fencingfish
Contributor
- Messages
- 163
- Reaction score
- 13
- # of dives
- 200 - 499
I was at a diving event yesterday. I had originally planned to go with a buddy, but she canceled last minute. I wasn't concerned, I would use the opportunity to meet other divers and new dive buddies.
I went to the registration tent, people had mostly shown up with their own buddies and I was paired with another woman who did not have a buddy. We introduced ourselves and she mentioned that she had never dove in New England before, all of her diving consisted of checkout dives in the Caribbean. That was a red flag if I ever saw one. She seemed confident on the surface, not cocky. She knew that the day's dive would be difficult for her and different from anything she had experienced before and asked that I be patient with her as she acclimated. I like to take my dives slow and we would go as slow as she needed, I was a newbie not long ago, too, still am in many aspects, everyone has to start somewhere. We had a positive pre-dive briefing and the area we were diving was very shallow. Unfortunately due to the storms, the vis yesterday was around 5 feet and surgy. There were also way too many people at the event for that small cove. We planned to snorkel out a little ways, hugging the side of the cove, and then drop down. We snorkeled out no problems, checked in with each other and decided to drop down. That's when my dive buddy went into a full blown panic attack, panicking because of the visibility mostly and because she wasn't familiar with her gear.
There were so many people there (maybe 15 divers below the surface and 15 divers and other people on the surface) and yet no one noticed that she was in distress or else just assumed that I would handle it, though with that many people moving around, maybe they honestly didn't notice. It was shallow enough that we could back up against the rocks to stand, and once I helped her realize that and get her feet under her she calmed down a bit. She was pale, eyes unfocused, stressed breathing. I've never had to deal with a situation like that before. I kept talking to her with my hand on her shoulder and she was able to calm herself down. I remembered my dive instructor telling a group of open water students that if someone looked stressed out under water, extending a hand to them was sometimes all that it takes. Just the physical contact of another person can be more reassuring than words.
We had to surface swim it back in because it was just not shallow enough to walk back the whole way. Once she had taken a few more minutes to calm, I told her what we had to do and asked if she could do it with me? I told her that she was going to inflate her BC (she did), then to put her reg in her mouth (because her snorkel kept flooding and I didn't want her to drown). She took a few more minutes and took some calming breaths off the tank. Then I told her I would hold her hand and we would swim it in on the surface and could she do that with me? She got herself under control, gave me a confident nod, and we swam it in. I helped her remove her fins and she got back on shore.
I have wanted to take a rescue course, but now more than ever, I know that I NEED to take a rescue diving course. I may not have handled the situation according to specific guidelines that a course might provide, but I felt that I did the best I could under the circumstances. We were lucky that the area was very shallow and that there were a lot of people around should the situation have gotten worse. I kept a cool head while my buddy was panicking and I was able to calm her down and get her to safety. I learned more from yesterday's dive than I had expected and have always known the importance of continuing education to deal with situations and make sure that you are prepared to handle them.
I went to the registration tent, people had mostly shown up with their own buddies and I was paired with another woman who did not have a buddy. We introduced ourselves and she mentioned that she had never dove in New England before, all of her diving consisted of checkout dives in the Caribbean. That was a red flag if I ever saw one. She seemed confident on the surface, not cocky. She knew that the day's dive would be difficult for her and different from anything she had experienced before and asked that I be patient with her as she acclimated. I like to take my dives slow and we would go as slow as she needed, I was a newbie not long ago, too, still am in many aspects, everyone has to start somewhere. We had a positive pre-dive briefing and the area we were diving was very shallow. Unfortunately due to the storms, the vis yesterday was around 5 feet and surgy. There were also way too many people at the event for that small cove. We planned to snorkel out a little ways, hugging the side of the cove, and then drop down. We snorkeled out no problems, checked in with each other and decided to drop down. That's when my dive buddy went into a full blown panic attack, panicking because of the visibility mostly and because she wasn't familiar with her gear.
There were so many people there (maybe 15 divers below the surface and 15 divers and other people on the surface) and yet no one noticed that she was in distress or else just assumed that I would handle it, though with that many people moving around, maybe they honestly didn't notice. It was shallow enough that we could back up against the rocks to stand, and once I helped her realize that and get her feet under her she calmed down a bit. She was pale, eyes unfocused, stressed breathing. I've never had to deal with a situation like that before. I kept talking to her with my hand on her shoulder and she was able to calm herself down. I remembered my dive instructor telling a group of open water students that if someone looked stressed out under water, extending a hand to them was sometimes all that it takes. Just the physical contact of another person can be more reassuring than words.
We had to surface swim it back in because it was just not shallow enough to walk back the whole way. Once she had taken a few more minutes to calm, I told her what we had to do and asked if she could do it with me? I told her that she was going to inflate her BC (she did), then to put her reg in her mouth (because her snorkel kept flooding and I didn't want her to drown). She took a few more minutes and took some calming breaths off the tank. Then I told her I would hold her hand and we would swim it in on the surface and could she do that with me? She got herself under control, gave me a confident nod, and we swam it in. I helped her remove her fins and she got back on shore.
I have wanted to take a rescue course, but now more than ever, I know that I NEED to take a rescue diving course. I may not have handled the situation according to specific guidelines that a course might provide, but I felt that I did the best I could under the circumstances. We were lucky that the area was very shallow and that there were a lot of people around should the situation have gotten worse. I kept a cool head while my buddy was panicking and I was able to calm her down and get her to safety. I learned more from yesterday's dive than I had expected and have always known the importance of continuing education to deal with situations and make sure that you are prepared to handle them.
