Are you prepared for emergencies?

[sharkmanstudio]

if you want to get some practice with no mask breathing take a snorkel only onto the bath or pool and practice breathing with your face in the water it will train you how to breath through your mouth only whith is the biggest problem people have when there mask comes off.

[1BADREEF]

So this may be a dumb question as I am not a certified diver, but I plan to be soon. So what do you do if your are down 90' and you get water in your mask?

[billsreef]

Clearing your mask is as simple as placing your hand on the top of the mask, lightly pressing on it, tilting your head up, and exhaling through your nose. That will clear the water from your mask. It's also something the instructor will make you practice when you take your certification course

[murphysfish]

not a hardcore dive whereever the water is right now, mostly doing it for the reefs and vacations. but totally liking it right now will be certified by the first of next year

[Paul B]

I am not a certified diver, but I plan to be soon. So what do you do if your are down 90' and you get water in your mask

Bill is correct, but while diving you will probably always get a little water in your mask and will have to clear it often.
Unfortunately masks don't always fit our faces exactly and if you have a beard as I did for years when I started diving, you have to clear it on almost every breath.

[dougie]

the only thing i can say from experience, is make sure that your tank is as tight on your BCD as possible, dont get to excited about the dive and rush threw the setup.check and then check again. i did a dive after i first got cert, and really messed up by not checking my gear properly. my tank wasnt really tight on my BC and when i got to the bottom, lucky only about 10m, a current came through and my tank became loose and near fell off, this would have taken my regs with it,if i was in deep water and it had of fell, i would have been in alot of trouble.

[Fin Mike]

Always were a pony rig.

[dcombs44]

Agreed. One of my first dives in Mexico, we were rushed to get our gear together, and I didn't have a chance to get my bc wet before strapping my tank on, and about 10 minutes into the dive at about 40 feet (on the bottom thankfully), my tank came loose. I was able to stay calm and have the dive master help me get it strapped back in without having to remove my gear, but it pays to always take your time in getting ready.

Unfortunately, I didn't have an experienced buddy, as my wife was only resort certified. That was also a mistake.

Live (thankfully) and learn.

[Fin Mike]

As I'm reading some of these stories on this board and I must say that most of this stuff is completely avoidable with a little common sense. I am a spearfisherman. Spearfishing is extremely dangerous and highly problematic. Take the blood in the water and the shark aspect out of it, and you still have a recipe for disaster. As I first started to dive, I would ask my (much more experienced) buddy about some of the pitfalls of diving and how I could avoid them. His response was "where do I start". That was a good answer, because only experience can teach someone properly how to deal with life and death situations.
First, 99% of all accidents can be avoided by using common sense and knowing and feeling comfortable with your equipment. I can't be more clear than that. It will save your life. Second, wear a redundant breathing system such as a pony bottle, not spare air. Spare air will not save your life if you are 125' down. A 30 cu ft pony will. Enjoy yourself (that's what it's all about) but be prepared for the worst. I almost always get vertigo upon ascent, but I've learned to deal with it. A newbee that got vertigo at 100' would FREEK OUT. It is very concerning for the inexperienced, let alone getting your reg knocked out of your mouth by a speared 60 lbs cobia at 115'. The last thing I would like to say is DO NOT PANIC. Panic will kill you. Confidence not only in yourself, but also in your equipment goes a long way. Don't be stupid, be safe.
Don't go into decompression (deco). Always continue breathing, and do not ascend more than one foot per second and you will be OK. If your new, stay above 50 ft, and get comfortable with your equipment. I can't state this enough. Never blow anything up at depth that you want to hold on to. This could surely bend you.

[Paul B]

The biggest problem we have here with New York diving is the visability which ranges from zero to maybe on a good day 3'
In the western Sound where I have done most of my diving there is a lot of history and shipwrecks. Many of them are tugboats and most of them have steel cables, wires and fishing line all over them. You have to be able to cut this stuff off of you and your equipment in total blackness. A good knife is essential and sometimes I brought a wire cutter with me also.

