Learning experiences

[vlada]

Somewhat prompted by Snuggle's deep wrecks questions below - did you ever had the dive that pushed you to the limit of your experience and tested you diving abilities? What made that dive so difficult? More importantly - what did you learn from it?

I'll share my own non-life threatening story - this was last year when i had just over 100 dives and thought of myself as an experienced diver My buddy and i were diving Wexford - for those who don't know - it's in lake Huron, in about 70 ft of water - upright and in amazing shape

Being "experienced diver" that i considered myself at that point, i though it would be an easy dive as i have been deeper than 100 ft more than a few times and in colder water

Descending down to the wreck, we discovered about 1-3 ft ft viz and substantial current - i was still tryng to take pics and did not pay any attention to my location. I lost the sight of my buddy and realized i had no idea where the line was. My breathing rate was just reaching some outer limits when my buddy appeared seemingly from nowhere. I just followed him blindly hoping that he would know where we were - luckily he did.

What i learnt:

- Always mark the location of the line - where it attached relative to the rest of the wreck. I am still occasionally tempted to get away from the line and start swimming to the wreck as soom as the wreck appears - have to remind myself to go and look where the line is attached to the wreck.

- Stop taking pics and concentrate on the environment as soon as i realize the dive is much tougher than planned for any reason (narc'd, headache, cold, viz) - sometimes camera in teh hands is exactly one thing too much for tak loading

- Continuation of that is to not take my camera on the dives when i have new equipment (like first few dives in doubles) - this had been a tough one given that i don't generally dive w/o the camera

- Realized that i had no idea at the time wether or not i could do free ascents - that was since fixed by taking DIR-F course

Hopefully the others would share their stories, so that we can all learn

Vlada

 

[simcoediver]

Vlada it just
goes to show that we can never stop learning.What exactly does free ascent mean ? and what did they show you to do at the DIR course? Just curious.

 

[wetbehindtheear]

vlada once bubbled...

- Always mark the location of the line - where it attached relative to the rest of the wreck.

Excellent advice. I've got just over a hundred dives myself, and had a very similar occurrence on the very same wreck this past weekend. I was following the line to the wreck when I saw the bow come out of the silt. Very excited, i swam straight to the wreck, not thinking to note where the line attached to the wreck. Had a great time exploring, and a mild drysuit leak didn't dampen ut: my spirits. Hit my "be on the line by" air pressure just as I returned to the bow. I knew the line wasn't on the top of the bow, but somewhere on the bottom. The viz at the bottom was only 5-10 feet, but I had plenty of air to find the line, or so I thought. Heart rate and respirations rose dramatically as I went up and down the first 30 feet of each side of the bow looking for this damn line. I noticed that my buddy wasn't behind/beside me anymore, and I couldn't find that damn line if my life depended on it. Air now down to 600 psi, and just as panic started to set in, I remembered the old mantra "stop, think, then act". Well, it still works. Realizing that a free ascent (ascent without a line to follow) was my only option, I proceeded to the top of the bow, grabbed my inflator/deflator and my gauges, and started swimming in the direction of the line, keeping my ascent rate to a max of 60 feet/minute. After about 25 feet, I saw the line and the rest of the group hanging on for their safety stop. Had enough air for the safety stop and a reasonable safety margin. Ended up with a good lesson and a good soaking.

Primary lesson - I will never again rush to the wreck without carefully noting the exact location of the return line.

Secondary lesson - I will keep closer buddy contact. I didn't know that my new buddy was lower on air than I, and didn't have the air to go looking for the line. Instead, he headed for where he thought the line was, and it was right where he thought. I've practiced free ascents with a buddy before, and it's a lot more reassuring to have someone else there to help out when you run low on air.

Third lesson - a neck seal leak feels a lot like an inflator valve leak. It has that same bubbling feeling when you inflate, and you've got just as much water in your boots at the end of the dive.

