Divers React to Tec diver's near death experience caught on video

[@HRM.H]

Somehow i imagine Woody has a walk-in closet just for all his headwear.

[@xXs3renityXx]

Woody (2022) - "Maybe"

[@sudokode]

And just like the government, he will neither confirm nor deny that.

[@teresakelleher7507]

Woody’s hats bring a lil ray of sunshine to my day ‘thank you’ 🤗

[@bookcat123]

With shelves and shelves of manikin heads to display them properly.

[@lalamotolady]

🤣

[@USOTPC]

I love how divers are willing to step up and say "I screwed up, this is how I did it, and I recognize that the lifesaving potential of my experience must be shared. Ego is not a factor."

[@trouty7947]

I love the fact you guys just bring in the person that's involved to ask them what happened. *So* much better than having to just guess at what happened.

[@benjaminhawkins1129]

[@LadyGeckoFoot]

I love the humility of "I messed up, but here's what I learned."

[@UNgineering]

never EVER be embarrassed about sharing this kind of videos! this is how we learn and improve. this content benefits the entire diving community! if we only ever post smooth dives, perfect trim, nothing wrong, then we won't get better. glad you made it to the surface and thank you so much for sharing!

[@benjaminhawkins1129]

100% my dude. Agreed.

[@garywilburn7384]

That's 100% right. My best mistakes are the ones that I learned a valuable lesson from

[@marios4all]

Excellent video this one, and excellent mentality and self-criticism by Steve ! I would trust more a guy that recognizes his mistakes and addresses them than someone that thinks he's "never wrong"

[@billendres3115]

Tons of respect for this guy, made a mistake and luckily survived but most importantly learned from it and shared his experience so we all can learn. Leave your ego at the dock.

[@trouty7947]

Nothing teaches better than *almost* dying

[@armedandredee]

I love the fact that Woody is so committed to wearing hats, he inconveniences himself to hold the earphones up the entire episode.

[@fuzzyboots123]

Mad respect to anyone willing to put their mistakes out there, talk through them & share what they've learnt. Great vid as always

[@grmasdfII]

This principle did wonders for the airline industry. If something goes wrong, even if it's your fault, report it, let it be analyzed, make sure the lessons to be learned from that get spread as far and wide as possible. Lives are worth more than your ego.

[@The88Cheat]

I absolutely love that you bring these people on and allow them to explain things from their perspective rather than just passing judgement. It really humanizes these situations.

[@garywilburn7384]

I agree, a "Follow-up report" is more understandable and enlightening

[@emilynewton1921]

This guy saved lives with his honesty.

[@emhoj97]

A good diver is a humble diver, and Steve you are humble! You obviously learnt from this experience and have taken steps to prevent a future incident.

[@mikahhgranados1262]

I didn’t know anything about cave diving nor do I truly have a desire to do it my self but the way you 2 explain and discuss it has made me watch your videos non stop! Y’all are truly entertaining

[@kotro88]

This is the best interview you've ever done. And I have major respect for Steve with his willingness to share his ordeal so we can all learn from it. I'd dive with that guy any day! You guys too....lol

[@BjerkeRobin]

Exactly. Everyone makes mistakes and it is super important to actually acknowledge what went wrll and what went wrong and how to improve. Some people would be like: damn regulator piece of sht, luckily I was so amazing that I managed to get to the surface.

[@callunas]

I admire his honesty and humility! I've had panic attacks that were triggered by absolutely nothing before and it's the worst thing I've ever felt. It's like your brain just flips a switch without your consent and then you're just along for the wild ride. Can't imagine going through that in a real life or death situation.

[@YukonSeanHolland]

Thanks for sharing Steve!! Humility is awesome! It helps all divers both new and old and reminds us that things happen and you just never know how you might react in any given day. I like the reminders that we need to always double check gear before we get in the water and reminders during a dive brief. Glad your here to tell us all about it!

