Thought I’d share an experience with you guys. I know it probably won’t mean much to you all, but here goes anyway…
At the weekend, a good friend of mine and I went SCUBA diving about 2 and a half hours away from where I live at a place called Philip Island in Australia. It’s officially Winter now and the solstice celebrations have begun.
After travelling 45mins on a boat over very rough sea we reach our destination and begin to gear up to dive down to an old shipwreck which sank back in 1914, just off the coast of Philip Island.
Wetsuit, check. Mask & Snorkel, check. Buoyancy Control Device (BCD), check. Regulators, check. Oxygen on, check. Dive computer and compass, check. Fins on, check. Pre-dive checks, done. Buddy checks, done. The captain of the boat yells “Divers ready?” and we give the 
signal and proceed to the back of the boat and jump in to the ocean.
The water was 8 degrees Celsius and we feel the pinch of the cold water running down our backs as we wait for the rest of the divers to give the ‘diver ok’ signal once we have entered the water. Once all the divers are in the water, we give the 
signal, letting them all know we are about to start our decent to the shipwreck which sits at around 28-32 meters.
I can say that I am quite an experienced diver, although I rarely dive in the cold and was not prepared for this.
We started our decent and I checked my dive computer once we passed the major pressure change at 5 meters and all seemed ok, however, something seemed off. I started to get anxious and started to panic. I wanted to breathe out of my nose but couldn’t obviously because I was underwater… I felt an overwhelming urgency to breathe through my nose and I couldn’t so I started to panic and get very anxious. I quickly remembered to use my Regulator and breathe oxygen from the tank. Once I started to breathe correctly, I looked at my buddy and he was calm as we were descending, I used empathy and by proxy he kept me calm, just by looking at him.
When you learn to dive you are taught mindset is 80% of the dive and being out of my comfort zone, I forgot this teaching. Mindset is a combination of attitude, discipline, training, perception and mental preparation for diving.
When I was doing my checks, I completely forgot to check myself, to see if I was ok… and then get in the right mindset for the dive. Had this have happened deeper in to the dive, it could have been fatal.
I guess the moral of the story is that during our busy lives where we can get carried away with things, we can sometimes forget to check ourselves out and make sure we are ok. Whether it be going to the gym, going our for dinner, going to see a loved one… make sure you’re in the right mindset. Check your attitude, your discipline, your perception and mentally prepare for what you’re going to do. It could save your life.
Most importantly… don’t forget to breathe!! 
<3
4 Likes
This was beautifully written, and so timely for a lot of us here I’m sure. Glad you found your calmness in your diving partner and got through the panic, but it’s an analogy I’ll try to remind myself of in the days to come. Thank you, from a fellow Aussie <3
Rhys.
1 Like
So cool dude thank you. And I’m glad you didn’t die
1 Like