I witnessed my first panicked diver this weekend.
I'll try to keep it vague, because I don't want to embarrass the guy (much to his credit, he did pull himself together). It was my (insta-)buddy on the first of two dives yesterday. We were making our way up the granny line to the mooring line. It was pretty cold water, a little wavy, but not too bad. When we got to the bow, I was trying to get an OK from him before we descended, and he gave me some hand signal I didn't recognize. Then he was hanging on the mooring line, like he was trying to pull himself out of the water. Asked if he was OK, several times, nothing. I kept telling him to let go of the line, to get away from the boat (which was yanking him up and down), and get closer to me, nothing. I was surprised at how textbook it was. Wide, staring eyes, no response at all to my questions and suggestions. :buggy: It really happens exactly like that.
I'm still not sure how or why he snapped out of it, but he did, and then we had two perfectly uneventful dives together. (Apart from a bolt coming unscrewed on my backplate just before the second dive. Thanks to the folks who spotted that, and fixed it.)
I keep replaying the whole thing in my head to try to figure out what (if anything) I should have done differently.
I'll try to keep it vague, because I don't want to embarrass the guy (much to his credit, he did pull himself together). It was my (insta-)buddy on the first of two dives yesterday. We were making our way up the granny line to the mooring line. It was pretty cold water, a little wavy, but not too bad. When we got to the bow, I was trying to get an OK from him before we descended, and he gave me some hand signal I didn't recognize. Then he was hanging on the mooring line, like he was trying to pull himself out of the water. Asked if he was OK, several times, nothing. I kept telling him to let go of the line, to get away from the boat (which was yanking him up and down), and get closer to me, nothing. I was surprised at how textbook it was. Wide, staring eyes, no response at all to my questions and suggestions. :buggy: It really happens exactly like that.
I'm still not sure how or why he snapped out of it, but he did, and then we had two perfectly uneventful dives together. (Apart from a bolt coming unscrewed on my backplate just before the second dive. Thanks to the folks who spotted that, and fixed it.)
I keep replaying the whole thing in my head to try to figure out what (if anything) I should have done differently.