Atlanta Underwater Explorers AUE Bubbles

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1 Atlanta Underwater Explorers The Atlanta Underwater Explorers, P. O. Box 55048, Atlanta, GA I N S I D E T H I S I S S U E 1-2 How to Stay Calm and Avoid Panic While Scuba Diving 3-4 Continuing Dive Education 4-5 Coral Reef Conditions Are Getting Worse 6 Activities, Announcements & Editor s Corner If not controlled, stress leads to panic, and panic generally leads to death January 15, 2018 Volume 6 Issue1 How to Stay Calm and Avoid Panic While Scuba Diving By Eric Michael Something feels wrong. A sense of uneasiness spikes into full-blown fear. Quick, shallow breathing. Machine-gun pulse. Scrambled judgment. Panic can strike any scuba diver, no matter their training or experience. But there are ways to prevent and manage this sudden, uncontrolled attack of anxiety that can easily lead to death. Generally, panic occurs when somebody is not prepared to conduct the dive that they are on, says underwater explorer and technical instructor Jill Heinerth. Prior to a dive, I ask myself the question, What could possibly go wrong on this dive? Then I mentally walk through each scenario in my mind. Learn how to keep calm and keep scuba diving with these tips for avoiding panic underwater. Imagebroker/Alamy Then I can enter the water prepared to solve any issue ahead without stress. All instructors have witnessed more panic and assisted more divers past it than we care to remember, says Kell Levendorf, dive accident investigator for Dive & Marine Consultants International. Learn the warning signs. Take a rescue-diver course. And train until your skill set allows you to assist if possible or defend and escape if necessary. The main thing a diver needs to learn is to recognize stress, because stress, if not controlled, leads to panic, and panic generally leads to death, says Ed Sorenson of Cave Adventurers in Marianna, Florida, a cave and rebreather instructor who also is a cave search-and-rescue expert. I teach my students to recognize stress in their dive buddy first, because once stress turns to panic, it s too late. PREVENT THE TRIGGERS There are many stress factors in scuba diving that can lead to panic. By understanding the precursors and taking steps to avoid or mitigate them, divers can greatly reduce risk. In most cases, divers panic when they are in a situation that s beyond their experience or training level, or become complacent and stop paying attention, says Sorenson.

2 Page 2 How to Stay Calm and Avoid Panic While Scuba Diving Cont. The three most common stress precursors are time, gas and distance. And it s typically a domino effect. Something goes wrong, and if it s not controlled, you start to get perceptual narrowing, and the next domino is going to fall and then the next. If you can t stop it, they re all going to fall. Task loading, along with environmental factors such as current, visibility and marine life, are common triggers for panic, Levendorf says. Others include failure to purge the second stage of water and inhaling it, loss of direction due to reduced visibility, and getting lost or separated from your buddy. Divers should perfect buoyancy skills and ensure they are not over weighted, because things are much easier to deal with when you find your buoyancy and trim first, Heinerth says. You ll be unlikely to escalate a dangerous situation if you have good buoyancy, situational awareness and a frank understanding of your skills and limits. Selfsufficiency is critical. READ THE SIGNS Victims of stress often show common visual cues that can be easily read by other divers. Pay attention to what your dive partner looks like, so you ll notice when their buoyancy, trim or breathing frequency starts to deteriorate, says Sorenson. When their breathing becomes more erratic or more frequent, you ve got a diver going into stress. In an overhead or deep environment where it s dark, failure to respond to light signals is another sign. The eyes are both the windows to the soul and the overriding clue that panic is imminent, Levendorf says. Eyes that are wide and unseeing, followed by the inability or refusal to perform even the simplest task, are strong indicators that a diver is panicking. TAKE A POSITION OF POWER To assist a panicking diver, other divers should resist the urge to move in quickly. A simple protective protocol can prevent injury to the diver, as well as the would-be rescuer. Panicking divers usually have their hands out, grasping for you, Sorenson says. Their elevated adrenaline level, fueled by their anxiety, gives them super-human strength, so you re going to lose a physical contest no matter what your size advantage. Sorensen recommends a strategy that gives the rescuer leverage and protection. By simply reaching out with your left hand and grabbing their right arm at the bicep, their left hand can t come across and reach you if your arm s extended straight out when you offer the regulator with your right hand, he says. Place yourself in a position that gives you power to assist or to defend, Levendorf says. A reassuring touch can provide a lot of comfort to a panicking diver, but make sure you are still able to stiff-arm a diver to defend yourself if necessary. USE YOUR HEAD In the event of panic, one of the most basic tenets of dive training becomes paramount: Stop, breathe, think, act. You cannot let emotions overcome common sense and reason, says Heinerth. Shift your mindset back to the solutions-oriented thinker who can take one step at a time. You can always come up with the next best step, and you will find success. AN UNRECOGNIZED TRIGGER Jill Heinerth on a condition every scuba diver should know about: immersion pulmonary edema. There is very little awareness in our community about the condition called immersion pulmonary edema (IPE). This condition can quickly lead a diver to believe that their regulator is not functioning. A diver can panic and rush to the surface or panic on the surface from inability to breathe. The condition can resolve so quickly that a physician might not detect the issue after the dive. These undiagnosed divers can have multiple episodes and get written off as panickers. However, they might have a very real physiological issue that leads to IPE. I hope more people can learn about this affliction and the symptoms. Never write off a diver as someone prone to panic. They might have a very real medical condition. For more information on IPE visit diversalertnetwork.org. Details:

