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This video recounts a diving incident where a routine scuba diving session turned into an emergency due to an uncontrolled ascent and missed decompression. The experience led to an emergency evacuation and recompression chamber treatment, highlighting the critical importance of diving safety.
A huge thanks to Tash Scott for agreeing to share her story and being so candid
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*CHAPTERS*
00:00:00 Introduction – a routine dive that changed suddenly
00:02:44 The dive site and wreck background
00:04:56 Buoyancy setup and how the dive was being managed
00:08:14 The ascent begins and control is lost
00:11:29 Missing decompression stops and surfacing priorities
00:17:59 Delayed symptoms and realising something was wrong
00:21:55 Emergency oxygen, evacuation, and medical response
00:25:54 Inside the recompression chamber and treatment
00:30:16 Recovery, returning to diving, and long term impact
00:36:13 Lessons learned and reflections for other divers
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*ABOUT THIS CHANNEL*
DeepWreck Diver explores shipwrecks, submarines, and sunken relics from around the world - combining technical diving with detailed wreck identification and storytelling. Subscribe for wreck diving guides, historical deep dives, and underwater exploration.
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0:00
This is a story about decompression sickness and how quickly a routine dive
0:05
can change. What was planned as a straightforward dive on a well-known wreck became an
0:12
uncontrolled ascent. More than 20 minutes of missed decompression and an
0:17
emergency evacuation ending in recompression treatment. It's not a
0:22
story about blame. It's about learning and using the lessons to become a safer
0:28
diver. I'm really grateful to Tash Scott who's here to tell me her story.
0:34
So, welcome to my channel, Tash. Thanks. It's a It's great to be here and
0:40
great to have an opportunity to give somebody a bit of learning from my experience.
0:46
Yeah. I mean, we've we've talked about it already and it is a horrendous thing that happened to you. I think what we're
0:51
going to do in this video is we're going to break it almost down into three chunks. We're going to talk about what happened. We're going to talk about how
0:57
you are now because great that you've made a rec full full recovery and then we're going to talk about uh you know
1:03
the lessons. So Tash, the floor is yours. Please tell us tell us what happened to you. 2020 uh Egypt had been cancelled. So
1:11
we're at a bit of a loose end and decided to uh head over to Portland and
1:16
jump on a skin deeper charter and uh dive the Soulset. Really well known wreck um in Portland. Lots and lots of
1:23
people have dived it. It's one of those wrecks that you can argue if it's a technical wreck or not. Uh lots of
1:30
arguments whether people consider it a technical dive. It's about 43 mters um to the bottom. So uh I'd gone in on air
1:38
and uh my buddy was on try. Uh hobby was on a rebreather and I was on uh twin 12s
1:45
and uh stage. Relatively okay conditions as far as Portland goes. Probably about
1:51
44. A little bit cloudy. nothing to worry about. Jumped on in and uh gave my
1:58
buddy the signal to say I was going down and it was still running a little bit. There was probably 5 minutes, 5 10
2:04
minutes before slack, which is about common for us out in Portland. Um so as
2:09
I was dragging myself down the shot line, all that went through my head was
2:15
it's still running a little bit. So it's a little bit of effort to get down. It's still running. Um shouldn't be this much
2:21
effort, but I kind of ignored it. That was for me warning sign number one that
2:26
I ignored. I've been diving for many years. I should have known better, but there we go. Warning sign number one.
2:34
Got down to the bottom of the wreck. Beautiful. I've dived a soul set many times and this was amazing. It was one
2:39
of the best dives I've ever had on the soul set. It was just Sorry to interrupt you there, Tash, but for those who don't
2:45
know, probably just worth explaining why the souls set is such an epic wreck. And I've not I've only done it once a long
2:51
time ago. I know it, but I know it's loved by people who go out of Portland. Yeah, it's that I mean, you can get
2:58
inside. You can get a little bit disorientated inside sometimes. It's one of the wrecks that you can be inside without realizing you're inside
3:04
sometimes as well, which can be cool or not cool depending on your outlook. Um, there's lots to see. It's quite broken
3:10
up in places. Um, the top of it is around 34, so you can you can sort of uh
3:17
open it out to slightly more recreational divers. the bottom about 43. It's just an iconic icon iconic
3:25
wreck for people. Piano PO liner. I think the piano liner. Yeah. Yeah. It's it's
3:31
it's just really nice. So, you know, you can easily kill an hour on there without
3:37
even realizing you've just killed an hour at 40 odd meters. So, it's one of those that catches people out a little
3:43
bit if if they're not careful. um because they quite often think that it's perhaps not a recre not a technical
3:49
dive, more recreational, probably a bit more technical when you factor everything else into that. Um but it's a
3:56
great wreck and and on the given day with brilliant visibility, which it wasn't that day, it's just amazing and
4:03
time ticks away. Um we'd had a a pretty good plan, no more than 30 minutes time
4:10
to surface. We were both on uh twin 12s. uh plenty of uh decompression uh for us
4:16
at that depth on twin 12s with with lots of redundancy there. So quite happy with
4:21
that plan. But as I'd got to 40 odd meters, I'd um just realized that hadn't
4:29
