Got my OW cert, but SOB!

[maniago]

5 dives in two days (I logged my first post while another student re-did a dive to qual). Man, I'm tired. Burned through air faster than a forest fire. But have my license to learn now! Hooray!

That said, had a shocker during the nav portion. Viz was Sh*t (like 2') and my buddy got disoriented with the compass, whipped her hand around and out flew my reg, at 28' as I was breathing out. Uh oh. I would have been ok but I couldn't find it again. So went for the octo. Not on the keeper and no where to be found. Grabbed my inflator and looked at it. Dang. Can't breath off that (though now I know I could have sucked air out of the BCD, but its not a No-brainer if you haven't done it), so I bolted for the surface. First (and I hope last) real CESA. I didn't do my ahhhs on the way up though - I didn't have any lung air to do it with. I got there ok, but wicked fast - probably too fast, but there wasn't much margin for error, IMHO.

SO, I know I should have done a really big arm sweep. I did a small sweep (which I though was big) and when I came up empty, I went through the progressions and came up zero.

For what its worth, I did more dive work after that, another down to 30' and was GTG, so I'm still in the saddle.

But let me have it. What have I not thought of that I should do (I shudder to say) "Next Time"? Thanks for any constructive input.

 

[Slmason.72]

Practice it again and again. When I identify an area where I need improvement, I add it to my to do list on every dive. 3 minute safety stops are a great place to practice these things.

 

[SC_Hoaty]

That's why your buddy had a tank also.

 

[PeterNBiddle]

Yeah, your buddy (who knocked out your air) really ought to have been jamming her air into your mouth well before you were kicking.

 

[Slmason.72]

Ps, what you did right... You went through your available resources, made a decision and lived to work the kinks out. You also identified potential causes of not finding your reg. Maybe not textbook, but you handled it

Others may tear into you for this, but before you went CESA, what did you do with your buddy? And more specifically all that extra air on her back? Next time... 1. Think! You have more time to do this than you realize 2. Keep Your kit properly secured (octo), 3. dip the shoulder, big arm sweep, find and follow the hose from your back. 4. Signal your buddy! 6. Air Share. 7. Stop and breath 8. Think!

 

[flots am]

Not on the keeper and no where to be found. Grabbed my inflator and looked at it. Dang. Can't breath off that

Although some divers look down on them because they tend to breathe a little hard, this is exactly the reason integrated inflator/second stages are popular: You can find it.

Even if you can't find your butt with both hands, you can always find your inflater because you're using it.

flots.

 

[TMHeimer]

maniago, You did some things wrong and received proper criticism, and you probably need to keep practising skills. I assume you kept your airway open on the CESA even with pretty empty lungs, no? The positive is that you did go through some thought process instead of blind panic with a breathhold ascent. I'm sure this experience will help you in the future.

 

[tracydr]

Practice OOA and regulator recovery in the pool until you can do it literally with your eyes closed. Regulator recovery will become easy, i promise. I've done some silly things, like enter the surf without a regulator in my mouth and have to do the regulator recovery in a high surf trying to fight the surf. Believe me, my husband has it all on film, including the flawless regulator recovery and shoulder shrug!
Also, your buddy was situationally unaware, since she didn't realize you lost your regulator, but that's somewhat understandable in low vis, if you didn't signal her and it was a first or second open water dive.
hopefully, you'll have a regular buddy that you can work out issues like these.
It's really nice if yu have a confined water or very shallow, non-surgy area (safe) to work on these things like a pool, lake or quarry. A home pool with a deep end is extra nice. I used to live 5 miles from a nice diving lake when I lived in OK and that was a great place to train, too.
Just being able to do training dives, rather than only doing vacation dives is the important thing. Keeping these skills up is really important, as you saw. Congratulations!

 

[TSandM]

It sounds as though you didn't panic, and it also sounds as though your buddy was another OW student, and they're always bandwidth challenged.

My real question is: WHERE ON EARTH WAS YOUR DIVE PROFESSIONAL WHEN ALL THIS WAS GOING DOWN? If you were doing the nav dive with a buddy, you should have had an escort; it is the job of the escort to monitor both of you, and intervene if anything is going wrong. Having just finished OW dives 1 and 2 with a somewhat challenging group, I can testify to how much work it is to do that . . . but it is our job. You should NEVER have gotten to the point of CESA, if your professional escort had been on the ball. And if the viz was too poor for the dive pro to see you in trouble, your instructor had no business running the class in those conditions.

You just learned why I hate traditional octos. No method of securing the reg both holds it securely AND releases it easily when required. The longer hose/bungied backup system puts your backup reg right under your chin, where there is NO possibility of not finding it.

 

[WB2GLP]

Aside from the other stuff, you say you were doing check out dives in two foot viz. Do you believe your instructor was using good judgement by conducting checkout dives under those conditions? We're all dives conducted under similarly poor conditions?