[@hotfoot124]

Hey Gus, Woody: I am an advanced open water and rescue diver with between 40 and 50 dives. I had a really scary moment with some new medication I was prescribed. We were only at 20 ft doing a quarry dive in Missouri. It was a gear check dive where we were testing all of the gear, reconfiguring, making ourselves familiar and comfortable with where things were, and improving the layout. When we came to the surface I got really lightheaded and almost passed out at the surface. I have not dived since. I was really scared that I did not know what my medication could do to me underwater. I have since changed medications for other reasons but I am still scared to get in the water. Could you guys do something on the topic of medication and diving so maybe I could have some guidance on how to test myself safely and actually get back into the water? These sorts of incidents really disturb me and I agree with you, never solo dive.

[@Azsiii]

@S. Clarke while i agree that he should consult his on doctor regarding this, its not a bad topic of conversation that they could have with the amazing Dr.Doug Ebersol? (i might be misspelling his last name) how medications and stuff affect us while diving

[@idiotisterecords]

Medical advice on KZbin is a Pandora's Box of trouble. It's very hard, even for experienced professionals, to cover all possible cases and outcomes in a short amount of time. You don't want someone getting a super-wrong idea out of well-meant advice.

[@Azsiii]

@@idiotisterecords touché, sir.

[@MotoAdventureWorld]

It would be great if you could share the specific medication you have concerns about. I would like to look into this as a diver and MD. Thanks kindly.

[@sparkybojangles1831]

Thanks for sharing your story, John. I hope you can get sorted soon and get back to your best. Any lessons we can learn that dont result in fatalities, are a blessing.

[@bumblbesss]

This is "Murphy's Law" & "Fight or Flight" all in one. Glad you made it back Safe Steve, Sharing your story just makes others better and more aware we all learn by Example.

[@lydialeigh4]

I watched this video right after Steve posted. It shook me back to reality about buddy checks and practicing skills. We do it, but not often. And they change their gear configurations pretty often too. I dive this quarry a lot and it is very, very cold at depth - 37 degrees at 100 + feet on one of my coldest dives, and in a wetsuit to boot. In over two years of diving there, I have yet to have a free-flow, but man, do I think about it a lot. I commented and thanked Steve on his original post - so glad he is okay and that he shared. This helps save lives. This quarry also posts several huge signs stating “Your regulator will free-flow past 60 feet! Do not dive beyond your certification level!” One of my buddies did free-flow there at 100 feet and also semi-panicked and shot to the surface. Definitely a reality in water at those low temps.

[@locodiver8665]

So glad he’s okay, and willing to post and talk about it. Good on him! A lot (most) buddy teams never practice OOA/ donate procedures randomly during dives. This is great practice to do once in a while. You get to identify potential problem points (ie air turned off on donation bottle) before a real emergency. Once panic sets in it doesn’t matter how experienced you are. Panic by definition is uncontrolled. So glad he’s okay

[@telcomscott]

I scuba dived with my dad for years. One rule he had was only have 1 new thing at a time. My dad and my grandfather both dove into their late 70’s. My grandfather’s famous quote every time we got out of the water was “well we survived another one”!

[@aaabucus3104]

This is why your guys's videos are great because you found someone who is completely open about his failure at that moment which leads to a truly inspiring video. We can only grow from learning from our mistakes and being open about them.

[@bobfels5343]

I think its really brave to publicly show your mistakes / learning experiences especially so other people can learn. Nothing more than huge respect for him!

[@JS-ok9kn]

This is so good! I'm in the medical field, and the issue of owning, discussing, and learning from errors resonates with me very deeply. I respect all of you so much and I'm grateful for what I have learned watching your channel. Your leadership in normalizing the discussion and analysis of errors in the sport you love is a legacy to be proud of; you are helping to set the stage to save lives.

[@PFMediaServices]

This is a beautifully written comment. Thank you for summarizing your feelings so well as your conclusions are spot on. ✌️🍍

[@reneezemlock7880]

I'm from Wisconsin and did open and advanced certs there. The coldest dive I remember was the 906 Dredge in Lake Michigan. If I'm recalling correctly (it was almost 15 years ago) the 906 is at around 60ft and we dove it in August... bottom temp was about 42 F and I was not in a dry suit. I had on a 5mm hooded vest, 7mm wetsuit, boots and gloves.

