When An Incident Is Only That

[RayfromTX]

On our last dive in Coz and in fact on the dive where my wife caught the video of the Eel attacking the diver, she had an incident. It is all too familiar and y'all have heard it many times all the way back to OW class. Just before splashing, she or the deck hand on the boat closed the already open valve and then cracked it back a quarter turn. The problem became apparent a few minutes later at 35 feet when she found it difficult to breathe normally. She never panics underwater and this time was no different. She reached back to open her valve but realized it would take some effort to reach and rather than struggle and raise her activity level and gas demand, she yelled at me. I heard her and looked over. She calmly pointed at her valve. As I moved towards her, I looked down at my Perdix AI, as I monitor her tank pressure on the bottom right of my screen there and saw a critical pressure warning. This is set at <350 psi. I immediately thought, "crap her valve is closed" and reached over and opened it. She gave me an ok with a look of "thanks buddy" and swam on as if nothing of consequence had happened. I found that to be quite comforting in that she thought clearly, I thought clearly, we worked together without any hesitation and carried on. We went on to have our most fun dive ever.

There are obviously lessons to learn, all of which we have heard many times;
*be responsible and thorough, never leave anything to someone else
*Stay close to your buddy, especially early and late in the dive
*Always be able to reach your valve
*Always open the valve all the way, never back it off a bit like you were
taught in OW, this bears repeating
*Never panic, think, breathe, stay calm, act
*Stay humble

Oh and the Perdix AI is a really cool tool for those that like really cool tools.

 

[KeithG]

Always at the top of the list of things to do when we are on "new to us" boat is to observe the deckhands behaviour as other divers enter the water (never be first on a new boat).

Do they screw with the tank valve? If yes, then when it is our turn we calmly tell them not to touch our tank. Thank you, but we have already verified that the valve is fully open. Do NOT touch our valve.

 

[AZNetEng]

I always politely ask the boat staff not to touch our valves. Ive had mine turned off by a well meaning crew member.

 

[NYCNaiad]

Yep, this happened twice to me (including once with a planned negative descent when the current swept me away from my buddy). Ever since then, I am a little touchy when someone tries to come near my tank before I dive in.

 

[BRT]

When someone touches your valve do another test breath.

 

[NYCNaiad]

When someone touches your valve do another test breath.

On the negative descent, I didn't even notice/feel him behind me touching my valve. He did it while I was poised to jump in, after I had done a test breath & was making a last minute adjustment to something else.

I only found out afterwards when I came up spluttering & the guy had the temerity to say, "What's the problem? I made sure your valve was open." You should have seen the look on his face when I then yelled back that he had closed it.

 

[Trailboss123]

When someone touches your valve do another test breath.

Another test breath at the surface will not necessarily indicate that your valve has been turned off and reopened a quarter turn. It will breathe normally at the surface. Only when you begin descent and ambient pressure changes will it cut you off from being able to breathe from your regulator.

 

[BRT]

Another test breath at the surface will not necessarily indicate that your valve has been turned off and reopened a quarter turn. It will breathe normally at the surface. Only when you begin descent and ambient pressure changes will it cut you off from being able to breathe from your regulator.

It may breathe OK but the needle will twitch with each breath.

 

[NYCNaiad]

It may breathe OK but the needle will twitch with each breath.

I do a test breath while looking at the needle. But if someone touches your valve after you've done the test & you're not aware of it, there's still a problem. I thought I'd always know when someone touched my valve, but I didn't even feel it. Now, I also check behind me too which seems ridiculous, but I really wasn't happy when I couldn't breath underwater & gloves made it hard to turn my own valve.

 

[Trailboss123]

It may breathe OK but the needle will twitch with each breath.

Assuming you are using an analog SPG- that would be true. Most people these days don't. Either way, point I was wanting to make, in case others end up reading this, is to have an understanding that you may be able to breathe adequately at the surface and when you get to depth you won't be able to. Which, is exactly what happened to the wife of the OP. This is another reason that DM's and Dive Guides need to be informed that the whole practice of turning the tank valve a 1/4 turn is a completely antiquated practice that needs to be stopped. I have tried to inform all I come into contact with overseas and I am constantly met with resistance. Old habits die hard.
Divers Alert Network, A diver turns her valve off instead of on