Unexplained Panic Can Kill a Diver: Undercurrent 04/2026

Unexplained Panic Can Kill a Diver

air-supply curtailment will push some over the edge

from the April, 2026 issue of Undercurrent

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We've all been in a situation underwater where we might have been on the verge of panic. I know I have. When something goes wrong during a dive, a cool head will enable you to identify the problem and do something about it.

I've been nipped on the hand by a lemon shark; been lost at night inside the Umbria, a wreck I thought I was familiar with; lost my weights deep inside the Vandenberg; and had all manner of other equipment malfunctions at depth in my days as the technical editor of Diver Magazine. The truth is that, while you have an adequate air supply, you have time to figure things out.

For that reason, I made it a habit to make routine dives with two independent tanks, each with its own separate regulator.

But when your air supply is inexplicably cut, the only solution is to make it to the surface, and exactly that presaged my entry into the world of diving journalism. Even so, I still managed to ascend fairly slowly, exhaling all the way....

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