On our recent trip to Cozumel I had an interesting experience. On our second day of diving I had an issue with my regulator. The regulator, which consists of multiple parts, is what enables you to breathe underwater. Pretty important.
First a little background.
Up until a few years ago I had never gotten sea sick, but it seems that once I started diving, smaller boats seem to make me a little nauseous. Specifically during surface intervals (SI) (the time on the surface between dives to allow an excess nitrogen release from your body). SI’s are generally spent sitting on a boat or on the way to the next dive site which can be brutal. I’ve spent a few feeding the fish. I’ve tried everything, ginger pills, bonine, etc. but this time I had a prescription for the motion sickness patch you put behind your ear. I got the prescription last summer and tried the patch a few days while at home to make sure it didn’t have any weird effect and it seemed fine. The first day diving in Cozumel I was fine without the patch, the sea was calm and the boat we were on was fairly large. The second day was calling for choppy seas so the night before I put the patch on. In the middle of the night I woke up a little dizzy, the patch was making me feel a little disoriented and nauseous. I know… isn’t it suppose to prevent that? Being a recovering alcoholic, I’m really, really, really careful about taking any medication and never take anything that makes me feel “different.” I don’t like feeling different, I like having a clear head and connected spiritually. So when I woke up a little disoriented I immediately took the patch off.
Upon waking to go diving around 7:30 a.m., I was still a little “off” but after breakfast and a little coffee I was fine. We got on the boat and headed out to the first dive which was scheduled for around 80ft. When traveling, the only SCUBA equipment we bring are our wetsuits, fins, and masks. We rent the rest (BCD and regulators), tanks and weights are always included as part of the dive packages. So basically we rent the most crucial part of breathing under water, the regulator. This is fairly common since carrying all this stuff while traveling can be a pain and most dive shops are good about changing out their equipment and have them serviced regularly. Once on the dive boat, you connect all your gear, turn on your air, put the regulator in your mouth and make sure you can get air out of it. That’s about all you really know at this point about your regulator, that air does come out of it.
For some reason on this trip I decided to wear a 5mm full wetsuit, which is pretty thick for tropical waters, but I don’t like getting cold. The thicker and newer the wetsuit, the more positively buoyant you are thus the more weight you need to descend. I was pretty sure I had enough weight (18 lbs), which worked the day before. So… I (along with the other 6 divers and my wife) get all our gear on and giant stride of the back of the boat into the ocean one after another like penguins. Everyone begins to descend as I’m clearing out and refitting my mask. I release the air from my BC and begin to descend… maybe. I’m not descending as quickly as usual… maybe I don’t have enough weight. No big deal, I’ll just invert a little and kick my way down. As I begin to invert and get farther submerged I notice my regulator isn’t breathing that easily, actually it feels as if there’s a kink in it. I breath a little harder and continue to invert and start kicking. As I do, being almost upside down causes some water to come into my regulator and I sort of choke on it.
OK, this totally freaks me out and I immediately surface. Meanwhile all the other divers are now at about 15 – 20 feet while the dive master (DM) is hanging out to make sure I’m OK. On the surface I explain that my regulator is breathing “funny” as I’m coughing and switching over to my octopus (secondary air source). I’m sort of embarrassed. The DM says OK and begins to descend down to catch up with the other divers. Still coughing I look over at the dive boat floating about 30 feet away as the captain stairs down at me from a rocking boat and asks if everything is OK. I say or motion something like, “I’m not sure.” I think about getting back on the boat and calling it quits. I’m also thinking I feel a little disoriented because of the patch but I’m not sure. I realize that if I do get sick, I’ll be sitting on the boat for the next 45 minutes while the other divers finish their dive. That doesn’t sound attractive either. I’ve learned from experience, that the sooner you get submerged and relax the sickness and nausea will usually go away. All this is going through my head as I reposition my mask and test breathing out of my octopus. Seems to be breathing OK… let’s try this again.
