Bad dive at Ginnie
Since people were wondering of what I was talking about in my buddy search post, I decided to post a write up in hope that it may make other more aware of the same thing happening to them: (Also I hope this will not turn into a solo diving discussion as we already had a lot of them, I made a mistake by pushing it when I should not have)
here's what happened; I just finished apprentice class two weeks prior and was planning on doing a solo dive at Ginnie. The plan was to follow the gold line, reaching the maple leaf at 950ft and making my way further into the cave until I hit 1/3rd. I was expecting to get to around 1200ft. The 2 weeks leading to the dive were busy and a lot of things have happened, which may have affected me in some way or form. I was swimming from little devil to the ear, which was still blocked off by a tarp preventing dark river water to enter the run of devils eye. Swimming to the ear was in zero visibility with me feeling my way along the bottom until it dropped off. Once in the ear I laid the primary line to the sign inside the cave and dropped my 02 tank. At this point I already have been breathing a little heavier than usual but I attributed that to my inexperience with entering the ear while laying line while carrying O2 solo (I've done this many times minus the O2 bottle). This may sounds strange but the cave did not feel very welcoming that day and I was just a hint un-easy about the dive. After dropping the O2 I went up on the left side of the gallery and started to pull and glide my way towards the lips. I did a sloppy job at pull and gliding and found myself being very poorly positioned to get the maximum efficiency. Once I reached the lips, which is one of my absolute favorite sights in the cave I preceded to pull myself along the floor in the lips. Nothing unusual besides not being as relaxed as I normally am. I checked my air supply and even though I felt like I was breathing heavier then usual I had not used more air then I expected. Once I was at the keyhole I could feel how I became more nervous and anxious for some reason unknown to me, I wrote it off as being a little exerted. Going through the cornflakes toward the park bench I found myself not seeing the park bench right away (I have been there many times, including many times solo) this worried me and I took a minute break to try to calm down and get my breathing back down. At this point I should have turned the dive as I was not feeling comfortable anymore. I continued down the gold line. I previously made it to 500-600ft penetration on 2 intro dives on 1/6th. Usually the way to Hill 400 is very relaxed and beautiful but I just suddenly arrived at the jump quicker than I thought I would. At this point I realized that I'm nowhere near the top of my "game". I decided to keep pushing; after all I've been here before and was familiar with the cave. After the 500ft mark I became increasingly anxious and nervous, after this it became an arrow following game. 600ft, 700ft I did not even see the cave features anymore, I'm so close ... The voice in my head started to yell at me to not push myself, I'm solo, new territory, NO GOAL DIVING! The cave is now narrow and very silty at the bottom. 800ft, 30 more feet and the cave started to make a right turn - I can't do it anymore. My brain is yelling at me "GET THE HELL OUT OF HERE NOW", I'm making a sloppy 180 degree turn and look ahead; “crap, something is wrong!”, I'm in trouble ... My heart starts beating faster, my breathing gets heavy and exerting. I “OK” the gold line with a good grip. Time to leave. I try to take a break for a minute and close my eyes to calm down, not working. By now my vision and perception is reduced to just a very narrow field of view (Tunnel vision), all I see is the gold line and the outline of a tunnel. I keep thinking of how stupid it would be for me to panic for absolutely no apparent reason and drown with tons of air left. I have to keep my mind strong and just stick to what I've learned and read about. I tried to distract myself and remove myself from the situation by thinking of funny things and just switching topics in my head. It didn’t help much. I was heading out, not slowly but I was not racing either. My finning was not great but I also did not silt anything up, I just kept frog kicking along at a good pace. My buoyancy however wasn’t great at all, since I was having my hand on the gold line I followed it up- and down which messed up my buoyancy (which should have been very easy to handle). I never touched the floor or the ceiling but it wasn’t good. Finally I'm starting to see the arrows counting down, 700, 600, 500 - Now I keep telling myself that I've been here, nothing new - time to calm down! Still for some reason I have still very anxious and nervous. I stayed that way until I saw the park bench, now I had some feeling that everything was going to be ok. I made it through the corn flakes and the keyhole and wanted to take a break before the lips to calm myself, but before I knew it I was through the lips and in the gallery still following the gold line. I finally made it to the sign. Relief. I picked up my 02 and made the decision to pull the primary since I did not want to dive anymore today. I was still not focused and had a few times where I had to untangle the reel (including in the middle of the ear restriction). When I finally made it to the log I waited a few seconds, set my computer for 02 and grabbed my 02 reg and started breathing. I took 2 good breaths - then nothing ... I quickly took my backgas reg and instantly realized I forgot to turn on the 02 bottle - stupid. Even though I did not accumulate any mandatory deco time I decided to take a 5 min 02 stop since I got worked up during the dive. I returned to the surface and just floated for 10 min thinking about the dive. Once I started to put my gear away I noticed that my primary regulator was unscrewed to the point where only half a turn more would have made the face of the reg come off, I don’t know if that affected anything either and I’m not sure how that happened since I check my gear before and after every dive.
It was a scary dive; I'm still perplexed as to why this happened to me, I've done longer and more complex dives before.
Here is my analysis of what went wrong:
1.) Goal oriented diving. I wanted to make it to a specific landmark inside the cave that I have not seen before which is unacceptable on my level and greatly added to the task loading.
2.) Solo diving. While I don't mind solo diving, at my level I should not have tried to see new cave without a buddy.
3.) Pre-occupied mind. My mind was not fully focused on the dive
4.) I should have turned the dive after making a sad effort to the lips and thinking the cave was "unfriendly"
5.) I should have turned the dive once I got anxious and nervous
6.) I should not have justified my efforts with "Been there done that, no big deal"
7.) I should NEVER NEVER have kept going once I realized I had "Tunnel vision" and just followed the line
8.) I need to make a greater effort to find a way to calm myself in stressful situations.
This was a bad dive; I got very stressed, anxious and nervous. I made many mistakes but luckily turned just before it could have ended worse. I have learned a lot from this dive and will not make any solo dives in the near future, especially in parts of a cave where I have not been before. I need to move slower and safer. I feel very bad and guilty about what I have done; in cave diving there is no room for error
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Originally Posted by rongoodman
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