Hindmarsh Island resident Oksana Samkova has recounted how she survived being swept away from the Port Noarlunga reef on Monday night while on a night-dive.

Oksana (45)  survived three hours in the water before eventually being rescued at about 11.30pm.

Speaking while still in hospital and being treating for water on her lungs, Oksana told ABC Radio Adelaide she was feeling “really, really luck to be alive” and very grateful to her rescuers.

Oksana was part of a group of six experienced divers taking part in a night-dive on the reef on Monday evening.   

It was her first night dive and a change of equipment meant she was carrying less weight than she would normally use.  The current at the top of the water was so strong that when she found herself unable to descend with the others, due to this reduced weight, she started to be swept away.

“Everyone descended and I didn’t,” she said. “So, by the time they checked everybody, who’s underneath, check with the buddies – and the conditions were not that great – visibility wasn’t great at all.”

“I ended up floating for three hours,” she said. “I was trying to descend and get to the shore and I just got exhausted.

“At the end I had to learn just how to surrender to the situation and use practical skills and thinking, what can keep me alive and luckily I had a very good torch … this torch lasted me for three hours which I was frantically waving in all directions.

“I think this torch saved my life, to tell you the truth.”

When the other divers realised, in the dark, that Oksana was missing they were able to spot her light in the distance, but the current was too strong for them to reach her and they had to call rescue services.

“By that time I was getting swept kilometres away,” Oksana said.

Oksana says knowing that her team would be looking for her helped her to stay strong.

“I was just praying for my torch not to die, which was already on its last legs.”

“When you dive you use a life jacket … so I filled that with air and I was just floating on the surface, that’s why I was taken away. 

"The current was so strong I couldn’t fight to go to the shore and I couldn’t go down."

Oksana, who is a nurse, says she thinks her experience with coping with others’ trauma helped her to think practically about what she could do to survive.

“I was going through all emotions, being scared, thinking of the worst thing," she said.

 “A lot of people have asked me about sharks. That was the last thing on my mind. I did not think of sharks. 

“I was thinking of being alive and breathing because the waves were quite strong so I had to alternate between breathing from my tank and and I was running out of air. 

“I was using a snorkel as well. So that’s how I inhaled a lot of seawater, because of waves crashing onto me.

“It was a very long three hours.”

Oksana could see the lights of rescue vehicles on shore but wasn’t sure if they could see her, as her torch was fading. 

“All I was thinking was, please spot me.”

“When I saw the boat coming, I was just really, really emotionally, happy. 

“I was very relieved and very grateful that I’m alive.”

“Always have a backup when you dive, always have a buddy and always have a spare torch.”

She is planning to dive again when her lungs have completely recovered.