really apart from taking a squeeze off my suit, I hadn't really put a lot of air into my wing. Um maybe a scush at
4:36
best. And I suddenly thought to myself, not got a lot of air in my wing. Not a
4:42
problem. Probably warning sign number two, which I also ignored because at that point I was in proper Insta trim. I
4:48
thought I looked pretty cool and looking pretty cool at that moment in time was much better than worrying about how much air I'd put in my wing. Um,
4:56
so you dive using both your dry suit and your wing for buoyancy. Yeah. So I dive with my dry suit, just
5:02
taking a squeeze off so it's comfortable and then I dive with my wing for for the main buoyancy on a dive on when I was on
5:10
twins. Anyway, yeah. I was just going along. We had a beautiful dive. The the viz was amazing as I said and everything
5:17
felt great. Plenty of checks with a buddy. Um maybe about probably only
5:22
about six of us on the wreck because during co we were still on half boat rules. Um so it was really nice. It
5:28
wasn't cluttered with with people at all down there. Um had a great dive. It I couldn't say anymore other than it was a
5:35
great dive to that point. So we got to about probably about 28 minutes time to
5:41
surface. One quick signal to the buddies to flick the DSMV up and uh we moved up
5:49
to slightly higher part of the wreck. It's probably about 32 m something like
5:54
that. And um just moved away uh like you would from your buddy uh to give
6:00
yourself some clearance. Put the DSMBB up. pop the DSMBB up and then we signal
6:05
to head for our 24 meter switch depth. So at 24 m the plan was to switch to our
6:12
decompression gas had about 50% um on. So uh as we were going up to that
6:20
24 m I was starting to feel a little bit light um a little bit lighter than I'd
6:26
like to be. So, I was just, you know, shaking a bit on the dry suit. Um,
6:32
feeling like the dry suit had a little bit more air in than, um, I would have liked. Was trying to get it out. Got to
6:39
24 m. Um, feeling a little bit uncomfortable,
6:44
uh, to be honest. And at this point, I was probably another warning sign where
6:50
I'm feeling uncomfortable, but I'm just focused on I've got to switch my gas. um
6:55
I've got to get myself ready to reel into to go to my next my next uh decompression depth. Um so I kind of
7:03
ignored it. Now if I'd um not ignored it, I may have looked for something on the on the on the wreck at a more
7:10
sensible depth that I could just check things and what have you, but I didn't. I ignored it.
7:16
So, as I look at my buddy and before I can even think about anything, um, I've
7:22
just about managed to switch my gas and change my computer to show that I'd done
7:28
the gas switch when it all this is where it all really went wrong.
7:34
And it's it's hard to explain because if you
7:40
were to look at my profile, which I know you have, it's seconds really. It feels
7:46
like a lifetime, but it also feels like you haven't necessarily got as much time
7:52
to do as much as you would like. It's it's a it's the weirdest feeling. There was no fear um at that point. I wasn't
7:59
didn't have time to be worried or I just it was mitigation. Everything at this point is now mitigation. I now know I've
8:07
got a problem and um and it's all starting to go wrong. And it's a typical incident pit.
8:13
Starting to you're starting to ascend now. You've left. You're realizing that you're missing
8:19
stops and you're heading up to the surface. Yeah. So, as I'm missing my next stop,
8:24
so my next stop was 21. I only had a minute there. Actually, not the end of the world to miss a minute at 21. It'll pick it up.
8:32
Um, not the end of the world at that point. So, I've still got time to fix myself
8:37
as as I'm going up. I'm getting a bit flustered. Um the the DSMBB I'm starting
8:44
to feel like I'm catching that up and the the string is sort of starting to go below me, which is another hazard. And
8:52
as I'm trying to fix that, I managed to knock my mask off. I managed to get the mask back in place and and uh emptied
9:00
again. Um in that process, I've knocked my rag, so I've got the rag back in
9:06
again. And all of this time I'm still going up and I'm still furiously trying to dump everything I've got to stop
9:14
myself from going up. My buddy's nowhere went to be seen. That is not a dig of
9:19
the buddy. Everything's happening really quick and he hasn't got a clue what's actually going on because I've not communicated it to him to be fair
9:26
because I didn't think about it. Didn't have time. Other things to worry about.
9:31
It's not your priority when when when you've got stuff like that going on. telling your body what's happening is definitely not a priority, is it?
9:37
Yeah. And and by this point, you know, I know you've dived in out of Portland.
9:43
When you're in that kind of mid depth, you can't see a thing. You turn around, there's nothing around you. The the
9:48
there's nothing to see. There's no visual references. Um I know I'm going up, not down because I can see it. I'm
9:55
coming up to my string, so I know I'm at least orientated correctly, but other than that, there's just nothing. There's
10:02
just nothing around and it's all going wrong. And at this point, I'm thinking
10:07
all I have to do is keep breathing because the last thing I want to do is then have other issues to contend with,
10:14
lung issues and and all of that from holding your breath.
10:19
And fury the string is is getting closer to me and I can't get away from the string. And before I know it, I'm
10:25
tangled in the string somewhere. And I think, do you know what? I might as well just give up with the DSMV. I can't reel
10:30
it in. I ain't got time to do that. I can't do anything with it. It's locked off at this point. So, you know, I've
10:37
let go of the DSMBB, which is attached to me anyway, and I'm still going up.
