Scuba dives gone wrong

92 white 0650

92 white 0650

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Anyone have any scary, dangerous, diappointing scuba dive stories out there? Since there was a good response to a Scuba certification thread awhile back, I'm surprised there isn't a few "No shit, :eek: there I was" threads, so maybe this will be one. Well, here's a bit of a rant since we just had one today.

But there's a question in here too. WTF is it with the Philippines? Unbelievable fish and reef life diversity, but poor viz, unpredictable currents, and surge is more than a bit unsettling. We were at Atlantis in Puerta Galera 3 years ago when my wife got caught in some wild currents, (I was recuperating from appendicitis; but that's another story). kind of like the Washing Machine off Verde Island. (Scroll down to the bottom of this page ). She was in the Verde Straight which apparently can have Washing Machine like surge in many locations. She saw big burly divemasters having trouble as well, including down currents. Then today at Atlantis in Dumaguete, we got swept (probably 1/2 knot current) south unexpectedly. (The divemaster was caught totally off guard but entirely too nonchalant about it IMHO) By the time he collected the 2 fast and unaware swimmers, the pokey camera guy and the other 3 of us, we were all exhausted, about out of air and a long way from the boat. The chop on the surface of course was a nightmare too so everyone was wiped out by the time the boat got there and we struggled aboard. :mad:

Anyway, the question is, is this typical? These trips have been very different from the no-muss-no-fuss, easy diving we've done in the Caribbean. If this is typical of the Philippines, I don't think this is the place for old farts like me or divers of any age or condition if they have less than 150 dives. I know they do a lot of technical diving here, but they don't caution us once-a-year recreational divers like I'm thinking they should? As I was telling my wife over dinner, I've got all the "No Shit, thought I was gonna die" stories I want to tell, I just want to kick back and cruise, thank you very much. :wink:

Well, this is our first full day here, so maybe I'm still tired from jet lag and overreacting.
 
Monterey CA is very similar viz-wise. It's not unusual to have 5-1o visibility there, but still the diving is well worth it. I used to go night diving there with a few buddies about once a week. And the sea life off of Point Lobos is fantastic.

Probably my nightmare story would be when I chose to dive with nasal congestion. I took a decongestant (big mistake), but it wore off while I was down. As I started to ascend the reverse squeeze was incredibly painful. I stayed down as long as I could but I eventually ran out of air. I crawled out onto the beach with a mask full of blood and a lesson learned.
 
i have thousands of tank dives in the pacific and many - many! - snorkel dives for spearfishing / ab diving up and down the california coast in all types of weather & conditions (viz measured not in feet but in inches).

i have a number of diving near-miss / cheated death stories. at the core of each was my / our lack of attention to the circumstances / conditions and the potential for serious injury or death.

somehow i managed to get through all of them and the last 10 years of my active diving life were relatively tame and risk-free by comparison.

being over-tired / ill / unfamiliar with local diving conditions has been the cause of serious injury or death in many divers.

take it easy and come back alive from your trip.
 
I've never personally experienced any equipment failures or the like, but I do know two people (both experienced divers with many hundreds of dives in their logs) who have died. One in a mine dive, and one from a cerebral hemorrhage while at maybe 115 feet.
 
i haven't had any crazy dive stories since i've been certified, but i DO have a story from getting certified.

I got certified as part of my "gym" class requirements at Penn State. It was a spring semester scuba cert. course so we started off in the classroom and the pool for the first 3 months. Our first dive was scheduled April 1st at 8am in Lake Erie.

Well April 1 rolls around and we are surprised with 6 inches of snow and ice, April fools alright. I show up to the dive shop to see what they have to say. Our dive instructors are the Sheriff's Dive Squad for the city of Erie, PA. These guys are accustomed to doing night dives under 3 feet of ice so they want to head out and brave the elements. They give the option to the 10 or so of us that showed to dive or not. I figured what the hell I will be able to tell people about this the rest of my life, so I decide to dive with 2 others that thought the same.

