)" thread on here and would probably think what kind of muppet spits the reg if not that I also had the thought), common sense kicked in and I picked a safe depth of 24m, upon reaching it all issues subsided but I had to really work hard to bring breathing under control from fast shallow to fast full breaths before it subsided.
My mates joined me and we continued the dive, I would say the panic was for about 3 minutes and cost about 25bar from a 12 Ltr. Since then on my next night dive I had the same feeling that lasted 30 seconds and now I would argue its now trained out of me. But only after 20 years can I now say I have a healthy respect for stress and panic underwater. I have rescued enough insta-buddies from cramp, vertigo or other stresses, I just never figured I would have to rescue myself... though I hold it as a valuable lesson.

how intriguing -am i correct in thinking you had no torch ? do you think the isolation and darkness had an influence i.e. the narcosis crept up on you and caught you out when you had you guard down

 

[InselAffe]

how intriguing -am i correct in thinking you had no torch ? do you think the isolation and darkness had an influence i.e. the narcosis crept up on you and caught you out when you had you guard down

I never have less than 3 torches... diving in german lakes at depth is normally low vis/dark dive. We do the dive too often for it to be a pure reaction to narcosis, I find dehydration & the daily toil (ie. stress) play larger factors. As said I'd be happier solo-diving, the point being with no point of solid reference, the brain can mess up.