10:42
And I can't explain how bizarre the feeling of having an uncontrolled descent is,
10:50
except it feels like it's really slow, but it's not. It's it's it's weird. Um,
10:57
I get to the surface and I look around and I look like literally a cat's had a
11:03
ball of ball. There's just string from my DSME everywhere, all over me. I don't
11:09
even know where to start. So, I wave to the boat and all I could think of, I'm on the surface. That's good. I'm
11:17
breathing. I'm alive. I'm very very aware that I have missed
11:23
20 plus minutes of decompression. Acutely aware of that. So
11:29
still on your 50% mix. I'm still on the 50% and I keep that in my mouth the whole time because I am
11:34
slightly conscious of that. So wave to the boat. The skipper comes over and he
11:41
looks at me and goes, "What on earth have you done?" And I I didn't really
11:46
have an explanation because actually at that moment in time, apart from the fact that I'd had an uncontrolled descent, I
11:52
hadn't figured out why. So I didn't really know why it had happened. Um that
11:58
all comes a little bit later when you've got the benefit of hindsight and um
12:04
hindsight. Absolutely. You know, and all I could think of is could I have done anything else? And I
12:10
actually I don't think I could have done anything different on that dive. I don't think there was anything I could have done unless I'd listened to all of those
12:17
three warning signs that I'd had and very very foolishly chinned off um on
12:23
that dive. So I got to the surface, the skipper kind of drags me out tangled in
12:28
this DSMV and he starts uh walking around unraveling me asking me if I'm
12:33
okay and I actually feel fine. I feel I feel perfectly fine. Now, I then start
12:40
to think to myself, I'll just stay on my 50%. I'll wait for the boys to get out.
12:45
Um, slowly the the guys come out and they're looking at me sat in my kit still breathing my gas and say, "Are you
12:51
okay?" My buddy comes out and uh he knows what I've done. So, he knows the
12:58
situation. He knows what I've missed because he would have done the same decompression as me. So, he kind of
13:04
looked at me and he said, "Are you sure you're okay?" I said, "I feel fine. I feel absolutely fine. Do you want to go 100%. No, I'll be fine. Now, stupid.
13:12
Absolutely stupid. Because if I had any of my mates diving with me that had just done that, the first thing I'd be doing
13:18
is telling them to get on 100%. But I could I didn't even listen to my own advice. Completely bonkers. I don't I
13:25
don't know why. I don't know why you make the decisions at the time you make them. Um I was not in denial. I was
13:32
acutely aware I'd missed all of that decompression and could potentially have a problem. I absolutely wasn't in
13:38
denial. I don't know why. I I can't understand why I didn't at that point say, "Do you know what? I'll go on
13:44
100%." So, probably maybe 15 minutes went by and I'm still
13:50
feeling okay. And then a little bit of sanity starts to kick in. Um, and I just
13:58
turned around to the skipper and goes, "Do you know what? Just I'll have the
14:03
100%." And he said, "If I put you on 100%, I've got to call it in." I went,
14:08
"That's fine." Cuz at this point, I'm thinking, "Now's not time to take any risks."
14:14
So, off I go into the cabin, lie on 100%. Um, breathing away. Uh, he calls
14:21
it in. I hear on the radio um I was quite excited actually if there's ever a time to be excited that uh you've
14:27
potentially got decompression illness uh is that the prince might be flying. So
14:33
my lift might actually come from from uh Prince Harry who just happened to be uh
14:39
on the uh William, sorry. Yeah, Prince William. Um
14:45
the ginger one. It just so happen the bald one. Exactly. Everyone prefers the bald one. know
14:51
that. Um, so I was I was like, "Oh, that that'd be quite good, would it?" You
14:57
know, make sure I got me camera ready and all this, not really thinking about anything. There was a few incidents that
15:03
day in different areas and the chopper was a bit late. That one got diverted. I ended up with one from a different area.
15:11
Um, so I think it was probably about 2:00 and I've been out of the water
15:19
maybe about an hour. And all of a sudden, somebody touched my leg and I thought, "Hang on a minute. I
15:26
didn't feel that." So, I started touching my legs and I had nothing. I
15:31
couldn't feel You could have You could have got a knife and stabbed in in in the leg. I I wouldn't have realized. I
15:38
had no other symptoms. I could breathe perfectly fine. Um I had no itching. I
15:44
had no no uh pain at that time other than I'd lost that feeling in my legs.
15:50
And at that point, I just suddenly thought to myself, that can only be one
15:55
thing. That's got to be a spinal bend that is causing that. Which probably was the first time that I started to have a
16:02
few concerns if I'm honest. Up to that point, I was quite chilled out for one
16:08
of a better word, a bit complacent about it all. A bit not that bothered. Then
16:13
all of a sudden I had no legs, which is quite scary actually. You know, the boys
16:19
are making jokes about it. They're trying to keep keep light. I think George was more concerned. He had to
16:24
pack my twin set away and wash it down um and carry it off the boat along with his unit. So, uh you know, which yeah, I
16:33
felt a bit bad at. Not really. No, sorry. Not sorry. Um, lots of jokes going on and it I just I
16:42
couldn't get out of my head. I could not get out of my head that I could not feel my legs. So, just to go for the just to be to be
16:49
absolutely clear on the timeline. So, you hit the water um stayed on your 50%
16:54
about 15 minutes later you went on to 100%. Yes. And then about an hour after
16:59
surfacing was when you realized that you had symptoms in your in your lower legs.
