First dive in a new system (Ginnie) instructor watching me for mistakes. Our plan was to enter the Ear circle to the Eye and set our exit line. Then return to the main line and head up stream and have a nice leisurely dive. On drop in to the Ear we discovered the main line was pulled into the open so there was no need to set a reel. I was in the lead; I started upstream and watched several times as I passed jump markers. I signaled my instructor and he indicated I should continue. I continued quite a ways upstream for a first time. About 900ft in I started to get nervous as there was no way we had not reached the eye to set our exit line. I noticed I had reached my ½+2 turn point about 1200ft in and signaled my instructor to turn the dive and exit. On the way out I continued to be both nervous at missing the jump as well as ticked at my self, since I was sure I had missed something more. Just past the 200ft marker on exit I check my gas I was down to 750psi in my double 98’s no problem.

My instructor signaled me to tie in and jump across and under a ledge. I double checked my air and thought this was not really the time to make a jump, but tied in and did the jump across and under a ledge thinking there was a room or something he wanted to show me. Also while he has much better consumption than I, he has always been on the money when judging my remaining psi. Well I ducked under the ledge and entered a room, made another tie off and continued in, there was a turn and I tied in again, about this time I started to feel a push behind me. I realized I was no longer going into the flow but was possibly in a siphon.

Now I was getting very nervous since I was already low on air. I round the turn and get spit into a small room. There in the room are 2 more divers, one tying off and another lighting him up. In the current and my rattled state I grabbed a passing rock turned and stopped my movement. At this point I tried to back up and tie in on the left side of the room, but there was another diver there, the instructor, and I could not get over.

Looking around there was not much else around to tie into except the large rock I had used as a pivot point. I tied into it and signaled the other group “ok” so they could continue. At about this point I looked at their last tie off and noticed I had indeed tied into the center of the passage, and he would have to cross my line tie again and then head in. He was a student as well and after a few minutes of him trying to tie off and cross my line I check my air and I was down now to about 350psi. I signaled my instructor I was (LOW) and gave him the thumb. He signaled the other instructor and thumbed him to let him know we need to exit. He signaled his student who acknowledged it but continued to try and tie in. I waited and waited and he signaled and again the student acknowledged the thumb but didn’t start to exit. I thumbed my instructor again who gave a hands up gesture (what’s up) to the other instructor who at this point took the reel and directed the student out. My instructor took our reel and signaled me to follow, and he would finish the reel work to expedite the exit. We went to the left around a large rock and reached the Rabbit hole. At this point I looked up and said to my self you got to be kidding, I am a big guy but this is a bit much. My instructor had explained how to maneuver through to get out. So I started to follow him, at the second restriction< for me> I exhaled and drew only a half a breath of air. At this point I said (WTF), I knew I had 350psi in my doubles and we weren’t deep. I was stuck and could not breathe. My instructor was almost out of reach and heading up, so I reached out and snagged his fin and gave it a tug. To let him know something was up. The next thing I did was to switch to my necklace as I thought I might get another breath or so out of it hopefully.

Instead I got a full breath and another, about this time my instructor had turned and seeing no bubbles assumed I was OOA. He extended his primary and was switching to his necklace when he saw my bubbles. At this point I realized I had rolled off a post, I reached back turned it back on and switched back to my primary. My instructor turned and continued and made our exit. We moved over to our O2 bottles and switched for our deco/safety.

When we surfaced I explained what had happened and we discussed the issues I had and how I had reacted. He was happy with my response which was not to panic, but neither of us was happy with my trust me attitude on gas and the jump out. It turned out there was a miscommunication in that he wanted to explore and then exit the eye to set up for our next dive, when we would entered the Eye and exited the Ear after heading towards Hill 400.


On the surface I saw the other instructor so we swam over and I apologized for the sloppy tie off and the rush to exit the system that forced them to abort their dive. We went for refills and returned for another crack at it and things went much better the second time. Pulling the line was a bit much but we made the Hill 400 line and made about 100ft before we hit our turn pressure and exited the system.


I learned several things,


Dive your plan; be very thorough making sure you understand what you goals are.

Gas management, make sure you plan accordingly especially in a new system.

If something doesn’t seem right STOP and get things straight, then continue or exit as necessary.

I find more problems every time I think about this.