We get to the lake, 29 degree air temp, 32 water temp, 35mph winds, and still snowing, wonderful. The lake has even treated us to ice the first few feet of entry. So we suit up in the sheriffs dive van, which looks like a s.w.a.t. truck. Gearing up I come to find that they dont have gear for a 6'3 diver, it just keeps getting better. So here i am wearing a wet suit with a 4inch gap between my gloves and where the suit ends, same goes with my boots and where the legs end. We then step out to brave the elements.

I am completely numb by the time its my turn to break through a thin sheet of ice and swim out into the lake. Now wetsuits work in the following way, in order to stay warm the suits take on water and your bodyheat warms that water and maintains the temperature. I was nothing shy of miserable waiting for my "bodyheat" to warm the water, how can they expect me to have any in 32 degree water. We swim out to a buoy which indicates a depth of 18ft. I am the first to dive , 18inches of visibility welcomes me in almost darkness at the bottom. We do all the procedures weve done in pool training and call it a day. my next four dives to get cert. were not much different than my first.


Today, everytime i dive in the Caribbean i am always eager to show off my dive log.
 
I generally go to Thailand for snorkeling. Been to both sides (Phuket, Krabi, Samui, Chang and Similan Island) and never experienced rough under tows or currents. Swam during the rainy season too, not a problem.
 
I've been certified for 28 years now and probably done 2000+ dives with about 1000 off N.J. If you can dive the N. Atlantic you can practically dive anywhere. It's pretty hard core. I also worked 2 years at Shand's hospitals hyperbaric chamber unit as an operator and attendant during school. Learned a lot working there.

Back in 89 me and a friend went to Cozumel for 3 weeks over X-Mas and the new year. I had a full Niconos V camera setup and was there to shoot pictures. My friend was newly certified but was x-navy and very safety conscious. We were there for about 2 weeks when we went on a morning dive with about 15 others on a place called Punta Sur. The dive was 110 ft max and we would be going through 4 short caves which were about 75 yards max. I was following the dive master who had borrowed my light since I couldn't handle both the camera and the light. The caves had plenty of light. I make it a point to size up who I'm diving with on a boat since anyone of them can potentially kill you. There was a guy who was pretty hefty and hadn't dove in 20 years. He was huffing his regulator the whole way.

We hit the last cave and were taking a bend to the left with the exit clearly in sight about 25 yards away. It wasn't a tight cave, you could have driven a car through it. My friend grabs my fin and I turn. He's sharing his regulator with Mr. Hefty. He gives me the signal that he's low on air and begins to take himself and hefty up a vertical shaft. I quickly look up there and realize there's no way they are both going to squeeze through that plus it was a bad idea to begin with. So I grab his fin and am screaming NO NO NO!! into my regulator. He comes back down and I signal him that I'll take Hefty. So I put my arm around Hefty, who is nearly in a total panic by this time. I give him my regulator and notice his mask is 3/4 full of water; the guy can't see anything. I speak to him and smile saying everything is ok.. ok. I actually remember rubbing my hand across the top of his head to try to reassure him. We begin heading out of the cave to meet up with the dive master. By this time my friend is practically out of air and is buddy breathing with another diver. Dive master signals me to start taking them up as he gathers the rest of the group.

On the boat I keep calm for a bit then go over to question Hefty. He said he had 500 psi left and thought he could make it through the cave (at 95 ft). I point out he put everyone at risk by his stupid behavior. The dive master later explained there wasn't anything he could do since his boss wouldn't care about Hefty's behavior on the dive. They simply want the money and will put people on the boat if they're breathing and can show a dive card.

After that my friend and I would avoid going through the small caves. I would tell the dive master I was scared of small areas and would cruise the wall. Got some of the best shots I ever have and saw some amazing large creatures like sharks and even manta rays.

So when diving outside of the US be extremely careful. Anyone of your boat companions will drag you down and possibly kill you to survive. Try to always talk with them a bit to gauge their skill level. Go with a more expensive charter that takes small groups if you can, they tend to be a bit safer IMO.

