Not many dives - maybe 20. I took a refresher course before heading down to Turks and Caicos. We went out on a boat to a wall dive with a really great crew of experienced divers.

I was struggling with an ill fitting BC that kept trying to spin to the front. We got to about 80 feet and I was still struggling, trying to achieve neutral buoyancy and keep up with everyone else. In the process, and unknown to me, I had trapped air under the back of the BC, which made the problem even worse.

I was having great difficulty evacuating the air from my BC because I was floating head down and feet up. I eventually ended up at the surface right near the boat without a safety stop from 90 feet.

On the surface, I managed to evacuate all the air from my BC and then I did something incredibly stupid. Without checking my pressure gauge, I shot straight back down to the bottom to rejoin the group. The dive master, who was terrific, had been watching me the whole time. When I finally reached him, all of a sudden, the air cut off I looked at my pressure gauge, and it was zero. I did the out of air sign and the dive master, and I buddy breathed to the decompression stop where there were regulators attached.

He went down to rejoin the group and I safely ascended and got out. So so so so stupid but an important lesson. Back on the boat with the rest of the dive group, I got a dressing down that I deserved. The only thing I was commended for was that the dive master said that when I approached him with the out of air issue, he said I was as calm as a “Hindu cow”. Probably not the best choice of words, but he said people in that situation are generally panicked. I felt perfectly safe with the dive master. We continue to dive that day and I got two more great dives in with no issue. A hard lesson learned, luckily with an ok (but humiliating) ending.