A run of obvious problems around Sipidan

[Smiling Dragon]

I'm very much a novice diver - approx 25 dives to my name, the Sipidan dives counting for around half of that number.

My partner and I arrived at the Mabul Island resort to be greeted by a friendly, knowledgable guide who introduced use to the boat crews and other dive guides at the resort and happily helped me attach me brand new spare-air reg to my brand new BC, and then also helped my attach the larger bore air hose it required to my brand new set of regs.

I had been shaking off a case of food poisoning and was mindful of the fact that I had all new unfamiliar gear so had set my max depth alarm on my brand new computer to 25m. Here in Wellington NZ, an 18m dive is pretty deep for a newbie like myself.

First dive the next morning we're off to Sipidan to dive the dropoff, the guide chearfully tells us we'll be going down to 30 or 40 metres or so but anyone who's not up for that depth can remain at 18m and in the crystal clear water, he'll keep an eye on us - just so long as we stick with our buddy. All good, fair enough.

Into the water and away we go, my partner immediatly descends to 30m with the rest of the group. Ok, so now what? I know I'm not supposed to be sitting here in 18m on my own with new gear, I also know that 30m even with a buddy isn't the best plan when I'm not 100% and don't know the gear yet. So down I go to 30m, computer beeping loudly telling me I'm too damn deep, thump buddy on the arm, wave angrily at the beeping computer and thumb upwards. Back up we go to 18m and all happy again. 5 minutes later we're doing the same thing all over again.

I didn't get all fuzzy headed afterwards but I know I'm not meant to do that sort of up and down crap.
I'm putting this one down to poor communication on my part, I should have been more clear to my buddy about the limits I'd set myself.

Next day I'm a lot better and more hydrated, my gear has been working well and I've had a chance to play with the spare-air and get familiar with the BC dumps etc. The next day or two produced fantastic dives at varying depths with no issues or discomfort. Amazing vis and enough sea turtles and other wildlife to keep my mask flooding from the broad grin on my face.

The next day we dived Baracuda point, an unfortunate choice of entry point required us to swim against a very strong current for the entire dive. A mild headache that I'd had all morning turned into a thumping horror over the course of the dive and proceded to get worse as I ascended, not knowing what a reverse block was or how to deal with one, I finished the ascent and spent the boat ride and surface interval trying not to throw up from the dizzyness and strange loud noises only I could hear. Decided to sit the next dive out and sat on the boat feeling sorry for myself watching the snorklers and occasional turtles surfacing for air. Skipped lunch and the next dive and crashed in my room, still very worried about the odd noises and pain which came and went over the rest of the day. Towards the evening I was better enough to get up and go talk to one of the dive guides to see what was wrong with me. The reverse block and it's causes and treatment was explaned to me and a spot of Psuedoefidrene later (available from the dive shop for a vastly inflated price) had be bouncing onto my feet in perfect health again.

Lesson learnt from this:
'Everyone knows about reverse blocks', expect me back then. It's not something SSI teaches, maybe a good side note to include when teaching newbs.
Clarinase rocks!
Go ask someone when you feel crumby after a dive, don't go find a place to hide.

Next day was amasing! Back to Baracuda point again, this time swimming with the current and a much reduced current at that. Huge school of Baracuda followed by a smaller but still impressive school of Jack Mackeral.
Second half of the day and we're down around 25m looking at the biggest Grouper I've ever seen when a very firm tap on the shoulder attracts my attention. It's not my buddy (she's fine, right beside me) but another member of the dive group, his buddy nowhere near him and he's signaling me a very clear 'Out of Air'!
While I knew what the OOA meant and what to do, I offered my Spare-Air without thinking - to him this looked like I was suggesting he breath off my BC jacket. And it's not like it would have reached anyway.
After getting a surprised look from him I came back to the real world and gave him my primary. I have no idea how he was able to stay so calm as to not just snatch my primary - I suspect I'd have done that if the situation was reversed.

After we're both breathing comfortably and I'm confidant I've got a good grip on his BC strap, can see my guage and we've both signalled OK to each other, I signal to ascend which is met by a negative signal in repsonse. He's gesturing at his tank valve.

By the time I've manouvered round to have a play with it, the guide has come back for us and I leave the fault fix to him. It turns out his air is only half a turn on. Once we got deep enough, his consumption started to become greater than the trickle of air getting past the valve. We continue to decend as the pressure in the system dropped until it got to low to breath off. Valves all sorted, and a few breaths of his regs while looking at guages and he's happy again. I switch back to primary and the dive continue.

Looks like it had been turned all the way off the half a turn on instead of all the way on then half a turn off. Bugger.

Lessons learned: I may have felt familiar with the gear but hadn't gone through the drills on it - I made a silly mistake and put someone else at risk as a result. It all worked out ok in the end and I'm still pleased I didn't do the standard newb trick of just staring blankly at his gestures but I should have known better. No way I can put it down to being narked either.

I'm sure all three of these are extremely obvious mistakes and none of them were particularly exciting, but figured I'd share as I'm very interested in opinions on my choice of actions and if I've taken the right lessons away with me. Not to mention the off-chance someone else might learn _something_, even if it's just what silly stunts a Newbie might pull!

[GLOC]

Originally Posted by Smiling Dragon

I'm sure all three of these are extremely obvious mistakes and none of them were particularly exciting, but figured I'd share as I'm very interested in opinions on my choice of actions and if I've taken the right lessons away with me. Not to mention the off-chance someone else might learn _something_, even if it's just what silly stunts a Newbie might pull!

They are only obvious if you encountered them before or someone has told you about them.

Thanks for sharing and letting other people learn from your mistakes/encounters.

Regards