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Guest
Dear fellow divers,
I recently experienced an uncontrolled ascent from 55 feet. Of course it was a very negative experience. I want to prevent that from ever happening again.
I am still a new diver. Only 15 dives so far. In general I have had pretty good buoyance control for a new diver. At the worst I had to just fin a little bit to stay neutral occasionally but I always felt in control. My dive buddy is also a new diver and I was always the one helping her stop from ascending uncontrollably. I was extremely disappointed in myself when this happened. Of course the main thing is the fact that medically it could have been a lot of trouble. But more than that I just felt like I was a responsible diver that was doing well for being so new.
We descended to about 40 feet initially. The total bottom time was about 33 minutes. We swam more slowly deeper and hung out mostly at about 60 feet. I couple of times we dipped down to around 77 feet from there. Finally we decided to turn around and swim back slowly so that we could decompress slowly. We swam out of the canyon and prepared to swim back along the bottom.
Somehow swimming out of the canyon I just remember at one second looking at the rippled bottom then the next I was ascending -- from about 55 feet. I tried to dump air quickly but I kept rising and could not dump fast enough. I was accelerating and started to feel nervous and uncomfortable. I could not slow it so I knew at least I had better keep breathing. I did so but as I got very near the surface the speed of the ascent knocked my second stage out. The last 10 feet I think I had no reg in my mouth but I remember still that I knew I had to breath to avoid lung overpressure so I think I must have just been exhaling in bursts.
Then I popped up at the surface. Stunned. I collected myself as quickly as I could. I realized that my lungs and chest felt ok. My buddy, who is less comfortable below than I am (as I said, usually I have been helping her -- despite how this story sounds I was always careful before and tried not to push limits). Since she hadn't come up, and since I was worried about bends I swam back down following her trail of bubbles. I found her at 50 feet and we swam back slowly at the bottom. At some point I let her ascend (maybe at 15 feet or so, but I kept going back slowly at the bottom). She had a lot of air left, and I was getting near to the end of my limit (not too much over 500 psi) so as we swam slowly at the bottom I used her octo. Then I just let myself go to 400 so I could decompress a bit longer then I ascended at 9 or 10 feet.
I was really worried and so disappointed in myself. I don't want it to happen again so I am laying my story out for you. I know I made mistakes but I am still here to learn from them. I just do not understand how I began the ascent in the first place. I didn't add air, and I shouldn't have just started going up that fast. Usually if I am slightly positive I have had no problem dumping a little air. I think it could be that I just looked up for a second, the viz wasn't too great, and I just lost my frame of reference with the bottom. I cannot think of anything else.
Could you please give me advice? I am serious about diving and I love it and want to be the best diver that I can be.
Thank you so much in advance.
--L
p.s. I called DAN and everything and it has been a week now so I am ok.
I recently experienced an uncontrolled ascent from 55 feet. Of course it was a very negative experience. I want to prevent that from ever happening again.
I am still a new diver. Only 15 dives so far. In general I have had pretty good buoyance control for a new diver. At the worst I had to just fin a little bit to stay neutral occasionally but I always felt in control. My dive buddy is also a new diver and I was always the one helping her stop from ascending uncontrollably. I was extremely disappointed in myself when this happened. Of course the main thing is the fact that medically it could have been a lot of trouble. But more than that I just felt like I was a responsible diver that was doing well for being so new.
We descended to about 40 feet initially. The total bottom time was about 33 minutes. We swam more slowly deeper and hung out mostly at about 60 feet. I couple of times we dipped down to around 77 feet from there. Finally we decided to turn around and swim back slowly so that we could decompress slowly. We swam out of the canyon and prepared to swim back along the bottom.
Somehow swimming out of the canyon I just remember at one second looking at the rippled bottom then the next I was ascending -- from about 55 feet. I tried to dump air quickly but I kept rising and could not dump fast enough. I was accelerating and started to feel nervous and uncomfortable. I could not slow it so I knew at least I had better keep breathing. I did so but as I got very near the surface the speed of the ascent knocked my second stage out. The last 10 feet I think I had no reg in my mouth but I remember still that I knew I had to breath to avoid lung overpressure so I think I must have just been exhaling in bursts.
Then I popped up at the surface. Stunned. I collected myself as quickly as I could. I realized that my lungs and chest felt ok. My buddy, who is less comfortable below than I am (as I said, usually I have been helping her -- despite how this story sounds I was always careful before and tried not to push limits). Since she hadn't come up, and since I was worried about bends I swam back down following her trail of bubbles. I found her at 50 feet and we swam back slowly at the bottom. At some point I let her ascend (maybe at 15 feet or so, but I kept going back slowly at the bottom). She had a lot of air left, and I was getting near to the end of my limit (not too much over 500 psi) so as we swam slowly at the bottom I used her octo. Then I just let myself go to 400 so I could decompress a bit longer then I ascended at 9 or 10 feet.
I was really worried and so disappointed in myself. I don't want it to happen again so I am laying my story out for you. I know I made mistakes but I am still here to learn from them. I just do not understand how I began the ascent in the first place. I didn't add air, and I shouldn't have just started going up that fast. Usually if I am slightly positive I have had no problem dumping a little air. I think it could be that I just looked up for a second, the viz wasn't too great, and I just lost my frame of reference with the bottom. I cannot think of anything else.
Could you please give me advice? I am serious about diving and I love it and want to be the best diver that I can be.
Thank you so much in advance.
--L
p.s. I called DAN and everything and it has been a week now so I am ok.