[@Lehmann108]

Mad respect to the dude who came on and acknowledged his screwup and really learned from it. I've only panicked once when I was learning to dive. My regulator got kicked out of my mouth on an out breath. I was used to clearing my regulator using my breath. So when I put my regulator back in I suddenly realized that couldn't clear it. I panicked and shot to the surface. Luckily I was only at 15 feet and had no air in my lungs. I had completely forgotten about the purge button on the regulator. My instructor took me back down and we ran drills of re creating this scenario and dealing with it correctly.

[@devindawdy4084]

Great Content as always! Happy to see a positive outcome from such a close call. Makes me want to get in the shallows and really work on emergency procedures.

[@juanfelipemv]

“Donde?” Asks Woody thinking people will think he knows how to speak Spanish but in reality he knows like 10 words.

[@eldoolittle]

I think he was trying to break Gus in the 1st minute of a video.

[@tomcat909]

His admission and telling of true panic serves bar beyond the diving community. Thank you, Sir.

[@Operngeist1]

I'm really glad Steve is here with us and able to tell everyone what happened. Too often it's the case of having a dead diver and you can only speculate about what happened, so to have someone here who can tell the story and say, this happened and this is how we prevent it, it's great. Really amazing that he uses the experience to teach others.

[@Omig12]

The amount of honest self-criticism observable in the diving community is commendable.

[@zoober8158]

theres really not a lot

[@Omig12]

@@zoober8158 It still seems to be way more than in many other communities.

[@djhilley8516]

I’ve been watching you guys for a while and finally subscribed. I don’t think I’ll ever have the desire to do cave or tec diving, but I learn a great deal from you both and have an immense amount of respect for how your videos and commentary are always respectful, educational, are not ego-driven. Your guest’s willingness to share his experience normalizes the fact that we are always learning and are most at risk when we forget that. Kudos to you all.

[@ArolzStreams]

What a humble guy. It seems like he has learned a lot about himself after this incident. Wish him the best! Have a good day Woody and Gus! The best days are when I wake up to a new video! Thank you!

[@GrahamsYouTube]

Firstly well done to Steve for being so open about his experience, the key to learning is to forget the ego, in any sport or activity. We all have made mistakes diving, we all have made kit changes before a dive and should have tested it in the shallow, the fact that this channel is an open forum to discuss issues and incidents is a breath of fresh air (pardon the pun!). Thanks to Steve for sharing his experience and for you guys for reviewing it.

[@chattymime]

Absolutely love this guy’s humility. This is a phenomenal reflection on mistakes. Love love love to see it. Thanks for having him on and giving him the time to explain here’s what happened, here’s what /should/ have happened, and here’s how i learned from it. Beautiful.

[@danthetech6831]

You guys always do such an incredible job and for Steve to be able to admit he made mistakes and was overly confident is a great show of his character

[@emilydickerson8348]

I love how transparent all of you are. This is literally my favorite video

[@eliz_scubavn]

Videos like this are proof that mistakes and incidents can happen to anyone regardless of experience. And being able to learn from these mistakes is important!

[@petergianakopoulos4926]

Comments like this are useless

[@Princearom1]

Reflecting on his commentary and trying to put myself in his shoes. I think one of the most common things we do when we panic or are frustrated to calm ourselves down is to Breath deeply or slowly. I realize now and ask myself, how do I not panic if I can't breath? Respect to all divers out there that have been able to keep calm when things like this happen to you guys not to mention narcosis.

[@janinacooper4199]

Steve, thank you for talking about your experience and reflecting on what happened. It’s helpful to every diver and a learning experience.

[@CherryGirlie1]

Mad props to Steve for sharing his story. As a licensed clinical social worker and someone who just this year had a life threatening water experience (not while diving, but rather while kayaking in Hawaii), I completely understand, appreciate, and approve of the measures you took to reduce your PTSD symptoms from your experience. As a newer diver, I appreciate these videos because I know the power of water and it helps me to feel more equipped. I completely agree with Gus about panic shutting down the brain so the more we can learn and practice, the better off we will be should the time come to deal with an emergency underwater. Thank you again!

