picture the scene....

[Rocky631689]

....you arrive in Oslo on the first day of your IceDiver specialty course, complete with Poseidon FFM (from the other thread where I nearly suffocated.....) and the instructor on the course starts going on about how you go into cold water shock should you have to take your mask off in near-freezing cold water. (due to warm face v cold water).

Add to this the fact that you are under ice, with no direct access to the surface....horror pictures enter the mind!
Si the instructor has a brainy idea - on our checkout dive in the fjord, where the water is 3'c, have a practice of removing the FFM to simulate a fault that needs me switching to regular OC. Cool - I can do this, no problems!

I found a nice little platform at 1.5m, and briefed my buddy that we'd stop there at the end of the dive for this practice run. All they had to do was drag me to the surface should I go into cold water shock, or start drowning.....

So, dive ends, and we get to the platform. I'm ready. My buddy is ready. Its all systems go!

Now, the idea was that I flood my FFM slowly so that I got used to the rapid temperature change - great idea in principal, except the the Poseidon FFM is positive pressure....so very difficult to flood. Getting frustrated with this, I decided to rip the mask of backwards and just "get on with it". This presented a small problem.

The temperature change was indeed tremendous! apparently my eyes came out on stalks, just shortly before I turned white. I very quickly grabbed my regulator and attempted to breathe, but being so cold, lost all ability to think! I finally pressed the purge button and started breathing again, and thought to myself "its ok, I can breathe, now put my spare mask on....."
Then it suddenly hit me - While removing to offending FFM backwards....I ripped my hood back aswell - not content with a cold face, I went the whole hog and now had icecream head! I also dropped my spare mask, so still couldn't really see anything. Then I got cramp, in both legs!

At this point, I just had to stand up and get out! Coughing and spluttering, a stood, absolutely frozen and braindead - couldn't even talk. My buddy came up with tears in her eyes - she said it was the funniest thing she'd ever seen! Also, the instructor was now on the surface, along with EVERYONE from the dive centre, all just rolling around the floor with laughter!

"I was only joking when I suggested you try it!" was this comment between howls of laughter from my instructor......and to this I have learnt a very valuable lesson : just use a standard OC setup.....3'c isn't really that bad!

[Mal Bridgeman]

Nice story Rocky, It's a shame my buddy is out of the country atm else he'd be along to recount his first cold water mask removal story .... oh well another time
Mal