Spatial Disorientation

[Remy B.]

I'm posting here in Solo, because I believe that it is probably a lot more dangerous and specially with deep bottoms.

Any light on this, is their any way to confront this, I guess night diving been the worse, referencing to Aircraft articles the best is to watch your instruments but this is not always guaranty that it will get to your brain to realize where you are, it suppose to be one of the big killers of pilots, I was wondering if this can also be the case in diving and it may be pointed wrong only to Nitrogen narcosis, can this maybe likely to be a deathly combination of both???

What is your opinion?

 

[Lorenzoid]

I am not a solo diver, but on about 50% of night dives I experience vertigo at some point. I assume it's due to spatial disorientation--lack of a visual reference. My dive buddy knows this happens often to me and watches out for me. I just stop for a minute and wait until it goes away. I doubt it's dangerous, so long as I handle it calmly and don't freak out. The first time it happened, it stressed me quite a bit since I didn't know what was going on. For all I knew, I was about to pass out.

 

[Basking Ridge Diver]

Where are you night diving that you are concerned about this? From a boat using an anchor line or free descents? From the shore following the contour of the bottom?

I have never had spatial issues on solo or non-solo diving - at night or during the day - on low viz less than a foot or two visibility. So I may not be a good sampling - but to me you see your bubbles and always know which way is up. If you are not prone to this issue - I dont see how it becomes a bigger issue when doing a solo dive.

Pilots may have an issue with this because they run out of altitude before they get it figured out - but this again is an experience issue and an instrument issue. Either way - if you are not comfortable with any aspect of your diving - you should not be doing a Solo Dive - IMO.

 

[tomfcrist]

Without a solid visual reference, spatial disorientation can become a problem for anyone. Depending on the depth of the water, if you are lacing an anchor line it is possible to have issues with it even in 100'vis in broad daylight. Some folks are better at rationalizing their surroundings than others...for instance I have no issue determining which way is up or down, but find it impossible to know which direction I'm facing without some sort of visual reference. Luckily direction doesn't really matter when you are doing drift deco from a live boat...as long as you can still hear the engines...you are doing ok.

 

[Kharon]

I work doing Eurasian Milfoil remediation during the summer. When working there is zero vis. - not even 6 inches. I always know which end is up without consulting my bubbles. I wonder if the OP might be talking about losing track of their position in the water column.

I find that in a situation with no external clues, where you can't see anything other than water in every direction, the only way to keep track of depth is by consulting your guage/computer - at least for me. If I can see anything at all (bottom, surface, wall, line, etc.) It's not a problem to maintain a depth or ascend/descend as you want. So, bottom line, you have to pay attention to something - external reference or guage/computer.

As far as solo or with a "buddy" - I think it's easier alone. I've followed too many buddies (and DM's/Instructors for that matter) thinking that since we discussed the dive plan and they were leading I just had to stay with them. I learned very quickly not to do that. I am solely responsible for my dive and coming back alive.

 

[Basking Ridge Diver]

So maybe I was too literal - Spatial disorientation, spatial unawareness is the inability of a person to correctly determine his/her body position in space.

If we are talking about not having a compass and being unsure of which direction on the compass heading to go - sure that has happened to me. But in general I can not imagine being in an inverted position (which I have done on purpose to look under ledges) and not knowing that was my body position in the water column.

 

[Remy B.]

I just was asking since I watch a program regarding Spatial disorientation it was actually and Airplane accident but I associated that it may as well be possible for divers, sure enough I was searching in internet and it does happen to Divers as well.

So far I have not had any problem determine up or down, as well as night diving without light, but who knows it may hit you and you want to know what will be the best approach, specially considering Solo diving.

With a buddy I don't see much of the problem as he may smack you so you recover your bearings, but I share as well the point of Kharon, you follow your DM/Guide/Instructor and he gets hit with spatial disorientation and you follow him to the deep, not a likely scenario but may as well not be impossible.

When I did the compass/bearing orientation in my AOW dive, we went in to the blue about 10m deep, there I didn't like the feeling of no reference except for the surface, blue down, blue on the left, blue on the right, blue up front, blue on the rear, sun light on the surface, I knew where was North, South etc, etc because I had the compass in my hand, but there I realize I need to see bottom or a wall or something I did not like that feeling for a second.

what I have seen is comments of divers wandering to the deep like disorientated, but they were blaming nitrogen narcosis, but then I see the depths where that happen and it seems that it was not likely but again everybody is different and one day narcosis hit you other days not, so it is hard to tell, since it is the most common of the two I guess it can be lightly been put to narcosis but what if it it was spatial disorientation or for very bad luck a combination of both.

 

[TSandM]

I know this is the solo forum, but I'm going to post because I have had a TON of personal experience with this. I am extremely prone to vertigo and disorientation underwater. I did many of my early ascents thinking I was doing somersaults, which I wasn't; I have also had the eerie experience on many occasions of looking at something and suddenly realizing that the thing I'm looking at isn't horizontal, it's vertical, and I'M the one who is completely out of position.

I've found the solution comes in two pieces. First, acquire a visual reference. Since we are talking about solo diving here, learn to shoot a bag, so you can use the line on the bag as a reference. This is MUCH better than just staring at your gauge. In addition, most water contains enough particulates that you can watch them. They will give you information about your movement, because they generally aren't moving up and down.

Second, use every bit of information you can get from your body and your gear. To do the lights-out work in cave class, I had to learn to feel exactly how my bubbles were going up both sides of my face, and orient myself so that they were even and not going up my forehead or down my body. I had to learn to feel the pressure of my equipment on my back, and in a dry suit, I monitor the state of my feet to give me information about my orientation on a vertical/horizontal axis. All of this requires a fair amount of situational awareness, because you have to acquire and evaluate a lot of data, while still remaining aware of your environment. I simply couldn't do it when I was new.

Edited to add: Another critical component is learning to be still and stable where you DO have a visual reference. If you can trust that, if you were horizontal a minute ago and you haven't moved, you're still horizontal, it helps a LOT.

 

[Basking Ridge Diver]

Good point Remy - only once when I swam away from a wall in Grand Cayman did I get that feeling - but more like a Kracken is going to swallow me up is how it felt to me... I did enjoy being back on the wall...

TSandM - understood your point on vertigo which I have not experienced under water - it is a serious issue - I did not consider that point. I have heard if you puncture/rupture an eardrum underwater you may get the same sensation... So far I have been lucky.

 

[Remy B.]

Good point Remy - only once when I swam away from a wall in Grand Cayman did I get that feeling - but more like a Kracken is going to swallow me up is how it felt to me... I did enjoy being back on the wall...

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Yep, that was my feeling as well but with a Shark , even that there are no sharks on the south coast of Curacao, still I was feeling like Tiger shark bait, they have seen them on the North side, who knows they may one day come to the south side of the island to chew on tourists or divers.

A fisherman was on the north wall and some how he manage to fell in the water, he spend 3 hours in the water cut him self with the rocks then he became Tiger sharks meal, happen about 2 years ago, my instructor was send to recover the pieces left of him, with the surprise that the sharks still were lurking around, sorry for the off-topic but this is a remainder that the North coast is dangerous with currents taking you to open sea, sporadic sharks and battering you on the rocks, there had been casualties with all the ones mention.