17:04
Correct. So when I made the decision to go on the 100%, it was just my sanity
17:10
saying I need to go on it because that's the right thing to do rather than me having a symptom that drove me to it. Um
17:17
which is probably a good thing because if I hadn't things could have been even worse I guess. Um,
17:24
so yeah, at about probably around about 2:00 I think um the chopper turned up
17:30
and um I was I was genuinely actually starting to get a bit of feeling back on
17:35
my legs at this point. Um and I was starting to get a bit of uh stomach pain
17:42
really lower kind of abdominal stomach pain uh was the other kind of symptom
17:47
that kicked in quite late. I say late. I don't suppose an hour or two is late, but I certainly never had any of these
17:53
symptoms at the very beginning, which just goes to show. I mean, all the all the people I know who've had um something like this, the
18:01
symptoms come on, I think, much later than people think they should come on. You think they should get them within
18:06
you quite a short period, but they all seem to come on much later. Yeah, definitely. the chopper turns up
18:13
and I this this is where you have to absolutely appreciate all of the skills
18:18
of our our services like the Coast Guard and and the boat crew were phenomenal.
18:25
The the skin skin deeper guys were phenomenal. You know, they they have a process. they're trained to do it, but
18:32
I'd never seen it actually in action where you know all of the coms between the crews um
18:39
to to put some context behind it for people is they're given a head in and
18:44
the knots to travel at and the boat does exactly what the helicopter crew tell
18:50
them to do. The helicopter then matches that um and they're just going along um until you see it on a video. It's quite
18:56
hard to imagine, but it's phenomenal to watch and and it's as slick as anything if you get the right crew and and it was
19:03
textbook for us. The crew were amazing. Winchman comes down and um jumps on the
19:10
back of the boat, comes out um and did some assessment on me. Again, we got
19:15
COVID, so they ask a few COVID questions, which kind of I I I was a
19:20
little bit cross actually that they seem to be focused on the COVID and I'm thinking I can't feel my legs and you're
19:27
more worried about CO seemed a bit barbaric to me at the time,
19:32
but you know, I I suppose my mind wasn't quite focused on on the same things as
19:38
perhaps the crew were. Um, but they they jump on the back and and then you get shoved into a harness. Um, and you get
19:46
lifted with what you're wearing. I think I was still in my undersuit from memory.
19:51
Might have had a pair of flip-flops in my hand and my phone to to phone um George if I needed to and and off I
19:59
went. Um, I'm a Weimoth girl. I've lived there uh for many many years. um moved away in
20:06
my 30s and and to I don't think I've ever seen a view like that of Wemouth
20:11
and Portland. Yeah, it was it was beautiful and took my mind off it for a little bit as you're getting winched up
20:18
which is quite an experience in itself. It's um it's kind of cool and not cool
20:24
cuz you know why you're getting winched up. Um but all of the uh boats were out
20:29
there. All of the cruise ships had been morowed up for COVID and there was just seven or eight. The Disney boat was
20:35
there. There was all sorts out in the harbor so it was some view and and you know our skin deeper was getting smaller
20:41
and smaller as I was heading off. Um and sadly I had no prints uh fly in
20:48
either which was a bit bit of a shame but um yeah I got I got on um got on
20:56
there and I'm obviously on O2 at this point still. So they put me on a mobile
21:02
O2 unit in the in the helicopter um and then I have an argument with them about
21:08
whether or not they're going to put a drip on. Again, it's one of those things that um I would hydration is key, isn't
21:16
it? If you've if you've got something like this, O2 and hydration, two two
21:22
really uh things you absolutely need to to minimize your problems. And um I'm
21:28
terrified of needles, which uh some will laugh at cuz I'm covered in tattoos, but
21:34
I can guarantee you it's not the same. It's not the same. So, I had an argument
21:39
about this because I knew I would pass out if they shoved this needle in. It's in the worst place as well where they
21:45
put it in the in the in your arm um corner. What you call it? Your inner
21:51
arm. Elbow. Elbow in. Yeah. And um yeah, so I had an argument with them
21:57
over this and um I don't persuaded me to have it done. Uh but yeah, which you
22:03
know, I passed out because I'm terrified of needles. Um and then came back round again and and we were off not long
22:11
actually because we're only going to pool uh very sadly the pool chamber has since been closed down which having been
22:18
a diver who's used that facility makes me a little sad because it's our closest
22:23
was our closest facility to Portland and now I think we would go to DDRC in
22:28
Plymouth um would be our next option but yeah so went over uh they took me got
22:35
met by the uh four-wheel coast guard who whizzed me into A&E, which was like I
22:44
don't know, it's like a scene out of a movie because it was full of people with COVID and and everybody was in hazmat
22:49
and and it was quite quite bizarre and here I am with with um O2
22:56
u a drip and epoxy mask on and like everybody's in hazmat suits. It's quite weird. Quite I was quite frustrated at
23:04
this point. Um because it's probably about maybe 3 3:00 by this point, half
23:11
3, something like that. Um dive doc was there to meet me. Uh as soon as soon as
23:17
we got into a cubicle, the dive dock was in there. I had a chat with him. Um he
23:22
based on what I told him based Yeah, definitely you've got to come to the chamber. However,
23:28
um we haven't used the chamber really with COVID and we don't know what is
23:33
going to happen if we put somebody who's got COVID in the chamber and how that would affect the chamber. Uh and and you
23:41
know, you breathing out potentially CO. So, they were really concerned about putting me in the chamber and and
23:47
basically refused to put me in until I've had a COVID test. Um and I know I
23:53
don't you know, it's bizarre, isn't it? feels bizarre to me at the time. Um, so
23:59
they gave me a COVID test. Um, but these are the this is like before COVID tests
24:05
were quick and before you had that little magic thing that you could get from Tesco's and Boots and and 15
24:12
seconds later you've got a result. I had to go off to a lab. Um, it was quite
24:18
some time before the results came back. Um, I think it was about 11:00 at night.
