Leejnd
Contributor
I just became certified a couple weeks ago, and this past weekend I went out for my first post-certification dives on a dive boat to Catalina Island (SoCal). There were a number of very experienced divers and DM's on board, who were all wonderful in helping me remember and improve my skills. Everything went fantabulous, until the third dive.
As a noob, naturally I'm still trying to get a handle on bouyancy. On our first two dives we were at 76' and 71', and I had very little trouble with it, managing to comfortably hover and change depth with my breathing. On my third dive we'd been down at 45' for about 25 minutes, and had ascended to 25' and poked around in the kelp there for about 10 minutes. But here I found bouyancy to be a bit more challenging. In addition to this, my fins are more bouyant than I was expecting, and at 25' they kept raising up on me when I wasn't moving forward.
After we'd been at 25' for about 10 minutes, I found that my fins were floating above me and I was having some trouble maintaining depth. I tried to vent my BCD, but I guess I didn't realize how inverted I was...I realize now I should have used the vent on the back, but I didn't. I thought I'd raised the deflation hose high enough and then pressed the vent button, and all of a sudden there were a bazillion bubbles around me, as if the earth had opened up beneath me and was burping out gas! I immediately started ascending and I couldn't stop. It all happened so fast, and the next thing I knew I was at the surface (with my buddy, an experienced diver, about 3 fin-kicks behind me). He immediately took me back down to 15', and checked me out to ensure I wasn't panicking or feeling ill (I was fine). We stayed there for about ten minutes, and then returned to the boat and surfaced.
Now, first allow me to request that no one bash me for whatever I did wrong. (I've seen a lot of that around this board.) Please remember I've only just been certified and this was my first dive trip since certification. My first two dives were with a DM as a buddy, and I was told I did everything perfectly. On my third dive I went with someone else who isn't a DM, but is very experienced. If I did something stupid, I'm sure I'm not the first new diver who has, and I'm hoping to learn from this.
So, here are my questions. First and foremost I'd like to know if I was truly in danger of DCS by having an uncontrolled ascent from 25'. I can tell you that I didn't hold my breath -- I was breathing normally, maybe a little rapidly from slight stress. But I never felt panic. I knew almost instantly what was happening and tried to spread out my limbs to slow me down, but it happened so fast. Could I have been harmed seriously from this ascent from that depth?
Second, was it of value to immediately descend to 15'? There were some differences of opinion on this -- some on the boat said that it would have made no difference, as any bubbles in my tissues would have already been formed; others said that if we did it quick enough it might have slowed down the development of bubbles.
Third, where did all those bubbles all around me come from?? Okay, so the air in my BCD must have been higher than the vent valve so it couldn't vent from there...I get that. But it was as if my BCD suddenly started free-flowing...from where? The moment I broke the surface it stopped and I was immediately able to vent, empty my lungs and descend, but I still have no clue where all those bubbles came from in the first place.
One thing I will say that I already learned from this incident is that I didn't panic...I knew something was going very wrong, but rather than feel fear (which I recall thinking would be useless!) my mind immediately went to my training, and tried to scroll through what I'd learned. I do hope that's an indication that I'll behave the same way if I encounter an emergency again.
I'd appreciate any input, so I can learn from this. Naturally I know better now than to try to vent my BCD from the deflation hose when I'm upside down!
Thanks,
LeeAnne
As a noob, naturally I'm still trying to get a handle on bouyancy. On our first two dives we were at 76' and 71', and I had very little trouble with it, managing to comfortably hover and change depth with my breathing. On my third dive we'd been down at 45' for about 25 minutes, and had ascended to 25' and poked around in the kelp there for about 10 minutes. But here I found bouyancy to be a bit more challenging. In addition to this, my fins are more bouyant than I was expecting, and at 25' they kept raising up on me when I wasn't moving forward.
After we'd been at 25' for about 10 minutes, I found that my fins were floating above me and I was having some trouble maintaining depth. I tried to vent my BCD, but I guess I didn't realize how inverted I was...I realize now I should have used the vent on the back, but I didn't. I thought I'd raised the deflation hose high enough and then pressed the vent button, and all of a sudden there were a bazillion bubbles around me, as if the earth had opened up beneath me and was burping out gas! I immediately started ascending and I couldn't stop. It all happened so fast, and the next thing I knew I was at the surface (with my buddy, an experienced diver, about 3 fin-kicks behind me). He immediately took me back down to 15', and checked me out to ensure I wasn't panicking or feeling ill (I was fine). We stayed there for about ten minutes, and then returned to the boat and surfaced.
Now, first allow me to request that no one bash me for whatever I did wrong. (I've seen a lot of that around this board.) Please remember I've only just been certified and this was my first dive trip since certification. My first two dives were with a DM as a buddy, and I was told I did everything perfectly. On my third dive I went with someone else who isn't a DM, but is very experienced. If I did something stupid, I'm sure I'm not the first new diver who has, and I'm hoping to learn from this.
So, here are my questions. First and foremost I'd like to know if I was truly in danger of DCS by having an uncontrolled ascent from 25'. I can tell you that I didn't hold my breath -- I was breathing normally, maybe a little rapidly from slight stress. But I never felt panic. I knew almost instantly what was happening and tried to spread out my limbs to slow me down, but it happened so fast. Could I have been harmed seriously from this ascent from that depth?
Second, was it of value to immediately descend to 15'? There were some differences of opinion on this -- some on the boat said that it would have made no difference, as any bubbles in my tissues would have already been formed; others said that if we did it quick enough it might have slowed down the development of bubbles.
Third, where did all those bubbles all around me come from?? Okay, so the air in my BCD must have been higher than the vent valve so it couldn't vent from there...I get that. But it was as if my BCD suddenly started free-flowing...from where? The moment I broke the surface it stopped and I was immediately able to vent, empty my lungs and descend, but I still have no clue where all those bubbles came from in the first place.
One thing I will say that I already learned from this incident is that I didn't panic...I knew something was going very wrong, but rather than feel fear (which I recall thinking would be useless!) my mind immediately went to my training, and tried to scroll through what I'd learned. I do hope that's an indication that I'll behave the same way if I encounter an emergency again.
I'd appreciate any input, so I can learn from this. Naturally I know better now than to try to vent my BCD from the deflation hose when I'm upside down!
Thanks,
LeeAnne