This time I ascend using my octopus as my primary air source and hold onto it with my hand as I invert and begin kicking. My breathing is quickening as the anxiety is still in my head and I’m questioning whether or not I can do this. I’m still close enough to the surface and every part of my body is saying, “Go up, not down!” Besides freaking out, I’m beating myself up for freaking out, I can do this! I remind myself that I have air, everything is alright, just keep kicking. The farther I get from the surface the more I realize that if I get past a certain depth, there’s no going back. I look at my dive computer, 20 feet… keep breathing. What is it… the NDL (No Decompression Limit)? OH yeah, well since this is my first dive of the day, 60 feet is the maximum no decompression depth I can get to and still do an emergency ascent without exploding my lungs… at least that’s what I’m telling myself. I should have refreshed my dive knowledge on the plane down here. I see my wife with her fingers in the OK sign, asking me if I’m OK. I sign back, “I’m OK” although I’m only partly sure. This dive is to a maximum of 80 feet so I know I’ll be past 60 feet for a while. I look at my dive watch, 45 feet. I can see all the other divers now towards the bottom and what a beautiful view. God the ocean is so beautiful. Oh yeah, I’m 50 feet underwater and I’m breathing. That’s right, I’m breathing. I have air coming through this hose and into my lungs. I check my air gauge, 2800 PSI, I have plenty of air. I can breath and wow, look at all the fish. 60 feet and the current is starting to take me and I’m catching up to the other divers. I reach my right hand back behind my right hip and feel for the air dump that’s usually found on most BCD’s. Ahh, there it is; I pull it hard to make sure I’ve gotten all the air out of my BCD to help me continue descending. I still have the regulator in my hand holding it firm in my mouth. I think about maybe switching back to my primary and run through the procedure in my mind; take a breath, pull the octopus out of my mouth remembering to slowly blow bubbles while switching regulators (you never hold your breathe while diving, you’re lungs can expand and it’s not good), put the primary in my mouth, purge it, exhale any air left in my lungs and breathe. Wait… this one has air and I’m doing fine, you might inhale some water and you’re just now recovering from freak mode. Leave it alone.
Once I reached about 75 feet and stabilized my buoyancy I began to relax. I knew I was down here for the long-haul now and needed to get a control on my breathing to conserve air. I’m an air-head anyway and am sure my anxiousness used up more than usual on the descent. I don’t want to be the first one low on air, again. So I relax and tell myself I’m OK, that I have air (2500 PSI), and to just breathe normally and let the current do the work. God this is beautiful. I have air, I’m OK.
The dive ended fine and I didn’t have any issues the rest of the week.
Many times in my life I go back to the first days of recovery and remind myself that in any given moment, everything is OK. When life get’s crazy or seemingly too much to handle, sometimes all I can do is stop and remind myself to breathe. I have air and everything is OK. That right now, in this moment, everything is fine.
Although I’m thinking about purchasing my own regulator.
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
Glad it all worked out! The in-the-moment advice at the end is so true, not only for recovering from something but when we’re going through any tough spot — financial, personal, work-related, whatever. Don’t get stuck in the past or fast-forward attempting to work out tomorrow’s/next week’s/next month’s details. Deal with the current moment. Breathe. Give thanks.
Emily-Sarah,
Thanks for the comments. Reminds me of a great quote:
“We crucify ourselves between two thieves: regret for yesterday and fear of tomorrow.”
-Fulton Oursler
“Just breathe” is one of the most important mantras you can remember while diving.
One of my old instructors taught me “If you can still breathe, you’re alive, and that’s a good thing.” If you feel yourself approaching that edge of panic, focus on your breathing. Counting to yourself helps: in-two-three, out-two-three-four-five-six…… Force yourself to concentrate on the rhythm of your breathing cycle. Concentrate on the fact that air is in fact being delivered with every inhalation. Listen to your bubbles. Slow it down. Relax.
Freak out moments do occasionally happen in scuba. I encountered my first when I was at about the same experience level as you, Jared, and it wasn’t my last. Don’t berate yourself over it; after all, we ARE going several stories underwater on a life support unit! Instead, think about what led up to the event, how you reacted and what you could do differently, and then practice. Take some time in the shallows to rehearse an out-of-air emergency with your buddy. If a flooded mask bothers you, run through it a few times in a confined water area. The more you work on it, the more you will replace the instinctual “fight or flight” with premeditated training.
Speaking of meditation, your reference to baseball is a great comparison. I was a highly ranked competitive swimmer for most of my youth and had to rely on meditation techniques to ‘clear my mind’ before my events (with variable results– I would often vomit my guts out just before a race due to nervousness). Scuba diving is an incredibly mental sport. Before a dive, I’ll often sit on the boat with the regulator in my mouth, close my eyes, and practice my breathing rate. If it’s not too choppy, I’ll do this on the surface with my face in the water, triggering the mammalian reflex to lower my heart rate. Competitive free divers (breath-hold diving) use a myriad of meditation techniques to physically lower their need for oxygen.
Remember: long exhalation cycles eliminates carbon dioxide— the toxin that triggers your diaphragm to breathe— from your system, helping your relax, conserve air, and maintain better buoyancy control.