[billdogg]

I had been certified about 2 years - maybe 50 dives - I was diving the local quarry - Gilboa Stone Quarry - with the guy i got certified with and a couple of more experienced divers. I had my video with us, and was at the back of the pack, so i kicked like mad to get in front to get a shot of everybody going past. No problem, right??? Did I mention that we were at about 110', where the spring feeds the quarry, and it was early April? the water temp was maybe 40. I was diving a USD reg that was meant for shallow, warm water use. Guess what froze!!!! lucky for me, the lead diver saw what was happening, and as soon as we both understood that a freeflowing reg meant only that it was time to surface, thats what we did. No harm, no foul. Did I learn my lesson??? young dumb me??? no way. The very next weekend, just my buddy and i were on the same proflie at the same spot in the quarry. I was lead diver, this time at about 120', when yup - the darn thing froze again. I kinda went "well crap - time to surface and buy a new reg!!!" I turned to locate my buddy - he was 20 or 30' behind me kneeling in the mud - NARCED TO THE GILLS! I swam over to him in a cloud of bubbles, shook him and pointed to myself and gave the out of air sign, and then waved good bye. (I was down to maybe 1000psi by this time) His eyes got saucer big as he came up after me trying to give me his primary reg. I kept waving him off - I wqas ok, just had to surface. At about 100' he took a breath - still narced - without putting his reg back in his mouth. OOPS!!! All I could do was look down at him from about 20 feet above and hope that he was able to choke it out and get his s*&t together, because I HAD TO SURFACE. luck was on his side - the fog lifted as he continued his ascent, and he made it ok to the surface. As soon as I hit the surface my reg thawed, I swam to the dock, got out, and went from the quarry directly to my local dive shop and bought a regulator made for ICE DIVING!!! He, on the other hand, got so spooked by those events that he has not been back in the water since. It is now almost 20 years and over 1000 dives later. I have ahd other issues underwater, but that was a lesson well learned. I now buy only the best equipment i can, I have taken every training course I can (up to full cave) and never dive without a completely seperate and redundant air source.

I sorta figure that I can do a whole bunch of things underwater, but I can't grow gills!!!

[David P]

so I shouldn't say anything about being @ 120' on a single 80, leaving your team mate, especially one that is impaired, use of helium (it was 20 years ago)?

another post a few up said always dive with a pony rig... what size, hopefully a 40. Do the math on a 100' dive with an Al80. Figure your at 4 ATA, the fit hits the shan, so your gas consumption jumps to ONLY 1 CFM, give yourself only 1 minute to deal with the situation, you just sucked 4 cubic feet, for easy math you come up to 70' and do your one minute deepstop, that's 2 mintues and we'll round down to 3 ata so thats 6 more cubic feet, 1 minute travel to 40 feet, (round down even more) 2 cuft, 3 minute safety stop another 4 cuft or so, thats 16 cubic feet, dont forget you want to leave at least 500 psi to make up for SPG variances. What if your buddy is up the same creek, then you double your gas and you're at 32 cubic feet.

[Fin Mike]

IMO, anybody that does a dive to 120 on an AL 80, needs to have at least 1. a lot of experience 2. the goal of just doing a very quick dive or 3. having there head examined. I've dove to 90 on one, but you can be assured, that I have my 30 cuft pony along with me.

[Kenmx10]

I dove 110' on a 60steel for my advanced check out dive with 30% o2. Not by choice. I rod the computer to the limits and counted my breaths. Now I have hp120's .

[Tech Diver]

Using DecoPlanner and assuming a SAC rate of 0.85 cu-ft/min and EAN 30, a dive to 110' for merely 13 minutes would exceed the capacity of your 60 cu-ft tank. This includes a 1 minute stop at 30' and another 1 minute stop at 20' (which really is not long enough since it takes at least 2 minutes for one complete cycle of your circulatory system).

Using the "Rule of Thirds", a maximum profile for a 60 cu-ft tank would be 6 minutes at 110' with a 3 minute stop at 20'.

I can't imagine why the instructor would choose to take you down with such little gas supply.

[billsreef]

Originally posted by Kenmx10
Not by choice.