24:24
Oh wow. Before the results came back to say that I was clear from COVID um and could go
24:29
to the chamber dive do came round uh chamber was is actually located at the hospital with
24:37
Paul. It's it's just in another part of it. So jump in the car ran around the
24:42
oneway system to the back of the hospital. Um and and there was the chamber. So it was it was a two-minute
24:50
drive away which was fine. This is where the dive dock does a few um tests, a few
24:56
typical uh can you a bit like the sobriety test in America, you know, can
25:01
you stand on one foot, can you walk in a straight line, all of these kind of tests. Um and said yes, you definitely
25:08
need to go in the pot. So, you'd not had any neuro tests before then? You hadn't had any on the boat or
25:13
you hadn't had any Gman hadn't done any or anything like that? Okay. No. No. Um nothing in helicopter either.
25:22
Uh you know it it was nothing like that. Um by this point actually I've had all the feeling come back in my legs as
25:28
well. So I'm I've now got everything feeling fine in my legs. I've still got a bit of adomable pain. Um no itching,
25:36
no other soreness, no other symptoms. Um and I seem to remember. But you've been on oxygen the whole time
25:42
from from that kind of 15 minutes after the dive. Yeah. All the way through to here. You're on 100% oxygen the whole time.
25:48
All time. Um yeah, so by which time I felt like I had a sore throat because anyone that has any oxygen for any
25:54
length of time or nitrox or anything, you do get a little bit dry, a bit tickly, a bit, you know, fed up of
26:00
actually breathing oxygen. Um yeah, so they kitted me out. They don't like you
26:05
to wear your normal clothes in the chamber. They're very fussy. So, uh, kitted me out with a load of chamber
26:12
clothes and, uh, look like I just come out of Asda's, um, ADA's clothing
26:18
department. And, uh, off I go in the pot for 6 hours. The pot is
26:25
weird. I I've heard people say that they get claustrophobic in it. Um, I didn't
26:31
get claustrophobic, but it's not comfortable. Uh, you're either in there with you presumably.
26:38
Yeah. Yeah. I had somebody in there um with me the whole time. Um they take you
26:45
down to 18 meters. Uh and they're throwing 100% at you. So for anyone who
26:51
can do the maths, your PP2 is quite high. Which triggered me a little bit and I was like and he he looked at me
26:57
and says, "I know what you're thinking. You're talk you're thinking about your PPO2, aren't you?" And I said, "I am." He said, "It's fine. We've done this
27:04
before." So yeah, it's I think it I think it runs at something like 2.8
27:11
um in the chamber. So it's it's quite high. Um but what they do is uh they put
27:18
essentially uh for anyone that's seen future armor and they see the fishbowl head. So they put like a dry suit ring
27:27
around your neck with the rubber uh latex seal. Um, and then a fishbowl head
27:33
that feeds the O2 into the chamber into into your head while you're in the
27:39
chamber. So, you can't you can't lie back. You can't, you know, wherever you go, you've got this ring all the way
27:44
around you. It's problem. You can't sleep. So, I just think about those dogs, you know, with collars.
27:50
Yes. You know, I've seen pictures of people wearing those things and they do kind of remind me a bit of like that.
27:56
So, you can't scratch your ears or whatever it is. Yeah. Um, you know, you get an itch in your nose or something or
28:02
an itchy eye, you literally can't do anything. Um, it's proper uncomfortable.
28:08
Uh, and they pop you on that for 20 minutes and then every 20 minutes they take the lid off, leave the next seal
28:13
on, and you can breathe the chamber air, and they flush the chamber, uh, constantly flush the chamber in that 5
28:19
minutes. And it's really cold, actually, when they're flushing it. It's really quite chilly. Um, so it can be really
28:26
hot and then it can be really cold. It's not comfortable. Anyone who says you can go in the chamber and have a kit for 6
28:31
hours, you can't. It's not pleasant. I wouldn't recommend it. Um, yeah. So,
28:40
had that uh 6 hour session. Um, he made the decision that I didn't need to go back. Well, actually, he made
28:46
the decision to say, "Sess your symptoms. Give me a shout and then we'll see whether we need to put you back in again." The following day, I had a
28:53
little bit of numbness on my face. Uh visual was really weird. I felt like I
28:59
needed my glasses more than ever. Um maybe a little bit of soreness in the
29:04
leg, but that slowly disappeared um and
29:10
until there were no symptoms at all. That's obviously great news. You had the
29:15
one six hour one six hour I guess. What happened to you after that? After that, you know, how long did
29:21
it take? I mean, I know you're diving. I know you've done some fantastic diving since then. What was the what was the
29:26
process from finishing your train chamber treatment to getting you back in the water and then progressing? What
29:31
what did what did that look like? Um I I would say I had a bit of PTSD
29:36
from it if I'm honest. Okay. So I had 28 days out. I was just given
29:42
the standard four weeks out and my first dive backing was in Cape Ray. So, um,
29:47
for anyone who doesn't know where Cape Ray is, it's very much a shallow, muddy puddle in the north of England with a
29:53
few friendly fish, which is the bit that that makes it a bit more exciting. I think I was okay with that. That was all
29:59
right. Um, and slowly um felt a little bit more comfortable being back in. I
30:05
don't think I was worried about going back in. What I was worried about and where the PTSE PTSD came in was anything
30:13
that I used the DSMBB for. the DSMBB became the trigger for me and I've not
30:19
dived a soul set since and I've been offered several times to do a dive in the soul set and
30:25
I'm not there with being comfortable going back there. I've not done it yet.
