Lessons learned - a SWB Story

[Lockedin]

Glad you made it Amphibious! I will NEVER freedive alone (again).

[Scorp]

That's a really frightening story and makes me seriously reconsider my own habits of spearfishing alone due to lack of a buddy ...
Very happy for you Amphibious that you were given your life back! Somehow I probabely know how you feel now - i had 3 situations in my own life where I was extremely lucky that it didnt end right there. One was a microsleep during night driving - pretty comparable to a SWB, although there are more pre-signs for it - which made me go off the road with 80 km/h. I woke up with the car jolting through an even, muddy field beside the road, the only spot within 20 km of this country road where the accident could end totally harmless. But the shock stays in your bones, together with the feeling of your life beeing given back to you, kinda miracle...

I wonder what saved your life in this bad situation? Was it your weight belt arranged in a way that made you turn on your back once you were on the surface?

Take care and good luck,

Ivo

[cdavis]

Whoa Colin!!! Man am I glad you are still with us! If I'm counting right, this was the Sunday after you dove with us? Thanks for posting, you just reinforced my resolve.

Keep turning it over, more may surface. Unirdna had a wild BO with me and remembered much more about it the next day. There is a description in Freediving Stories a couple of years ago, "our greatest enemy" or something like that. I've read in these forums of at least one other guy who recovered after BOing by himself, but its mighty rare.

Connor

[Tony Babowicz]

I'm so glad your still alive to share this story. I hope that all of my friends will read this and begin to dive safer. Some of them will still dive alone, thinking that if they don't push thier limits, they'll be fine. Making a choice to not dive alone takes quite a strong character if you have frequently dove solo in the past. Probably like quitting drinking or smoking. I'm tempted every time I can't find a buddy. I mean, what are the odds of this happening to me? Screw that. Thank you soo much for posting this.
Tony

[azapa]

Originally Posted by cdavis

Whoa Colin!!! Man am I glad you are still with us! If I'm counting right, this was the Sunday after you dove with us? Thanks for posting, you just reinforced my resolve.

Keep turning it over, more may surface. Unirdna had a wild BO with me and remembered much more about it the next day. There is a description in Freediving Stories a couple of years ago, "our greatest enemy" or something like that. I've read in these forums of at least one other guy who recovered after BOing by himself, but its mighty rare.

Connor

this was it connor:
http://forums.deeperblue.net/freediv...ous-enemy.html

[feign]

Colin, I am sick thinking about your almost fatal encounter. This is a serious wake up call for all of us. Next trip, I will buddy up with you anytime. It is something we all need to do. I am so glad you are still with us. God bless you in your recovery my friend.

lee

[Erik]

FFSake. Glad you're around for some more time here Colin.

[Marwan]

im still concerned about something, the root cause behund the blackout? it doesnt seeem that willer pushed himself or went after fish, short surface time, etc....so what caused it this time..??

[BatRay]

Beg pardon, but I wonder; considering how fragile the carbon fins are, wouldn't it be a better deal to have durable fins that are not as likely to break? Fins take a pretty good beating when spearing, so that's why I wonder.

[Amphibious]

I dive both carbons and plastics, prefer the plastics for spearing bottom fish as they are less fragile, don;t make a huge "clack" when they hit something, and it I put huge scratches in them from pushing off the bottom i don't cry.

I do notice a huge difference in leg fatigue when useing the carbons though. 80ft is well within margins for plastic fins (to me). have taken plastics much deeper on many ocasions.

[BatRay]

Do the carbons cause more or less fatigue?

[DeepRN]

those life-altering moments hey... takes some time to see the full extent of change play out

This thread makes me very aware that a) we will thankfully dive another day with you & b) you've got a lot of peeps who care about you

[Pastor]

The carbons cause less fatigue. Most of the Mediterranean spearos use carbon fins for deep spearing. On the same hand I think many of them use that efficiency to extend their bottom time. With fins like the Millenniums, they suffer from localised stress points, see those lighter patches around the top of the blade? It's a bit like gun rubber loosing its power after an extended time loaded. Over time the plastic looses its properties and becomes less efficient, this is temporally exaggerated in a single dive because of the localised heating from friction (admittedly this is very small but it all adds up).

[pehtran]

My first and only reaction is: I am just glad we are all able to read your story as it is a big warning to the rest of us spearfishers. Make the best of the rest of your life! Miha

[deep thinker]

Sho bro, glad your not just another statistic.
Thanx for sharing your story and they way you told it really brought home the message in more than one of our cases here I think. Good narrative to a bad experience.
Glad to still have you here and hopes of a full and speedy recovery