[@terryjohnson666]

Lol! OMG you’ve given me yet ANOTHER new all-time favorite Dive Talk video. What a wonderful, constructive and enlightening analysis you guys and the subject conducted of his near-tragic panic attack. Supreme kudos to the three of you for an incredibly humbly educational session. This, folks, is how the very best of the best help build better divers and save lives. Simply 👏 👏 awesome.

[@dariawells7438]

I don't know how I found you guys, I know nothing about diving, but I love your channel and find it fascinating! Thanks for explaining stuff to non-divers and making content that is accessible and interesting to a wide audience!

[@tiascot6541]

Ditto this. Makes me want to learn to dive 😍

[@annvassallo2604]

I don't want to dive at all, but I still absolutely love these two, I get so happy when I see a new video from them.

[@shadowsfive32]

Thank you for sharing this video! I feel that it is a perfect example of how panic can affect even the most experienced person. Never ever underestimate panic and how badly it can screw you in the moment.

[@thed165]

I just love how honest you guys are! If I was crazy enough to take up diving, I would definitely trust your advice over those “elite” divers that never admit any past mistakes.

[@thegracklepeck]

Glad you guys shared this. You can be prepared (or think you're prepared) and end up panicking anyway. I would say ~especially~ if you have changed something up before your dive (as we heard in the video). And it really could be something simple like a longer lanyard. I think he handled it pretty well and took it as a learning experience, both him and his dive buddy.

[@knarftrakiul3881]

Fear is a crazy thing. It makes the very best of us panic on occasion. Not faulting this young man at all. He lived to see another day and that's what matters

[@nancyjones6780]

I'm not sure why but I found this video to be really great! I love the recognition of fallibility. It's very important for growth to experience humility and learn from a mistake! Good discussion guys!!♥️

[@Lanzafan1]

Lovely to see Steve pop up on screen, so glad he was ok 🥰 Kudos to him for sharing this to benefit the whole diving community. It can happen to anyone x

[@Silkstep]

We all can panic, and I agree that solo diving is not something I would do. Heck, I have come close to panicking watching some of your videos, and wondering how I would have handled it. 😆 Kudos to Steve for sharing his experience.

[@NancyD2]

Diving would make me panic.

[@JuliaEBH]

Incredible humility. We have all had moments where our ego is in control. It takes courage to admit that and learn from mistakes. Very admirable; great video!

[@maxspittal8470]

Hat off to the guy for his honesty. Sharing like this helps everyone, well done.

[@Geronimo2Fly]

Massive respect to Steve. When you make mistakes, you learn from them and allow others to learn from them as well. That's the way it should be done. Nice job!

[@mmeda6977]

Respect for the guy who was honest and allowed others to learn from his mistakes. That is what makes him an awesome human being.

[@donnabrown256]

Love his transparency. So much better than arrogance. Will be helpful to a lot of other divers.

[@andreeeeeeeee670]

Thank you we learn from these mistakes and one day can be live saving. Sharing this takes good heart ty

[@ci4396]

The only mistake is to not learn from our mistakes. You’re also teaching many divers a lesson. Dont be embarrassed of the video 🙏

[@toriedwards126]

Staying calm really is everything! glad you are safe! This is how we learn to do things differently! Thank you for sharing.

[@ThePlayerOfGames]

This sort of video is great; We have the people from the incident to talk to They've had time to reflect and understand what happened and why And everyone's ready to discuss, and give and receive feedback

[@BjerkeRobin]

This os an excellent video for highlighting the dangers of last minute setup changes. The muscle memory kicks in, so even something like a longer necklace can seriously mess with your day, like in this situation.

[@LuLuLuvU]

Experiencing an NDE (near-death experience) can change your life forever! I experienced it in 2006 and became much more grateful and slowed my pace in life. I'm so glad you're ok.

[@ukaszlech5452]

This is the reason why 3 meter checks are so important. Many people think it's not important to check your regulators, lights, compass etc. every single time, because it worked 1000 times before, but then, if you do dumb error like putting battery backwards, or your backup regulator hangs in some stupid place, you notice that BEFORE the dive.