30:31
Really that's really weird, isn't it? How you kind of you have those kind of you know things that you associate with
30:37
uh you know with stuff and I guess the nature of any sort of traumatic. Have
30:42
you made your piece with the DSMBBS though? I have and it but it did take me a very long time. So, um for a very long time I
30:51
wouldn't stray from the shop very long. So, um you know I go off for a dive with George. I think we'd gone out the west
30:57
coast of Scotland um on a week out there and I'd start to feel my sack rate was
31:04
rising when I'd get a distance from the shot where I couldn't see the shot anymore because that meant I might have
31:10
to put my DSMBB up and then that stress level would start rising. So, um I would
31:18
I would never really stray from from that and it took a really really long time for me to start getting
31:24
comfortable. I found that I was overweight myself. Um,
31:29
probably up here, uh, overweing myself. Um, but but slowly I was starting to get
31:35
more and more comfortable with a DSMB. And I think it probably easily took me a
31:41
year before I felt comfortable going out and and throwing a DSMB up from depth.
31:48
So, I was okay if it was in 20 m, but if I was in a 50 m dive, I I had nerves. I
31:55
I had massive nerves. It it it triggered me in ways I didn't think it would trigger me. Um, yeah, really, really
32:01
bizarre. I didn't think I was the sort of person that would be affected by things like that. I just crack on and get on with it. But it it did it did
32:08
affect me for quite some time. That's pretty fascinating. I think something that perhaps, you know, people
32:16
don't really talk about when they talk about diving incidents. They talk about the immediate stuff, you know, the, you
32:21
know, the oxygen treatment, the chamber treatment, all those sorts of things, but people don't often think about, you
32:26
know, what it's like afterwards. You if you, you know, obviously some people don't never get back in the water, but clearly, you know, well done you for
32:32
getting in. But interesting that you've had these kind of mental blocks because when we talk about what actually happened,
32:39
wasn't the DSMB that was the issue really, was it? No, not at all. So, it's kind of weird that you've
32:44
associated that with the DSMBB when it wasn't really the DSMB's fault.
32:49
No, but but I guess I guess what it is is I know that if I'm on a DSMB and I
32:54
have that problem, I've got nothing to grab, nothing to hold on to. If you're on a shot line and something goes wrong, you can hold on to the shot and that's
33:01
attached to something at the bottom and whatever goes wrong, you can get yourself up without Yeah. So I I think
33:09
that is why it triggered me a little bit, but it took me a really long time, a really long time to get back
33:15
comfortable with with throwing a DSMB anything deeper than 20 mters. Never never thought it would affect you. Just
33:21
don't know how things are going to affect you until it happens, I guess. No, I think that's that's absolutely
33:26
true. I think it's probably a good point actually to talk about you know you know what the things that you think did
33:33
contribute to to the incident and kind of the other lessons you know that you've taken away from this.
33:38
I considered myself a really competent diver and I think I was but I with
33:44
competence can breed a bit of complacency. So, I think I'd probably
33:49
got a bit complacent with with my diving and not done the level of checks I
33:55
should have done, which you know, now a diver rebreather, there's not really that many checks you have to do on open
34:00
circuit. So, to not even do them is really lazy. So, I've only got myself to blame. But, it kind of started um it
34:09
started out where I was in the process of buying uh a new undersuit and had to
34:15
pay the deposit for that. So I sold my un my sorry my dry suit. So I sold my
34:21
dry suit uh to pay for the deposit. Now that in itself wasn't a problem because we were off to Egypt so I could sell it.
34:28
I knew I had time to come back from Egypt, pick up a new dry suit. Um and it would be absolutely fine. Uh but that
34:35
didn't happen as we know because we didn't go to Egypt. So uh we were then filling our time with with doing a bit
34:42
of diving in the UK. Um, so somebody said, "You want to go to uh Stony Cove,
34:49
go in the muddy puddle for a day?" And I said, "Yeah, we'll do as long as I can a
34:54
dry suit off of somebody." So, somebody lent me a dry suit. It wasn't fitting me
35:00
correctly. The feet were three sizes too big, and I was like, "That'll be fine.
35:06
I'll shove an extra sock on. Um, I'll just do the dive. It's only in Stony Cove. I'm not going to be that deep.
35:13
It'll be fine. and I'll figure it out. I guess probably worth saying for people who don't have any idea what Stony Cove
35:19
is. Um, you know, the probably there'll be people from overseas who who've never had the pleasure of going to Stony Cove,
35:25
but it's another it's another flooded quarry in not quite northern England, although it's kind of middle England,
35:31
but it's probably arguably it's the most popular diving location in the UK, isn't it? Pe people get people
35:37
loads and loads of people go there, but it's kind of 30 odd meters, 35 maybe the maximum depth, I think.
