If you can breathe, you're ok

Please register or login

Welcome to ScubaBoard, the world's largest scuba diving community. Registration is not required to read the forums, but we encourage you to join. Joining has its benefits and enables you to participate in the discussions.

Benefits of registering include

  • Ability to post and comment on topics and discussions.
  • A Free photo gallery to share your dive photos with the world.
  • You can make this box go away

Joining is quick and easy. Log in or Register now!

Well, I have a friend who was inside of a wreck in the early 90's when his canister light blew up from H2 build up from lead acid batteries which is what we used then. When he basically got punched in the kidney from the blast he rammed his mask into a piece of steel and shattered the glass. So there he was, inside of a wreck, no light and no mask - got himself out of the wreck on his line, worked his way to the up line and started going up. When he hit the divers on the deco stop, one went up and got a spare mask from the boat and he finished his deco with no problems. Then made the 2nd dive.

The wreck was the Stolt Dagali and he was around 120 feet at the time

The Stolt Dagali Shipwreck  New York and New Jersey's Wreck Valley

I have also had my mask flooded many times in low vis when working or diving around dive classes - it happens.


That's crazy...man, talk about keeping your head on your shoulders. Nice!!!
 
Funny you should post this as I was just yesterday talking to a LDS Instructor about that very scenario.When I took my first Basic Class(1971) the very last pool session was reserved for what the instructor called "hell dive".He & his 2 AI's raced around the pool ripping off masks,turning off air,pulling regs etc..to see how the students would react.
The LDS Instructors reply was total disbelief!He commented that these days an instructor would probably loose his insurance & become uninsurable if someone filed a complaint.So how do todays new divers learn to deal with SHTF scenarios,wait until they take a Rescue Course?
 
Funny you should post this as I was just yesterday talking to a LDS Instructor about that very scenario.When I took my first Basic Class(1971) the very last pool session was reserved for what the instructor called "hell dive".He & his 2 AI's raced around the pool ripping off masks,turning off air,pulling regs etc..to see how the students would react.
The LDS Instructors reply was total disbelief!He commented that these days an instructor would probably loose his insurance & become uninsurable if someone filed a complaint.So how do todays new divers learn to deal with SHTF scenarios,wait until they take a Rescue Course?

They don't

---------- Post Merged at 08:18 AM ---------- Previous Post was at 08:13 AM ----------

Do they even do mask trades anymore? I have been doing them with my 9 year old for over a year and he can also do ditch and dons in the pool, along with swimming holding his tank in front while holding his mask on as if he had a broken strap. It's not hard, just takes a bit of time and practice.
 
Tends to be more commonly a part of Stress and Rescue now. Was a super valuable lesson when I went through this.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD
 
If you can breathe, you're ok

If there is a concrete pool bottom a few feet below you, yes.

Otherwise, you have one other very important issue to deal with: your position in the water column.

In the warm ocean, I highly recommend that divers take off their masks and have a look around. Yes- you can live through the experience. It is better to practice this on your own terms.... versus a "crash course".
 
A good skill I try to practice often is I go to the shallow end of a pool say... three feet. I then sit on the bottom with my mask off and just breathe out of the reg for 30 seconds at a time. I then put the mask back on and clear it.
 
Another very usefull drill is 8 or 10 divers in a circle. On signal from the leader, everyone takes their mask off and passes it to their right, and takes the one they get from the guy on the left, orients it, puts it on and clears it. You go around the circle until you get yours back, or a couple more times if desired. Eventually, someone will be slow, and you may sit with no mask for a bit, and it also gets you used to gear you may not be used to. Very helpful, and develops a comfort level with mask off and clear that you don't get in normal OW training.

And I too was a student of the instructors knocking things off of you, playing with valves, etc. They just took it up a notch for us, and did it while we were swimming laps buddy breathing . . . nothing like task loading!

And while it was a definite challenge, I really feel that some of this should have continued to todays training. That level of training gave me a comfort level with my skill set that has kept me comfortable to this day . . . I had been inactive for 10 years or so, and went back and did rescue. In one of the scenarios, the instructor ripped my reg from my mouth . . . I don't even think my pulse changed . . . I just thought "Well, I guessed that wrong" . . . grabbed my octo, put it in, locked onto the "victim", signalled ascent, and up we went . . . Others with more recent training did not do so well under similar conditions . . .

I realize the goal of todays training is to make scuba more accessible to more folks, but if it comes down to putting people in the water who are not necessarily (or merely barely) safe, myself, I'd rather have less divers out there, just sayin'!

- Tim
 
Last edited:
Mask remove/replace made me nervous in my OW class, so I'm sure to do one at the end of every single dive. I'm doing them now in trim and neutral, and now just need to concentrate on my breathing so I'm not holding my breath and floating up a bit. My buddy knows to watch and make sure I dont get too much altitude :)
 
Well, I have a friend who was inside of a wreck in the early 90's when his canister light blew up from H2 build up from lead acid batteries which is what we used then. When he basically got punched in the kidney from the blast he rammed his mask into a piece of steel and shattered the glass. So there he was, inside of a wreck, no light and no mask - got himself out of the wreck on his line, worked his way to the up line and started going up. When he hit the divers on the deco stop, one went up and got a spare mask from the boat and he finished his deco with no problems. Then made the 2nd dive.

1. Hydrogen is only given off when charging a lead acid battery, not when it is discharging.
2. No tech diver in his right mind would do a second dive after receiving a potential kidney injury.
 
1. Hydrogen is only given off when charging a lead acid battery, not when it is discharging.
2. No tech diver in his right mind would do a second dive after receiving a potential kidney injury.

Get a little weep into the canister and they blow up, not often but in the 90's when we used big sealed lead acid batteries it did happen. We were younger and invincible in our 20's and 30's and we did things they tell us will kill us now - air dives to 250 in the morning, 180 in the afternoon, penetrations without lines (Progressive penetrations), .....

You can also get H2 build up in canisters with recharging ports where the battery is left in the canister with limited ventilation.
 
Last edited:

Back
Top Bottom