Wast Water

Spot the difference?

Great to see you had a good day at this superb location.Only sorry I had to miss it, but it was my own fault having double booked the date.Hope to make it next time.

wow

excellent day out .
dive buddy was lex .we planned to just go to 30 meters ,we followed the other teams into the water and stayed at the back .followed the rope down to the pinnacles then spent a small amount of time trying out the camera ,all was well at this point .the rest of group started to decend over the wall at the pinnacles,myself and lex signaled to each other and both felt comfortable to go a little deeper ,i went first and went into skydiver position ,dropping down to 38 meters .i could see smudge and crew below me and lex was just above me ,i stopped at 38 meters looked around for a second then " BANG " , i lost my vision , i could not focus on anything ,i looked at my depth guage and air but was unable tok read anything ,then panic set in my regulator was not giving me air.i was sure it had stopped working .i kept breathing in and out fast hoping it would ease the situation .lex was brilliant she kept at my side and we somehow ascended to 22 meters ,i was still fighting my regulator ,not getting enough air out of it .when back at the pinnacles lex took over and we started to asscend i still could not see my computer or guages ,i was more scared of freaking out lex and putting her off diving forever ,funny things go through your mind when you are panicking ,anyway lex kept eye contact with me and we started to go up lex took over the dive and we carried out two deco stops at 12 and 6 meters .my sight had returned to normall but my breathing had not .time seamed to be giong slow ,my air had dropped to 80 bar by the last deco and we completed our 3 mins at 6 meters .we then slowley surfaced. on the surface i just smiled to lex and said hmmmm fresh air ,.
so what went wrong ? the night before i had not gone to bed till 1 am ,i had drank some wine but not a lot .i was tired from the drive up to wast water ...my fault i like driving too much and did not ask anyone else to drive even though steve hobbs had offered
i was sure my reg was not working . but it was .its serviced and maintained by barry at eccy delph
i had the feeling of .i dont want to be here at 38 meters .then went into panic mode ,.when i paniced i must have started to hyper ventilate ,not sure why ,
thank god i fitted a cuff dump to my dry suit the week before because there was no way lex would have worked out how to turn the shoulder valve as she dived in a semi . and i would have surfaced with her hanging on to me
a good calm buddy who can recognise that something is wrong is a must .thank you lex .
in no way has this put me off diving and we did a second dive in the afternoon and all was fine
so narcosis can strike at any time ,be aware

ive since downloaded the dive log and not once did we have a slow reading on asscent ,and the dive profile looks really good although i did drop from 22 to 38 meters in less than 20 seconds ,think i landed on jacks head and pushed him further into the bottom

and a big hug and thank you to lex xx

You would have done the same for me Rich - thats what buddys are for!!!!

Please be reassured that it hasn't put me off diving, it has just emphasised the importance of good buddy checks, buddy briefs, diving safety knowledge, having confidence in your own abilities and being able to trust your buddy.
I must admit that I was a bit scared and worried for you Rich, because you were doing some really random things!... but thats what narkosis can do to you! Considering the narkosis and us being unable to find the ropes... we did really well to surface safely and quite near to our entry/exit point!

Really enjoyed our second dive... Rich and I started off messing in the shallow water, learning about the buoyancy issues in a dry suit. Rich really enjoyed filling my suit up completely with air and watching me fly to the surface! ...we were only at 2 m, but I certainly benefitted from the experience.... trying to get all the air out my feet was well funny!
We then went for a nice swim to 10 m. Spent a bit of time working out how much air I needed to maintain neturally buoyant and then practiced moving the air around my suit. The cuff dump on my dry suit was great - I found it really easy to dump air as we were assending. Was buzzing when we got out of the water. I was excited and nervous about my first dive in my dry suit, but Rich was great - thanks loads for looking after me!

Great day all round really.

Lex x

ps Big thanks to Teresa for being a fab hostess in the dive van! xx

Well done to both Rich and Lex. I agree, that is what good buddying is about. Doesn't NARK feel good - NOT

Lex, you did good on controlling the situation and remembering what to do. See, all that training works. Good instructors or what - and well done the Smudge and Squirrel for teaching it correctly.

Hmm Nort sure im convinced that Rich was narked, might need looking into, loss of vision isnt normally asoiated with Narcois, random actions yes.
Correct me if i am wrong Smudge???
But good to hear that you are both ok, experience is a great teacher.
Dive Safe.

a BIG THANK YOU to everyone who dived with me and was there diving in the group .
Thanks lexi hope no one got a queasy tummy from my cooking. Thats what probably upset richards days diving my exceptionally good cooking. Thanks to emma and steve too Saturday night was fantastic he he xxx .. I really had 2 mind blowingly good dives worth getting up at an ungodly hour to get there. yawn yawn .

In reply to me learnerd friend

Narcosis affects everyone differently. For most at 5atm (40m) the effects are mild equivalent to a good tumbler of whiskey . Just like whiskey, other influances can effect the way you feel.

Nitrogen is effected by; poor diet, tiredness, de-hydration, illness, physical fittness and being overweight (not getting at anybody, these are just facts)

Symtoms vary from person to person. In extreme cases the ability to act in reasonable manner is the most serious.

Lets say you get very very drunk.... put yourself in remote village in the dales... the light is the low, the rain and wind lashes at you... your B&B is a mile down a country lane, theres a bus in ten minutes, the bus stop is 500 yds away.
So the question is would you make it?: Start with your watch? could you read it drunk? and in the dark and rain? could you focus enough to read it. This is besides you would need to toilet several times, kick a few plant pots, have hampered walking ability and be totally out of control.

So thats what narcosis could be like

Narcosis, my foot - that's Friday nights of old

Papa, does it only feel like that on Irish

to my other learnerd friend..

You are so right, irish whiskey it would be - who wants only one tumbler of the scotish whisky

and to those who come from north of the border... I KNOW I CANT spell but but i do know my whisky from my whiskey

Impressed by your knowledge of the magic 'e', not many people know that.

See you all tonight at the cloudy puddle, I need to try out the torch......and yes I will still be braving the shorty, its not that cold yet.... (actually maybe I should keep my opinions on that until after I have been in).

What's all this biz about Learned friend???? What you bin drinking??

Mr Squrriel you are my (lear)nerd friend

by the way have you got DEEPER INTO diving book..of mine

thanks for the concern squirrell ,, i have a really bad chesty cough this week and wonder if that had anything to do with what happened .i did not have it before the dive but have been feeling a bit off for the last two weeks ,maybe all related ,any way big thankyou for those plastic boxes ,just need something ie radio to fit into it .

Het Squirrel, I bet whatever he was drinking he didn't buy

Mr Dobs, Thanks for your acknowledgment of the 'e'. I will agree will papa he does know his whisky. Luckily, I have the happy state of knowing both the whisky and the whiskey

It has been stated that this is the reason that I don't recornise NARK in myself. I just think it's a normal night out with the lads

Just for reference though. If you turn up at Papa's garage just be wary of any 'free' whisky he may offer. He might know about whisky but some people that get him whisky for gifts have no *kin clue