Samantha MacCarty is a sophomore double major in marine biology and communication studies. When she’s not busy studying, she likes going to the beach and hanging out with friends. She hopes her story shows readers that they have the ability to overcome anything and become stronger and succeed despite difficult obstacles.
Scuba diving was always something that I wanted to do. I grew up on the swim team, so fear of the water was no issue, but growing up in Nevada, I didn’t see the ocean until I was 5-years-old. The first time I saw it, a rush of excitement came over me. I ran straight to the water with no fear and swam underwater, trying to see as much as I possibly could. The moment I came up for a breath of air I realized that I wanted to stay underwater longer. That was when my obsession for diving began.
As a teen, I earned my open water and advanced diver certificate through a high school course. It was the highlight of my junior year. Soon after, during a dive trip to Monterey, Calif., I dove in the ocean for the first time. I was extremely excited, but little did I know that this dive trip would be the most influential event of my life.
The first dive was amazing. As my partner and I descended below the surface, there was nothing but blue. Suddenly, we looked down and saw a whole reef below us. Swimming along the reef, we encountered an overly affectionate harbor seal that wanted us to rub its belly. It was absolutely surreal. When my partner and I surfaced, we were ecstatic. We couldn’t believe what had just happened.
On the second dive, we went to a different part of the reef, where the visibility was not as good. The water was murky from a recent plankton bloom. We could only see about 5-to-10 feet in front of us. To keep from losing each other, we had to hold hands. The dive was still fun, and we descended to 70 feet below the surface. We saw many small creatures but it was nothing compared to the first dive.
We swam back to the boat as the underwater current carried us further from the boat than expected. When we finally boarded, role was called. There were two people missing: two of my friends who had gone a different direction. The captain did a 45-minute surface check but had no luck finding them. It was then that the rescue divers were sent into the water.
Twenty minutes later, their bodies were retrieved and shock hit the entire boat. They were unresponsive, their faces pale as their eyes were staring lifeless towards the sky. It was at that moment I knew they were gone. We couldn’t lift them into the boat because the water was so choppy. We had no choice but to hold on to their bodies with rope as we waited for the Coast Guard to take over. Holding on to their bodies felt like the longest moments of my life. It seemed to take forever for the Coast Guard to arrive.
For a year, I didn’t dive. That experience stuck with me. On that boat, I had never felt so helpless. There was nothing I could even try to do, and that still gets me today. But I did not want that one incident to impact my love for diving; it was rare for something like that to happen. They enjoyed diving just as much, and their deaths could not be the reason for me to stop diving. Instead, I decided to advance my skills, so that, if something like that were to ever happen again, I would be able to do something. To prevent that feeling, I became a rescue diver.
I went into training right away. I took a refresher CPR course and learned many new skills. I went through simulated situations where I had to go down a dive for the unresponsive diver and take them ashore. I also learned how to respond to a panicked diver and how to track someone who is unresponsive and find them while working with a group of other divers. I also learned to make a free-dive rescue when you dive down to save someone who is unresponsive without using any scuba gear. It’s an unlikely situation, but not impossible.
It was a month-long training process, doing in-class sessions during the week and going out on dives every weekend. Because of this, I have become a stronger diver. I now feel even more comfortable in the water, even after the incident with my friends. Two years after the accident, to commemorate their deaths, I returned to the dive sight where we had lost them. It was extremely emotional and wonderful at the same time.
We got into the water and the first two dives that Saturday had the same conditions as that original horrid day. However, after the first dive, I felt closure. It was a wonderful feeling that provided me with the motivation to go on an unplanned dive that Sunday. The conditions were amazing. The water was crystal clear. I was able to see every bright color and fish the reef had to offer. If it weren’t for my newly regained confidence, I would have missed out on a beautiful dive.
It still haunts me that I do not know what happened to them beneath the surface — that I couldn’t do anything and that I felt so helpless. However, it is because of this incident that I have become a stronger person and a stronger diver. It drove me to advance myself in diving and become a rescue diver so that if anything like that happens again, I can do something.
