Dark water kinda freaks me out!

[JB 11 11]

HI all,
I’m currently waiting for my trades to open up and Combat Engineer is one of them. I’ve been reading around the site some, and came to learn that Combat Divers are more or less the domain of Combat Engineers and not exclusively a Navy thing.

I’ve always been interested in Combat Diver as an occupation, but to be brutally honest, dark water kinds freaks me out.  I do have my Advanced Open Water ticket and have experienced some pretty demanding conditions while diving… One of the more memorable being my Navigation qualification. It took place in a small bay with a beach where a lot of speed boats where anchored. My diver master (god bless’em) made me do every nav ex in the book and the conditions where abysmal…. Less than 1m vis. and Anchor chains all over the place!
Long story short I did quite well considering, but I was getting a little wigged out toward the end of the dive. Mostly due to a stupid sucker fish that kept trying to swim up my shorty!

So I guess my question is this: Is this a common fear (for lack of a better word) and one eventually gets over it with experience or is this a serious indication that you do not posses the right stuff for the job?
Im by no means expecting to go for Combat Diver right out of the gate, but I would like to hear from any members that are or have done the job. Is this a classic land-lubber trait or might I be sea-worthy with a little hard work?


JB

 

[392]

Combat Diving is solely a Cbt Engr specialty, and does not fall under the Navy save for the diving regulation / administration side of things.


First thing's first - clarify "....experienced some pretty demanding conditions while diving." I would hazard to say whatever diving you've done civy-side doesn't really qualify as "demanding" on our side unless you have done some commercial diving in crappy conditions  :nod:

99% of our diving is conducted in zero (i.e. less than an arm's length) vis water, day or night. If you get freaked out over 1m vis and anchor chains, then perhaps this specialty is not one for you. While some additional experience can help condition a diver for working in these types of conditions, if you already have experience as a civy diver, and you get freaked out on a leisurely navigation dive in 1m vis, what are you going to do swimming in zero vis or at night while keeping a grip on your weapon, explosives, any other kit your towing, the GNCS (group navigation control system), your buddy, remaining air, your depth, etc.? And if you're not the one actually doing the navigating, you won't see the surface until you hit the objective.

My experience as both a diver and from instructing divers is that pers who have fears like this are seldom able to shake them, and are ineffective on the bottom during a task when confronted with the conditions that freak them out. Let me ask you this - do you honestly think you could keep your fear of dark water in check while searching for a body on the bottom in dark water?

 

[JB 11 11]

Firstly, thank you for the prompt reply.... any and all feed back is most appreciated. 

Yes you're right.... my "demanding" experiences do not compare to something like body searches in silty rivers or under Ice. However To clarify, the NAv dive was not too bad and didnt freak me out too much. What did was the peak performance buoyancy test. I spent about 25 minutes trying to swim through a stupid hoolah hoop in 1m vis and I kept loosing sight of both the hoop and my Dm which was pretty disorientating for new diver. But I managed.... I did not enjoy it, but I manged.

My Dm was a welsh task master and drilled me constantly through my Adv. OW course, not accepting PADI's minimum standard, and said as much from the start. It was no Combat Diver course or anything, but for a civvy dive course, it was intensive in both seriousness and physical drills. Every dive over a 2 week period, I was required to remove my mask at depth, and count to 10, and replace it repeatedly. If refused, I was told I would fail. I wore contacts at the time and would not open my eyes underwater so it was a bit intimidating at first, but I got used to it.
Sharing air was also done repeatedly and on one occasion, I was called upon to to use these skills when my Dm's reg hose burst at 25m. I impressed him by having my spare in his face before he could react.

There were other incidents during my course that most don't encounter, if ever ( a 1-2 km surface swim back to the boat, dragging the a crap DM trainee behind me comes to mind).... but all in all the circumstances and level of dedication from my Dive master saved my life in Indonesia.
I had gone on a dive trip with some colleagues from work and were in a an Archipelago in North Sulawesi, Manado to be exact. For what ever reason (incompetence comes to mind) we were diving when the tide came back in and some serious currents started flowing. We got caught in a 4-5 knot current and were swept hundreds of meters along the coral wall before we had to make an emergency assent, thankfully we were on our last dive of the day and were not very deep.

A few days after, we had encountered more strong current along a large coral wall, to the point were my dive buddy was getting close to his safety limit. I signalled the DM that we were low on air and he acknowledged..... so we kept on going (?!?) finally after what seemed like hours we split the dive group up: those with more air kept beasting against the current and one of the DM's took me and my dive buddy up to our safety.... up and over the coral reef wall where the current was blasting. It was so bad we had to resort to grabbing pieces of corral to pull our way across it. OK if you had gloves.... like the DM, but me and my buddy did not.... half-way across the reef, my dive buddy signal no air. I swim back, put him on my tank (im at 40bar at this point) and then we kick like men possessed the remaining 10-15 meters to were the DM was so kindly waiting for us.

By the time we reached the DM I was hyperventilating due to the exertion and could not catch my breath. It was super scary! But... I kept my S&%t together and kept telling my self that as long as I was breathing, I was living and as we ascended and my lungs expanded, I caught me breath and was ok.... accept for the massive CO2 headache I got afterwards. I had less then 10 Bar left.

All this bragging and big talk to say that I am no stranger to scary business under water and have been able to hold it together when it counted.
But again, Im not comparing me to you.... you guys do stuff that leaves me in awe. I do appreciate the in sight. As for your question.... I honestly don't know. One thing that I found helped me in the more difficult times greatly was concentrating on drills, or the task at hand. So maybe with training and experience I could do it.
Something to work on I guess.

Thanks again 

 

[Journeyman]

Even if the water isn't dark....

...the gun tape over your mask.....as you grope along the bottom of the harbour....trying to find some links of chain....near the jetty with the wolf eels....

...is a real treat. 

;D

 

[JB 11 11]

Oh man! LOL! I think I need to look in this a bit further. :nod:

 

[medicineman]

Even if the water isn't dark....

...the gun tape over your mask.....as you grope along the bottom of the harbour....trying to find some links of chain....near the jetty with the wolf eels....

...is a real treat. 

;D

Wolfy and Rippy the eels are supposed to be a secret...not to mention the rabid seal that comes out alot at night.

MM

 

[dapaterson]

It's all about conditioning - and the best way to get used to dark water is to confront it regularly:

 

[George Wallace]

Ah!  T'isn't it grand the way that the condensation on the glass forms wee little shamrocks.     

 

[George Wallace]

OH!  If you were wondering.......Yes, I know that those little shamrocks are blown into the glass.