What's the WORST dive you've ever had?

[bubbles]

I have heard the idea of a broken cd to reflect light before but am concerened that even an unbroken one might put a hole in a bcd. This idea of a boat leaving someone behind or not being able to relocate them greatly concerns me as there has been so many stories about such things.

I will post my worst dive later as I need to look at my log book to see exactly which site it was at. I also found my qualifying dives pretty cruelling - particularly as I had bad cramp in the sole of my foot due to badly fitting fins throughout!

[h2odragon1]

[QUOTE=rubber chicken;9880]Other things you might want to try,

those of us who may be 'follically challenged'
You seem to know me: have we met?
Yes I am!

[Tigerbeach]

I had a student that was on a skills check out dive in 20 feet on Oahu. The student was British, in his 40's, and a sheet metal worker.(Built like Arnold in his prime)
He flooded his mask, half way and panicked. Dropped his reg, and tried to dog paddle to the surface.

Lovely.

I stuffed the purged reg into his mouth, and got him breathing. I cleared his mask for him (bonus points if you non-Instructors know how) and grabbed him while trying to get a returned OK sign from him. He kept struggling, and slurping air, and signaling to ascend, so I began a safe ascent to the boat while holding onto his BC.
He got to the surface, spit out his reg, put his mask on his forehead, and passed out.

A fireman happened to be on board, he and I got the student on board and got him breathing. We raced to shore, and radioed ahead for an ambulance to meet us at the dock. The student spent the night in the hospital for observation, was released the next morning.
No decompression sickness. No air embolism. No emphysema.
He was fine...and didn't sue us either.

That was MY worst damn dive.

[Papa Bear]

Not as bad as his! I would say yours went well!

[rubber chicken]

....<snip>.. I cleared his mask for him (bonus points if you non-Instructors know how)...<snip>

.


I don't qualify for bonus points but how do you do this ?



My worst dive, ( well, probably not worst but it definitely got my pulse racing), was very similar.
Myself, as DM, the instructor and single student. An incredibly sweet, and incredibly petite 10 year old girl. We had found a lovely little site, good viz, clear sandy bottom, about 9m deep for her skills. Time for reg recovery. The instructor is in front of her and I am off to one side.
She performed the skill flawlessly until she got the reg back in her mouth, where, by virtue of being out of breath she used the purge button to clear it. No problem! except that the force of the air against her tongue and teeth pushed the reg back out of her mouth. ( we think that part of the problem was the size of the mouthpiece, being for adults, was slightly too large for her). At this point she dropped the reg and simply froze! Within a heartbeat, she had 2 occies presented to her and by unsignalled agreement, mine was forced into her face with the purge firmly depressed and the instructor began to rythmically punch her in the stomach as we both grabbed a shouler strap and finned to the surface. Within a minute, we had her back on the boat, dekitted and wrapped up in blankets. She was absolutely fine, apart from complaining of being cold and seemingly unaware of the near heart attack that she had induced in us both.
Once we had reassured ourselves of her well-being, we both looked at each other, simultaneously let out a long breath, went completely white and slumped down onto the bench where we sat, still fully kitted up, staring into space for the next 10 minutes until the skipper handed us a hot drink and told us to "embrace the suck!".

By no means the worst dive I've ever done, but still the one that occasionally wakes me up at night.

[Mountain Dog]

The more I read stories like those presented by Tigerbeach and Rubber Chicken, the more it confirms my resolve to stay out of instruction. After being on boats with scores of people who should be told to trade their regulators for golf clubs, I don't know how you guys do it without losing your taste for diving. Hats off to you for pulling the neophytes back from Darwin's grip.

Compared to these stories, my worst dive (a rental reg that blew a first stage seal at 60fsw) was a cakewalk.

Mountain Dog

[bottlefish]

My worst dive was in Plymouth, UK, last year. I was on the HSE (commercial) scuba course, doing the last dive of the course, the deep dive. Nothing too challenging, 30 metres down, hang around for 10 minutes and then head up to 5 metres, do a simulated deco stop off the bar and finish. It's a solo dive, you have to wear a harness with a tether to the surface and a full face (kirby morgan) band mask.

The instructor asked me to head down first, as one of the more experienced amongst the students, and lay a jack line out at the bottom. I headed down, but couldn't clear my ears - you're not able to pinch your nose in a band mask, you have to rely on a mechanical nose damn to close off your nose - mine wasn't sitting properly, and so wasn't creating a seal. After 5 minutes up and down the line, cursing away over the intercom, I eventually decided to remove the band mask and clear my ears the old fashioned way, with a good old nose pinch. Problem sorted, but patience levels deterioating..

I got to the bottom of the shot line and discovered that it wasn't laynig on the floor, so tied the jack off and headed away from the line to try and find it we were moored over a 45+ degree slope, the shot had drifted off and was hanging free. The shot had obviously been dragging at some stage, as I approached the bottom, vis turned to zero (the friendly instructor had deliberately chosen the worst spot in the bay for silt and deposits). A computer and torch 2 inches from my mask, and I still couldn't read the depth. I decided to move away from the cloudy area, keeping hopefully at the same depth, and then check once I was clear of the silt.

Patience reduced further as, despite my continued calls over the intercom, surface would not release any more of my tether line, I was therefore fighting them all the way out to get the jack laid flat, breathing went through the roof.

With the jack line finally laid and task therefore completed, I made my way back to the shot and started my ascent. Halfway up, I discovered the problems with the tether, I had obviously been slowly twisting as I moved up and down the shot line to clear my ears, my tether and the shot were neatly and completely twisted together.

I was sorely tempted to ditch the tether and intercom wire and head up the line free, but realised that I would be joined very quickly by the none to pleased safety diver if comms and rope signals were lost, so surface were treated to a few choice expressions as I finned my way around the shot a number of times to untwist the ropes, after which I finally crossed to the trapeze to complete my deco.

The rest of the team were none to keen to follow me in when the full face mask was removed to reveal a wet faced, growling and cursing, much less happy then usual Stu.

[Tigerbeach]

[I don't qualify for bonus points but how do you do this ?]

If you take your own reg and purge it with one hand, while tilting your students mask with your other hand, you will trap enough air to clear it.

With practice, you can get almost all of the water out.

[rubber chicken]

If you take your own reg and purge it with one hand, while tilting your students mask with your other hand, you will trap enough air to clear it.

With practice, you can get almost all of the water out.

Thanks TB, Combined with hands free mask clearing this gives me a few little things to practice during safety stops.


As to why do we do it, I can't speak for anyone else but the smile on somebodys face when they finally achieve a skill that has been giving them trouble or even the simple "thank you" at the end of the course is more than enough to get me looking forward to the next time.

[Tigerbeach]

Thanks TB, Combined with hands free mask clearing this gives me a few little things to practice during safety stops.


As to why do we do it, I can't speak for anyone else but the smile on somebodys face when they finally achieve a skill that has been giving them trouble or even the simple "thank you" at the end of the course is more than enough to get me looking forward to the next time.

I agree.
All I wanted to do is have people get half as excited as I was about diving.
To teach people how to play safely underwater.

As for your safety stops drills; take your mask off and hook a finger or 2 over your brow and exhale, making a mini mask...