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My Second Dive Trip
ScubaJedi - 10/02/2007 3:51 PM
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Category: Travel
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My Second Dive TripJanuary 2007. Back to San Carlos I went to get in another dive before my big trip to Grand Cayman in April. Once again I was with Scuba Specialties and this time the instructors aboard were Kendall, the shop owner, and John Flanders who is now affiliated with Oasis Divers in Phoenix, another great shop. I was fun diving and ended up with Leslie, a Dive Master, as my dive buddy and roommate. January was mortal cold and it took some getting used to. I didn`t even complete the final dive on the last day as my feet were turning purple. But it was great being able to dive for the fun of it and not have to go through all those skills! I ended up driving down there all alone, I couldn`t hitch with anyone else nor did I have any passengers. I don`t mind going alone as I listen to audio books and keep myself entertained. As I mentioned in the previous blog, I am relatively fearless and don`t get too nervous about things like driving into Latin American countries by myself. On the first dive I lost my snorkel and the second dive, Leslie found it. We stayed at the same dive site and as fate would have it, there the thing was. I`ll bet there are a lot of snorkels and various other SCUBA knick-knacks laying on bottom. I had to surface first as I am an Air Sucking Pig (ASP) and seem to go through my tank faster than anyone else. I was feeling so mellow and at ease, but when I surfaced I noticed the ship`s motor was on and there was a commotion on deck. I saw three of the fun divers cutting the wetsuit off Ron, one of the students getting his open water certification. I hurried to get on board and John came up behind me and demanded me to move aside! I jumped back and let him on first. The surface support then helped me on and I stayed out of the way. Turned out the three fun divers were EMT`s and Ron had suffered a diving accident. Later on we found out what happened. They were on bottom doing their skills and when John went around the group asking everyone what they had left for air, Ron indicated 500psi. So John told him to get with Beau and head up. Well, Ron wasn`t too comfortable apparently because it does get harder to breathe when the tank is low. He began to panic and therefore started aspirating water in through the corners of his mouth. Beau was pressing Ron`s reg to his mouth to make sure he didn`t spit it out. After Ron was in full on panic, Beau released his gear and brought him up. He was unconscious by then and luckily the firemen EMT`s were on the job! They managed to resuscitate him and as soon as everyone was back on board we headed out. A faster ship met us up and took Ron, one of the EMT`s and Kendall out of there. They took him to the Naval Hospital in Guyamas for the night. Kendall stayed with him. Needless to say, Ron`s diving was over for the weekend. The next day we went out again and everyone completed their certification and I only dove the one dive that day as I was freezing.