Grusome experiences.

Evil Phil

When I learned to dive it was in closed fins. i.e. no dive boots. The fins rubbed raw spots onto my feet which in turn got infected and then ulcerated. The ulcers were about an inch in diameter and were oozing puss constantly. The dive center ended up sending me to a clinic a days travel away for some rather grusome minor surgery. They cut the infected tissue out of my feet with a scissors and no local!

According to the dive centre this always happens to and only to Irish people. Anybody every have this experience? If not what grusome experiences have you had*?



*Photos will be allowed

Mick L

Glad to say that I've not had anthing like that happen, although I have noticed that any cuts I get in the water get infected real quick without fail.....but I guess that's saying something about Irish waters rather than Irish divers.

daveg

Feckin hell Phil............................ :eek:

My own worse experience was when my dive buddy pulled out my mouthpeice whilst "flaying" his arms about. We were just learning how to dive and he was trying to keep his balance. The thing is the mouthpeice brioke in half in my mouth. I stuggled for my secondary.... couldn't find it.... so calmly shot to the serface. Luckly we wern't deep.

Sarky

I went on a big diving pissup with my club to Donegal. I ended up with several nasty ulcers in my mouth because the neat rum made my mouth raw in some places, and there was a sewage pipe in the bay.:eek:

On the same trip, I took part in jumping off the nearby cliff. Y'know that little flap of skin in your mouth that goes between your upper lip and gums, in the middle of the jaw? Well, I hit the water in such a way as to slice that. Very, very painful. It also gave an almighty whack to one of my teeth, and I was worried for a while it might come loose!

I also spent a total of three hours in Galway's compression chamber because of an accident in Killary harbour( on my tenth or eleventh dive, I accidentally ddropped to about 43m instead of 18m...

I still love diving though...:)

Peace

Not my experience but someone elses....

As usual a few pints down the night before. This was on my OW Qualifying weekend so i was still (sorta) adhering to the ole "no beer before a dive" thing. Tsk, noobs. Anyway, one guy wasn't haveing such a good day and on the first dive pucked into his reg, i think he was in the 20-25m range. So he switched to hi secondary and continued his dive.

I wouldn't of wanted to be his buddy on that dive and depend on him donating a reg...chances are you'd get the one with chunks in it!!

Smiler

Originally posted by Sarky

I also spent a total of three hours in Galway's compression chamber because of an accident in Killary harbour( on my tenth or eleventh dive, I accidentally ddropped to about 43m instead of 18m...

How the hell did that happen?

Fin man fin:D

Did you go unconsious of something?

TacT

aye, have had plenty of nasty cuts that won't heal cus I won't stop diving and only had one that became infected badly, on the outside ball of my ankle (no boots in fins - seawater - dig&dig&deeper)

Finally was in a lot of pain and on an island with no hospital etc so soaked my foot in luke warm water for a half an hour and was advised (Aunt - nurse) to get a soap bar (savon de marseille) and rub it into the wound until it was filled with soap and it hurt like hell!

Let the soap and tepid water soak into the wound then rubbed the soap into the wound as hard as I could, stayed out of the water for 3 days and it scabbed over allowing me to get back into the water where I belong

A friend in France had a rather nasty experience diving at 50+Mtrs. Himself and his buddy were exploring some rocky plateau+cave and upon their ascent to the surface they struck a huge rocky wall above them with no escape :eek:

They were running low on air and had no choice but to go back down and find an alternative route back up (not an easy job in the dark with nothing but your lamp & compass to guide you).
Luckily they found their way back up but did not have the air left to decompress properly and were left with no choice but to blow up their stabs and head to the decompression chamber for 3 days to cool off afterwards!

Sarky

Originally posted by Smiler
How the hell did that happen?

Fin man fin:D

Did you go unconsious of something?

Mixture of inexperience (I'd only been doen to about 15m before, suddenly being at 40 can mess with your head something ferce...), descending too quick (I was only new, I still didn't have good bouyancy control), really poor visibility, and unexpected currents. It suddenly got pitch black after about 15m (which I was most definately not ready for), and I couldn't tell which way was up, and was too worried I might be finning further down. As one would tend to do in such unexpected situations, I royally freaked out, got really cold, started hyperventilating, flailing about, screaming... If the dive leader hadn't inflated my BCD I might still be down there. Myself and another rookie were seriously saying to ourselves "oh****oh****oh****oh**** I'm gonna DIE"

Just one of those nasty unforeseen accidents. We were all ok, that's the main thing. And we're even more cautious since, which can only be a good thing...

I have no problems laughing about it these days, but at the time I was terrified. Unless you experience that sort of thing yourself, it's hard to understand.

Smiler

Wow man that was a lucky escape.


You were blessed that day

AL][EN

I got narked at 32M my first time down (i was training for my advanced open water) and had a panic attack, My low pressure inflator hose got jammed had to disconnect it. really FREAKED me out but thankfully my dive instructor was there he calmed me down and i got out of it ok and even passed my Adv open water but i think its gonna be a while before i work up the coruage to dive below 20M for a while anyway

happybunny

My own experience isn't anything gruesome as such in the real sense of the word but it was still horrible to me.

I've always fancied trying it and on holiday to Corfu in 2001 my partner decided he was going, he can dive anyway so it was either go and be bored or go and try it out. Trying it out won in the end.