[@baturaykumbaroglu6066]

Brilliant perspective directly from the person involved, and very insightful commentary. Love this.

[@superhawk20002]

Thanks for sharing. Those lessons learned and talked about can be applied to so much in life. I couldn't help but chuckle about the mention of seeing your buddy's face as the last thing you'll see before you die. I'd bet that exact thought is more common than anyone would want to admit.

[@robbiedickson5296]

This reminds me of the community in one of my hobbies of woodworking. Plenty of dangerous machines where, if something goes wrong or you make a stupid mistake, in a fraction of a second your friends may either be calling you stumpy for the rest of your life or really could be at a funeral. One of the things I always watch regularly and thank people for is sharing their mistakes, accidents, near misses or real injuries but their videos always get such flak and abuse from people for the "stupid" thing they did or whatever it is! This is terrible behaviour as we all can be tired, in a rush, have a lapse of judgement. Respect people for sharing their mistakes, all those apparently perfect or experienced people should be very careful, maybe more than most.

[@7charite]

I am rewatching this video to remind me to have clear mindset and be a better dive buddy. Thank you!

[@dustinlynne2697]

You guys are awesome. I played a video for a buddy(neither of us have ever dived), now he can’t stop watching either! Thanks for the entertainment!

[@stevedenruyter4902]

It’s very humble to put this online and speaking about yr mistakes that happend. Simple things could have prevented this. Lessons learned. And when panic kicks in yr gone, I’ve learned it also the hard way, thnx for sharing @Woody: they still train doing an emergency ascent blowing bubbles from 30m or 100ft. And although I don’t agree with this thing it works. 3rd dive on my ccr I had a small issue that collided and bolted from 35m to the surface in like a few seconds. Only thing on my mind was keep blowing, keep blowing.

[@ep7672]

These lessons definitely should be shared. Thanks for everyone on screen being as humble as they are.

[@kennydonahue2781]

Bravo Steve for sharing this experience. It is a good reminder to practice the skills we learned as an OW diver so training kicks in before panic. Great self analysis and willingness to share.

[@justiceBustamante]

I know nothing about diving but I have become hooked on you guys Channel and binge watch it daily. Awesome Channel and I'm learning so much

[@Lufu2]

Wow, I have so much respect for you both and for Steve and by sharing his experience will most likely save lives.

[@FirstLast-sy3rj]

going on the internet and telling the world he was arrogant and panicked takes balls.

[@steveeymann6374]

I prefer to call it integrity. It's the measure of a true man. You can put your ego aside and admit you've made mistakes. You're not wrong though it also takes gigantic balls!

[@Dandeb19]

Yes Steve, hats off to you. Thank you for sharing... So glad you're ok.

[@tristancope3792]

Real kudos to Steve for being willing to share this and share his thoughts. It’s always easy for observers to chip with hindsight to say “you should have done this, or should have done that”, but this video illustrates how easily anxiety or panic can cause us to forget or neglect aspects of training and do something completely different. Glad the outcome was OK and thanks for sharing so we can all learn from this.

[@ItIsWhatItIs8120]

This makes me think of you guys stressing the checklist be done on every single dive no matter the level of experience .💯

[@TheRealTomLauda]

Very interesting video. It shows how the brain freeze itself under panick, even for the best trained and experienced divers. And it's applicable for all kind of situations, not only diving, so it is a very valuable video. Thank you Steve for sharing that with us.

[@Biodoc100]

Wow, amazing discussion, and so important that he shared his incident and lessons learned!

[@scubanix8391]

Congrats to Steve to be that brave and share his story and his video! It’s a great lesson for everybody

[@TroyRene]

great job Steve. Awesome to see you learn from it. Checks and practicing these things is so important

[@Henoik]

As a Norwegian diver, we dive in drysuits year-round. To me, 10-11 degrees Celsius is quite warm - as we often dive in anything from -2 to +5 degree water. I remember when I was in the Bahamas, where it was like 22 degrees C in the water, the local DMs came up freezing, and we were like "What's the big deal?" Pretty amazing to think that different experiences like that form your thresholds differently. In that sense, I view myself as quite lucky to have most of my diving in Norway, as it gives me a lot of experience diving with poor visibility (there is often nothing more than 5 metres visibility here, and it gets dark pretty fast), tough streams, and cold waters. The negative of that, of course, is that when we're diving in less extreme circumstances, we can quickly become too confident in our abilities.

