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Unread 01/06/2009, 10:38 PM   #118
Mad Scientist
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Join Date: Mar 2002
Location: Mass
Posts: 2,776
Quote:
Originally posted by billdogg
I had been certified about 2 years - maybe 50 dives - I was diving the local quarry - Gilboa Stone Quarry - with the guy i got certified with and a couple of more experienced divers. I had my video with us, and was at the back of the pack, so i kicked like mad to get in front to get a shot of everybody going past. No problem, right??? Did I mention that we were at about 110', where the spring feeds the quarry, and it was early April? the water temp was maybe 40. I was diving a USD reg that was meant for shallow, warm water use. Guess what froze!!!! lucky for me, the lead diver saw what was happening, and as soon as we both understood that a freeflowing reg meant only that it was time to surface, thats what we did. No harm, no foul. Did I learn my lesson??? young dumb me??? no way. The very next weekend, just my buddy and i were on the same proflie at the same spot in the quarry. I was lead diver, this time at about 120', when yup - the darn thing froze again. I kinda went "well crap - time to surface and buy a new reg!!!" I turned to locate my buddy - he was 20 or 30' behind me kneeling in the mud - NARCED TO THE GILLS! I swam over to him in a cloud of bubbles, shook him and pointed to myself and gave the out of air sign, and then waved good bye. (I was down to maybe 1000psi by this time) His eyes got saucer big as he came up after me trying to give me his primary reg. I kept waving him off - I wqas ok, just had to surface. At about 100' he took a breath - still narced - without putting his reg back in his mouth. OOPS!!! All I could do was look down at him from about 20 feet above and hope that he was able to choke it out and get his s*&t together, because I HAD TO SURFACE. luck was on his side - the fog lifted as he continued his ascent, and he made it ok to the surface. As soon as I hit the surface my reg thawed, I swam to the dock, got out, and went from the quarry directly to my local dive shop and bought a regulator made for ICE DIVING!!! He, on the other hand, got so spooked by those events that he has not been back in the water since. It is now almost 20 years and over 1000 dives later. I have ahd other issues underwater, but that was a lesson well learned. I now buy only the best equipment i can, I have taken every training course I can (up to full cave) and never dive without a completely seperate and redundant air source.

I sorta figure that I can do a whole bunch of things underwater, but I can't grow gills!!!
Sounds like you were lucky - from what I've read a fair amount of people have died in that quarry


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