Lessons learned - a SWB Story

[Amphibious]

This Sunday’s diving started like any other. Far to early and with not enough sleep. I was aboard a boat with 5 others, bound for some ledges 15miles off the coast of Daytona Beach Florida. Cobia were running and we had plans to take a few home. It would be some fairly challenging free diving, depth being 75’ to 85’, and visibility was poor, the water being green stained and heavy with suspended particulate, about 20‘ of viz. seas were a choppy 2’ with a noticeable surface current. I was diving alone, the 3 other divers aboard being scuba divers. I was used to this scenario, in my 10+ years of free diving I was accustomed to diving solo, typically being at a loss for buddies and finding myself a tag-along on scuba diving boats . I started my diving with a warm up. Some light stretching and breath control on the surface before making a series of warm up dives in 10’ increments down to about 60’. when I felt comfortable, and fully relaxed I slipped below the waves and headed for the bottom. The diving was great, while the other divers burned up their first tank of the day, I did a few nice relaxing dives to the bottom, using their surfacing bubbles to mark the ledge’s location. I am a careful diver, and I kept the bottom time short, and gave myself very long (at least 8min) surface intervals. Was deep, dark and comfortable spearing that yielded a couple nice fish.

After short lunch break and we moved to another spot and the diving resumed. The winds had picked up and the surface current increased, so I was having a hard time maintaining a fix on the new ledge and changed tactics to hanging onto a rope that trailed behind the boat for my breath ups. A few more dives and no fish, I was way off the mark and diving to a flat sandy patch far from the ledge. Those fishing onboard had caught a few small sharks, but not much else. Two of the scuba divers were now back on the boat and I prepared to do my last dive of the day. I dropped down to the sand at around 80' and two large snappers cruised in to check me out, I aim at the larger of the pair, squeezed off a shot and watched the stoned fish fall to the bottom as I turned the dive and headed for home. I had just become positive (about 30’ from the surface) when I reached down to arrest the reel as something was causing the line to play out rapidly. And that’s the last thing I remember.

I regained consciousness on the surface. Gagging, coughing, gunless and very confused. My arms and legs would not function well and my entire body felt like it was on fire. I was breathing like a scared rabbit and could feel my heart racing in my chest. My mind became suddenly very sharp and very clear. I knew two things. I had just had a shallow water blackout and I was drowning. I spun around as best I could and saw the boat a ways off and began to wave. I was to busy coughing to yell and could barely keep my head above water. With no sign of response from the boat, I decided that I had two options, get to the boat, or drown. It donned on me at this point to remove my weight belt. it was light at 6lbs, but I could not seem to make my fingers work the buckle, they were very tingly and useless. I drew my knife and cut the belt away. Dropping my edge I started the swim back. It took what seemed like hours to get to the boat. Constantly coughing and gagging, my arms suffering from a serious lack of motor control, and my legs burning with every kick. When I had the ladder in sight I mustered what I had left and grabbed hold, swinging my legs into the rungs. That was it. I was spent. I had just enough energy left to maintain my grip. The other divers, all now back on the boat asked me if I was ok, when I shook my head side to side they dragged my limp body by the arms onto the deck of the boat. I was laid on my side and my mask and wetsuit top removed.

The lads on the boat has seen me waving and had soon realized I was in trouble. They had tried to pull anchor but it was firmly stuck. Now, as I laid on the deck, coughing up large amounts of pink frothy blood, I could overhear then struggling to break it free. During the hour ride to shore I continued to cough blood, and my breathing stayed very shallow and rapid. A constant stream of water trickled out of my nose while my sinus and various other cavities drained. My heart felt like it was going to burst from my chest and my arms and legs were burning and slow to respond.

When I arrived at the hospital, I was quickly moved to a bed in the emergency room. I was shivering uncontrollably, despite wearing pants and a large jacket. My heart was in Atrial Fibrillation and my heart rate hovered between 170 and 180 beats per minute. After being poked and prodded, having blood drawn, absorbing lots of IV fluids, multiple chest x-rays, and seeing more then a few docs I was diagnosed with Bilateral Pneumonia as a result of inhaling a substantial quantity of seawater. With various medications my heart rate was returned to a normal sinus rhythm, and oxygen therapy helped me breath a little easier. I spent two full days in hospital and have now returned home, mentally and physically exhausted.
So, what have I learned from this little adventure? Well I’ll never free dive solo again, that’s foremost. And no matter how careful and cautious I think I’m diving, SWB can still sneak up and rear it’s ugly head at any time. As I don’t know of anyone that has had a SWB alone and survived I consider myself very very lucky and I ask those that have to just read this to not make the same mistake I did. don’t be an fool (like me), ignorance and over confidence nearly cost me my life. Always dive with a buddy. It doesn’t matter how good you think you are, or how long you have been diving, this could happen to you. It’s instantaneous, gives no warning signs and hits like a freight train.

I have been told not to free dive for at least 4 weeks to give my lungs time to recover fully. A horrible thought, diving is a huge part of my life, but far better then the alternative.


I would like to thank Chiung & Son, Alex, Mike, and Jessie for their help in keeping my poor dumb ass alive and getting me to the hospital. such help I'll never forget, and hope to oneday repay.

*****posted Nov.23 on spearfishingplanet.com*******

Originally Posted by Chiung

Colin, we were very fortunate to have Alex on board. Having him watching you with his background as a surgeon helped me concentrate on getting the boat "ride-ready" and back inshore.

