Never Dive Alone.

[spenzilla]

The story is pretty scary. My buddy Mike Jutt (he's a city and county lifeguard) and I decided that the conditions would be pretty good to go out and look for Ono in about 80 to 140ft of water. When we got out to the right depth, swam all over our points for a while chumming and running our teasers for close to 3 hours.

After a while we only saw some needle fish, so we decided to go in a little bit and try to shoot some fish in about 75 to 85 feet of water. We came up on to this part of reef that had a bunch of concrete pilings and slabs stacked up to make caves down on the bottom.

I made the first dive and shot a pretty nice Uhu. Just my luck, the thing gets tangled at about 78 feet or so. After i start to come up for air i notice a huge shadow come flying out from one of these caves and take a good look at the fish thats on my spear...

Turns out, its an ulua that comes darting out of the cave all black with chrome stripes running down his body. In March of 08, Mike got a 82 pounder up on our side, mike put the first shot in the 82 pounder and i killed it for him. So this time it was my turn.

After finally getting the uhu off the reef by diving and un tangling my line, i was kinda tired, but my body was feeling pretty good. So mike was swimming above the cave where we saw the fish, and i grabbed him. He gave me the green light.

As a standard safety percaution we always watch eachother dive just in case anything goes wrong. I dove down on the cave and landed softly about 10 feet away from it. The fish was giving me a perfect broadside shot in the cave so i amed right at the brain and shot. I heard and saw my spear hit the fish's face and I saw it swim out of the cave slowly. So I swam into the cave looking around for the fish and much to my suprise, it turned right around with my spear through him and tried to come back into the hole.

Right as i got to the bottom Mike was diving down for the back up shot just to make sure everything is alright (we always do that for eachother just because fish that big can really be unpredictable), at the same time the fish is trying to come back to the cave, it scares the crap out of me because i think he's gonna come into the cave and go nutz with a very sharp spear sticking out of it and i'm done. So i see his face about 2 feet away from me and i just pushed his head away from me. It swam out of the cave and then i swam out. Pretty spent on my breath of air, i started coming up to the surface. I heard Mikes gun go off, low and behold he stoned the ulua dead on the bottom. I look at the fish, let go of my gun and look up at the surface and thats all i remember...

Mike says that when he got up to the surface to yell and celebrate he saw i wasn't there. He looked and saw me sinking back down the the bottom because of the lack of o2 in my system i had a blackout in the last 15 feet from the surface. With both of our spears in the fish and luckily no current in the water he was able to ditch his gear, grab me, bring me up to the surface and shake me. He said the shakes didn't work and my eyes were rolled back into my head, my skin was grey in my face and my lips were purple. My weightbelt was dragging me down so he cracked it off. So after that he gave me 2 rescue breaths and after the second one i started coughing and gasping for air.

Not knowing what happend (cuz i was close to dead for a half minute) i woke up on the surface with my mask off and a little disoriented; cleared my airway, put my mask on, swam up to him gave him some knuckles and said lets go get that f**ker. He then told me what just happend, sure enough i'm feeling for my belt and it's not there, a little embarrased, i then swam over to him and gave him a huge hug for saving my life. We then pulled the fish off the reef and got the f*ck out of there. With everything except my weightbelt!!!

After seeing my other friend die at swim practice in 03, i have been reflecting a lot lately on trying to do the right things. I am really thankfull that mike was there and i can't emphasize enough how important it is to dive with someone in case things go terribly wrong.

The physiological term for what i experienced is called a "shallow water black-out". I'm just very lucky that mike knew what to do and we got out of there alive. I couldn't imagine putting anyone threw having to make a phone call and telling everyone close to me that i'm no longer here. I am going to keep diving because that is what i love to do, but i am NEVER GOING TO DIVE ALONE!

If one were to dive alone (I don't recommend this), it is very important that you use some sort of watch so you can time yourself and then give your system enough recovery time. One of the main reasons why this happend to me was because my dive watch needs a new battery and wasn't functioning for this trip. You better beleive that i am going to wear it from now on every time i dive.

-Spencer Haskins

[flamencoguru]

Hey Spencer,

I'm glad you're here with us and your buddy was able to react and do the right thing. DIVE WITH A BUDDY is the most important thing... and, of course, know your own limits. Just out of curiosity, have you ever taken a freediving course?

Again.... props to you buddy and you for sticking together!!!

Peace, Errol

[Blesum]

Good story, Spencer. I'd like to post it up on HSD if you don't mind. If you don't want it there, PM me and I'll remove it.

Mike says that when he got up to the surface to yell and celebrate he saw i wasn't there. He looked and saw me sinking back down the the bottom because of the lack of o2 in my system i had a blackout in the last 15 feet from the surface.

I STRONGLY suggest removing some weight off of your belt. You are using too much weight based on the above. General rule of thumb around here is that you should neither sink or float at 33 feet. I typically use no weights or only 3.5 pounds with my 5/4/3mm hooded full wetsuit when I'm doing my normal dives (60-120 feet). You should have floated to the surface upon blacking out at 15 feet depths. Very lucky.