Sorry if the writing seems bad. Wife is bathing the kid so I only had about 5 minutes to type this in lol.

I have lot's of other stories but mainly involving my own personal injuries usually gotten lobster hunting in NJ.

Diving is an awesome sport but one bad decision can kill you. I read The Last Dive a few years ago and sadly learned that a guy I dove with many times died while diving. They just found him floating at on the bottom, regulator in mouth and 1500 psi in his tank.
 
Yes, diving's a fickle sport. Perhaps not unlike racing. It can be wonderful and terrible in practically the same moment. I was certified 35 years ago, and although I'm very confident, I am almost always a little nervous with each new dive.
 
I don't know anything about scuba-diving, but you're in Philippines? I'm so jealous.. Have fun there. Hoping to go back this December.

niM
 
currents don't scare me...........but tiger and great white SHARKS DO!!!:eek:















:biggrin:
 
For some reason i never got scared of the sharks or rays, maybe coz they never showed any interest :biggrin: ..... i should....i know...

Had a bad encounter with a huge fishything (think it was a napoleon) on the maldives, on my first dive without an instructor/guide. Bleeding thing followed me for at least 10 minutes showing its teeth. lol (lol now, cried then).

I found that safety on diving is on completely different levels at places around the globe.
 
29 degree air temp, 32 water temp, 35mph winds, and still snowing....18 inches viz....
Click to expand...
Well, that certainly trumps my first open water dive: 40F air temp, 37F water temp, a light breeze and 5 ft of viz.

Punta Sur. The dive was 110 ft max and we would be going through 4 short caves .....Hefty, who is nearly in a total panic by this time....
Click to expand...
Done that dive; shouldn't be too tough, but given the depth and strange newness of a tunnel, I can totally see how a novice could be in trouble down there. Doesn't take much for anyone to get stressed and lose control.

Well, I've come to the conclusion that the Philippines is for advanced divers. A few examples:

Unpredictability: The divemasters don't even pretend to layout a dive plan anymore; it's pretty much "follow me and I'll figure it out when we get down there." Yesterday we go off a big banca boat with 2 other groups. We're cruising north on this wall at about 60 ft when we notice we're kicking pretty hard. I give the divemaster a dirty look and he relents and we turn around and drift south at about 1/4 knot (if you swim hard against it, you can stay in one place). Five minutes later, we see another group 20 feet above us and there's easily going north; no current at all. Well, needless to say all 3 groups come up scattered all over and we float around in 2 foot swells for 15 minutes waiting to be picked up. I think about the trip last year when my BC started leaking on the last 5 minutes of the last dive: not good if that had happened on one of these dives. And I'm the only one besides the divemaster with an inflatable orange "pick me up" tube. I'd think that should be mandatory for all divers, as this place could be the scene for an Open Water (lost divers) movie.

Marine life: Unlike the Caribbean resorts we've frequented, they don't spend much time talking about the different fish and coral we can spot; they only talk about stuff they can find: stuff we've only seen on the Discovery Channel or National Geographic. We just got back from another evening slide show and it was like a Marine Biology 201 class.

Tech diving is big here. Puerta Galera was the spot where the record deep dive was done to 1029 ft. Took about 18 hours total time. Watching the training dives to 200 ft. this afternoon was intimidating just from the amount of gear they have to take. :eek:

Banca boats; Definitely the most inconvenient and primitive dive platforms we've seen.
 
Currents actually do scare me but not so much in the Caribbean. In the N. Atlantic the type of dives that are done are enough to scare away the newbs to an extent. But miss the anchor line and having to ascend in open water with a current can put you pretty far from the boat. My biggest fear is being far enough away from the boat and not being able to swim to it and possibly being left. Open water is a pretty freaky movie.

Sharks do scare me, even though most that I've seen simply go the other way and have no interest in you.

