Panic and Tech Diving

[Cave Diver]

There were two recent cave diving incidents that started me thinking about the panic mechanism when it comes to tech diving.

The first was the fatality at Peacock where a diver appeared to panic and bolted, leaving her buddy behind which led to their separation and eventually her death.

The second was an incident at Jackson Blue where a diver suffered a severe medical incident. She kept her wits, signaled her dive buddy, ended the dive and made it to professional medical care reportedly just in the nick of time to save her life.

Are some people just more prone to keep their cool or can the panic response be trained into a diver so that they react in a calm and rational manner to extreme stress?

Should this be part of tech training?

Do any instructors try to train for this?

Has anyone been in a panic or near panic situation?

 

[Dive-aholic]

You can't really compare the two incidents. With the incident at JB, no rules were being violated. The diver is cave trained/certified, was well within 1/3s (actually, she was in the 300-400' area of the cave), and there were no navigational decisions made. I don't know her well enough to answer this, but had she been violating any of the guidelines of accident analysis it may have ended differently. Just like had the dive at Peacock been without rules violations, it also might have ended differently.

And, FWIW, I do talk quite a bit about panic and how to avoid it during my courses.

 

[PfcAJ]

Absolutely some people are closer to the cliff of panic than others. It simply takes less to get them into a real panic.

In cave classes, most things aren't really trained. A diver is shown the skill, and does it once or twice. That's not training. Think about a frog kick. You just do it, it doesn't require thinking. Now consider a lost line drill. This requires more involved thinking, simply because you rarely do it. Having to do something unfamiliar, under stress, while the clock is ticking, can push a diver closer and closer to the cliff.

One thing that I feel is important is for a diver to stop, chill out for a second, and think. I know that not all my cave skills are 100% automatic, and taking a breath and really assessing the situation goes a long way to preventing any kind of uncontrolled panic response. Panic kills.

I do feel that cave divers need to periodically review ALL the skills they were taught in class.

 

[Cave Diver]

You can't really compare the two incidents. With the incident at JB, no rules were being violated. The diver is cave trained/certified, was well within 1/3s (actually, she was in the 300-400' area of the cave), and there were no navigational decisions made. I don't know her well enough to answer this, but had she been violating any of the guidelines of accident analysis it may have ended differently. Just like had the dive at Peacock been without rules violations, it also might have ended differently.

And, FWIW, I do talk quite a bit about panic and how to avoid it during my courses.

Yes, the end might have been different, but I'm more interested in the start.

In one, when the incident starts the account was that they made contact with their buddy and called the dive. They may have been stressed, but they weren't panicked.

In the other, the diver apparently just bolted, with no regard to their buddy.

Breaking the rules is part of the accident chain, but it starts with the panic situation.

What sort of tips do you give to your students to avoid it?

 

[Cave Diver]

One thing that I feel is important is for a diver to stop, chill out for a second, and think. I know that not all my cave skills are 100% automatic, and taking a breath and really assessing the situation goes a long way to preventing any kind of uncontrolled panic response. Panic kills.

I 100% agree with this. Taking a long deep breath and knowing that I've got gas to solve a problem gives a huge psychological advantage.

 

[ucfdiver]

Has anyone EVER seen a panic situation where all rules were followed and it ended in a death?

Something tells me panic breeds when you take short cuts.

 

[TSandM]

I think panic is something that happens when you feel out of control and overwhelmed. I think some people are panic-prone, and some shouldn't dive and some shouldn't do technical or cave diving.

But a lot of my training has been getting a variety of unexpected scenarios thrown at me and then being evaluated on how I handled them. I've had my mask torn off (repeatedly) and my gas turned off and lights turned off or stolen -- and THEN there were the things the instructor didn't even do, like losing my fin 1500 feel back in Twin.

We used to say about the second year of surgical residency that by the end of it, your panic button had been pushed so many times, it didn't work any more. I think good technical training does much the same thing, and weeds out the people who overload easily, or can't think under stress.

 

[karstdvr]

I think some people are panic-prone.

I agree there are a lot of people in society that have anxiety,which can be a stepping stone to panic attacks or a panic episode. You will never know how you'll react when you have a CTJ moment,but in your illustration,if you've been exposed to enough situations repeatedly,then it is an inconvenience,not a problem.

There are some basic problems that exist,that lead to some of the problems we see. Firstly,cave diving is not for everyone. Just because your buddies do it,or it looks cool to announce on the forums that you've signed up for a class,but you have mixed feelings,then don't. Secondly,don't succumb to peer pressure. I remember doing a trip in Mexico where the guide was describing the dive that had 2 visual jumps. I said I am not doing that dive,and why,and said I would sit out. Eventually the guide changed the plan,but one of the other divers came up to me and thanked me,and said they didn't feel comfortable with the visuals-speak up and say that you don't like that dive plan and why. Thirdly,turn the dive if something doesn't feel or look right. Even if it is just 200' from the entrance,and everybody in the team is all geared up with stages etc. We all have bad days,but having a bad day in a cave is terminal.

 

[karstdvr]

Has anyone EVER seen a panic situation where all rules were followed and it ended in a death?

.

I have seen someone in panic,and they were only 800' from the surface at Peacock. By the time we surfaced they only had 500psi on a set of well pumped 104s. They would swim up a jump line looking for an exit,even though they were on the gold line. I had to chase them down,and bring them back,which was difficult unto itself.

 

[bletso]

As an instructor, I have seen some panic incidents. The worst was a diver who panicked at 30 mfw and tried to take me out. It is a long way up from 30 mfw with a panicked diver attached to you. The cause was he had made a gear change and didn't check it out in shallow water before he needed it. One of my hard fast rules is always check out any new untried gear/configuration change on an eval dive before a mission dive.

Some people are very panic and stress prone and some should never dive. The smart ones give it up and the not so smart cave in to peer pressure and....


Dale