3 Page 3 Continuing Dive Education By Guest Author Adam Straub We ve all heard other divers throw around numbers how many years they ve been diving, or how many dives they ve done. But the focus should always be on improving your skills, not racking up numbers. When it comes to continuing dive education, the focus should always be on improving your skills, not racking up numbers of dives or destinations. Let s illustrate this point with a fictional fellow named Ralph. He went on a live-aboard trip to Palau and ran into an issue with a divemaster we ll call Julie. Julie had asked the group to follow her closely, as the dive site involved using reef hooks in a specific area to enjoy the pelagic action. Ralph had been on multiple trips to Cozumel. He had never used a reef hook while diving in current there, so he skipped the briefing and didn t take the hook. How different could it be? Current is current. What did Ralph do wrong? During the dive, Ralph ignored Julie s instructions and went past her to get a better view of the sharks. Ralph missed hearing Julie bang on her tank to signal it was time to come up the wall and hook in. Thusly, he missed the hook-in area. In the process, Ralph scared off the sharks in the area and ruined the show for everyone. To get back to the hook-in area he had to crawl hand-over-hand over the reef, breaking coral as he went. His buoyancy control was terrible. He kicked the reef and destroyed coral as he snapped photos. He forced mantis shrimp from their homes and kicked a turtle in the head. Ralph also got caught up in another diver s reef hook. In the process of getting free, Ralph scratched the dome port of his camera. And finally, all the extra effort meant Ralph burned through his air and had to ascend early. Ralph came to the surface and complained about how the dive and divemasters were terrible. Julie witnessed all the events. After the dive, she asked Ralph to attend all briefings and follow the divemasters and their instructions going forward. In response, Ralph asked Julie her age and Julie answered that she was 29. As a master scuba diver, with 900 dives executed over 30 years, Ralph wondered aloud how someone so young could help someone with his experience. Although this example is exaggerated, this is what can happen when a diver overemphasizes his numbers and underemphasizes his training. It s Time for Continuing Dive Education Let s break down the scenario to gain some perspective and discuss why continuing dive education is critical in our world. During open-water courses, new divers learn how important it is to listen to briefings and follow a guide s instructions. Had Ralph recalled this basic instruction, his dive would have gone infinitely smoother. Regardless of the sheer number of dives you may have under your belt, if you re diving somewhere new especially, pay attention to the guidance and training tips offered by those who know it well. Had Ralph taken a peak performance buoyancy course, he could have developed skills to help him avoid getting tangled in another diver s line, saving him a dome port and precious gas in his tank. A drift-diving course could have provided valuable insight into traveling in a high-current environment, again helping him to conserve air.