[@Hiihtopipa]

Dude 10-11 is like a hot summer day in Finland 🤣

[@janmuenther]

German lake diver here. I’m with you guys, this is tropical 😂 was a bit surprised by dry gloves at these temperatures, but it’s all a question of whatever you’re used to!

[@SnackPack913]

It’s nice having all these mental reps on what to do in these situations. I struggled breathing from the free flow reg in my open water class, I need to practice that in case of a reg failure and an octo failure in uncommon situation.

[@michaeldorsey5724]

These are the best videos to share,thank you is an understatement!

[@AINova-z4d]

I'm not a diver, but I am kind of addicted to this duo. Subscribed and keep on going!

[@beanyboom18]

That was a great interview. Big thanks to Steve for sharing the video, takes guts to admit fault, and being so brutally honest about it.

[@tiascot6541]

Steve I admire you for coming out & admitting that you didn't do everything correctly but have learnt from your mistakes. A truly brave & humbling human being.

[@WarriorOfSIN]

He was a really awsome guest and this was a great video. Thank you so much for sharing it.

[@AmityAmy]

Really impressive video many thanks to Steve for being so open to discuss what the issues were . I hope it gives pause to some of the folks who think its never going to happen to them

[@youtubeconnollyfamily]

Been having a crazy Monday morning. So thank you very much for uploading a video. Definitely needed it

[@FlowertheSpaceAlien]

Great video. I really appreciate how candid you were during the video and aftermath of how you handled it afterwards.

[@jamesbenners9114]

Excellent commentary from all three of you. Very humbling and greatly appreciated!

[@_wegota2319_]

Fantastic discussion

[@nathantrest2345]

Much respect to that diver! Wisdom has infinite value!

[@warrenheppler1351]

I think the diver you guys interviewed I think he’s going places! It’s been awhile since I seen a diver after making a life threatening mistake take responsibility. He didn’t beat around the bush lol. He just plainly said I screwed up, and this is what happened and this is what I learned. Dive talk your the best!

[@gregchavez1534]

I talked about my own near-death experience in a reply to another DiveTalk videot, but I can confirm that this is EXACTLY what quarry water looks like in the dead of winter: dark and murky. I did my dive in water that was about 52ºF but it was only to 30ft, so it didn't vary much. Also, we used wet suits, which work, but the initial exposure is torture.

[@TheGreatSpanishBaldwin]

Kudos to all three of you for this video, but especially Steve for taking self-stock and providing a lesson that might save a life one day.

[@kennethh2430]

Great video! My buddy and I are newly certified. We recently dived in Whittier, AK, took 3 tanks with us just in case we wanted to get more time underwater. We did end up using the 3rd tank, but had a lot of air left over. I just messaged him, I suggested we work on free-flow breathing skills. Precertification in the pool was great, but working on skills is applicable to getting better at anything we want to be better at. Be familiar with your dive buddy's rig, check your rig before the dive and if you swap tanks, recheck everything again...its a new dive. You and your buddy may be what is between life and death. I'm glad Steve was able to share his learning experience, much better than a lesson from an event where someone died.

[@Ivan-vh6pt]

This is one of those videos where I go and do all the emergency drills once every 6 months :)

[@Oheeeoh]

How great are these diving videos as training/learning tools? Back when I started diving practically no one used underwater cameras. These videos, IMO are a fantastic tool to learn from a diver's panic/mistake scenario.

[@brendanrafferty3192]

EXECLLENT episode! Thanks for the guest interviewee for walking us through the incident.

[@thegamerclub6523]

I just started my dive master course with PADI at 15 and I have watched you since even before OW cert and you guys kickstarted my interest in diving. Thank you!

[@thegamerclub6523]

Any advice for the course?

[@DIVETALK]

Obsess over what would make divers experience even better. The people you are DMing for. What would make their day or their dive even better.