What is the worse thing?

[DA Aquamaster]

the real worst was the dive where the dump string was caught under the shoulder strap of the fauxmad and it wouldn't keep air & i couldn't figure out what was going on for a while except that i was in the dirt.

a second but not a close second was fighting with my wonderful boyfriend because he wouldn't get the **** out of my way while i was reeling up. his side is different, but that's my side & i'm sticking to it.

My second worst cave dive was when my beloved team mate could not stay off the cave floor and kept bouncing up and down trying to silt everything out while I was putting in a jump. Something to do with a stuck dump valve....

My worst dive is when she wanted practice reeling in a primary exiting a cave with some flow and ended up trying to tie me to a tree with yards and yards of slack line. Her version of those events is slightly different, but is no doubt more correct as I am smart and recognize the value of staying on her good side.

[skip]

Tennessee cave with low viz. my leg cramped suddenly and just as suddenly it shot out straight. low silty passage went from poor viz to none and I was off the line and rising up rapidly. not possible, i thought. the passage was very tight with low ceiling...?? turned out it was a crack in the ceiling and I rose up into it and got stuck tight with inflated wing, arms stuck beside me. with fingertips and exahaling to make my chest as small as possible i was able to "crawl" down the wall just enough to free one arm and reach the deflator on bc. dropping back down put me back in a major silt out with no idea which way to go. so i figured the path home was whichever way the viz was the worst! sure enough i came out of the really bad viz into some just bad viz and there was my buddy doing a lost buddy search! he reeled us back to the survey line and we exited no worse for the wear. we learned that following your training really does save lives! I also think he was more worried than I was...being the lone survivor must really suck. at least the dead have no more worries.

skip

[NWGratefulDiver]

Accidentally inhaled some water, my windpipe spasmed shut, and I couldn't breathe. Happened at a time when I was working hard and really needed to.

My dive buddy said the spasm lasted about a minute ... seemed a lot longer than that.

First time since I started diving that it occurred to me I might die down there ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

[DA Aquamaster]

Accidentally inhaled some water, my windpipe spasmed shut, and I couldn't breathe. Happened at a time when I was working hard and really needed to.

My dive buddy said the spasm lasted about a minute ... seemed a lot longer than that.

First time since I started diving that it occurred to me I might die down there ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

Kudos for not panicking. Many divers would have.

[Meister481]

Blew an eardrum coming out of Devils' ear. Had a reverse squeeze that wouldn't clear. Dove 3 days after this, no more worrries about squeeze in that ear. Came home to a horrible ear infection. The canal was swollen shut.

Tried to talk a buddy out of a dive. 3 person team and 2 of us told them that they were not ready for the dive. Needed more experience. The person would have done the dive without us so we chose to go with them as the middle diver. I was leading so I made sure to turn and check the divers' status often. The last time I turned all I saw were two eyes filling a mask. The diver was sculling like an OW diver. I thumbed it immediately and had to watch the diver do the doggie paddle out of little river. I knew right there that I'd never do that again.

After that, maybe night deco at Vortex.

[AB8CD]

My dive buddy said the spasm lasted about a minute ... seemed a lot longer than that.

First time since I started diving that it occurred to me I might die down there ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

Reminds me of the guy who answered the question of how long he had been married... He said, "Seems like 5 minutes(pause) ...underwater."

[cmalinowski]

Accidentally inhaled some water, my windpipe spasmed shut, and I couldn't breathe. Happened at a time when I was working hard and really needed to.

My dive buddy said the spasm lasted about a minute ... seemed a lot longer than that.

First time since I started diving that it occurred to me I might die down there ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

Exact same thing happened to me. We were only 12mins into the dive. I was in the lead. The two divers behind me didn't know that anything was really happening. I just heald up my fist while thoughts of "why can't I breath?! Why can't I breath? This sucks. The reg is working. This sucks. Turn around. This sucks. I don't think I can make it out of here with the fraction of gas I'm getting in. This sucks. Hold steady. This sucks."

By this time, I had turned and one of my buddies had my arms and the other was just watching carefully. We sat there for a minute (and agree that it did feel much longer) and it slowly passed. Life was grand again. Kinda weirded me out for a bit, but I realized it was just a freak occurance.

Chris

[deepairmike]

We were trying to get thru a restriction at 100' deep. We moved gravel for months. As we moved it more slid down in place. We finaly got enough out I tried to get thru no mount single tank, y valve. The restriction is about 10' long. Right in the middle the gravel shifted and buried me. I had to dig my way on in then turn around and dig my way out. I was down to 135 psi.

[Squirrel Girl]

We were trying to get thru a restriction at 100' deep. We moved gravel for months. As we moved it more slid down in place. We finaly got enough out I tried to get thru no mount single tank, y valve. The restriction is about 10' long. Right in the middle the gravel shifted and buried me. I had to dig my way on in then turn around and dig my way out. I was down to 135 psi.

Holy crap, Mike, I didn't know you were so low on air! SOOOOOOO glad you made it out alive!!!!

[Superlyte27]

Yah, holy crap, that's scary