I think this is an erroneous assumption that gets many divers in trouble. The bottom line is, you always have the final say on making a particular dive and particular dive profile with the equipment at hand. If the equipment you have with you is not adequate for a particular dive, you and only you have the choice of whether or not to make that dive. No one else can make do something if you don't agree to it. Your safety under the water is solely your responsibility. Yes having a buddy gives you some options should trouble occur, but you should always avoid trouble to the best of your ability...even if it means telling an instructor or dive master off for something stupid like expecting you to make deep dive on a mere 60cuft tank.

Now I'm not saying this to rail on you, but to make sure you know your safety is in your own hands and you have the right to call any dive at any time for any reason.

[Tech Diver]

I agree with Bill 100%. You should _never_ be pressured into making a dive.

In technical diving we have a very strict rule: anyone can "call a dive" (abort it) for any reason at any time without question. That means if your equipment is not adequate, you don't feel comfortable with your dive buddy, you don't feel well, you have a bad premonission, the dive site makes you "feel creepy" or any other reason, you should call the dive.

[Mad Scientist]

Originally posted by billdogg
I had been certified about 2 years - maybe 50 dives - I was diving the local quarry - Gilboa Stone Quarry - with the guy i got certified with and a couple of more experienced divers. I had my video with us, and was at the back of the pack, so i kicked like mad to get in front to get a shot of everybody going past. No problem, right??? Did I mention that we were at about 110', where the spring feeds the quarry, and it was early April? the water temp was maybe 40. I was diving a USD reg that was meant for shallow, warm water use. Guess what froze!!!! lucky for me, the lead diver saw what was happening, and as soon as we both understood that a freeflowing reg meant only that it was time to surface, thats what we did. No harm, no foul. Did I learn my lesson??? young dumb me??? no way. The very next weekend, just my buddy and i were on the same proflie at the same spot in the quarry. I was lead diver, this time at about 120', when yup - the darn thing froze again. I kinda went "well crap - time to surface and buy a new reg!!!" I turned to locate my buddy - he was 20 or 30' behind me kneeling in the mud - NARCED TO THE GILLS! I swam over to him in a cloud of bubbles, shook him and pointed to myself and gave the out of air sign, and then waved good bye. (I was down to maybe 1000psi by this time) His eyes got saucer big as he came up after me trying to give me his primary reg. I kept waving him off - I wqas ok, just had to surface. At about 100' he took a breath - still narced - without putting his reg back in his mouth. OOPS!!! All I could do was look down at him from about 20 feet above and hope that he was able to choke it out and get his s*&t together, because I HAD TO SURFACE. luck was on his side - the fog lifted as he continued his ascent, and he made it ok to the surface. As soon as I hit the surface my reg thawed, I swam to the dock, got out, and went from the quarry directly to my local dive shop and bought a regulator made for ICE DIVING!!! He, on the other hand, got so spooked by those events that he has not been back in the water since. It is now almost 20 years and over 1000 dives later. I have ahd other issues underwater, but that was a lesson well learned. I now buy only the best equipment i can, I have taken every training course I can (up to full cave) and never dive without a completely seperate and redundant air source.

I sorta figure that I can do a whole bunch of things underwater, but I can't grow gills!!!

Sounds like you were lucky - from what I've read a fair amount of people have died in that quarry

[Kenmx10]

Originally posted by Tech Diver
Using DecoPlanner and assuming a SAC rate of 0.85 cu-ft/min and EAN 30, a dive to 110' for merely 13 minutes would exceed the capacity of your 60 cu-ft tank. This includes a 1 minute stop at 30' and another 1 minute stop at 20' (which really is not long enough since it takes at least 2 minutes for one complete cycle of your circulatory system).

Using the "Rule of Thirds", a maximum profile for a 60 cu-ft tank would be 6 minutes at 110' with a 3 minute stop at 20'.

I can't imagine why the instructor would choose to take you down with such little gas supply.

The dive was the Eagle in Key Largo. It was actually 106' . Actual bottom time 19min. 3min stop at 20'. Tank almost dry. Everyone else had 80's. It was the last tank filled with Nitrox . I guess the Charter service was too lazy to fill another. I should have refused it. But It was the last tank with 30%O2, and Nitrox was one of my credits for ADV. Open Water. My instructor didnt know till we were on the boat and out to sea. My uwatec is air Integration, so she said to keep an eye on it and leave some air in the tank.