A few notes I’d like to make from your dive log in Just Breathe. When descending, especially when feeling queasy, try to drop down in a heads-up position. Sure, you’ll go down a bit slower, but this can be accelerated by negatively breathing (having very long exhalations). The benefits are that it will help you maintain your orientation (thus avoiding vertigo), allow you to make more fine-tuned adjustments to buoyancy, and (most importantly) assist your regulator with breathing.
Most rental regulators have an unbalanced second stage (the part you put your mouth on) that become more difficult to breathe from when in an inverted position. Combining an inverted position with the over-breathing that typically accompanies the start of a dive (when you are the most nervous) and you are likely to experience a slight ‘choking’ sensation on unbalanced second stages. Descending in a heads-up position will help alleviate this. When you go to purchase your own regulator, you’ll probably want to purchase a balanced second stage with a venturri assist valve; my Aqualung Legend regulator has this feature which helps me with doing heads-first descents as well as hovering upside-down when I want to snap a cool picture or drop into a canyon.
Regarding your concerns about going deep, you should only go as deep as the comfort level and training of both you and your buddy permits. You guys are more than just a team exploring the beautiful underwater realm; you’re also each other’s back-up life support! You should never be so far apart that in the unlikely event of an out-of-air emergency you can quickly reach your buddy’s alternate air source. And never, never, never let your buddy talk you going deeper than you feel comfortable; besides being an example of peer-pressure gone wrong, you also have to adjust for increased air consumption, decreased no-decompression time, and nitrogen narcosis. I strongly advise people to take an Advanced Open Water course to learn more about how to safely plan and execute deeper dives. Remember, 100ft is the wrong place to solve a novel problem!
You asked:
The maximum depth for an experienced recreational diver is 130ft. Most people set their maximum at 100ft unless there’s a specific reason to be going deeper. If you’re new to the game, 60-80ft is quite reasonable. No-deco times drop-off exponentially with depth. For a first dive of the day, you can get 2 hours 20 minutes at 40ft, 55 minutes at 60ft, 30 minutes at 80ft, 20 minutes at 100ft, and a measly 10 minutes at 130ft. Repetitive dives cut into this allowable maximum bottom time. A live-saving mantra in diving is “Plan the dive, dive the plan.” Use the recreational dive planner to plan your dive in advance with your dive buddy, then follow it strictly, only making adjustments on the side of increased conservatism. Oh, and get a dive computer. I can’t recommend this piece of gear enough; it really changes the way you dive and keeps you significantly safer when used properly.
The deepest you can do an uncontrolled emergency ascent without killing yourself? It’s not a pretty answer: there are reports of divers dying as shallow as five feet by doing an uncontrolled breath-held ascent due to an embolism. The key word is “uncontrolled.” You should never have to do an uncontrolled ascent. Stick close enough to your buddy to grab her alternate air source should something go wrong! If for some reason you’re not close enough, do a Controlled Emergency Swimming Ascent (CESA) by swimming at a controlled rate towards the surface (sixty feet per minute max) while making an “AHHHH” sound the entire way to vent off expanding air. Open Water divers are required to do this from 20ft down as part of their course. I’ve personally done it from 50ft as part of a training exercise and Navy divers are purported trained to do it from 100ft. The control is crucial, as it gives time for air to safely leave your lungs. Remember, at a mere 33ft your lungs are holding twice the amount of air as they would on the surface.
Both the alternate air source and CESA are skills that you should take the time to refresh if it’s been more than a few months since your last dive. Better to have the skills sharp in your repertoire than try to figure them out in a panic!
Keep diving and breathing!
Scubageek,
Awesome comment! Thanks for taking the time to stop by here and answer a few questions I left over on your blog!
I do remember all the skills from class, and it’s something we’ve practiced several times in our LDS’s pool before a dive trip. Mask removal, CESA, always remembering to blow bubbles while ascending, sharing air and our signals. I’m with you, I want it to be second nature if something does go wrong and we really want to take the advanced course someday. When funds and time permits! I do have a dive computer, which I love and watch it carefully. The long exhalation pointer is great! I think that’s actually “sort of” what I was doing on this dive. Just really concentrating on my breathing and taking nice long breaths and exhalations… and like you said, it helps the descent and buoyancy. It’s nice to know the freak out moments don’t necessarily mean I’m a wuss… or at least it’s nice to hear a “keep your head up little camper” from an extremely experienced diver. Thanks.
Thanks again for all your suggestions and hopefully we’ll get to Roatan someday!