I wonder how she even got through the confined pool dives ... , the instructor saved her bacon

Holy crap. Panicked driver go pure primal fast.

I remember a moment of panic I had under water. I was doing a dive on a wreck at 125 feet and some water got into my air stream and went down my airway. I started coughing into my regulator and tried hard as hell to stay calm. The coughing became involuntary at one point. After about 20-30 seconds, I got my breathing under control. But I can tell you, it was pretty terrifying for a few moments.

I've only recently been certified, and have about a half dozen dives. I've never seen anyone panic or had any issues so far.

What's interesting is that her first instincts were to take her air source out of her mouth, take off her mask, and go deeper.

Don't really think she was in much danger once the instructor got to her and shoved the regulator in her mouth. They appeared to be at slightly more than 1 atmosphere (33 ft; which is common for Open Water certification dives), probably around 40-45. So, she wasn't going to get bent because she came up too fast. Got to hand it to the instructor. He did a good job there getting her up.

Had a girl diving with me once that blew her tank up too fast and just didn't want to surface. Had to buddy breathe her back up. No problem. She was calm. And smokin hot.

I figured out in 1997 at 90 feet I was.claustrophobic just as we were about to enter a.chimney in Belize to come out at 130 feet. Glad I figured it out before I was in there head down! Dive master saw this and.had me stay above to wait. Belize is lots of wall diving.so I had fun waiting for them and got to watch a.moray eel up close as well as a big barracuda.

She was not ready for her open water cert dive.
Good thing the instructor or dive master was close.

The most rewarding training I did was for my rescue diver certification. Having to think through and work through all the things that could get other people in trouble definitely made me much more aware of my own limitations and self rescue abilities. Luckily I had that training before I had the coughing fit at 125 feet. Not sure I would have stayed as calm.

Description says "15 meters".

Looks like Rabbit Island in the background which, for the Magnum, p.i. fans out there, is directly across from Robin's Nest.

If they hadn't been down long and it was the first dive of the day, she probably wouldn't have gotten bent darting to the surface. On the other hand, considering her other actions, she may have made the mistake of holding her breath on the way up and suffering a significant lung over expansion injury.

It looked she was fighting the instructor putting her mouth piece back in. She had negative buoyancy and was sinking, I think that's what scared her and caused her to panic. If someone would have inflated her vest a bit she probably would have been fine. But someone who panics that easy probably doesn't belong in the water anyway.

I'm thinking of taking my advanced next, they have just a deep water but the advanced gets you more training. It's not easy in the middle of Montana though .

That girl needs to stay out of the water period.

Difference between a calm diver and a panicked diver, about a tablespoon of water!

Had a girl panic during mask removal, reinstall and clear. Dive instructor took her up calmed her down, brought her back to 25 feet she did it perfectly, we gave her an underwater ovation.

Mike

I've never dived so I don't know what it's like but I know for a certainty that you won't get me in an underwater cave.

I imagine that is how everyone acts in the moments before they drown, regardless of the circumstances. It is a realization you are going to die in mere seconds.

Is Magnum PI that show where that guy drove around in Hawaii in that gray Ferrari?

Cave diving is another level. Those guys basically have their own community. I think it will be a while before I am ready for that myself.

My first dive after certs was some caves off Lanai, they were pretty short for the most part. You learn really quick to control your buoyancy or get scraped up, those rocks are fuggin sharp. My main reason for diving is hanging with the fish on tropical reef's, the rest is not super interesting to me. Swimming with schools of colorful fish, turtles, whales and dolphins is pretty neat.

There's a bunch of places off Highland Beach where you'd take your tank off to go through the crevices so you could get to the lobsters. I believe scuba diving contributed to the COPD problems I have now.

During testing for the advanced level swim qualification in the Marine Corps, you have to rescue a person who is basically trying to drown you. The testing instructor is acting like a drowning, panicked person. The test is hard to pass and wears you the hell out. Getting your head pushed under constantly sucks. I passed it (WSQ 1) but it was a challenge. Out of 8 of us, 3 of us made it. Other two were new Ch-46 crew chiefs. That tells you how long ago that was.

seen them get panic attacks on Bering Sea Gold.....closest I'll ever get to diving

Did lots of free diving as a kid and had several incidences where I pushed it and things were getting dark as I broke the surface. For sure an endeavor where panic has no place.

My dive instructor was a Marine diver. Fun guy, no nonsense. He thought that some of the accessories people bought were a bit foolish, a dive knife being one he had little use for in most cases. Learning to buddy breathe, he joked that if you ever gave your regulator to a panicked diver, you'd find out what a dive knife was really for. Good joke.