[Tech Diver]

"I should have refused it. But It was the last tank with 30%O2, and Nitrox was one of my credits for ADV. Open Water."
-----------------------------------------------------------------

Ask yourself, if you ran out of gas and didn't make it back, would it have been worth the risk you took?

Whenever I dive I always remember what one of my technical dive intructors said (Brian Carney, President of TDI/SDI), "The number-one mission of the dive is to come back alive."

It is very unfortunate that true dive planning in not taught until you become a technical diver. By that I mean knowing *ahead* of time how long your gas will last, when it is time to "turn the dive", etc. Determining a precise schedule and following it is exactly what Hal Watts meant when he coined the phrase "Plan your dive and dive your plan." This, above all, is my biggest complaint about the weakness in the courses for certifying recreational divers with regard to safety.

[Kenmx10]

I agree 100%. Now, I always plan my entire day the night before. Not only for my safety , but for the safety of those around me as well. I see alot of people getting away from it because of computers. I hope this doesnt lead to alot accidents in the future. To me its part of diving and I enjoy the advanced preparatrion.
I learned a good lesson from it though. I went out and got HP120's shortly after. I get my air in advance . I learned you cant rely on others to make sure you have what you need. You'll end up short like I was. Plus, the whole time I was down I couldnt take my eyes off the computer. It was beeping like crazy and I had to keep shallowing up the tower every couple of minutes. I downloaded the dive in my computer afterwards. Most the dive was either in the yellow or red. Even my safety stop. At that point I didnt care If they got their tank back bone dry.

I know there's alot of people who just want to get their certification card and thats about as far as they go with the learning process. And rely on someone else to tell them how long they can stay down. And how deep they can go. Alot of people think the computer is like some cruise control, where you just set it and cruise along. I think we may see some problems with this in the future. Thank goodness for DAN.

I've been contemplating Tech Diving. I want to take it to the next Level. But I dont have anyone else thats interested , And its not my profession, so I would be all alone. I've thought about trying to getting into the field somehow, something other than teaching OPen Water. But Im not sure what the opportunities are and if it would be steady work.

Have you used a rebreather Tech Diver?

[Tech Diver]

Originally posted by Kenmx10
Have you used a rebreather Tech Diver?

I never have. Thus far I've been strictly an open-circuit diver. For some reason, I've have never had the disire to try one.

As for finding someone with whom to learn/do technical diving, I suggest contacting tech diving instructors in your area. Their contact information can be found by going to the web sites of the various training organizations. My one suggestion is NOT to get trained in Deep Air (a course that some agencies like PADI actually offer). I feel such training is dangerous and violates a key point in tech diving which is not to get Nitrogen Narcosis.

[Kenmx10]

Is one organization better than the other for tech, Or is Padi a good place to go?

[Tech Diver]

The four that I can think of off the top of my head are IANTD, TDI, NAUI, DSAT (PADI). There are some others that are less well known or not fully recognized. Of those that I mentioned, I would go with someone other than DSAT (PADI). They only started their programs recently and the other three generally train you more rigorously (which is good). Of course, a great deal has to do with the instructor. I have used TDI myself because I was able to be trained by some of the top divers in the field.

[David P]

NAUI has some pretty good material, TDI material is .... there (at best) both agencies leave the bulk of the instruction up to the teacher. If you want some serious training and it is not easy look into GUE. Their minimum standards are pretty tough. You start with their "fundimentals" class where you learn gear config, valve drills, proper trim (horizontal not at a 45), I had to do valve drills with no mask on while hovering less than a foot off of the bottom. I was instructed by an old schooler, who through multiple failures at me, buddy lost his mask, I was completely out of gas, my buddy had his back up reg fail, and we were in an over head invrionment. That was pretty easy, what was tough was learing to stay horizontal, go from 10 feet to 20 to 30 to 20 to 10 all with 30 second pauses at depths and then 30 second travel. Once we figured out how to do that, I lost my mask and had to do it... THEN you take their Tech 1 class....