What Do You Do When You're a Bit Freaked?

I have owned a series of older sailboats (emphasis on older) and always enjoyed challenging myself Great Lakes sailing solo... e.g. setting the spinnaker, etc. I was approached by a man who began to ask me about certain techniques. I said, "There are a lot of guys in the clubhouse who have been sailing a lot longer than me. You should ask them." He responded, "You tell me about your mistakes. They don't."

I like this thread because it allows us to reveal something about ourselves... fear (real or perceived) and how we overcome it. It also says something about ones ability to reveal cracks in our own armor.

I typically work alone when I dive (even having a safety diver up top is more of a mental comfort if you aren't using communication equipment). Of course, the primary mind distraction is in the details of the job itself... mentally picturing where you set a wrench or a clevis pin... gas, depth, time, entanglement awareness, etc.

I will never be the perfect cave diver (which is an aspect of diving that I am fairly new to), but I will be myself in how I approach it. It will always be a balance of both the physical realities and the mental. I suppose that's one reason that I love it so much.

Low vis doesn't bother me much except one time we were attempting 100m dive at Sra Keow. They must have just washed the elephants that morning because the pool was complete mud. Our dive leader insisted the vis would clear up at 10m so we went for it. By the time we hit a certain depth I later determined to be 20m we were still in mud and all I could see was the flashing of my HUD. This would not normally be a problem except we were going to somehow have to manage a couple of hours of deco in all this. So I still haven't seen Sra Keow Thailand. Maybe next year.

i give some thought to the 'why' of feeling freaked. i've posted this before, but it fits the thread.

going up the vertical part from pothole to the cavern used to freak me. there was no real reason, so i started to think about it. turns out that going up like that, i was breathing more quickly (i have a slooow resp rate on cave dives) so as not to hold my breath, and that was telling my reptile brain that i was nervous, so i *felt* nervous even though i wasn't. once i realized what was going on, no more freak there.

I just think about sex, i imagine that the cave is just a big womb and i am in there poking arround...what's a little poor viz when your in a place like that? I have gas and a line, all that's required, redirects me everytime and then i am on my way to a happy ending. I have used this ever since i was told by an indian tribe that diving in a parrticular cave was, to the indians, like entering the womb of their mother spirit. The cave was the centerpiece of their creation myth.

That....that is just spectacular :D

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...and that was telling my reptile brain that i was nervous, so i *felt* nervous...

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Amazing! Very cool. That is worth thinking about.

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I just think about sex...

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This is the best thread ever! :smt079 (OK, different kind of smiley sex) But I wonder what my wife would say if I wore my mask and regs to bed? She might get back at me by saying... we've got to hurry, my husband will be home soon! (Very old joke!)

I ok the line and add a little gas to the wing so I am off the cave floor for sure and then wait for the silt out to settle or blow off... ;-)

Dive safe,

Celia

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Originally Posted by wingman

I just think about sex, i imagine that the cave is just a big womb and i am in there poking arround...what's a little poor viz when your in a place like that? I have gas and a line, all that's required, redirects me everytime and then i am on my way to a happy ending. I have used this ever since i was told by an indian tribe that diving in a parrticular cave was, to the indians, like entering the womb of their mother spirit. The cave was the centerpiece of their creation myth.

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And so Sigmund, vee half yet another vone for you to analyze.

http://thinkinfyou.files.wordpress.c...9/11/freud.jpg

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Originally Posted by wingman

I just think about sex, i imagine that the cave is just a big womb and i am in there poking arround...what's a little poor viz when your in a place like that? I have gas and a line, all that's required, redirects me everytime and then i am on my way to a happy ending. I have used this ever since i was told by an indian tribe that diving in a parrticular cave was, to the indians, like entering the womb of their mother spirit. The cave was the centerpiece of their creation myth.

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Doesn't it hurt when things expand in the cath they're glued to Bill? :smt102

A couple of weeks ago I was doing a "fun" dive with Tom Johnson at Peacock Springs. We went the back way down the well line and followed the P2 line to the end. On the way out Tom was leading and to quote him, "practicing his silt kick." He completely silted the place out. I kept my light on but it didn't do me any good. I just okayed the line, gathered my thoughts, and slowly followed the line out. This was not a training dive but he thought it would be "good experience" for me. Having dived with Tom quite a bit I have grown accustomed to his antics and such low/no viz scenarios. I think he gets bored easily and looks for any opportunities to amuse himself. As others have indicated, what I find more frightening is ascending and doing deco in a night ocean dive. Not long ago I had 5 bull sharks follow me up, circling below me on a day time ascent for about 5 minutes (It felt a lot longer!). I've had sharks trail me when I was spearfishing, but I wasn't on this ocassion. So, if this can happen in daylight, I wonder if they could be there at night--just outside the range or direction of my light beam.