Diver in tsunami

[pink_fins]

This taken from the D2D board Part 1 (was to long)
sad but good read
gail

This is an email I got from a former student. He moved to Thailand this fall from NC to become a divemaster and try to work over there.

There has been some confusion about why i have not gotten in touch with
everyone about all of this madness that is going on here. It has been very
difficult to get a cell phone to work ever since the quake/tsunami. You
have to dial about 50 times in order to get through. Land lines were down
for days, so therefore no internet was available. I did go diving that day,
and this will fill you in on what I experienced.

Normally, I would include various sections of the news, but really all that
is worth talking about appears in the next section, and will be the only
section that is in this Chronic.

IN TRAUMATIC, WORLD ALTERING, DISASTER NEWS:

I had just jumped off the boat to dive at Koh Bida Nok, an island just south
of the famous Phi Phi (pronounced pee-pee, it’s ok to laugh) islands. This
is a gorgeous area that was made famous by the somewhat popular Leonardo
DiCaprio movie “The Beach.” The dive outfit I am trained by and work for
dives here on a regular basis, and with good reason as it is spectacular
both above the water and below. I was assisting in the training of a group
of 5 Open Water students (the first level of diving certification) and was
there primarily to assist in any sort of emergency because I am a rescue
diver. We were halfway through the 2nd set of underwater skills tests when
the unthinkable occurred.

I was floating behind the 5 students, pushing them back down to the sand
whenever necessary so that they instructor could keep them all in line, this
meant that they were all in a “U” with the instructor in the middle of that
“U” with me behind them all. They were all west of my location and things
were going as they always do with this sort of thing (it’s actually pretty
boring) when I noticed to the north of our location, some pieces of wood, a
rather large amount of fish, and sea urchins heading our way in the open
water very quickly (it is not possible for a sea urchin to swim in the open
water, they have no means of propulsion)….. That’s when it hit me… and at
the time I had no idea what “it” was…. In a half second I could barely see
the group, in 1 second I couldn’t see them at all, in 2 seconds the current
had carried me 100 meters south, in 10 seconds I had been carried 200 meters
south and 8 meters down….. At this point, I am starting to panic a little
bit (which I believe is somewhat warranted)… I can still see the surface; I
can still see all the stuff that is flying around me and with me. I am
starting to worry about if the boat will be able to see me when I surface…
most of all; I am worrying about what has happened to those students because
all of them had NEVER dived in the ocean before. This was their first
experience scuba diving outside of a swimming pool.

After being forced down to about 14 meters (roughly 42 feet) I see a giant
rock and kick with all my power to get behind it. I succeed. I sit there
for 2 minutes; I still haven’t a clue what all this nonsense is – we checked
the current tables before the dives like we always do and the current for
the next hour was supposed to be negligible: A.K.A. “easy swimming.” My
breathing rate has tripled; I still have a half tank of air which could last
me about 40 minutes if I lower my breathing rate. After the 2 minutes have
passed I grab the rock very tightly and stick my head over the top… and am
nearly swept away again….