Fast forward a couple of weeks: We're doing an open water dive at Sand Harbor in Lake Tahoe. He had me paired with a 15 year old kid. We did our ditch and don, and got to the the buddy breathing exercise. He popped his regulator out alright, and accepted mine just fine. But then his eyes were big as dollars. I gestured that it was my turn to breathe, and he firmly shook his head, NO!

Dang, no dive knife! Laughin'.

So I grabbed his regulator and popped in my mouth. Now we were both breathing, so I grabbed him and popped the CO2 inflator on his buoyancy vest, and up we went. On the surface, he was more agreeable to giving me back my regulator.

I don't dive, and never dove, and never will.

I am HELL ON WHEELS with a mask and snorkel and the clams and rock lobster fear me in Mexico.....

But I am always ~25 ft or less deep.

I'd love to scuba just to stay under at that depth for longer periods of time, but I have no desire to go deeper than I can surface without BENDS.

Good on all you though!

That's interesting, because I always felt better with my asthma after breathing in a couple tanks of compressed air. Different strokes for different folks.

Lol.

Laughing.

When you got back on land, You should have broke in your dive knife by putting it through his vest a couple times once he took it off. Lol.

Thought that looked like Hawaii in the background.

Girl in my class freaked. Same kinda deal. Started to panic, ripped off her mask, spat the reg and did a schit job of trying to swim for the surface.
Instructor grabbed her and buoyed her up right quick.

Something similar to happen to me on a wreck dive, in 85 feet, not as bad as you but bad enough that it changed my whole outlook on life and diving :-) and experience I do not ever want to repeat.

There was a regular hear years back who perished diving a wreck off of the Carolinas, I dunno how or why but I doubt it was panic.

As far as that newbie, I can understand how breathing off a mouthpiece far underwater might take some getting used to. Never have dived myself.

Not everyone is cut out for scuba diving. She is a danger to herself and any potential dive partner. My wife couldn't cut it either.

Montana has mountains. Mo better. If God woulda wanted us to be like fish....

Point of interest, my Irish grandpa left Ireland as a teenager to go work on the Panama Canal, ended up working as a salvage diver in the Caribbean. Had to have been in the early 1920's or before. That was back in the lead weights and pot helmet days. Suffered a severe attack of the bends, which eventually contributed to his untimely demise twenty years later. I never met him of course.

Danger is not getting the bends it is an air embolism (pnuemothorax) Air under pressure in her lungs will expand and blow the lining out of lungs. you have 8 quarts of air in your lungs at surface at 15 psi., at 33 feet you have still have 8 quarts of air but it has been compressed (30 PSI)and is actually 16 quarts of surface air by volume. That air expands as you go up. Only takes 3 lb pressure change to do that. We had a student get a small embolism buddy breathing in a pool swimming laps and went up the incline holding his breath when I went thru the special forces scuba course. Small hole and crepitation in shoulders that evening. Put out of the course and no diving for one year. That is also why you never dive with a cold. Mucus plugs will expand close one section of the lungs and blow out on the way up. Lost two friends like that.

May people say "I just will not go deep" when in actuality the last 15 feet coming up are the most dangerous.

I have had a valve malfunction on a deep dive with a student and he panicked at 100 ft and would not buddy breath after 2 times. I had to do a "blow and go" from 100 feet and it was not a fun experience. Immediately grabbed another tank and went to 10 feet to decompress for 15 minutes and diving was over for that day.

we lost more guys diving to include SF dive medics than ever jumping. The sea is very unforgiving.

night dive 2am in the morning, looking for a reported drowned kid in a mountain lake, pitch black. i was tangled in heavy weeds and came on a fish with big eyes at about six inches from my face. i screamed, thus dropping my regulator. i had my secondary in front of me, so problem solved. had to pull a dive knife to cut my way out of the weeds to the surface.

another time some idiot drove a d 6 cat into a lake. we were under the ripper blades on the back trying to attach a cable to pull it out. about sic inch visability. that is when i started to wonder why i was doing this for free for the county.

So what can you do for local diving?
How deep can you get in some of the crystal clear lakes before you run out of light for visibility.

I'm assuming you can suit-up to ward off the cold temps, is that a poor assumption?

The area in Tally Lake where we catch the monster Lakers is about 40ft deep, it's up closer to the boat ramp, the far end is way too deep to dive at 450 feet of depth.
I'd love to get down there and see what there is to see at that 40 ft level.
Tally Lake has warmer water by late summer but tends to be darker colored due to high levels of Tannins, is any of it doable?