A close call

Who was it that said that in order to appreciate life a man first experience death? I can’t remember for the life of me, I remember reading it in some book or another years back though.

Well I have now experienced death and to tell the truth it wasn’t that bad.

I went on this night dive last week, we took the boat out to sail rock in the late afternoon. Our first dive was in the evening whilst it was still light, I buddied up with Juergen as I was going to be taking the navigation module of the advanced divers course during the night dive and he wanted to make sure I had everything under control and was ready to take the test.

I’ve had this back injury and this was the first time I have dived since I thought it had gotten better. As we swam around the east edge of sail rock and hit the strong current I realised it was going to be tough. My back was complaining about kicking against the strong current and I was quickly out of breath, I guess sitting on cushions for a month doesn’t do a lot for you overall fitness.

Back on the boat we had some food and planned our night dive, about 7:30 pm we kitted up and entered the water. We would be diving as a group, all 6 of us instead of the usual buddy pair system. We descended to around 12 metres to a small ledge on the side of the coral wall and there we huddled together and turned off our lights to allow our eyes to adjust to the darkness.

We followed the same dive plan as myself and Juergan had swam earlier but the wind had gotten up and the current was a lot stronger. I was at the back of the pack behind a fairly messy diver who kept stopping and losing his orientation. This forced me to stop also, several times this happened, he was also in danger of kicking my mask off so I was forced to hang back further. All this start stop in the strong current put a lot of stress on my back and eventually it gave out completely, I couldn’t move my legs. So there I am, 25 metres below the surface, too far down for an emergency ascent, I can’t move my legs and the strong current is slamming me into the coral wall. I really thought that was it for me, I was so far behind the other divers and it was so dark they had no idea I was in trouble.

I guess most people wonder how they would react in a situation like this? Would they panic or keep a clear head? Would they remember what they need to do to get to the surface safely without risking the bends?

Well I have to say I had a mixed reaction, initially a little panic, breathing way too fast, great huge gulps of air from my tank. I did manage to calm myself down though once I realised smashing into the coral wasn’t going to kill me anytime soon (bloody hurts though). I managed a fairly well controlled ascent, well I must have because I’m still alive today with no nitrogen retention problems.

Luckily the waves pushed me back to the dive boat and I didn’t need to kick my legs much, the boat boy helped me get my kit off in the water and helped me up the ladder.

But boy oh boy what an intense experience, and I am really surprised to realise I thoroughly enjoyed it!

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