4 Page 4 Continuing Dive Education Cont. Although experience does count, a diver can nonetheless execute hundreds of dives poorly over multiple years. We re never done learning until the day we hang up our fins and we should hang them up once we think we know everything. Experience and education go hand-in-hand when it comes to maintaining and improving your dive skills. Setting training goals can be as easy as looking at any dive training agency s ladder of progression, as well as expanding your focus to incorporate specialties and then progressing into more complex dive courses, such as rescue training or Tec diving. Early in my career I was lucky to serve on a ship with a crew whose dive tallies were nearing 18,000 (20 years leading live aboard dives). I ll never forget them telling me that they too were still learning and finding ways to improve. It s this humility and interest in furthering our skills underwater that will keep us fresh. Coral Reef Conditions Are About to Get A Lot Worse Thanks to climate change (Please view short video at this web address. climate-change/) By Justin Worland Last year was a devastating one for coral reefs ( around the globe, but according to new research ( it may have been just the tip of the iceberg. A new study published in the journal Nature Scientific Reports shows that coral bleaching-a process that sometime precedes death where coral lose their color-will affect 99% of reefs each year by the end of the century if current climate change trends continue. We are going to need to be much more innovative and proactive if we want to see coral reefs thrive into the next century, says study co-author Gabby Ahmadia, a marine scientist at the World Wildlife Fund (WWF). Conventional conservation is not going to cut it against the impacts of climate change.

5 Page 5 Coral Reef Conditions Are About to Get a Lot Worse - Cont. Read More: The Great Barrier Reef May Soon Be in the Worse Shape Than Scientist Thought ( Bleaching occurs when corals face unusual levels of stress from any of a number of sources including pollution water and other disturbances. Still, high water temperature due to man-made global warming remains the primary cause in most cases and will be the driving factor going forward. Read More: How Sunscreen Is Helping Destroy Coral Reefs ( Coral reefs faced the biggest die-off ever recorded last year, thanks largely to a strong El Niño event aggravated by climate change. One study conducted last summer found that more than a third of corals died in some regions of the Great Barrier Reef, just one of many affected. Countries from across the planet agreed with the Paris Agreement ( in 2015 to work to limit global temperature rise to 2 C (3.6 F) by 2100 with an ideal target of 1.5 C (2.7 F). But, even if countries meet their commitments under the agreement, more than 75% of the world s coral reefs will bleach each year by 2070, according to the new research. Article published at TIME.com

6 Page 6 Upcoming AUE Activities AUE General Meeting Saturday January 20, 2018 Location: East Atlanta Library, Atlanta, GA Meeting time is 3:30 p.m. 3 rd Saturday of each month. AUE s Annual Manatee Trip Crystal River, FL Announcements Cont. There are local diving opportunities: Blue Water Park (Two hours from Atlanta, GA) Pelham, Alabama (205) (205) More information at: bluewaterparkal@gmail.com or Atlanta Underwater Explorers AUE s 2018 dive activity schedule will be announced and published in the coming weeks. Stay tuned. Recent AUE Activities 2017 Annual NABS Summit National Association of Black SCUBA Divers 27th Annual Dive SUMMIT at Ramon s Village Resort Ambergris Caye, Belize held November 4 thru 11, 2017 Announcements/News AUE 2018 Election - New Club Officers Kelli Edwards, President Chris Searles, Vice President Roz Woolfolk, Treasurer Recording Secretary, Voncile Hodges Corresponding Secretary, TBA Parliamentarian, TBA Editor s Corner Fellow AUE Members: Welcome to the January 15, 2018 edition of newsletter. This edition is focused on dive emergencies, continuing scuba education and environmental issues related to coral reefs. Want to learn more? Find us on the web at and like us on Facebook at: ORERS and via newsletter. Story ideas are always welcomed. Completed story submissions must be received one week prior to the publishing date (Bi-monthly on the 15 th of the month). The next edition will be published March 15, Please submit future story ideas and comments to my attention via . To continue, Bubbles needs your input and support. Dive safely, Alex Adams, Publisher & Editor scuba1aja@gmail.com Happy New Year to all from the Atlanta Underwater Explorers