27th of December 2006

[Mark]

Was a day I'll never forget.

A mid-winter trip out of Brighton had been organised (through YD if I remember rightly) and it seemed like a great idea as I'd never done a sea dive at that time of year before and having done a fair amount of the usual inland practice sessions over the winter I was looking forward to a change of scenery. I had not conducted a sea dive for about six months prior but I had been diving with some regularity and very recently.

The dive was the HMS Minion which lies in 47m (I think - I maxed 43.3m). The dive was dark and the visibility on the wreck was a few metres. The bottom phase of the dive went without incident although I felt pretty cold.

The dive was thumbed after 30 minutes of bottom time which by my calcs would have given 30 minutes of deco from 21m on 50%. We started the ascent, the vis really closed in and it became very dark - not a problem. The deco and ascent were being run by one of the other members of the team (team of three) who I had never done a deco dive with before. I thought at the time that we seemed to be ascending uncomfortably fast in the initial ascent up to our deepstops. Much faster than I was used to. The trouble with this surprise fast ascent, shit vis and being unable to read my Vytec in the darkness was that I had too much gas left in my suit by the time we reached 21m. I felt very light when doing my gas switch and there was nothing in my wing. My suit was obviously over filled with gas on the bottom trying to compensate for the cold and it just didn't have enough time to escape. After the gas switches were completed I signalled that I was going to shoot my bag. I opted to use my 6 foot Halcyon alert marker and stupidly tried to orally inflate it. This was a huge mistake! I didn't get enough gas in it with the first attempt so while taking my eye off of the team for a second I went head down, took a very deep breath then started to blow into the bag. While I was blowing I felt my boots fill with expanding gas and I started to rise feet first. I could see the other two disappearing a few metres below me and I knew that I was going to have some big problems if I couldn't turn upright and get the gas out of the suit sharpish. Thanks to my BSAC drysuit training I was able to correct my feet first ascent within what I guess was about 5m but I was screwed at that point and there was no way of stopping the Polaris ascent to the surface.

I went from 21m to the surface in about 20 seconds! It happened VERY fast! I think I was saying F***************K all the way up and ensuring I didn't hold my breath (PADI OW training kicking in). The profile below shows what happened.



The boat was on scene within about 20 seconds and I got straight back on board. I was definitely in a state of shock and was thinking oh the shame! Probably not a great idea to go back down and do the omitted deco under the circumstances. I think I was back on the boat before the team got another bag up but I really just wanted to get out after that anyway.

At this point I felt fine, just a bit dazed. I expected to feel dazed after a shock like that. It was a scary experience to say the least. I sucked my AL40 of o2 dry on the boat but as I had no obvious symptoms at the time decided I had gotten away with it so declined the offer of a helicopter ride. (I was stupid! Of course I was bent!)

The team surfaced after completing their remaining deco and we tried to figure out what had happened etc. I didn't really know what had happened at the time. I couldn't figure out why there was so much gas in my suit.

All onboard were supportive on the way back. The banter certainly made me feel better about what seemed like the end of the world at the time.

The following morning I was obviously suffering with symptoms so called the chamber at Whipps Cross and was told to go straight in. I did a table 6 with a 2 hour follow-up run the next day. I had type I & II symptoms. Aches all over the place including the right groin, thighs, back, arse, numbness and aches in forearms, a dead spot on my right shin (couldn't feel hot/cold or a pointy thing) not too great really. It all cleared up after the table 6 but then took about another four weeks before all the twinges went away.

So what did I learn from this dive? Well I had to get a new zip in my suit as it was leaking. I have had to Aquasure another leak in the suit which was also making me cold. One thing that really struck me was how shit my Vytec was when I needed to read it in very nasty conditions. A Liquivision X1 would have been great at the time due to the fab display. It really didn't occur to me that my buddy had had further training from my own with a different instructor and had been trained to ascend faster up to the deep stops. This only came to light on our next dive together in much nicer conditions -



The above was my next sea dive. Same buddy, same fast (for me) ascent but conditions were better and leaky suit had been repaired. It was after this dive that I said 'don't you ascend fast up to your deep stops!' I then realised what had probably happened on the bendy dive.

I don't have much else to add really. I'm well over it now but it did take a while for my head get over it.

Comments, thoughts & questions welcome.

Best regards,

Mark.

[GLOC]

Thanks Mark. I had heard about this at the time and knew the stigmas involved so was going to PM you to post anonomously.

However, two things that strike me which come up quite often in this sub-forum (generally) and you have identifed them which hopefully means that people will learn from them.

1. Denial with DCS.
2. Training, or lack of recent training.

Having been with Garf with his bend, and also had the denials myself on two occasions (on both counts they weren't bends), I know how strong that feeling can be. If in doubt, there is no doubt.

And the training has been done to death!!

Thanks again for posting. I also know there were some issues with the inwater bods and I hope will come forward with their points as there is something to be learned from that too.

[Simon TW]

Good that your all okay and back in the wet stuff.

[Diving Dude]

Muppet.


EDIT


l've waited fifteen months to say that.

[Bardo]

Originally Posted by Diving Dude

Muppet.

So you call him a muppet but don't threaten to slap him. How come Mark gets special treatment? Should he feel honoured

BTW Mark - you didn't mention the backgas you were using. I'm assuming you were using standard gases but it might be a good idea to clarify for those who aren't DIR and/or GUE trained...

BTW2 - I liked the way you credited your BSAC and PADI training. Just goes to show that once you become a 'roughty-toughty techie', there are still important lessons from recreational diver training that remain just as valid! Just goes to prove that GUE doesn't hold the monopoly on good training, after all...

[Diving Dude]

This was the one and only time l've met Mark, which was a pity because it would have been an ideal opportunity to 'rip da piss'.

Now l've met you Mark, you're fair game

[broady]

Glad everything turned out OK in the end.

It seems that whilst there are other contributing factors the 'biggy' was the ascent rate.

Looking at the 1st graph it appears that you left bottom - 43m @ RT 33 mins arriving at a first deep stop of 28 metres @ RT 35 mins. So 15 metres in 2 mins or an ascent rate of 7.5 m/min.

Out of curiosity what was the standard ascent rate for this portion of the dive from your training?

What further training had your other team member had and do I understand correctly that he was trained to ascend at a higher rate? Do we know why this is ?

We're constantly reminded that GUE is a complete holistic system and must be fully embraced for it to work. I am therefore surprised that a disparity in such an important (arguably the most important) phase of the dive appears to exist.

ATB

Graham

.

[GLOC]

The T1 ascent rates are below



As you can see, for the deep part, the ascent rate is planned to be 9m/min

[Mark]

Hi all,

thanks for your comments. I was not kidding when I said BSAC drysuit training and PADI OW 'don't hold your breath' training kicking in.

My buddy had taken Tech-2 and was really drilled to get moving and keep up the ascent speed in the first phase of their ascent. It wasn't hammered home so much on my Tech-1 course so my regular buddy and I never ascended at this speed. On the second dive pictured above I felt like I was having another rapid ascent up to the deepstops. I think the Vytec ascent rate alarm went off (the blue dot on the profile). I would now expect this ascent speed and do the same myself when I'm running the deco.

The dive gasses were 18/45 and 50%.

Cheers,

Mark.

[nickb]

9m/min is a fairly standard rate across agencies these days, is it not.

Until you're used to doing it, it does seem pretty quick but you really don't want to be hanging about racking up more deco.

Mark, were you already GUE trained at the time?