Which island btw? :D

-Paul

[spenzilla]

oahu, probably a little ways away from where you got yours.:thumps:

[jfjf]

I think it is great that you shared the story and obviously that you are still with us. However, the way I understand the story, you guys were working together to bring the fish up rather than following the one up/ one down "rule" that I try to follow.

If I read it correctly, both divers were essentially at depth at the same time? You buddy is shooting a fish while you are in the middle (or early stages) of your ascent. Seems that under this kind of scenario, neither of you were in a position to help the other person and it was pretty much luck (rather than buddy diving) that allowed you to escape death.

I've done the exact same thing with another buddy when diving the Bahamas where we are trying to get a holed up grouper out of a hole before the tax men come, but this was 35-40 feet usually. In other words, I've done similar things myself, but your BO seems to be more an example of a guardian angel than an example of the benefits of following "standard safety precautions" that you reference in the write up.

[Petra]

Thank you for sharing your story, Spencer. I'm glad you're ok. I also agree that you should remove some weight from your belt. I'm glad Mike didn't panic and that he knew what do to to revive you.

One up; one down. And never dive alone.

[Sheri]

Spencer, glad you're still with us. It is stories like yours that make other divers more aware of the dangers, so thanks for doing that -- we all need constant reminders.

Just in the last month, I've heard of three young men who died from blackouts while spearfishing -- one in Australia, one on the West Coast of Florida, and another on the East Coast of Florida. I also rescued my blacked-out buddy 2 weekends ago. Fortunately, we were practicing one-up/one-down when I noticed he was lifeless and sinking, so I was able to bring him up pretty quickly from about 5 feet. In our case, the "lessons learned" were: 1.) He was diving with too much weight (which I bet 90% of spearfishers do), 2.) As a buddy, I needed to keep a closer eye so I could catch him at the surface, and 3.) Blackouts don't just happen on extreme dives -- that was not his deepest or longest dive of the day.

Spencer, if you can share your report with Dr. Neal Pollock/DAN at NPollock@dan.org and with Julie Richardson at www.divewise.org, it would be a big help to them. My buddy is going to add his story too.

Dive safe! :thumps:

[Ancient Diver]

You be lucky dude. Watchin' over your bud, to me, is more important than killin' fish. Fish are cheap; good buds are hard to find. Your bud Mike is da' man. Better name your first born after him. Bad karma otherwise. Thanks for sharing this "cold chills" story. Will

[nilsonov]

How long are your breathholds to cause SWB?
I always dive with a buddy but here in Brooklyn (yes, there's fish, and not the 3 eyed type!) the vis is usually under 8 ft and theres a pretty good current. When one dives, the other can't see him at all, so we may as well be diving alone. We keep our dive times below a minute. Anyone heard of SWB on these short breatholds?

[Bert.TC]

Thanks for sharing your story with us. My buddies and I started to film each other while diving, and another reason for us filming is the fact that it is hard to apply the one man one up in low viz and current. At least that way we keep an eye on each others. Ideally we would have a safety diver on the surface but diving 45 feet with 15 viz and current make it really hard or impossible. You guys have suggestions to increase safety in low viz?

We do add wight on our fins
we we come up the guys who has the speargun our polespear looks at the camera man, and
we take 2x or 3x resting time

Cheers,

[flamencoguru]

It doesn't guarantee super safety but I would suggest a float line (preferably a bright color) to track your buddy. It seems to work for us.

Errol

[asianspearo]

Thanks for sharing your story, Spencer. Although a cautious diver for the most part, from time to time I (and many others, I'm sure) do need to be reminded of the inherent dangers associated with our sport. I'm glad you came out of it sane and save. Kudos to your buddy Mike for his effective life-saving action.

Di Au

[Blesum]

It doesn't guarantee super safety but I would suggest a float line (preferably a bright color) to track your buddy. It seems to work for us.


Reflective stickers on fins also work wonders - Many divers in Hawaii don't run a float line to their gun. I'm the exception. They often anchor their floats and dive in the area of their floats. We usually have strong trade winds that can be a drag to deal with when the float's pulling you the whole time.

-Paul

[divewise]

How long are your breathholds to cause SWB?
I always dive with a buddy but here in Brooklyn (yes, there's fish, and not the 3 eyed type!) the vis is usually under 8 ft and theres a pretty good current. When one dives, the other can't see him at all, so we may as well be diving alone. We keep our dive times below a minute. Anyone heard of SWB on these short breatholds?

Thanks for asking this question. There is a great answer to this at http://www.divewise.org/articles/Proposed_60_second_dive_limit.pdf which was written by Capt. Frank Butler with the US Navy. It is well researched and provides good information. If you cannot dive under the direct supervision of your buddy because of poor viz, this is the only other method, that I am aware of, in which you can be reasonably protected from experiencing freediver blackout. It requires a diver to voluntarily limit each dive to 60 s.

The article is very interesting and I think you will find it helpful.

Julie

[Sin City Slayer]

Good job Spencer, hopefully some of the "local boyz" will take more thought to diving alone in the future and by the way welcome to SB! Your a great asset to our Hawaii forum and I'll dive country with ya anytime, brah.

SCS

[Spear CR]

Glad you are still with us.


Thanks for the story.