First of all the guys tightened the tank belt too tight round my ribcage so that I could hardly breathe I tried to sort it myself but it wouldn't budge, I was sitting waving my hand about trying to be polite and wait till they had time but at the same time starting to feel crap. Eventually it was sorted and it was our turn to go in.

After a while getting used to the mouthpiece and the feeling of the tank in shallow water etc they took us out further. They went through the dive langauge with us then told us to swim down to a metal pole about 10ft down to start with.

I found the tank really, really uncomfortable it kept pressing on the back of my head so I couldn't raise it far which resulted in only being able to really look down the way. I got so far down and decided "nope can't do this" so gave the "I'm offski" signal and went up. One of the instructors came up and saw me flapping about and half crying. He asked what the problem was and I told him I felt really claustrophobic down there and had panicked.

He smiled and said "c'mon you're Scottish you're supposed to be brave come try again" that made me laugh so I did try again. I got to the 10ft mark and managed to stay about 30 seconds and the guy asked for the ok signal and nope that was me offski again, you were supposed to signal and wait but I couldn't!!!

I was really disappointed with myself but I just knew if I continued I'd get so far and so deep and then I would panic again and most likely drown. The hardest thing to get used to was the ability to breathe!!! Sounds weird but I kept forgetting to breathe, I had no problems with anything else well apart from looking around and seeing a huge expanse of - water (duhhhh) and panicking.

Would I ever get over that??? Panicking and forgetting to breathe, was it a one off or does the law of diving state that if you're prone to panicking a couple of times you'll always panic???

Regardless it was a fascinating experience and one I would love to try again except I don't know if I could hack the sea in this country I like to see where I'm going.

Sarky

I'd be more worried about the temperature than the visibility. Ah, there are plenty of good visibility dives in Ireland if you know where and when to look.

And the whole claustrophobia thing has happened to a few friends. From the looks on their faces it wasn't pleasent. They did, however, keep at it and managed to get used to it.

You're right about the breathing, too. That's the hardest part for me still. You always have to be aware of your breathing and make sure you don't hold your breath. Fiddly, sometimes.

mackjohn

Try doing an Open Water Course via PADI, tell us where in Ireland would suit you and I/We will try to give you a list of site or clubs that would suit your location, The reason i'm suggesting PADI is that the course work will try to get you into the water and make you comfortable with out telling that there are more than 101 ways to die underwater etc, Also the Teachers that I have met/know are very relaxed and very helpful, It's all about enjoying yourself and being safe. Leave us (boards.ie) know what you think your self, were here to offer advice.

(excuse the spelling tonight, ref time and 8 pints)

Evil Phil

Hurray! Our first female diver!!! Welcome to boards.ie happybunny

My sister had the same problem as you with breathing and feeling claustraphobic when she did her PADI open water but she quickly got over it. Her first couple of dives were confined dives (in a swimming pool) and she completely freaked out. The instructors are used to this so they gave her some extra time in the pool and this sorted her out. Do the PADI course.

happybunny

I really really want to get to grips with the whole thing because there are some really great diving holidays on offer where you can scuba round old wrecks (not counting myself for once!! ) and think of the all the gorgeous things to be seen in crystal clear waters until you get to a good depth that is.

I'm in Scotland actually and I haven't got a clue where to start but I guess I could do a bit of research. I probably would panic again but being stubborn and pigheaded I could overcome that I know I could.

You always have to be aware of your breathing and make sure you don't hold your breath.

Isn't that the strangest sensation??? You know you should breathe but my wee mind kept saying "don't be daft woman you're under water" I guess that would pass in time also.

I think I'll go for it thanks everyone for your positive vibrations

happybunny

Originally posted by mackjohn
101 ways to die underwater etc

Erm what's the 101 ways to die underwater exactly??? I don't even want to know about the etc :eek:

daveg

Originally posted by happybunny
My own experience isn't anything gruesome as such in the real sense of the word but it was still horrible to me.

Happybunny firstly welcome Secondly you should not dive unless you have completed some training. As advised earlier you should do the PADI openwater dive course and if you feel diving is for you then you should also compltete the advanced open water.

It takes time to work up your dives, gain experience and to become comfrotable with diving. You need to be able to handle situations and this will only come with training and experience.

Too many "cowboys" in holiday resorts will bring folks out diving without any qualifications. This was experienced by a good friend of mine in Thiland who ended up bleeding from the nose and ears because she decended too quickly. She will never enter the water again... I'm not sure if you were doing an "introductory dive" or if you were brought out by some cowboy. When I trained with scubadive west we were not brought out past 1 meter until about our 4/5th dive.

As regards PADI dive centres there are loads in Scotland. Check your yellow pages.

Hope this helps

Sarky

Also, do some snorkelling. Learning to breathe face-down in water isn't quite so hard, and makes a good transition to full scuba diving.

AL][EN

Hi Happybunny welcome, I couldnt agree more with what sarky has to say i went diving before i got fully trained with PADI and my breathing and boyancy was all over the shop. Crazy crazy times. but after the traning its all just practice

id totally recomend getting trained first, it helps your boyancy (cos i really sux at that myself),

g´luck wit it i hope it works out for you