35:43
Yeah. Yeah. The Hydro Box 345. Um, yeah, it's nothing too exciting. And, uh, to
35:49
be honest, Hydro Box isn't that exciting, so I don't really go there that often. Yeah. So, so for me, the
35:54
plan was I'm not going that deep. I'll probably just go to the Stangarth, which is, you know, a little boat um, in about
36:01
18 to 20 m of water. So, I wasn't that fussed. That's fine. Dive actually went okay.
36:08
And then somebody said, "Do you fancy doing the 1021?" which is the most amazing dive in Yuki on a sub. Um, and I
36:18
and I I really I've just got to do this. I've just got to do this by the way, Tash, because anybody who's watching this, I have got
36:23
a video of what it's like to dive the 1021. And I'll put a link uh somewhere up here so people can see it. But it is
36:30
um it is a stunningly wonderful dive and uh if you haven't done it, you
36:35
absolutely should. And if you've done it, you should probably do it again because it's awesome. It is awesome. And
36:41
you know, I kind of said, do you know what? I'd love to, but I've got a loner dry suit. It's probably not sensible to
36:47
do a techie dive with a suit that's not fitting me. I'm not comfortable doing it. So, I backed away. And about a week
36:53
later, the husband said, "Do you fancy doing a soul set?" And without thinking,
36:58
I just said yes. And I didn't even put put that same logic to the soul set.
37:03
Which brings me back to the conversation right at the very beginning where I said, you know, there's an argument over whether the souls set considered a
37:09
technical dive or a recreational dive. You know, it's the more techy you become, uh, a 43 m dive feels
37:16
recreational, I think. So, um, you know, but whatever way we look at it on paper,
37:23
it's a technical dive. So, I I guess maybe the way to not look at it is whether it's technical or recreational to look at it is it's it's
37:30
a 40 odd meter dive going to end up doing a reasonable amount of decompression and
37:36
therefore you need to be prepared and equipped and space to do that, isn't it?
37:41
Yeah. But yeah, no, I know exactly what you what you mean. I'm on record somewhere of saying that I think 60 anything less
37:48
less than 60 shallow dive and uh you know that's it's a horrendous thing to say, but we do. Absolutely. We we we you
37:55
get in that mindset and it's a really really bad place. It is. So again, you know, very not
38:02
sensible decision by me. So um just said yes, let's let's do it. So you know,
38:09
this had started a couple of weeks before uh the the warning signs and the the poor decision making probably more
38:15
than anything the poor because I'd had a perfectly good dive in Stony Cove which
38:21
wasn't really going to present too many problems at 15 20 mters. I didn't even
38:26
think about it and just said, "Yeah, okay. We'll do it." really really poor decision making from me. So off we went
38:33
but but understandable I got no one else to blame on that's the problem. I have tried um you know so so
38:40
off we went and uh that was that was great and then I kind of looked at um my
38:48
kit and putting it all together and that was fine. But what I hadn't checked either was had I put enough sea weights
38:54
on because I'd just been in the water with fresh water. So, I was weighted um
39:00
for fresh water and I'm genuinely not somebody who overweights. A lot of people overweight themselves and and I'm
39:07
usually pretty spot on with my waiting. So, what I dived in in in fresh was
39:12
never going to be enough for the sea. I needed an extra couple of kilos and I hadn't put that on and I hadn't checked
39:18
if I put it on either. Um so, that again is something that I should have done and
39:24
I didn't. Just being a bit complacent throwing the kit together. um being a bit cocky already. You know, my kit
39:31
looks cool, so that's all that matters. I don't know what went through my head, but I didn't check it. I've got no
39:37
excuses. I've got no one else to blame, you know. And then and then we've got the dry suit. So, I'm in the water and
39:44
um the feet. Anyone that drive dives a dry suit will know that's the worst
39:50
place to get air trapped is in your feet. It's so hard to get it out. and I've already got massive amount of space
39:57
there that's available to store some air. And I just could not shake it. The
40:04
the other thing with a dry suit, which I didn't mention before, is it had a shoulder dump. Now, my dry suit only had
40:11
a wrist dump. I if I'm honest, I can't remember how I went in the water,
40:17
whether I had it fully open. I I just can't remember. I I didn't routinely
40:22
dive for a shoulder dump. So, not only I'm in a dry suit that doesn't fit me, I'm in kit that I haven't really dived
40:28
on in into the smallest things sometimes can be a problem if you've not dived it
40:34
and then you throwing yourself in on a dive that really matters that you need to make sure that you understand your kit. Uh so, yeah, a couple of things
40:43
with the dry suit, poor decision- making with that, I think. Yeah. So, so to have
40:49
a runup for a couple of weeks before the actual dive of things that should have triggered my brain not to do that dive
40:57
um or to do it differently or to think about it or check my kit or to add sea
41:02
weight um or to even add extra weight for the fact that I had an illit and dry suit. I shouldn't have done that. That
41:08
shouldn't have even been a question, but I didn't do any of it. Yeah. So, there were so many reasons running up to that
41:16
that should have triggered me. And then I had three warning signs throughout that dive. Why couldn't I pull myself
41:23
down? I've never had a problem getting myself under. But somehow I attributed
41:28
the current running to being the problem. But I've never done that before. I've never blamed the current
41:34
before. So I I think a combination of not adding my sea weight
41:40
and and probably having air in my feet of my dry suit that was never going to
41:45
come out really. Um just made me struggle to to get under.
