ladyfishdvr
Contributor
I had an unusual experience yesterday while diving and I am trying to sort out what may have happened.
I was diving with 3 people at Dutch Springs and we were going to the deep hole. We surface swam out to the army truck then dropped down to 77 feet. Then headed towards the deep hole. My buddy is an experienced diver who I trust, and because I was diving an AL80 with 2800 psi he gave me his pony bottle. He had doubles. First time I ever dove with one so he ran through the details. We were leading and the other two guys were behind us. I started hearing air but my reg was not free flowing and it was sporadic then it stopped, so I grabbed my gauge to monitor and I had dropped from 2800 to 2000 in 8 minutes. So as we approached the ledge to the drop off my buddy (who had just checked on me) was just a tiny bit ahead of me and I was thinking I will stay up here and hover instead of going down until I figure this out, then suddenly I started going up. I realized my BC had completely inflated and then my regulator went into freeflow. I immediately grabbed the pony reg so I knew I had a solid air source. I did try to slow my ascent by heading down and dumping air but the bc kept filling and I popped up on the surface.
I remember thinking, "Well that was bad". I felt ok so I figured I would hang out where the bubbles were coming up until my buddy came looking and was thinking "Gee I hope he does not come up too fast looking for me". He did come up fairly quickly and looking very concerned. When he realized I was not visible he knew I was in trouble because I am always close and visible when we dive.
I talked to a friend when I got home and he advised to get my reg checked out. I dive a conshelf 21. Possibly it froze up and came out the bc hose first then the reg.
So I am thinking, I have never heard of a freeflow happening like that, has anyone else? And maybe I need to update my regulator to a closed system if I want to dive colder water.
I had my gopro running and have a video and it is amazing how fast two people can separate underwater when they are going in opposite directions. It really just took seconds.
I was diving with 3 people at Dutch Springs and we were going to the deep hole. We surface swam out to the army truck then dropped down to 77 feet. Then headed towards the deep hole. My buddy is an experienced diver who I trust, and because I was diving an AL80 with 2800 psi he gave me his pony bottle. He had doubles. First time I ever dove with one so he ran through the details. We were leading and the other two guys were behind us. I started hearing air but my reg was not free flowing and it was sporadic then it stopped, so I grabbed my gauge to monitor and I had dropped from 2800 to 2000 in 8 minutes. So as we approached the ledge to the drop off my buddy (who had just checked on me) was just a tiny bit ahead of me and I was thinking I will stay up here and hover instead of going down until I figure this out, then suddenly I started going up. I realized my BC had completely inflated and then my regulator went into freeflow. I immediately grabbed the pony reg so I knew I had a solid air source. I did try to slow my ascent by heading down and dumping air but the bc kept filling and I popped up on the surface.
I remember thinking, "Well that was bad". I felt ok so I figured I would hang out where the bubbles were coming up until my buddy came looking and was thinking "Gee I hope he does not come up too fast looking for me". He did come up fairly quickly and looking very concerned. When he realized I was not visible he knew I was in trouble because I am always close and visible when we dive.
I talked to a friend when I got home and he advised to get my reg checked out. I dive a conshelf 21. Possibly it froze up and came out the bc hose first then the reg.
So I am thinking, I have never heard of a freeflow happening like that, has anyone else? And maybe I need to update my regulator to a closed system if I want to dive colder water.
I had my gopro running and have a video and it is amazing how fast two people can separate underwater when they are going in opposite directions. It really just took seconds.