 

[vlada]

slow and controlled and with a safety stop for 3-5 min - DIR adds the component of being in a nice horizontal position not having to fin constantly to maintain the given depth

I hope i am not going to hi-jack my own tread, but in short DIR-Fundamentals class teaches you the various kinds of skills like controlling your bouayncy by knowing what affwects it, using four kinds of low impact (i.e. no silt) kicks, horizontal ascents/descents, etc - you can see the skill videos here:

skills

click on fundamentals


In my opinion however, that course is so much more than just the skills - it covers dive planning (equipment, gas management, pre-dive check ups, ectc.) and the most important component - teamwork. To be able to see what a team of 3 individuals with varying degree of skills can accomplish with some proper training was truly amasing

DSAO

Vlada

 

[wetman]

I often wonder just how many issues arise because of people wasting precious air searching for that ever comforting upline when they could safely make and accent wherever they are if they were just as comfortable doing free accents. How many people are taught this or even practice this up here? I get the feeling that people really rely on that that in Canada more than most places because of the type of diving we do - typically wrecks and usually with not too much current. I think people should practice that more or be trained early to do that to increase levels of confidence.

steve

 

[diverlady]

I agree that we should learn to do free ascents earlier. I have found myself relying too much on the line for ascents. I now try to just touch the line for guidance but control my ascent by kicking and using my bc instead of pulling myself up the line.
I found when on a liveaboard in BC last year, most divers expected everyone to do free ascents and the boat to come get them. There was some grumbling amongst the other divers about us navigating underwater back to the line and ascending. After some discussion, we (the Ontario crew) agreed to free ascend. Since this was my first real experience with a drysuit, it was definitely a challenge. Since then, I've been practicing as much as I can.

Diverlady

 

[jroy017]

I often wonder just how many issues arise because of people wasting precious air searching for that ever comforting upline when they could safely make and accent wherever they are if they were just as comfortable doing free accents. How many people are taught this or even practice this up here? I get the feeling that people really rely on that that in Canada more than most places because of the type of diving we do - typically wrecks and usually with not too much current. I think people should practice that more or be trained early to do that to increase levels of confidence.

My understanding of a line to a wreck is there to
a) indicate where the wreck is when you are descending
b) a safety rope so when you are ascending within arms reach of the line if you have a problem you can grab on otherwise you should be practising a free ascent thats what we teach anyway
c) help divers maintain neutral buoyancy at a stop

Off course there also the fact that when you go up on the line the lazy bum that I am doesn't have to surface swim back to the boat.

In other words you should be practising free ascents every time you dive...

However i will admit that you often see divers climbing up and down the rope to the wreck with their hands on the rope. I often woner if they shouldn take up rock climbing instead =-)

 

[cat]

jroy017 once bubbled...

In other words you should be practising free ascents every time you dive...

However i will admit that you often see divers climbing up and down the rope to the wreck with their hands on the rope. I often woner if they shouldn take up rock climbing instead =-)

Hey! What's wrong with doing both at once? (see profile shot)

When I did my deep cert earlier this summer I was first puzzled, then amused, by my instructor's caution that the second dive "had" to be a free ascent without a line for reference - gauge only (murky lake). It took me a while to get through to him that I hadn't actually done any WITH a line at that point (thought that's changed since and those line thingies are sure nice to have in current). Still do most ascents as free ascents, with occasional cheating.

 

[BigAlex]

Getting back to the original concept of this thread. The dive that pushed me the most was on the Lilly Parsons.

My first dive ever on the wreck was the week before and i was still a little inexperienced with current that strong. On this dive I decided to take a camera to try to get a couple of shots on the wreck. The dive went well and when my psi approached my target amount I was ready to ascend. Decided that I would take the current to the back side of the island where I would meet the charter boat, enroute to that in about 50 ft of water the pin on my spring straps for my fins became undone and I lost my fin!!! I made it to the surface basically jumping from rock t rock in a really stressed frame of mind. The most relieving part of the dive is that I did not panic and made it out in one piece. And so did my fin when a leader with the group I was in found it.

I also feel that we hear in the Great Lakes do not practice free ascents enough, and I feel uncomfortable doing them. When I went abroad the divers felt a lot more comfortable doing them.

Vlada:
I spoke to Tom at NTD and he was telling me about the DIRF course. He told me to talk to you about its benefits. I was actually thinking about it from what you were saying above.

 

[vlada]

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