41:52
What's what's the difference between do you think you sew weight and your freshwater weight because what what
41:58
would you normally change a kilo or two kilos maybe? Two. I put two kilos on
42:04
between. Two kilos. Yeah. But two kilos matters when you're not overweighted.
42:10
Oh yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's because I don't generally overweight myself. Um that 2 kilos
42:17
really really mattered. Yeah. So poor decision, dry suit, not
42:23
being able to um probably figure out quickly enough whether my dump was open shut or or whatever it was. Um, that was
42:32
unfamiliar kit for me. Not being able to get the air out, ignoring all of the
42:38
signs. I had three signs throughout that dive that should have given me a warning
42:43
sign that I might have had a problem, and I ignored every single one of them and and pushed off to being something
42:49
else. It was a massive kick up the ass for me in my diving. Really, really
42:57
massive kick up the ass. And I suffered for a year with having a having a problem putting a DSMBB up. That kind of
43:04
tense your diving a bit because you have to limit what you're doing. So I couldn't crack on and do what I would normally do. Um, luckily George was
43:13
really patient and kind of held my hand slowly throughout that process of trying
43:18
to get me back uh from hugging the shot line to moving a bit further away from
43:23
it and then eventually getting them back out on um it was actually a really long
43:29
time before I dive back out of Portland uh and threw a DSM up. To be honest, it
43:34
was quite a long time after that before I could get that back in my head to do that. But yeah, eventually I did.
43:41
I I still even to this day will always have a little apprehension
43:48
uh until I reach my safe stop. And what I mean by that is if I can stop at 6 m
43:53
and hold that for six meters. That's glorious. That's happy days. I can I
43:59
can, you know, hang and have a little sleep and be quite comfortable at that point. But there's always a little bit
44:04
of apprehension until I get to that point. but nothing like it was before. I don't panic or stress in the same way,
44:11
but I I think it's always in the back of my head. There's there's a lot of people
44:16
that could have done that and not got bent. Um, you know, I've I've been I've been on boat dives with people that have
44:22
missed a lot more deco than that and been absolutely fine. It did make me
44:28
think that, well, maybe maybe I'm one of those people that just is a little bit
44:34
bendy compared to others. Um I did have a few incidents after that. Um got
44:40
checked out for PFO, was cleared for a PFO, basically told that I I was one of those outliers. You know, all of that
44:47
decompression theory is exactly that, isn't it? It's theory. So just because it says you're safe at this depth, it
44:52
doesn't mean you're safe at that depth. So it's taken me um it made me make the decision to go to a unit to put myself
45:00
on the on the best gas at all times. Um I love diving a unit now. It's it's I'm
45:07
really happy on it. I'm really comfortable on it. Um but what it but I'm super conservative. So, uh it's also
45:15
having that bend and realizing that perhaps not everybody would have got bent on that dive to that severity made
45:21
me realize that my body composition, my age, there's lots of factors um that we
45:27
can attribute to potential DCIS. It just means I've got to be super careful and I
45:33
watch my GFS. I watch my surface GFS. I don't surface until my surface GF
45:38
becomes a certain level. And if that means I got to spend an extra 20 minutes in the water, so be it. Because I don't
45:45
ever want to go back in the pot again. So, um, I I've really changed the way I
45:51
dive, my conservatism. Conservatism doesn't mean I don't go deep. I will still go deep. I will still
45:57
do the decompression, but I might do a lot more decompression than some would um might be. There's there's an image of
46:04
me just sat on the back of the boat uh at 3 mters and I've done all my
46:09
mandatory decompression. I'm literally just letting the surface GS drop um to
46:15
what is safe for me because what is safe for me isn't necessarily safe for someone else or Yeah. So, it's it's
46:20
really made me think about the way I dive. Um as you know, being a rebreather diver
46:26
yourself, I am still a slave to my checklist. I still check everything um
46:31
that I meant to check. Uh there's a lot more checks than I ever did with open circuit. It's no longer yes, I've got
46:38
gas off I go. Um there's a lot more to think about it. It's made me uh a lot
46:43
more competent and less complacent overall, I would say. Um plenty of
46:49
lessons there. Um I suppose everybody will have a I would have done it better.
46:55
I would have done this. I would have done that. You don't know what you're going to do until you're in that situation. And I should imagine
47:02
everybody's made stupid mistakes. They've just got away with it. And one day you won't, like me.
47:33
Yeah, it's all about learning, isn't it? Been really fascinating talking to you, Tash. Thanks for reaching out and
47:38
offering to do this. That's really appreciated. What I would say to other people out there is um if you want to do
47:45
something similar to Tash, if you've got something a story to tell, you think would be useful for other divers, then
47:51
once again, please get in touch with me and I would love to have you on the channel to talk about, you know, what
47:57
happened to you. If you've enjoyed listening to this, I have loads of other incidents if I'm honest, most of them
48:03
involving me. Um, which is, uh, and and once again, I'll put a I'll put a link
48:09
in the description and there's one up here somewhere as well. And, uh, you can go and watch those. But otherwise, uh,
48:15
thank you very much for your time. Thank you for listening. Most of all, obviously, thank you very much for Tash.
48:20
I'm Dom Robinson, deep wreck diver, and I look forward to seeing you on the next video.
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