To all:

A few things I have been thinking of the last few months that I will implement before going offshore again is an anchor buoy that will let me quickly jettison the anchor line to retrieve a diver/head to shore. We wasted 10 minutes pulling that anchor in - I was ready to tell the guys to cut the line when they brought it up twisted like a pretzel. The other thing I will do is start carrying oxygen. It could be a life-saver.

Lastly, I'll need to make sure everyone aboard has an idea of what to do in case of the most common emergencies. In Sunday's incident I feel like a bullet was dodged by pure luck.

I was the last scuba diver in the water, hanging on the anchor line at about 20' after about 8 minutes of a 20 minute deco obligation when I felt the line surge up about 5'. I dropped down to 20' again thinking it was a freak surge when the line started rapidly jerking. I looked up and could make out the outline of the boat and a head leaning over the bow. I ascended a few feet for a clearer view and could see it was Jamie (non-diver fisherman) waving me up.

My Uwatec gives me 3 minutes if I break deco before it locks me out, so I figured I would ascend to see what was up, thinking maybe Jamie had boated another cobia, then descend to finish my deco. What I heard instead was that Colin was way back behind the boat waving.

I dove with Colin for the first time about 4 weeks ago - a night dive in the intracoastal in 20'. I was on scuba going for stone crab claws, and Colin was freedive spearing. So Sunday was my first time offshore with Colin and my first time offshore with a freediver. It was also my first time with Alex and Mike, 2 Spearboard members.

Our first drop of the day was at the Party Grounds (about 25 miles offshore, not 15 :awink: ) Alex and Mike dropped in, followed by Colin. I stayed on the boat with Jamie and my boy and made sure they were set for fishing. Colin soon surfaced with a nice sheepie, and I was immediately impressed at his ability to breathdive to ~90' and come up with a fish.

We moved slightly SE to a nice ledge for our second drop in 85-95'. I was the last scuba diver in again and had a productive dive and was surfacing uneventfully when Colin had his SWB incident.

So when I surfaced and heard that Colin was way behind the boat waving, something told me it was something that couldn't wait for another 12 minutes of deco. I got back in the boat and immediately joined Jamie in stowing all the fishing gear while Alex and Mike kept on eye on Colin. In the meantime Colin made an apparently superhuman effort to swim to the boat. He made it to the ladder before we had the boat ready, and Alex and Mike pulled him in limp, exhausted and obviously in big trouble.

Lessons learned:

Keep an anchor buoy on the boat and instruct everyone on how, and when, to use it. On Sunday if we had one on board and if I had showed everyone how to use it, they could have deployed it while I was still hanging, picked up Colin and come back to get me.

Keep oxygen on board. Colin's breathing was labored, rapid, and short. Having oxygen could have helped calm his breathing and heartrate.

Diving with people for the first time should be a time to place extra emphasis on safety.

[atomichaggis]

Wow... that is really sobering. Glad You are still with us and on the mend.

[spaghetti]

Fanculo, I'll check my reels this evening. Happy you're here to tell, mate.
But I don't understand the sequence: you were almost out of air, the reel jammed and you struggled to pull it up? For several seconds?
BTW: I always bring a belt reel as a spare for these cases, but honestly I don't think there would be any time left for attaching the spare reel. Just leave it: the greatest fish and the best speargun isn't worth your life.
Not important anyway. The important is you alive and kicking.
Love you Amphy!

[Amphibious]

it had nothing to do with the reel, I was surfacing very comfortably and calmly. It was just my last memory so I added it. I felt like I had lots of air left, felt like a great dive

[spaghetti]

Too short pauses between dives? Just guessing...but you siad 8 minutes so wtf?

[Amphibious]

8 to 10 minutes.

[BennyB]

Jesus Colin, what a scary story. So glad to hear you're ok mate.

[atomichaggis]

What was the average duration of each dive?

[Amphibious]

1:15-1:20. a few in the 1:35-1:40 range. I keep them short while spearing.

[settingsteel]

WOW Amph!!!!!
Glad to hear your OK, hope this sends the message out to others, you seem an experienced diver yet, as you mentioned SWB can happen to anyone...20 yr ago I use to dive alone since my children came along, it changed alot of things- especially the way I valued my life, funny thing huh???
Have a quick and safe recovery.

[Donna]

Wow, what a sobering story. Glad the outcome was good in the end, but scary just the same.

Get well soon, and take care of yourself

Donna x

[BatRay]

Poor buddy I'm glad you're still with us. Thanks for telling your story, and I'll be praying for your recovery.

[bluecape]

Wow. They say if a story can change one persons perception and future acts, then it's been worth sharing. Your story has changed mine for sure. Glad you were kept with us.

Regards

Jeff

[mindset]

Thanks for sharing that Amphibius. It actually might save a few lives...mine included. Congrats on making...took lots of guts and lots of luck. The big question now is are you going to completely give up on diving alone or just become a lot more conservative. e.g. limited number of max. 15 meter, 1 min, dives with lots of time in between (this is what I have done when alone...but after your experience I might reduce the numbers even further).

[spadefish]

WOW,

You were so lucky as from what your symptoms imply, you had already inhaled water! That is SOOOO close.

I have lost 2 buddies to SWB and it frightens the **** out of me.

Really glad to hear you were NOT one of the statistics.

However, as soon as you can, you must get back in the water.

Good luck with your recovery