Worst Mishap

[kanonfodr]

During my Essentials class I was inflating a SMB and when I replaced my regulator in my mouth, I had exhaled so much that I didn't have the air in my lungs to clear the reg. Ended up choking on 56*f water, and going through both my primary and backup before I signaled OOG to my instructor and I managed a breath off of his reg. Took a few more to calm down and then got back onto my gas.

Looking back I'm pretty proud of myself for not freaking out, but the thought of just going to the surface was definitely in the forefront if my instructor's reg didn't get me breathing again. It wouldn't have been bad, we were only at 25 feet, but it still did click with me that even the mundane stuff can put you in a bad situation. If I had been at 100 feet with a deco obligation or in an overhead, I could die from that.

Peace,
Greg

 

[Bubbletrubble]

During my Essentials class I was inflating a SMB and when I replaced my regulator in my mouth, I had exhaled so much that I didn't have the air in my lungs to clear the reg. Ended up choking on 56*f water, and going through both my primary and backup before I signaled OOG to my instructor and I managed a breath off of his reg.

@kanonfodr: Am I missing something here? Couldn't you have simply pushed the purge button on your reg to clear it?

 

[Leejnd]

My worst experience actually happened at the surface. I was in the Galapagos, and using rental gear. We were doing a drift dive in a volcanic crater that had a very rough, washing-machine surface, so at the end of the dive we had to keep our regs in our mouths as we waited for the boat to swing over to pick us up. I'd been given a defective BC - something popped somewhere and the damn thing wouldn't inflate. I was getting hit in the face with waves and finning hard to stay on the surface, and ended up using up what was left in my tank by trying to inflate my BC, which wouldn't hold air so I was having trouble staying afloat. I was about to ditch my weight belt, but looked down and saw several divers below me doing their safety stops so I was afraid it would hit one of them, so I hesitated. At that moment I ran OUT of air - and that is NOT a feeling I want to experience again, sucking on the reg and getting nothing, with 4-ft waves hitting me in the face! Fortunately a DM nearby saw me struggling and happened to stick his octo in my face just at the moment I was about to go ahead and ditch my belt, so I stuck that in my mouth and held onto him to stay afloat until the boat arrived.

Surprisingly, as bad as sucking on that empty reg felt, I never felt any panic...my mind just started running through all the things I should be doing, and trying to think two steps ahead. I'd like to think that's indicative of how I would react in any diving emergency. I've had a couple of mildly surprising things happen at depth, and in those cases too I recall that I immediately started thinking about my training.

 

[Saudi-Diver]

My worst experience was in the Farisan Banks region of the Red Sea, we had just come up from a dive on a sea mount. I had changed out of my 3mm wetsuit in to a tee shirt. When the boat skipper announces the anchor is stuck, so I grab my fins, mask, snorkel and weight belt dive down and free the anchor about 3m. I surface to watch the boat drifting downwind faster than I can swim back to it with no engines running and no one seeming to care they were one less person on board. It suddenly made me realize how vulnerable I was bobbing about in the middle of the Red Sea with no land in sight, I was just about to ditch my weight belt when the boat started motoring towards me. They had fouled a prop with the anchor rope, not forgotten about me!

 

[Code Monkey]

Mindlessly followed a dive master *with* the current to a pinnacle at something like 70'. Hung out there, enraptured, watching 8 bull sharks circling until I had about 10 minutes of bottom time and about 1800 lbs of air. I thought I was golden. While heading back to the boat, however, I realized just how much air I suck down when swimming against the current. I breathed my tank down to something like 100-200 lbs. Yikes!

In the future, I will pay very close attention when I have no choice but to ride the current away from the entry point.

 

[kanonfodr]

@kanonfodr: Am I missing something here? Couldn't you have simply pushed the purge button on your reg to clear it?

I had not learned of that trick yet, and I'm pretty sure that I had a bit of water in my windpipe as well .

Peace,
Greg

 

[j.doe]

3 times have I felt that things were spiraling into the danger zone.

The first was one an early spring dive in one of the local lakes. The water was very very cold, but there was no ice so I did not really think of the freezing factor. Anyways at 60' after a large portion of the dive was already completed my reg froze open. It really took me off gaurd and I was able to watch the pressure visibly drop on my tank. After sipping what was left, on the imediate asccent. My wife and I (my dive buddy) ended the dive and I buddy breathed through the safety stop. It was a dumb mistake not to have a backup... My fault, and thank goodness she had enough air for the safety stop.

Second was again in the late late fall (ice was going to come that weekend or the next) and was not so much scuba diving related. I was on shore and witnessed a guy in a wind surfer who was not doing well. He had given up trying to lift the sail and instead was sitting on the wind surfer waiting for hypothermia to set in. The waves were roughly 3 to 4' high. Next thing I see is the guys dad (300lbs plus) paddling out without a life jaket in an already half sunk canoe. Ok so now the lifegaurd in me kicked in. I jumped in the boat with my dad and we drove out to lend aid. As we closed in the dad had already sunk his canoe, and was half under. Jumped in and hauled his ass onto the boat. Then again hoped in to pull the son from the wind surfer. By the time we got to shore I had hypothermia so bad I had quit shivering, and the other two were almost unconcious. Too close for comfort as I was almost part of the problem. The worst part is that neither thanked me or even realized how close to dead they were.

Last was spear fishing, when I was first starting out only the biggest fish would do. Anyways I ended up spearing a really really nice one (30 ish lbs). I hit it near the tail and it went CRAZY. I instinctively grabbed the line and it proceeded to rapidly swim in circles around me. THe line became wrapped again and again around me, pinning my arms. Thank goodness I kept calm and my bouancy under control. Had I lost it then it would have been BAD. My wife grabbed her dive knife and cut me out of the line. Too close for comfort, and she teased me for a month about the look I had on my face.

 

[on_two_wheels]

I had not learned of that trick yet, and I'm pretty sure that I had a bit of water in my windpipe as well .

Peace,
Greg

So you had been taught or were learning SMB deployments prior learning the basics of purging a regulator? Would your Essentials instructor support that claim? If so, I'll never go that route, nor recommend it.

 

[tstormdiver]

I had not learned of that trick yet, and I'm pretty sure that I had a bit of water in my windpipe as well .

Peace,
Greg

Odd,..... using the purge button to clear a regulator should have been covered in some of your first sessions in your Open Water Diver course.

 

[kanonfodr]

Re: Purging regulator. Yes, I purged it in the water, I thought Bubbletrouble was referring to where you purge the regulator while it's in your mouth, if you find you are having trouble breathing off a reg. And while I was taught similar techniques in my training, nothing of the sort came to mind during this little incident.

My problem was that as I inflated my SMB I didn't leave enough air in my lungs to fully purge the reg, so I got a nice mouthful of 56*f seawater when I inhaled and, of course, a bit of it went down the wrong tube. So there I was, in 25 feet down, choking on ice water.

I hope this clears up the confusion.

Peace,
Greg