This past weekend I went on my 10th and 11th open water dives and major screwed up, and now have lost all confidence as I feel that I almost killed myself.
Just to give a little background - I just got my PADI OW about a month ago and had absolutely no problems. I then went to Maldives and participated in 5 boat dives down to 20m. Once again, absolutely no problems.
This past weekend I went out with my instructor (not as a class, just a friendly dive) and another buddy just for fun and some practice. Well, his SPG was in 'bar' and mine and my buddies were in 'PSI x 10'. So basically, my buddy and I let him know when I was at 1000 PSI (guage showed 100x10, so we signaled 100). At this point, he just signaled okay and continued swimming along. After I got down to 500, I frantically begin signaling again to let him know that I was getting low. He finally got the hint and we began swimming back towards the beach to make our safety stop. By this time, my buddy had run out of air and was breathing on the instructor's octo.
With a minute left in the recommended safety stop, I began to feel the reg pulling and after a few breaths, I was empty. Instead of finishing the dive a minute early, I went ahead and signaled to another diver making the stop with us that I was out and wanted to breath on his secondary (this was supposed to be for extra practice). As of this point everything was okay and he handed me his octo, now is where things went wrong (remember, all of this is in 3m of water).
After purging and attempting to take a breath, I got nothing but water. I coughed, purged again, and got nothing but water. At this point, I panicked as I had probably been without air for about 30 seconds and had just breathed in two breaths of seawater. I then bolted for the surface.
I don't remember exhaling on the way to surface but think I was coughing all the way there. Because I didn't consciously remember to exhale, I now realize that I could have killed myself in only 3m of water. I feel like the only thing that saved me was the fact that I had already used all the air in my lungs attempting to purge the octo twice and coughing and that is what saved me.
We discussed the incident afterwards and I learned a few things. The other diver I attempted to breath off of (this guy was another person diving with our group, but not my buddy) told me that I put the reg in my mouth upside down, thus causing the breaths of water I continued to get. I honestly didn't realize that this would happen. I also learned that no matter what the instructor is doing, me and my buddy should have surfaced when we got low instead of blindly following the instructor wherever he is going.
The problem is that I have now lost all confidence in the water and am actually bit scared now, especially after reading all the incidence reports of people suffering overexpansion injuries in such shallow water.
And to top it all off, I had been having tightness in my chest for a few days after I dive. I went to a doctor and he wants me to get tested for exercise induced asthma and have a dive physical. I was actually diagnosed with EIA 10 years ago but had no problems since two-a-days (10 years ago) in high school football so I thought I had grown out of it.
Hopefully I get cleared at which time I will attempt to get a bunch of pool practice to regain my confidence before going out again.
I just wanted to get some of your thoughts on the above incident, and have any of you ever experienced an OOA incident and panicked?
Just to give a little background - I just got my PADI OW about a month ago and had absolutely no problems. I then went to Maldives and participated in 5 boat dives down to 20m. Once again, absolutely no problems.
This past weekend I went out with my instructor (not as a class, just a friendly dive) and another buddy just for fun and some practice. Well, his SPG was in 'bar' and mine and my buddies were in 'PSI x 10'. So basically, my buddy and I let him know when I was at 1000 PSI (guage showed 100x10, so we signaled 100). At this point, he just signaled okay and continued swimming along. After I got down to 500, I frantically begin signaling again to let him know that I was getting low. He finally got the hint and we began swimming back towards the beach to make our safety stop. By this time, my buddy had run out of air and was breathing on the instructor's octo.
With a minute left in the recommended safety stop, I began to feel the reg pulling and after a few breaths, I was empty. Instead of finishing the dive a minute early, I went ahead and signaled to another diver making the stop with us that I was out and wanted to breath on his secondary (this was supposed to be for extra practice). As of this point everything was okay and he handed me his octo, now is where things went wrong (remember, all of this is in 3m of water).
After purging and attempting to take a breath, I got nothing but water. I coughed, purged again, and got nothing but water. At this point, I panicked as I had probably been without air for about 30 seconds and had just breathed in two breaths of seawater. I then bolted for the surface.
I don't remember exhaling on the way to surface but think I was coughing all the way there. Because I didn't consciously remember to exhale, I now realize that I could have killed myself in only 3m of water. I feel like the only thing that saved me was the fact that I had already used all the air in my lungs attempting to purge the octo twice and coughing and that is what saved me.
We discussed the incident afterwards and I learned a few things. The other diver I attempted to breath off of (this guy was another person diving with our group, but not my buddy) told me that I put the reg in my mouth upside down, thus causing the breaths of water I continued to get. I honestly didn't realize that this would happen. I also learned that no matter what the instructor is doing, me and my buddy should have surfaced when we got low instead of blindly following the instructor wherever he is going.
The problem is that I have now lost all confidence in the water and am actually bit scared now, especially after reading all the incidence reports of people suffering overexpansion injuries in such shallow water.
And to top it all off, I had been having tightness in my chest for a few days after I dive. I went to a doctor and he wants me to get tested for exercise induced asthma and have a dive physical. I was actually diagnosed with EIA 10 years ago but had no problems since two-a-days (10 years ago) in high school football so I thought I had grown out of it.
Hopefully I get cleared at which time I will attempt to get a bunch of pool practice to regain my confidence before going out again.
I just wanted to get some of your thoughts on the above incident, and have any of you ever experienced an OOA incident and panicked?