Breathing under stress

Sorry but he would be hard pressed to kill himself at Indian since there I 24 hour security living on site and they have the dive schedule of when divers are to be there. He would likely find the inside of Wakulla County jail before the cave and I can't guarantee that wouldn't kill him. No training could prepare anyone for that place.

On the other hand, if you want to seek an answer, I would go with funding a competent diver to speak with. One that actually gets into the situations you ask about and doesn't just follow a gold line in and out. An explorer comes to mind. You know the diver that actually lays the line most others follow?

Being sick sucks. I have nothing better to do then post on CDF!! Life is better when diving and not just talking about it!!

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Originally Posted by speleodiver

Sorry but he would be hard pressed to kill himself at Indian since there I 24 hour security living on site and they have the dive schedule of when divers are to be there.

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Being sick killed your sense of sarcasm too. I chose Indian since it's another site with similar depth and training requirements as EN and was backhandedly referencing untrained divers and dying. Nevermind, why am I explaining a bad joke that obviously has lost any sense of humor or sarcasm at this point.

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Originally Posted by speleodiver

On the other hand, if you want to seek an answer, I would go with funding a competent diver to speak with. One that actually gets into the situations you ask about and doesn't just follow a gold line in and out. An explorer comes to mind. You know the diver that actually lays the line most others follow?

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Come on, doesn't that sound a little chest thumpy? Can someone not give their experiences to his question on stress unless they've dug through 8 inch tall restrictions or laid line in virgin cave? How many cavern students on their first dive felt overwhelmed with stress and got tunnel vision and started huffing and puffing, but had the mental fortitude and "competency" to suppress the stress and control it? Do they not have the cajones to be able to give him their opinion on stress and diving caves?

Didn't mean to split a response into two posts. I somehow missed that comment on my first read, and couldn't ignore the undertones it exuded.

I do exactly what my instructors taught me to do: I breathe deep and slow, I analyze the situation and ask myself, "What would Shelley or TJ do?" Both of them put me through so many simulated emergencies that I know and execute the next move.

It's been stated repeatedly, but this is largely what the training teaches you - how to deal with problem situations. Almost every situation you could encounter is an variant on that training. Look up "task loading", where trying to deal with too many things at once can cause problems and stress.

For me, I have a two-fold, calming technique:
1) If something goes wrong, I tell myself "As long as you're breathing, you don't have a real problem." and then sort out each issue separately.
2) I've had a few diving instances where things went extremely wrong. As I can feel any anxiety building, I tell myself "If you panic, you're dead."

Works for me - your mileage may vary.

-Tom