From Spearfishing to a Fight for Life at 120 Feet Deep

In the gripping depths of our 120 ft scuba dive, my focus shifted from spearing a fish to a life-or-death rescue. Derek, in the midst of a full blown panic attack, signaled his desperate need for air. Adrenaline surged through my body and I immediately went into fight or flight mode; dropping all of my spearing gear, securing my alternate air source, and took command of the situation, guiding Derek back from the brink of death.

For respect purposes, I have changed the names of the humans in this post.

I realize that divers may critique this blog post. I am open to constructive criticism. I handled this high-stress situation as best as I could. Derek, Ryan, and I made it back on board safely and that was my main goal. I used the resources I had at hand to my advantage.

Over the summer, I was invited out by my friend, Ryan, on his friend's boat to dive offshore St. Augustine, FL. Conditions were called to be perfect and I immediately jumped on the opportunity.

The night before diving, I hooked up my equipment and tested it out to confirm it worked properly. I do this before every dive trip to ensure everything is set to go for the morning. If I need any replacements parts, I can still go to the dive shop to pick up needed supplies.

6 total divers showed up around 8 am to load the boat. The only person I knew was Ryan, but I had never dove with him. Introductions were made and we were stoked to get the day started. Our diving destination was 30 miles offshore St. Augustine. No cell service and not many other boats to be seen. I always bring my Garmin inreach with me to communicate with those on shore. If anything were to happen, I could also call for SOS.

Our boat pulled up to the first ledge. Since we had a late start, the captain decided we should buddy up with groups of 3 to help with timing (normally buddy teams are groups of 2 divers). Our plan was to dive 3 different spots.

Ryan, Derek (who I had never met), and I were buddied up together. When setting up gear, Derek noticed he was having issues with his regulator leaking. He switched out some parts and said he was good to go. Spearguns in our hands, stringers on us, we jumped in the water. I was first descending on the anchor line. Right behind me was Ryan and then Derek. As we descended down the anchor line, I kept looking back periodically and giving them the okay sign to ask if they were all good. As scuba divers, we use sign language underwater to communicate with each other. They replied back with the okay sign, confirming they were good.

Our first dive was to 120 ft deep. Before we touched the bottom, I saw a trigger fish, shot it, and started getting my knife out to brain* the fish. While braining the fish, I heard a bunch of commotion behind me. I felt someone tugging on my fins and turned around.

Derek was in a full blown panic attack, flailing his arms in the water (a universal sign that he was out of air). I thought to myself, “What the hell is going on?” The adrenaline in my body spiked, my heart was racing and felt like it was beating out of my chest, my body was going into fight or flight mode. Derek was literally about to die. I didn’t have time time to think, I only had time to act. This was a life and death situation.

Within milliseconds, I dropped all of my spearfishing gear to the bottom of the ocean, got my alternate air source to my mouth (Atomic SS1), took out my second stage (my main air source), and swam closer towards Derek. I offered him my second stage air source and he put it into his mouth. I held the mouth piece there for a second but he was still panicking and it was pushing my alternate air source out of my mouth because he kept trying to move. I used my left hand to secure my air source in my mouth and looked at Derek. I couldn’t tell if he still had my second stage in his mouth. Bubbles were flying everywhere and I couldn’t see clearly. I tried looking over my right shoulder to see if it was floating anywhere and it wasn’t. I took my right hand and put it up to his mouth to confirm it was in his mouth. Confirmed. Bubbles were still flying and Derek was signaling to go up with panicked arms.

This is when I KNEW I had to take firm control of the situation. I had to tell him what to do. He was still in a full blown panic attack and I had to give instructions.

We did a good job of not ascending while all of this was happening. We were about 110 feet deep at this point. I secured my alternate air source in my mouth one more time and made sure I had a good grip on it. I locked arms with Derek using my right hand/arm (as shown in the video at the bottom doing the roman handshake*) and signaled that we were not going to ascend yet. I needed to get my heart rate down after everything that had happened. It must have jumped from 110 bpm to around 180 bpm.

I signaled the okay sign to him and he signaled okay back. I signaled that we are going to stay hovering right there for 1 minute and then we will go to the anchor line nearby. Ryan was next to us after we had calmed the situation down. We slowly swam over to the anchor line while our arms were still locked together.

In a diving course, in an out-of-air situation, they instruct you to lock arms and slowly ascend. We had an anchor line to ascend with and I think this helped in our situation, as we had a reference point. I used my resources that I had and improvised as best as I could with our situation.

Derek was positioned facing towards me. I signaled to Derek to keep his eyes on mine the entire time so I could see his emotions and how he was doing. I used my left arm to grab Derek’s right arm so I could control our ascent and also see my dive computer for our ascent rate. I used my right hand to grab the anchor line so I could also control our ascent. I positioned Derek’s hand below mine so that he wouldn’t go faster than me.

