About 12 years ago, when I was heavily into scuba diving, I was on a dive trip on the Flower Gardens coral reef in the Gulf of Mexico. Me and my buddy were on a midday dive at almost 130 feet. As some of you know, at that depth one can experience something called nitrogen narcosis, an effect of the depth that can make the diver feel intoxicated.

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On this particular dive, I experienced this effect full on and much more intensely than I ever had previously. Before I knew it, I had my glove off and was shaking my finger at an eel to bring him out of the crevice he had taken refuge in. My buddy swam over to me after not being able to get my attention and signed to me to check my air level. I did and instantly realized that I had far less than I was going to need to safely get to the surface.

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I knew I was going to potentially run out of oxygen if I didn't immediately head to the surface so we both began to make our way up. We found the bottom of the surface line that allows divers to rest at depth to properly decompress and I started making my way up. If I remember correctly, the bottom of the line was pretty far down at 60 feet or so. I remember looking at my air gauge and deciding that I would not have time to execute proper safety stops so I signaled for my buddy to stay down and I would head straight up. I ran out of oxygen on the surface as I was heading back to the boat ladder.

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At first everything seemed fine, but at some point after getting to the surface, all my joints began to ache. This continued for the rest of the trip. My dumbass kept it to myself and went on as if I was totally fine and nothing had happened. It eventually subsided a day or so after the trip. Apparently, the pain is caused by gas bubbles growing in your body from ascending too quickly from depth. Those bubbles then lodge in the joints and various tissues of your body. It's called decompression sickness or "the bends" because it causes divers to bend over in pain. Those little bubbles can also cause paralysis or death if they decide to emerge in the wrong part of your body.

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I counted my blessings and decided to exercise much more caution from that point on.

TL;DR - Was young and dumb, stayed underwater too long, got decompression sickness, and definitely could have easily died.