Blackfrogfeet
Registered
This was a boat dive onto a cold water wreck (130ish metres long) sitting in 36-40m of water, with parts of the super structure beginning around 18m, and the first decks at 24-30m. Equipment being used was double steel 100's (12l) on my back with an AL80 (11l) bottom stage, all with EAN32. There were 4 of us on the boat, and we split into 2 sub-teams based my buddy and I being on the same doubles + bottom stage config, and the other 2 being on doubles only; although we decided we would dive in one big 4 person group on/in the wreck. Personally, I don't like diving in big 4-5 person groups like this as I find each person has less individual accountability to other people in the team and it leads to communication problems, which I think played a role here, although it was not the primary issue, and I wont be mentioning it in the rest of the story.
To start it off, it was relatively choppy and diver # 3 was becoming sea sick. He eventually vomited two times but remained in good spirits and wanted to get in the water. I looked at my team mate (diver #2) and decided we needed to enter the water quickly in order to salvage our chances of diving with #3 in case he became too sick on the surface. Diver #3 and #4 jumped in and moved to the down line through the chop. Diver #2, like me was going to use a bottom stage for this dive. We both clipped our bottles on, performed a quick S-drill, and jumped in the water breathing from our long hoses/ back gas. We decided that we would switch to our stages on the way down at 6m and take a quick pause there with #3 and #4 to make sure he was feeling OK from his sea sickness before descending fully. When we were all at the down line on the surface, we descended together. The team communication fell apart between 1/2 and 3/4 fairly quickly, and 3/4 headed straight for the wreck. My buddy (#2) was descending just a bit faster than me and was below me. I was adding shots of gas from my power inflator, when suddenly, it stopped providing gas. I immediately went to use my dry suit inflation to make myself neutral so I could solve the problem with the power inflator, but received no gas from the drysuit inflation either. At that point, I had sank a few metres but had already become so negative that I had no choice but to grab the down-line and hold on for dear life. I went to signal my buddy with my primary light, who by now was only 2 metres below me but I could not do that either. Because I was planning on doing a bottle switch at the start of the dive, I entered the water with my primary light stowed. Not only was it stowed, but I had left it off. Now diver #2 was looking around for me only a few metres below, waiting for me to arrive so we could continue our dive, but I was unable to signal him. After a few seconds, he looks up, comes to me and hooks up both my inflation hoses. Finally.... we can start this dive. I begin to unstow my bottom stage regulator, which had become depressurized most likely from the surface chop sloshing in the 2nd stage. I crack the cylinder open before I pull the 2nd stage hose out from the bottle rigging, so I dont accidentally unthread a depressurized reg from the valve, and POOF! The HP hose on the 1st stage blows on me. Cherry on top of the cake. I signal that my stage is out of commission for the dive, put it away, and I continue on my back gas for an uneventful dive.
Having a complete loss of all buoyancy control like that in open water could have been catastrophic had there been no down line, or had there been current taking me away from the down line. On the surface after the dive I inspected my gear. I had just put 2 new LP inflation hoses on my regs before that dive. After I installed them I was quite pleased with how smooth the action was of moving the sleeve up and down for connecting/ disconnecting. I had done a predive check on the boat immediately before entering the water, and I am quite sure that I had correctly hooked up both my inflation hoses. While playing around with me gear back on the surface, I was able to disconnect my LP inflation hoses very easily, by just brushing the cuff of my dry glove against it. I am not blaming the equipment in any way, but it is something I will be more cognizant of in the future. I also adjusted the position of the bungee holding my power inflator to my harness shoulder strap, as I noticed that it had been rubbing against it probably for some time, and it was able to bump off the new LP hose. That is a big lesson learned in terms of being aware of my equipment states. The other big thing I did which really could have caused bigger problems, was jumping in the water with my light turned off. I had no means of signalling for help. As you can imagine, I was a little frazzled in the first 5 minutes of this dive, but everything worked out in the end, and I was happy to surface with a few new lessons learned.
To start it off, it was relatively choppy and diver # 3 was becoming sea sick. He eventually vomited two times but remained in good spirits and wanted to get in the water. I looked at my team mate (diver #2) and decided we needed to enter the water quickly in order to salvage our chances of diving with #3 in case he became too sick on the surface. Diver #3 and #4 jumped in and moved to the down line through the chop. Diver #2, like me was going to use a bottom stage for this dive. We both clipped our bottles on, performed a quick S-drill, and jumped in the water breathing from our long hoses/ back gas. We decided that we would switch to our stages on the way down at 6m and take a quick pause there with #3 and #4 to make sure he was feeling OK from his sea sickness before descending fully. When we were all at the down line on the surface, we descended together. The team communication fell apart between 1/2 and 3/4 fairly quickly, and 3/4 headed straight for the wreck. My buddy (#2) was descending just a bit faster than me and was below me. I was adding shots of gas from my power inflator, when suddenly, it stopped providing gas. I immediately went to use my dry suit inflation to make myself neutral so I could solve the problem with the power inflator, but received no gas from the drysuit inflation either. At that point, I had sank a few metres but had already become so negative that I had no choice but to grab the down-line and hold on for dear life. I went to signal my buddy with my primary light, who by now was only 2 metres below me but I could not do that either. Because I was planning on doing a bottle switch at the start of the dive, I entered the water with my primary light stowed. Not only was it stowed, but I had left it off. Now diver #2 was looking around for me only a few metres below, waiting for me to arrive so we could continue our dive, but I was unable to signal him. After a few seconds, he looks up, comes to me and hooks up both my inflation hoses. Finally.... we can start this dive. I begin to unstow my bottom stage regulator, which had become depressurized most likely from the surface chop sloshing in the 2nd stage. I crack the cylinder open before I pull the 2nd stage hose out from the bottle rigging, so I dont accidentally unthread a depressurized reg from the valve, and POOF! The HP hose on the 1st stage blows on me. Cherry on top of the cake. I signal that my stage is out of commission for the dive, put it away, and I continue on my back gas for an uneventful dive.
Having a complete loss of all buoyancy control like that in open water could have been catastrophic had there been no down line, or had there been current taking me away from the down line. On the surface after the dive I inspected my gear. I had just put 2 new LP inflation hoses on my regs before that dive. After I installed them I was quite pleased with how smooth the action was of moving the sleeve up and down for connecting/ disconnecting. I had done a predive check on the boat immediately before entering the water, and I am quite sure that I had correctly hooked up both my inflation hoses. While playing around with me gear back on the surface, I was able to disconnect my LP inflation hoses very easily, by just brushing the cuff of my dry glove against it. I am not blaming the equipment in any way, but it is something I will be more cognizant of in the future. I also adjusted the position of the bungee holding my power inflator to my harness shoulder strap, as I noticed that it had been rubbing against it probably for some time, and it was able to bump off the new LP hose. That is a big lesson learned in terms of being aware of my equipment states. The other big thing I did which really could have caused bigger problems, was jumping in the water with my light turned off. I had no means of signalling for help. As you can imagine, I was a little frazzled in the first 5 minutes of this dive, but everything worked out in the end, and I was happy to surface with a few new lessons learned.