dandan
Full Member
- Feb 24, 2006
- 196
- 2
A series of unfortunate events or how Goldfever saved my life today
Hi all! This is a rather long post but it's worth the read.GF and I went out this morning with his dad on GF's boat to try out the new side scan that he built. Beautiful morning and the scan worked perfectly. We pulled the boat and went to a spot that we've been working, but in a different area. From the minute we got in the water it seems we had some kind of hex on us. Pulled out from the dock and the shift lever broke
. OK no big deal. Cruised to the spot and started diving. Nice dive in which GF eyeballed a 14k ring! We pulled anchor and headed for another spot. Saw what looked like a good spot so we anchored up again. Tossed my tank and BC into the water and jumped in. Immediately blew a regulator hose. OK since I was going to be the only one going in I switched regs w/GF. "How deep is it?" I asked. "We've only got about 12-15 ft of anchor line out" Cool! Nice easy one. About 2ft of visibility. "I'll be back" Let the air out of my BC and down I went. (P.S. this is my first yr of diving) Should be getting to the bottom... darker, darker still no bottom. Pitch black, big ear and nose squeeze, finally the bottom. Couldn't see a D--n thing! What does the new guy (Me) do? Starts panicing 
. I want up!! Tried to collect myself... think think.. Im going UP before I've even finished my thinking. Didn't know how deep I was, couldn't see the dive computer, thought I was going up slower than my bubbles. I was wrong. I got to the top and said "Way to deep and way to dark for me!" GF says "How deep were you?" I don't know . He takes one look at the comp. and says "You gotta go back down.. NOW!!! My first thought? NO WAY!! I'm in a panic!! GF jumps in the water w/me yells" Give me my weights!" Grabs the secondary regulator and starts dragging me DOWN!! He's saying "Time sensitive" and looking me right in the eye. Right then it sunk in. I'm in trouble. down we go, him w/no mask, no BC and holding his weight belt in his hand. Now real fear is setting in for me. He ends up dropping the belt after a few minutes because it wont let us (Him )control our descent or ascent. Everything in me is saying up! He's pushing me down. After a few minutes I was starting to calm down enough to start breathing in deep breaths instead of gasping. Up we start to go, stop, decompress, stop. Those minutes were the longest I've ever endured. GF kept cool. He did what had to be done and I'm sure he saved me from an agonizing death from the bends. Turned out we were anchored on the edge of an underwater ravine! I owe him a debt of gratitude that I hope I never have to return in like kind. The comparitively small cost was his weight belt and my swim fins. P.S. as we left he lost his cell phone to boot. He stayed with me until the danger was past, talking me down from my panic attack afterwards. Howard, truly, I owe you my life and my daughter still has a father. Dan
Hi all! This is a rather long post but it's worth the read.GF and I went out this morning with his dad on GF's boat to try out the new side scan that he built. Beautiful morning and the scan worked perfectly. We pulled the boat and went to a spot that we've been working, but in a different area. From the minute we got in the water it seems we had some kind of hex on us. Pulled out from the dock and the shift lever broke
. OK no big deal. Cruised to the spot and started diving. Nice dive in which GF eyeballed a 14k ring! We pulled anchor and headed for another spot. Saw what looked like a good spot so we anchored up again. Tossed my tank and BC into the water and jumped in. Immediately blew a regulator hose. OK since I was going to be the only one going in I switched regs w/GF. "How deep is it?" I asked. "We've only got about 12-15 ft of anchor line out" Cool! Nice easy one. About 2ft of visibility. "I'll be back" Let the air out of my BC and down I went. (P.S. this is my first yr of diving) Should be getting to the bottom... darker, darker still no bottom. Pitch black, big ear and nose squeeze, finally the bottom. Couldn't see a D--n thing! What does the new guy (Me) do? Starts panicing . I want up!! Tried to collect myself... think think.. Im going UP before I've even finished my thinking. Didn't know how deep I was, couldn't see the dive computer, thought I was going up slower than my bubbles. I was wrong. I got to the top and said "Way to deep and way to dark for me!" GF says "How deep were you?" I don't know . He takes one look at the comp. and says "You gotta go back down.. NOW!!! My first thought? NO WAY!! I'm in a panic!! GF jumps in the water w/me yells" Give me my weights!" Grabs the secondary regulator and starts dragging me DOWN!! He's saying "Time sensitive" and looking me right in the eye. Right then it sunk in. I'm in trouble. down we go, him w/no mask, no BC and holding his weight belt in his hand. Now real fear is setting in for me. He ends up dropping the belt after a few minutes because it wont let us (Him )control our descent or ascent. Everything in me is saying up! He's pushing me down. After a few minutes I was starting to calm down enough to start breathing in deep breaths instead of gasping. Up we start to go, stop, decompress, stop. Those minutes were the longest I've ever endured. GF kept cool. He did what had to be done and I'm sure he saved me from an agonizing death from the bends. Turned out we were anchored on the edge of an underwater ravine! I owe him a debt of gratitude that I hope I never have to return in like kind. The comparitively small cost was his weight belt and my swim fins. P.S. as we left he lost his cell phone to boot. He stayed with me until the danger was past, talking me down from my panic attack afterwards. Howard, truly, I owe you my life and my daughter still has a father. Dan
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I must admit thought, it took me a while to realize that GF was Goldfever and not your girlfriend.
I spent last night doing some very serious introspection. I've only froze up once before and that was way up (34 floors) on the side of a building in Manhattan. It takes a cool head to get the "victim" moving again. I guess the old adage "Look before you leap" comes into play. It's not going to stop me from diving but I'm looking at it from a new angle. I count my blessings. Dan
