What happened? Was it narcosis?

[Redmachine]

Hi,

New poster and diver so be gentle!

Got resort certified last week (ow) and did my 7th dive today. I was really enjoying the dive and our group had stopped to obseved a lion fish. I was comfortably above my group and down about 50feet when I lost it. Suddenly a felt like I was floating up to the surface and my head was being crushed! My breathing went faster and faster and really started to panic. I managed to flip my body and get my head down and was kicking like crazy to get down, I wrapped a hand around my buddys tank and pulled myself level and then started to breathe real heavy and slow things down again. My heart was beating so hard I though it was going to bust out of my chest! After 30 seconds or so I calmed right down and enjoyed the rest of the dive.

As we made our way back up at about 30ft a real strong current hit and I had a brief repeat of the sensation but managed to get control back much quicker.

So what happened? I honestly felt real happy before the incident and it seemed to come from nowhere?

Any ideas?

 

[divenutny]

Redmachine - The good part is, you did not get hurt. My guess, this was a panic attack. 50 ft is not deep enough for narcosis. Were you breathing normally? Was the vis bad? Maybe your buddy noticed something? If you were breathing slower than you typically do, you might have caused CO2 build-up.

Since you had two attacks on one dive, maybe you should avoid diving. Panic and diving do not mix well. A panicing diver will make mistakes, sometimes big mistakes, hurting themselves or their buddies. You have to review what happened, get your buddies feedback also. Maybe working on your skills will solve this.

Good luck. Hope you can figure what the cause is and solve it. - Tom

 

[Anti-Hero]

Sounds more like a CO2 hit. Rapid breathing, anxiety, rapid heartbeat, headache - All classic symptoms of elevated CO2.

 

[heavyjeffd]

Sounds more like a CO2 hit. Rapid breathing, anxiety, rapid heartbeat, headache - All classic symptoms of elevated CO2.

I was going to say, sounds like improper breathing leading to not clearing dead air spaces and ending up with a lack of oxygen, then when calming down and taking deep breathes you cleared those air spaces and got some O2.

How were you breathing? Were you taking long, steady breaths or were you breathing rapid/shallow breaths?

It makes a bigger difference the deeper you go.

Be safe, sir.

 

[Redmachine]

Thanks for the replies guys. Although I have been a bit of a heavy breather during my cert training I feel like in getting better. I have been trying to concentrate on breathing easier so maybe I'm over doing it. The whole incident was a bit
odd like I said because I was really enjoying the dive and then it just hit me? I certainy don't want to be quitting diving because I love it! The CO2 sounds plausible, the current was as fairly strong and maybe and need more work on my breathing/kicking.

 

[TSandM]

I don't think you had a panic attack. I think you lost buoyancy control for some reason. It may have been an upcurrent, or maybe you just got distracted and lost track of the fact that you were getting a bit shallow. Once you are headed up, it's very scary, and the fact that you got it stopped and were able to continue the dive is good.

 

[jridg]

I don't think you had a panic attack. I think you lost buoyancy control for some reason. It may have been an upcurrent, or maybe you just got distracted and lost track of the fact that you were getting a bit shallow. Once you are headed up, it's very scary, and the fact that you got it stopped and were able to continue the dive is good.

+1

You might want to do some more shallow dives and really work on buoyancy control. Then, after a few more, enroll in a peak performance buoyancy course. You only have a few dives right now, a few more will allow you to learn exactly how the gear and you will react as you are diving.

 

[openmindOW]

You might want to do some more shallow dives and really work on buoyancy control. Then, after a few more, enroll in a peak performance buoyancy course.

Redmachine, thank you for posting here on ScubaBoard.

The above advice is reasonable.

Keep diving, Redmachince.

 

[sockeye02]

Just wondering: How is it possible to have a CO2 hit in an open circuit system when relaxing and viewing the surroundings? After all, even if the diver was breath holding (for 1 min?!), the urge to breathe would have taken over long before the hyperventilation phase takes over to blow off CO2.

 

[Doteedo]

sockeye: shallow breathing could lead to this easily (and is quite possible even if you are relaxed, especially if you are busy watching the cool stuff). As I understand it, there is some "dead air" left in your airways if you don't fully exhale or breathe shallow causing you to breath back in this old air with next breath. It can lead to co2 build-up after a while as you don't get as much of o2 as you should. Somehow I think the effect of shallow breathing is stronger under water than at the surface (please correct me if my perception is wrong).