A and I had planned an easy scooter run in Ginny Springs.

The plan was to cruise down the slough and enter the ear.

At the steps at the start of the run, we discussed our plan.

Drop 02 in the ear run up until thirds and turn it. Simple dive, nothing complex.

A told me he wanted to drop the 02 on a shelf just inside the ear. I didn’t really understand the location, but figured I would just follow his lead.

We scootered down to the ear and dropped in J leading in.

I had a mask issue so dropped back a little. I got squared away and got through the ear. I dropped my 02 on a ledge just to the left of the ear.

I looked around for A and he was in the small room toward the back. I noticed his 02 bottle next to him, and realized mine was in the wrong spot. I turned around to recover and relocate mine.

When I got back to the bottom of the “restriction” to pick up my 02, I got turned around by the flow. My scooter dropped down between my legs and I wasn’t able to clip off my 02. During the mess I started to get “shot out” of the ear

Somehow in an attempt to correct myself, I managed to get my head stuck up in between a log and the cavewall. I still hadn’t clipped off my deco bottle, and my scooter was back behind me. I was unable to free myself, and then in an attempt to get free, I somehow lost my regulator. In the position I was in I was not able to get the reg back in my mouth.

I tried a few things but wasn’t able to move. I wasn’t panicked but I was starting to think “this is it, Im screwed”. Im guessing about 40 seconds passed, and I really wanted to breathe, I gave it one last push, and got free. My first reaction was to shoot for the surface. Fortunately after a few feet I overcame this reaction, dumped my wing, got my backup reg in my mouth and leveled out on the top of the log. My heart was racing, I was over breathing my reg, and thinking damn that was close. I sat on the log for another 5 mins. Eventually my buddy came out wondering what the hell was taking me so long.


I guess what we took away from the incident was that even in the ear at less than 60ft, in apparent o/w ,something can go wrong, seriously wrong. It spooked me enough that the next two dives were thumbed within the first 5 min, one from equipt failure, but one just because it didn’t feel good.