new diver - first dive problems

[Degenerate]

But honestly, after reading a lot of posts from so called experienced divers - I feel like on my second dive I am already exponentially better than many on this site. I just read one post about a guy who decided to dive with a leak for example because he thought it was a slow leak or some crap but ended up in trouble. I might be crazy, but at least my stupid moments are for the most part rare!

Based on what you've written here you have had stupid moments on 100% of your dives since being certified.
You brought a camera and a speargun on your first dive and you bombed down way below the depth you were trained for, a lot of red flags there.
Honestly, I would say that your current mindset is a danger to yourself and anyone else who would potentially dive with you.
Then again, based on what I quoted above I really doubt that you're going to even think about what I and others have said here.

 

[Joneill]

Hey Divers,
Just got certified last week - went way more than I should have on the first dive I know. One thing after my incident I was wondering is how long do you have when you really feel like air is out to when it's really out?
So I went out to Kaʻena Point Oahu on my Kayak with my new scuba equipment - and checking the water frequently it didn't look I was that deep - but it ended up being over 100'. I went to the bottom and quickly realized that my 3000 psi air was running out much faster than my training dives.
I had a speargun with me to try and land something for dinner. The area was baron, however, but I had a mesh experiment bag with me also. It consisted of balloons, spoons, fake rubber squid, and fishing line. Since there was nothing to shoot, I decided to try my experiment. I disarmed my speargun, and fumbled with all my items what were tangled. Well, it must have worked because a moster fish I have always dreamed of landing swam out of nowhere right in front of me. Unfortunately, my speargun was on the ground. I knew my experiment was a success.
After going to the surface (a little bit uncontrolled - I wanted to stop at 15ft but just kept going) - I realized I couldn't pull my anchor up. I only had about 600 psi left - but thought I could make a quick drop back to the bottom and pull it up. Well, I was wrong - when I got to the anchor I "pretty much" ran out of air. The reason I say pretty much is there were still very small breaths coming out. I took the anchor and starting swimming up as fast as I could, deflating my BCD as I went up from the training. I quickly realized that I should be inflating the BCD as I had no air - trying to get air but only a tiny bit of air came out. It seemed to take forever to get to the surface and I knew I messed up. My question now is when does zero air come out? How long from that first warning difficult breath to zero air (Not that I'll ever be in this situation again)? When I got to the surface, I was gasping for air, light headed and wondering if I was having an emergency I couldn't recover from.
I realize I was stupid and didn't have the experience to do what I did. I do take everything I do in life to the extreme but know I should have done a few more shallow dives. Thanks everyone.

You just got certified and then dove to 100 feet? Solo? Based on what you posted, you are lucky you were not serioulsy injured or killed. I'd suggest going back and repeating some of the trainings and theory and then finding some dive buddies or hiring a DM to dive with until you better understand the concepts and skills required to dive safely.

 

[wetb4igetinthewater]

People, I think the piling on Matt has been more than sufficient. He is correct to a degree. He is new and did something stupid that he acknowledges and he’s decided to go learn some more. That’s good.

when we as experienced divers do stupid stuff, we don’t have the excuse of not knowing any better.

 

[Norrm]

@Matt Spear

I'm not understanding the whole part about having to retrieve the anchor because you couldn't pull it up.

You've got 140' of line on a calm day with flat seas and no current so the line is going to be almost straight down- making it almost impossible for the anchor to hook on anything in the first place- and clearly it isn't, as the picture clearly shows the anchor lying loose on the bottom, with slack and not stuck on anything.

Why couldn't you simply reel the anchor in by the line attached to the boat?

 

[TridentDeep]

I feel like on my second dive I am already exponentially better than many on this site.

Just keep in mind 2 things:
1- Many of these people have hundreds, some even thousands of dives to look back on reflecting their experience. You are most certainly NOT more proficient or exponentially better at diving than these individuals after a couple of lousy dives.
2 - Ego has killed many a diver. Leave it on the shore or your kayak, it has no place at depth.

