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

[sskasser]

Every cave student should have experienced a zero viz situation in class, several times and for more than a few minutes. Touch contact, touch contact with air sharing, lost line, etc.
Why does it sound like all you cave divers were never in this situation???

Dealing with these scenario simulations, under the watchful eye of an instructor is very different than the first time one truly encounters such a situation. There is no "the instructor will halt the exercise if we start to get into trouble" or "I can just turn on my light if I want to" to a real situation. This is also why instructors attempt to task load and stress the student as much as possible, to simulate these feelings/shots of adrenaline.

[Neptuno]

when I was searching for lost anchors in argentina I always look some of the shark movies before the dive, and then just keep singing the sound

by the way normally if you put light at your compass and then stick it in your mask you will see it glowing

[LiteHedded]

Every cave student should have experienced a zero viz situation in class, several times and for more than a few minutes. Touch contact, touch contact with air sharing, lost line, etc.
Why does it sound like all you cave divers were never in this situation???

because that's nothing like the real thing?

[ARY]

I’ll try not to make stupid comments and look forward of loads of interesting conversations.

Tervetuloa CDSiin, mitä kuuluu? Kun tulet tänne olisimme sukeltaa yhdessa Ginnissa. Haluaisin elvyttää minun Suomen viittomakieli. Ja sauna sesonki juuri nyt alkoi

My cavern instructor Tracy Grubbs gave me advise "Sometimes it is just better to close your eyes" referring to situations w/no viz , too tight and too far.

[d_berman]

For the topic of my question... I was simply stating that I sing (or hum) when I am in an environment that is lacking some other spacial sense (such as sight)... e.g. a deep descent that finds one... flying on instruments without other references.

I used the verse as a calculation of time, one time through... one minute. another time through... second minute... etc.

Maybe I'm just weird!

Interesting...
I suspect each of us have our own "unique ways"
In cave (outside of training) no "no vis" situations yet. So not sure if this really adds to the conversation but why not...

For the OW times typically find I "pause" "regroup" and continue as required.

I too will use "song strategy" though mentally I go for "amazing grace".... This ties back to some of my vertical caving. Turns out you can make others nervous by whistling such a simple tune...

Early on and sometimes as a quick measure it helps to close eyes. Seems like it adds to mental to try and see and not be able to see versus closing the eyes and not trying to see.

and: ahhh the wonderful feeling of having the line between your fingers...

Dave

[sskasser]

Sorta off-topic (as if I EVER!), but I noticed when doing lights-out drills, my VR3 puts off plenty of light to charge up the glow on my SPGs. Line, SPGs, computer...what else do I need to see?

Of course, this is moot in a silt-out. My first real silt-out (which happened to coincide with an entanglement), I came out with WAY more gas than I expected. Apparently, my breathing rate slowed a bit, instead of increasing. I think it was hearing that calm, loving mantra in my head over and over "You PANIC, you DIE!" that did it.

[BigBoB]

I really haven't been freaked out by an actual event while diving. I have however freaked myself out by thinking about things that could happen. The worst was diving deep walls in Guam at night...never ever, ever, ever look out into the darkness away from the wall. I used to hate being the furthest from the wall on a three man team diving side by side or being out in front of two divers being lit up by their lights. The worst part was doing an hour or so of drift deco out into totally black water.

I used think about a major cavein near the exit while cave diving. The worst would be Ginnie. Think you could swim back to the July opening and claw your way through?

[parabuzzle]

... So, it isn't surprising that I sometimes feel, if not freaked out, but rather uneasy for some minor reasons like unfamiliar sounds or just unexpected shadows moving in the low viz. What I'll do is tell myself how exactly I would solve the problem, if the thing that I'm worried about would go wrong. This is easy since the overall feel of unease usually quite quickly takes a shape of some kind of possible scenario like "what if the hp hose would rupture right now?” This works every time and I can continue the dive feeling fine...

Yea, I'm the same way. I totally understand.

Do you ever just play out crazy scenarios in common places? Like the post office... the other day I played out a huge "What would I do if this place had a car drive through the front door" in my head while waiting in line.

-Mike

[parabuzzle]

...never ever, ever, ever look out into the darkness away from the wall. I used to hate being the furthest from the wall on a three man team diving side by side or being out in front of two divers being lit up by their lights. The worst part was doing an hour or so of drift deco out into totally black water.

Umm yea. I get the most freaked out when staring out or down in to nothingness. I think its the unknown that triggers the primal fight or flight. It's a survival mechanism. I am always waiting for the Kraken to emerge and eat us all in one motion or something. I moved to Northern California a couple years ago (I miss FL so bad sometimes::I am visiting in 2 weeks yay!) and Monterey/Carmel diving is crazy because you can find yourself at a ledge at 100fsw that drops off to 800fsw only like 400 yards off the beach. And looking down or out in the the deep blue nothingness can really creep me out. So I focus on other things and play out s-drills and catastrophe scenarios in my head to get my mind off of the fact that I am a speck in a giant blue vastness with much larger and dangerous animals.

[sskasser]

I saw a t-shirt somewhere. It was a grinning shark in the ocean. The caption said "Welcome to the ocean. You are no longer at the top of the food chain."

Yes, I love sharks, and no, I don't think they're mindless man-eaters.