is there any way to prepare for scuba panic?

[rlw]

One thing to always remember is that the air in your lungs at depth is compressed. And this means that you can ascend from virtually any depth without fear of running out of air. In fact, you generally must vent the air as you ascend so as not to bring on an embolism.

When I took the Divers Instructoral College training way back in the mid-70s, Tony Zimos and Dick Hammas once took us out to an area off La Jolla that provided about 100 ft. depth. And our exercise that day was to descend to the bottom and sit there with our eyes closed. At some point, Tony or Dick would come up behind you and shut off your air supply.

You were then to remove your tank, remove the regulator from the tank and then free ascend to the surface all the while venting the decompressing air in your lungs. This was actually much easier to do than it sounds and it illustrates that you can certainly survive an equipment malfunction at depth.

The 2nd part of the exercise required you to free dive back to your tank and regulator, re-assemble them and rise to the surface. This would seem to be very difficult for many, a 100 ft. descent is not easily done by many folks. However, you were allowed to breathe off the tank valve when you reached your gear, and that made it eminently do-able. And we practiced beforehand breathing directly off the tank valve in order to hone that skill.

I actually really enjoyed this exercise and did it twice, just for practice. And being able to do so gave me a lot of confidence that I could pretty much handle any emergency as long as I kept my wits about me.

I'll bet you dollars to donuts that nothing like this is done nowadays in our litigation-happy society...

-RW-

 

[TMHeimer]

rlw, When you free ascend from 100' are you starting off with a full breath in your lungs? Of course, this is the way CESAs are taught, but may not always be the case.

 

[jscan1]

I pretty much spend most safety stops running through skills, figure I'm hanging there for 3 minutes anyway. Take off mask clear it, swap between 2nd stage and oct (in my case pony bottle). Do an OOA drill with buddy. Locate quick releases on my weight pouches, so in a real event its second nature to dump them. Also little things like removing a LP hose and putting back on. Making sure you can get knife out of sheath etc.

 

[Diver0001]

however i have yet to do these in an unsupervised environment. my biggest fear is swimming around and getting my reg knocked out by a rock, kelp, etc...and freaking out and not thinking of how to properly put your reg back in and just swimming to the surface without thinking of a dstop if this happens in deep waters.

Did something happen during the course that gave you reason to believe that you would respond like this?

R..

 

[diversnutrition]

Hi,

First mind that diving should be fun, and in order to be fun dive at your own pace and limits. This is not a race to see who dives faster If your dive buddy doesn't understand that, find another one!

Second, if you have the misfortune of having a problem underwater, first stop and solve it (your OW class should be enough to remember what to do, don't worry). You'll see that you have time (our brain in panic situations
can work like a time machine - use it as an advantage). When solved, be free to panic. Never before. This may look silly, but believe me, a lot of my students were stressed to solve panic situations with this mindset and
the results were always great.

You have an OW, so you should dive at certain limits and respect all the safety procedures without having problems. And dive as much as you can (go for a liveaboard or a diving resort). You'll see how great you'll feel after a week
diving.

Cheers,

 

[FinnMom]

A few things come to mind

1) Others have mentioned putting your shorter-hosed regulator on a bungee around your neck. I like that too & I think it should be the new standard configuration.
Breathe the long hose reg & learn to donate the reg you were breathing. Chances are fair that if someone is out of air you won't need to donate either reg - they will grab the one in your mouth before you even realize what's happening. No worries: your bungied reg is easy for you to find.

2) Unless you have a shoulder injury, chances are good that even w/ a single tank and jacket BCD you can actually reach to turn on your air w/o having to remove or even adjust your BCD. Try it. If it works, practise it. It might be a nice skill to have someday.

3) Esp. when diving lower vis (divers are closer together & new divers often too close) someone (esp. new divers) will occasionally windmill with their arms or kick w/ fins and catch you in the face. On a very rare occasion they might even succeed in knocking off your mask. Learn to watch for an incoming swipe and get an arm up to deflect it.