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

[AB8CD]

The thread on "Deep Lake" got me thinking about braille diving and what I do when I am a little freaked to "keep me in the dive."

I was asked to dive in a local lake to attempt to recover an outboard motor. As soon as my mask went below the waterline vis went to zero. Just a green glow from my light... which offered a little comfort but reading instruments was out of the question. Then I entered the silt zone and the light disappeared. I was just "in my head" so-to-speak. As I was establishing a search pattern with a string tied to the anchor and feeling around I began to sing, "Jesus Loves Me..." in a fairly weak voice and counting repeated verses to try to calculate dive time.

It is a mental game... isn't it? What do you do?

[LiteHedded]

head for the door and hope the line doesn't break? :P if it isn't likely to clear up soon anyway.
zero vis, can't read my gauges diving isn't any fun

[SuPrBuGmAn]

Yeah, its not a proffession for me, so if there's no fun, I leave.

[Jay]

Yep, stop and take a deep breath. Ensure yourself there is no need to panic. Head for the door.

[MedCop]

I toss a thumb and head for the light.

[AB8CD]

I was thinking more along the line of encountering a layer of hydrogen sulphide or entering a sump with a goal of reaching onward, so-to-speak to what lies beyond.

However, even in a more recreational setting, as I have noted in another post I have encountered other divers as I have exited a low flow cave who totally silted out the exit and I needed to consider things like possible deco and definitely a safety stop. When you are in the dark you need to keep in the dive. I was just wondering what tools others use in similar circumstances.

[OFG-1]

When I get in a unsure situation, I always go back to the sage advise of Master Chief John Garlick, USN Master Diver, when he told me, in earnest:

"When in danger;
When in doubt;
Run in circles;
Scream and shout!"

It has always served me well.

EHHKKKK -SPIDER!! AUGHHHHhhhh..............

[AB8CD]

When I get in a unsure situation, I always go back to the sage advise of Master Chief John Garlick, USN Master Diver, when he told me, in earnest:

"When in danger;
When in doubt;
Run in circles;
Scream and shout!"

It has always served me well.

EHHKKKK -SPIDER!! AUGHHHHhhhh..............

That's even better than singing "Jesus Loves Me!"

[metaldector]

For the past 20 years I have been privledged to dive for treasure off Sebastian, Florida. Most of the dives were shallow at 25' max. Sounds easy, open water, shallow depth, but with almost totally no viz, using a metaldetector w/headphones, solo, the drone of the boat engine vibrating the water, I was almost always disoriented underwater. Surfacing was always problamatic. The prop on the boat was spinning in a cage that had 6" openings to allow the water to enter around the prop, but since you couldn't see the bottom of the boat or the mailbox with the prop, you had to fold your arm over the top of your head like an L to assure you didn't push your hand through the cage and into the spinning prop. Many a time I came up under the hull and a few times directly on the mailbox. So when I took up cave diving I was use to being under "something" and in no viz situations. I think those hundreds of hours searching in the -zero- viz has given me the security of knowing I can handle the lack of seeing. Still if I was a long way from a cave entrance in bad viz for a very long way, I'm sure my breathing and heart rate would increase. I just never had a siltout for a long period of time. At least in the cave you don't have to worry about sea urchins, big fish, and spinning props.

[fixxervi6]

Bad vis is just conditioning, you'll get used to it after a while, some texas says good vis is overrated anyway.

Any time I feel my butt hole start to pucker up super hard, 3 steps works every time.

1. STOP quit moving, fighting or doing whatever it is your doing
2. BREATH clear your mind, close your eyes take a few breaths and listen to the bubbles
3. THINK head will be clearer now, think about the siutaiton, if the thoughts get you tense again then repeat the process

gas is time, you have plenty of time, a lot can be solved in 30 second of LEVEL HEADED thinking and I don't care who you are narcosis starts to affect our thinking ability quite shallow.

stop breath think, those 3 actions can save your behind