I hope you are just trolling and wasting time, but if not, I beg of you to seek a DM to dive with even if just for a few dives. I'm also a bit curious who you were certified by, as I'm concerned about their level of instruction given your blatant disregard (or maybe you just weren't taught about) proper safety techniques and practices while diving. Stay safe and best of luck my friend.

 

[rsingler]

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A ScubaBoard Staff Message...

This is the Basic Forum. This diver has chosen to share his experiences and has taken your barbs with a good attitude. You all have made your points, and there is nothing to be gained by further criticism.
Dunning-Kruger has been raised, but you should keep in mind the tongue in cheek nature of some of this diver's comments.
You have his best interests in mind, but if he leaves in disgust at his treatment, then the good things you have to offer will be wasted.
Be nice. Stay on topic. Avoid nasty adjectives. This is a Green Zone.

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[Joneill]

People, I think the piling on Matt has been more than sufficient. He is correct to a degree. He is new and did something stupid that he acknowledges and he’s decided to go learn some more. That’s good.

when we as experienced divers do stupid stuff, we don’t have the excuse of not knowing any better.

I'm glad he seems to have learned from this - but even as a brand new diver, I wouid never have remotely considered doing what he did - the day after I completed my OW cert dives in Aruba, I was scheduled for a 2 tank boat dive. However, as per the day before, the conditions were stong currents, low viz and rough seas. As I knew I would not have an instructor with me on these dives, I decided I was not ready for those conditions and bagged the dives. Folks really need to think about/understand their limits based on their experience and not think a cert card means you are automatically capable of diving in any conditions - so good lessons for new divers here.

 

[wetb4igetinthewater]

I'm glad he seems to have learned from this - but even as a brand new diver, I wouid never have remotely considered doing what he did - the day after I completed my OW cert dives in Aruba, I was scheduled for a 2 tank boat dive. However, as per the day before, the conditions were stong currents, low viz and rough seas. As I knew I would not have an instructor with me on these dives, I decided I was not ready for those conditions and bagged the dives. Folks really need to think about/understand their limits based on their experience and not think a cert card means you are automatically capable of diving in any conditions - so good lessons for new divers here.

When I was in my early 20's, I though I was bulletproof. I could drive 24 hours straight. Deadlift 500. I was into Thai boxing and had a high tolerance for pain. Yeah, I'd probably be willing to do really risky stuff just like the OP. My OW sucked, full of standards violations, so I didn't think there was anything to worry about in the water. Other than reading in the book, I didn't think about lung overexpansion injury. Our academic session consisted of chatting about the KRs in a Starbucks for an hour and there was no exam. When I did my CESA, I just breathed normally on the way up. There is no way my instructor didn't notice me exhaling.

So I don't blame the OP at all for what he did.

 

[Joneill]

So I don't blame the OP at all for what he did.

So who do you blame? There is no one else to blame - the good news is he seems to now realize how dangerous what he did was. Hopefully, his sharing and the subsequent discussion here will prevent others from making the same mistakes!

 

[Matt Spear]

I've dove up to around 80' to fish, so going to 100' seemed like no big deal - and well under the 130' limit suggestion for open water certifications. Actually, I never knew exactly how deep I was since I never had a depth gauge before. Probably will stick to 30'-40' dives for awhile now with Scuba.

I had no reason to doubt the initially described dive. How deep do you normally freedive? If you freedive and hunt at a certain depth, then scuba at half that depth probably seems incredibly trivial to you. If you are a decent freediver, this is a benefit and a liability.

Most scuba divers, who don't really freedive, probably have little understanding of your mindset. If you listen and learn from good advice on this board, you will begin to realize that your scuba course probably left a lot of important info out and some of the dangers and info are not trivial.

Your comment about, maybe it would have been better to try to freedive (to 100 ft) to free the anchor - rather than use 600 lbs in a tank to do that, is pretty revealing about your need to expand your understanding. You do NOT want to do an agressive freedive after a deep scuba dive! Of course abandoning the anchor would have been the smartest idea, but freediving would have been the worst.