Evansville Scuba Club

Mine was mask clearing. I am in no way putting down my instructor nor the agency I learned under, but I really wish I would have had to practice the skill over & over. Instead we were only required to demonstrate the skill once in the pool & once in open water. That is probably the 1 skill that gives new divers the most trouble. I was nowhere near comfortable doing that skill & guarded the mask on my face with my life. After some dives & practice down the road, it finally started to become comfortable to clear & then finally remove my mask. I STILL can not open my eyes underwater though.

I got shivers when we surface swam over the ledge from 6ft to 80 ft deep. Maybe I’m a little scared of heights?

I’d imagine it was probably buoyancy. I’ve got it pretty much under control now, but it did take awhile. Other than that it was probably paying attention to my instructor instead of the fish and cool stuff underwater!

One of my best friends dad ran a dive shop here locally. He bugged me for years to get certified and I always shrugged him off because I thought it was too expensive a hobby for me. I had always been interested in diving though. As a kid watching all the movies with cool diving scenes, I always thought that would be cool to do.

Finally in 2000, he had convinced me and since I had another close friend who was going to go through the training as well, I signed up. Enjoyed every bit of open water training so I immediately signed up for advanced open water. I finished all the classroom work but didn’t do the checkout dives. Life, as it often does, stepped in and I didn’t get a chance to dive again for many years.

Fast forward to 2006 and my soon to be wife and I are planning a honeymoon in the Bahamas. Needless to say, diving was immediately high on my list of things to do while there. Figured I’d take a refresher course and my wife signed up for training to see if she’d like it. She finished her training and we had some great dives there (thanks to Stuart Cove’s). When we got back we decided to continue our dive training and got active with this club.

While the economy has affected our diving recently, we plan on doing as much as we can. Our long term goal is to move south, near a coast line, buy a boat, and dive, dive, dive!

A buddy and I were going on a cruise. Figured that with all that water around, might as well see what’s in it. Then there was a Louisville dive shop modeling French cut wet suits – ooo-la-la! jolies demoiselles! Never did take the cruise, but kinda got hooked on scuba.

Good ”bad” story Tammy! Glad to hear everyone came up o.k. I don’t think redundancy would have worked, as you have to remember to switch regs, close off the FF first stage, or find your spare air. Each one has it’s own chance of a FF condition. Training and practice were what was lacking, from my Monday Afternoon Quarterback chair. Not to rant, I’ll simply point the the fact that you were front and center with a working reg that has a low probability of FF, and the reg wasn’t taken. Your training kicked in.
As a side note Tammy, how did you like time slooo-o-o-i–n—g d—–o——-w———n? I’ve been in a similar situation and was kicking myself in the butt for hesitancy. Two witnesses said I was there even before they knew there was a problem. Deco juice was great that night!

If you’re new and reading this, please take away that training and practice are paramount. Get that extra training and when you get a chance practice. Can you reach the first stage valve? If you are handed a reg from your buddy, do you know what to do afterwords? Do you know what it feels like to be tethered to a buddy? Wouldn’t it be neat to practice on your own time, rather than Murphy’s? The other take away is visualize what you would do if were in this situation. Also what would you have done in Tammy’s position?

Thanks Tammy for the story!

Take care all!!!
Steve

Good points, Steve. I did make mention that training on using the equipment is important as the equipment itself.

Yes, I do feel narcosis down there. I know exactly when I get to 85ft there. The cold seems to make the narcosis worse for me. In warm water, I can go past 100ft & barely feel it. It does slow my reactions some, but I have & am learning to deal with it & operate even with it.

During the ascent, however, it was very quick. We were on the bottom & the next thing I know, we’re approching 20 ft.

Good questions Steve, every diver should ask this. I can almost bet that a majority of divers do not know where their 1st stage valves are or can reach them. It took me quite a while to be able to do it in doubles. You are 100% correct you need the equipment, training & practice to perform in an emergency situation.

Good posts gang! That cold water narcosis should never be taken lightly. It can even affect you differently on different days. I’ve been down deep and did everything in my power to ward off a panic attack (or that’s what it felt like, even though I knew everything was fine) and as soon as I leveled off at like 45 feet, everything was fine. That’s when I realized it was narcosis playing with my head. The very same dive a few weeks later made me feel a little giddy and happy. Go figure!

Personally, I think some of the diving we do regularly around here is very technical in nature and yet we take it for granted. Having done almost all cold water quarry diving, when I finally dove in the Bahamas, it was a different animal (albeit a nice one!). 100+ vis, almost no thermocline, currents, man eating sharks (just kidding) and WARM water. It was very nice, but I easily lost track of my depth, so I had to make sure I was reminding myself to regularly check my depth.

Anyway, note to all local deep divers … make sure your regs can handle the cold!!

Jason

Wish I could Bryan. My gills are drying out. The only thing keeping me going is I have been doing a lot of pool sessions for OW, lately.

Anyone?

I plan on making it.

IMHO, when do you exceed your training/experience? When you feel uncomfortable in what you are doing, or where you are at. It is good to expand your experience, either through a formal class, or with with an experienced dive buddy…keep in mind the comment about your comfort. If it feels bad, it is. When is it dangerous, when someone says that if so and so can do it, I can too. Shouldn’t the ”I can do” be based off of your own experience and not someone else?

My 2 cents
Steve

Steve is right….. I dive my comfortable dive… I dive with Steve a lot and I’m not afraid to call a dive or to push back…. (not so deep). This is what the club is all about. Steve has too many dives beyond me to count, but I’m not afraid to call one short with him…. He may ask me why… and at that point I will discuss it with him. And thats whats it all about…. LEARNING… Im a newbee of sorts and have a lot of questions… some can’t be answered underwater! Thats why the club is here.

Great replies! I’m just trying to get some discussion going here. All points made are very valid. I believe that there must be a little (& I’m talking only a tiny bit) going beyond one’s comfort zone in order to expand your experience. Yes, there must be a limit to how far an individual should go before seeking the instruction of a professional to continue on. Mentoring is also another great avenue, but there should still be limitations of remaining within the comfort zone of both divers. My discussion come from the fact that there are some divers that can feel comfortable going well beyond their training or experience, usually due to ignorance of the consequences of their pursuits. I’ll admit, I’ve done this in the past & have learned well from it. I learned that is was too far beyond my current scope & to seek proper instruction for pursuits of such magnitude, & that instruction has taught me a healthy respect for those forms of diving. keep up the discussion!