Ryan came up to me and pointed towards all of my spearfishing gear at the bottom of the ocean. I told him to forget the spearing gear while shaking my head. All that mattered was getting safely back on the boat. As we ascended, I kept close watch on my dive computer to monitor our ascent rate. I used my left leg to prop up my low pressure gauge to see our air consumption and how much air I had left in my tank. I consistently asked Derek and Ryan if they were okay as we were ascending. We also deflated our BCD’s while ascending. We got to 15 feet deep, I checked my air, and we had plenty to do a 3-minute safety stop. I signaled to do a safety stop and we all completed ours.

Finally, Ryan, Derek, and I broke the surface of the water. The captain asked if we were okay. Derek said yea we’re all good and I replied no we are not. We got back on board and the captain asked what happened. Derek replied that he ran out of air and didn’t elaborate. We all took about 10 minutes to cool down before asking questions. Derek said thanks. I started debriefing and asking questions. Derek said when we were descending, his equipment was leaking and he ran out of air as soon as we hit the bottom after about 3-4 minutes of being in the water.

This was a life and death situation. Ryan mentioned that Derek had come up to him first when he ran out of air to ask for help, but Ryan couldn’t find his alternate air source to provide to Derek. So Derek came to me. If I hadn't reacted as fast as I did, Derek would probably not be here today, or maybe I wouldn’t have. I kept thinking, oh my gosh, this man could have died if I didn’t provide him with my air. We were 120 feet deep and he probably wouldn’t have made it to the surface during a CESA (controlled emergency swimming ascent). He might have taken my air out of my mouth if I hadn’t provided it to him. I might not be here today.

Everyone deals with shock differently and I figured this is what Derek was going through after he didn’t come near me while back on the boat. I told the captain that I didn’t want to dive with Derek again and that I’m only comfortable diving with Ryan. He confirmed that was fine and that he will dive with Derek.

The second dive was great for Ryan and I. We were able to recover our spearing gear, as well as the trigger fish. We enjoyed our scuba dive and shot some more fish. Ryan cleaned up the reef by spearing tons of lionfish, an invasive species to our reefs.

reduce, reuse, recycle.

It’s not everyday Ariel finds a floaty-ma-bobber out in the middle of the ocean to rest her tail on.
We saved a float found out at sea, took it home, rinsed off, and now it’s being put to good use.

Some after-diving thoughts

When we were descending and I asked if everyone was okay with the okay signal, I wish Derek would have told me that something was wrong with his regulator. He said that his regulator was leaking the entire time while we were descending. We could have gone back up to the surface and fixed the issue.

Small problems on the surface are 100x worse at deeper depths.

A few things I learned and I was reminded of during this situation.

Not everyone is the same diving level as you. Get to know them before the dive. I made the mistake of assuming that everyone was on the same diving level as me. They were going offshore Jax/St. Augustine, so I assumed that they had the same credentials and diving background/history of advanced diving. You should ask when the last time your buddies have dove, how many dives have they done, and what kind of dives. This is all important information and it’s why dive shops require you to fill out a questionnaire asking these exact same questions.
If you aren’t comfortable diving with someone, speak up. Your dive buddy is your life line. If you don’t trust them, it could be a matter of life and death.
Always, always, always, do a pre-safety dive check. This includes learning about each of your dive buddy’s gear, where it is located, and making sure it works properly. Go over safety signals before diving.
Plan your dive and dive your plan. Tell each other when you want to ascend (dive time or air consumption). Tell each other to stay close to one another. Discuss what your plan is while spearfishing. With blood in the water and dead fish, it takes things up a notch and you have to be extra careful of your surroundings..
When descending or asking a person if they are okay underwater, make sure you are in a clear view of seeing their equipment. When we were descending, I saw Derek’s okay sign clearly because he put his hand out to the side of his body. But I did not see his gear clearly because with the sun shining in the background, it made him look like a silhouette. I now know to make sure I have a clear view of the person, to look them in the eyes, and view their gear when I’m asking them if they are okay.
Refresh your dive and safety skills often. You never know when you will have a diving incident occur. Practice and consistency are extremely important in this hobby. Make sure you know your equipment and get it serviced often. Review out-of-air and CESA scenarios often and make sure your buddies know it well, too.

References

*Braining a fish is the act of inserting a knife into the fish’s brain to kill it instantly. It’s is the most humane way to euthanize a fish, helps improve the quality of the meat, and prevents the squirming underwater during the remainder of the dive to not attract sharks.

*Here are a few videos to show out of air scenarios for reference.

*When someone is in a panic underwater and arms are flying all over the place, it’s a signal that they are out of air.