Once off NJ I was on a night dive and was doing a safety stop at 15 ft. I was shining my light around when it caught a massive tail flash by me about 10 ft away. Looked like a very large shark. Scared the crap out of me.

Another time off Jacksonville FL I was doing another safety stop at 15 ft. The boat had tied off the anchor to a buoy to go pick up another diver who had drifted away from the boat. There was a 2 ft remora that I was playing with. It kept attaching itself to my wet suit and I would knock it off. It would swim around a bit and reattach itself. I finished my stop and hit the surface. The boat was about 50 yards away heading towards me. People on the boat were all looking in my direction. I swam over to the ladder and got on the boat. Several people were saying "Did you see it!? Did you see it!?". I said see what? Boat captain looks down from the bridge smiling and says "There was a 12 ft hammerhead that was circling you!". That freaked me out a bit as well. I don't like hammerheads. Guess that's where the remora came from lol.
 
Re: Philippines: Definitely different

We came for a vacation and are leaving with an education. And I mean that in a good way. The dives got better thru the week, not because conditions or viz got better but because we figured out that we had to tune into the small, camoflaged critters that the dive guides here live for.

There were some low experience good ole' hard living cowboys (always with a Harley shirt on) on this trip and all they wanted were the bright "in your face" outrageous fish and stuff. After seeing their fill of lionfish, they were less than thrilled with the diving.

The last couple of dives, instead of writing on his slate and pointing to something, our guide Marco, would give us the sign for some type of critter he had talked about in the evening slide shows, point to an area and expect us to find it. If someone ever wanted to get excited about marine biology, they should dive here (Atlantis Dumaguete) with Marco.

People rave about the Red Sea, I wonder if that can beat what we experienced this trip.
 
I burnt out along time ago ,got spoiled diving the usvi every summer and winter for 10 yrs.So many memories.I worked at a dive shop for 2 of those years in St Thomas.We had lots of hefty air suckers.Most scary was some of our shelf/deep water dives where you really had your eyes peeled for Mr pectoral fin.Seeing that close up flash into your vision gets the heart racing.Getting caught in a 2 knot current as a 7 ft barracuda just floats there watching you strugle.150 ft dives where your fellow divers start wanting to give thier regulator to the fish(getting narcosis).We had a young friend found dead made to look like a night dive shark attack,but we knew better,friggen drug trade:mad:
 
i have very little knowledge about scuba diving. went snorkeling a few times. but back to the point...

i had a friend, who's brother died tragically on his first scuba dive. not sure on the details of the story. but the brother went down on his first dive, and for whatever reason had a panic attack. part of it caused him to throw up in his mask... and again, in panic i believe he removed his mask. long story short, i was told he drowned. :frown:
 
Re: Differences in shark dives

i'd say this qualifies as a dive gone wrong:

http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/02/26/sha....ap/index.html
Click to expand...

We made a shark dive with Stuart Cove's a few years ago. As you can see, they don't chum the waters, but dole out the fish in a very specific way. Although that dive appeared to be under control and according to plan, on other dives in the vicinity, we saw an occassional shark acting kinda spooked and spooky.

So, I'm gathering that different shops do shark dives in different ways and maybe this one in the news today was kind of loosey goosey?
 
Re: Differences in shark dives

I've shark dived in the Bahamas - with a good sized group for "safety" but since I was the first one down to the anchor and there was a 10 foot grey there I wasn't in a hurry to do it again.

For diving I like the BVIs, where we dive 2-4 people and stay under 80 feet and see great stuff - deeper is more dangerous and diving with "tourists" who just took a course, or haven't dived since they took a course three years ago at a resort (100% pass, one day course) scares the crap out of me!
 
Re: Differences in shark dives

Red said:
- deeper is more dangerous and diving with "tourists" who just took a course, or haven't dived since they took a course three years ago at a resort (100% pass, one day course) scares the crap out of me!
Click to expand...

I agree 100%. When beginners are on a boat I usually hang with the guide until everyone else is out of air and then enjoy the serenity. :wink:
 

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