I was recently diving for lobsers south of Miami, and my dive buddy (my wife) decided not to come. We left a friend on the boat, and a good friend of mine (but not my usual dive buddy) descended before me. I was a little out-of-breath getting my gear together and jumping in the water, so I waited a minute before descending. When I got down, I did not see him and the visibility was not so great (20-30 feet). I decided to look for lobsters and figured I would run into him soon, as he usually is scooting all over the place and is a bit too comfortable on his own. Well, I never did see him, and after chasing a huge sea turtle and finding a few small lobsters (didn't take em), I decided I should ascend soon. But I couldn't find the boat from underwater after heading back to where I thought it was. It was mini-season, and there were alot of boats on the water, you could hear them zooming about, and I was afraid that I could get hit if I ascended. I remembered that I had just got an inflatable flourescent tube that could easily be seen from far away, and figured that I would inflate it a little so when I came up boaters could see it and would be able to avoid me. I should have waited until I at the surface, because after blowing just a little air in it, the tube started pulling me to the surface way too fast. I tried turning my head down and kicking to counteract the rise, and soon felt my flippers flopping on the surface. My ascension meter on the dive computer was going nuts, and I was frightened that I had really messed up. Fortunately, I was only in about 30-35 feet of water and had not been down too long, and as far as I can tell, I am okay (debatable
). I did have a bad headache afterwards, and learned a few valuable lessons. 1) Don't blow up any device until you are at the surface. 2) Stay with your buddy. 3) Plan your dive well, and remember where your boat is. 4) Know your gear extremely well. Hope my mistakes can help someone avoid worse.