Panic Overcome

[Laruuk]

This happened last Sunday, I've been wanting to write it up for awhile. I finally got around to it.

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Panic Overcome​

Inhale.

Exhale.

Clean, dry air with every breath as I descended for my final open water dive of my Open Water Class.

Inhale.

Exhale.

I watched as my depth gauge hit ten feet.

Inhale.

Seawater flooded my mouth, causing me to stop my inhalation and exhale to get it out of my mouth.

What was happening? I still had my mouthpiece in, I was biting down on it. I could hear the mass eruption of bubbles, tell-tale sign of a free-flowing reg. Looking around, I saw the source. It was my regulator, floating just in front and to the right of me, spewing the air I so desperately needed.

Air.

My body was screaming for it now. Adrenaline was pumped into my system, all rational thought disappeared as I kicked for the surface. I couldn’t breath, I was fighting the urge to inhale knowing that all I would get was seawater and death.

Eight feet from the surface my training, my rational mind, overcame my panic and I quickly grabbed the Octo attached to my BC, shoved it into my mouth, hit the purge button and cautiously took a breath. I was rewarded with clean, dry air from my tank.

I looked down to see that my dive master and dive buddy were on their way to the surface. I inflated my BC, grabbed my primary regulator and turned it over (stopping its freeflow), and broke the surface a moment later.

It turns out that the zip tie holding my mouthpiece to the reg snapped off. Such a small thing had me terrified for a few seconds, knowing that I was going to die. Fortunately, my training kick in and it was nothing more than a learning experience for me.

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It was one hell of an exciting time, I tell ya. :11:

 

[DivingPrincessE]

Congrats on overcoming the panic! My only concern is about

I inflated my BC, grabbed my primary regulator and turned it over (stopping its freeflow), and broke the surface a moment later

You should never inflate your BC to get to the surface . You should constantly be dumping air as you head up slowly

 

[Laruuk]

HA!

Exactly what the dive master said and, barring adrenaline fueled panic, is what I will be doing from now on.

 

[TSandM]

Scary thing to have happen to you on an open water checkout dive, and it's great that you did remember that you had a secondary regulator you could go to. It would have been better if you had been able to remember that without the panic . . . But maybe not.

I had a near-panic experience on one of my OW checkout dives, when I tried to do the mask flood and clear and got a throat full of salt water. It was one of the two times since I've been diving that I have wanted OUT of there. The instructor supervising me stopped me from bolting, but I wanted to, desperately.

It turns out to have been an incredibly useful experience. I know what frantic anxiety feels like -- I can recognize it in embryo and get it stopped before it makes me do something truly dangerous. You may find that, in the same way, the next time you're faced with something not going right underwater, your mind will say, "Hey, I'll bet there's a solution to this, and I'm going to find it," rather than abandoning reason and bolting for the surface.

Congrats on your certification, BTW.

 

[MissyP]

]I watched as my depth gauge hit ten feet

Better that it happened in 10 ft rather than 60ft or more...

 

[chris408]

Glad to hear you were able to work through the situation, and congrats on finishing OW.

 

[spectrum]

You should never inflate your BC to get to the surface . You should constantly be dumping air as you head up slowly

That's hard to say in this case... Since it sounds like the problem started during the drop I doubt that he ever attained neutral buoyancy at the final depth. Adding some air to become neutral and subsequently venting to control the ascent would be fine.

The alternative would be to swim the rig up and inflate at the surface. I would not expect an OW candidate to do that.

Laruuk,

All in all a good job in keeping your wits. If it had all gone smoothly you would not have learned as much. Congratulations on the certification!

Pete

 

[DeepBound]

I experienced the exact same problem as you but that was with almost 100 dives experience, and it sounds like you handled it quite well. The good thing about that dive is that it got me thinking much more about safety and backup plans when diving. So in a way its great that you got to experience that so soon, it's a good experience.

 

[Aelvin]

seems like you handle the whole situation very well!! congrats on such a memorable check out dive!

 

[I Found Nemo]

Dive! Dive! Dive!
Thats really all I can say. I am a new diver and I think I understand exactly what your feeling. I still have after 32 dives moments of anxiety for no reason. I think the key is as some have said is getting control of it. I know that is easier said than done sometimes. Low visibility is a real stress producer for me. It really helped me to go dive in the Fl. Keys where I could enjoy diving instead of it being so much work. Confidence is a huge key to it. When I start to feel anxious I do exactly what I learned in my OW class. Stop, take a deep breath, blow it out and relax and think to myself I can Breath and I am O.K.! Recollect myself and continue to dive. When I would feel like that in my first 20 dives my fight or flight would kick in and I wanted to bolt for the surface. I chose to fight and never did go up. You have to push yourself through the moment and it gets easier. The other thing that has helped me is having a regular dive buddy that I have confidence in. Good luck and keep diving.