When Diving : Keep Calm and Don't Panic.

QThere was a video of a panic diver that went viral a while ago. The video was terrifying as we watched the panic diver suddenly took off her mask, trying to ascend fast and somehow losing her regulator. Questions were raised and comments were made. Some blaming the diver for panicking, some blaming the dive master and questioned why he couldn't detect the panic signals earlier.

Well, I am not a diving expert nor a diving instructor so I could not give any professional opinion or comments on the event, but it made me feel like sharing my own experience.

I took my diving license in 2012 and went to my first diving trip experience in the same year. I got my license in Jakarta, so the closest place I knew was Pulau Seribu. 

The first time I went to the sea, I went with my instructor and fellow students. There was nothing scary, I felt safe since there was my instructor and there was my friend (my instructor’s apprentice). There was only excitement.

Then later in the same year, a friend offered me to join a dive trip to Banda Neira, east Indonesia. Still with the excitement, I decided to join the trip along with someone I knew from my first dive trip to Pulau Seribu. So we went to the trip and met other two participants, B and D. I was the only rookie diver who has just got her license.

To make a long story short, as it was my first real diving experience, it was quite scary for me. I was so nervous, I was still having a hard time with my buoyancy and I had no clue what I could expect to face. On the first dive, just like any other anxious and nervous newbie, I had a hard time maintaining my buoyancy. It was a total yo-yo diving.

My first panic attack was when we needed to dive against the current a bit to get into a hole in a wall. It was my first time experiencing diving agaisnt the current and I had to admit that my first pair of diving fins weren’t really proper for diving, they were more proper for snorkelling thus they didn’t give much effect in such situation – it’s totally exhausting!

(side note: choosing your first diving gears is very important, take your instructor or someone more experienced in diving to help you with that, also bear in mind that diving gears can be very personalised.)

Once we got past the current, I ran out of breath and was panicking a lot, it felt like I wanted to give up and ascending as soon as possible to get some air (trust me, when you’re down there and something is wrong, the first instinctive thing you would feel like doing is going up to the surface as fast as you can to get some air -- this is when things usually get ugly). My breathing was very fast, it felt suffocating.

Good thing that I still remember what was taught, to be calm and not to panic. I gave a “trouble” signal to the divemaster and she attended to me, she found a spot where I could kneel down, she told me to breathe slowly and stayed on my side until I finally managed to breathe normally. It was scary. But once I could breathe normally, I forgot about the incident already and the excitement took over :p

Since the incident, I noticed that B, who was in our group was being attentive to me. He somehow managed to always dive on my side and took care of me. He often reminded me not to use my inflator often and to learn how to manage my breathing underwater. Whenever I went “too fast”, he would catch up to me and stayed by my side. I was glad that he was there with me at that time.  

Later he told me that he actually noticed that I was nervous. He told me that we can tell if someone is nervous or panic by their gestures. They might move around a lot, suddenly becomes very chatty or even very silent and “You can always tell by the look in their eyes,” He said – I guess he’s right.

B was a more experienced diver (meaning he’s been diving for a while), he was a rescue certified diver at that time and I was so glad that he was willing to take care of a newbie like me. I think it feels very nice to have someone more experienced to watch over you. So if you’ve been diving for a while and there’s someone new to diving in your dive group be kind to her/him, they might be feeling nervous and a little encouragement would mean a lot plus an experience sharing from you would be very valuable.

From the experience, for every dive trip (especially for first timers) I think it is best to know first where you are going, the condition and the possible challenges that you might have to face, it would make you feel better if you know where you are going and what can you expect to encounter. Look for dive stories or sharing from other people who has been there before.

Second, before going for a dive trip, make sure that your dive gears are working well. If you are using new gears, make sure you tested them before your trip so you can get familiar with their functions. If you are renting diving gears at the local dive centre, make sure that before jumping into the water, those gears were working properly and make sure that you know how to use them because sometimes each dive centre will use different dive gears.

Third, if you are feeling nervous, tell someone in your dive group. Tell your buddy or dive leader / guide to get their attention. It is okay to feel nervous, just don’t let it overwhelms you. Make sure that when something is wrong, keep calm, don’t panic and let your buddy know what’s going on. That’s what your buddy is for ☺ -- and if you don’t feel well, don’t force yourself to dive. I know that you might be very excited but trust me, it is better to take some time to rest because when you are not fit you will be less aware of the things around you and that can cause a negative effect.

Fourth, practice makes perfect, if you are still not confident with your buoyancy, practice a lot in the pool. Practice over and over again the basic skills that you learned when you take your license such as mask clearing, regulator retrieval, SMB deployment etc. those basic skills can help you in times of need. Also learn from other experienced divers, this is my favourite things to do, I love having conversations with more experienced divers or dive instructors. We can always learn from their experience and that would add into our knowledge when we’re dealing with problems underwater.

And for me personally, I would be more comfortable to dive with people that I know or have dived with. Why? Because then I already know their diving habit and vice versa; so I can rely on them. I know they will watch over me as much as I will watch over them. But then again, it's a personal preference, you can still have fun anywhere and with anyone as long as you keep safe and comfortable during your dive.

If you are a newbie, don't worry, keep diving! experience will add to your diving skills and if you are just recently thinking of taking a diving license, take your time to know the dive instructors of your preferred dive education organisations before finally choosing a dive instructor, as for me, I'd look for a strict dive instructor who emphasize more on the quality of the diver instead of just qualify them. Because no matter how fun diving is, the activity also has risks and as a beginner you would need someone to lay the right diving foundation and teach you well about safety and proper diving ethics so you can dive safe, comfortable and also friendly to the ocean :)