Equipment A Dive to Remember: Overcoming Technical Hurdles with Teamwork

[FF / EMT]

@Njord fr

Were you diving dry or wet?

OP said 7/8 mm wetsuit in first post

 

[inquis]

It's also useful to work out how much one breath will add to the DSMB. If that's half full, then deploy from 10 m/33 ft (or lower) and expansion will finish the job.

 

[Njord fr]

@Njord fr

Were you diving dry or wet?

Wet !

 

[Alex Ouroboros]

The delights of having an “episode” you walk away from, these are important to all divers so afterwards you can reflect and learn so nothing to feel bad about,
Here in the uk it still amuses (& bemuses) me to see instructors teaching students to purge their octo in a dsmb in cold water, the obvious way around it especially with Poseidon regs is to just catch exhaled gases with the bag and not bother purging, of course a little extra depth beyond 6-7m makes the job much easier, as a side note I will point out that the biggest pressure differential whilst immersed is in the 0-5m range, so I really would advocate putting a bag up at 10-15m using exhaled bubbles whilst moving up (if the individual is comfortable doing so) of course this isn’t always workable so as ever this advice is dynamic to the time and place, yeah you may need a tweak or service on the regs but I love Poseidon’s, the other option on the dsmb is to use Co2 cylinder powered ones although as with every plus there is a minus and you must have easy access to the cylinders and not forget to reload,, very useful for the ccr users obviously.

Best of luck, don’t be embarrassed, your post will help others.

 

[cerich]

freeflow a reg on purpose in 8 degree water will often lead to a uncontrolled freeflow as it freezes, now you know. To the loss of buoyancy control, practice.

 

[sea_ledford]

freeflow a reg on purpose in 8 degree water will often lead to a uncontrolled freeflow as it freezes, now you know. To the loss of buoyancy control, practice.

And freeflowing poseidon's will drain a tank real quick! I used to drain a set of double 100s from 3300 psi to about 1500 psi in less than 2 minutes at the surface.

 

[WoodTurner]

Orally inflate is my prefered method.
Deploy dsmb, lock the reel by holding it in one hand, with index finger holding the d-ring of the dsmb. Now inflate orally just a tad, so the dsmb doesn’t float arround and it’s positioned vertically. Check the surface cinditions, if in trim, left and than right (order not particularly important). Take a breath and blow the final air to deploy the dsmb.
Tip: during the unreeling, hoold the spool with 1 hand, and with the index finger of the other hand give some tension to the cord by holding all of it in front of you, this way, in case of tangle, you give yourself extra second to act and release the reel from your hand.

 

[divezonescuba]

 

[ScubaSamScubaStevesFather]

Two weeks ago, I dove with two instructors from my club, making it a group of three, to do some exercises on assisted ascents, deploying SMB, navigation, etc. It was my first time diving with my newly acquired second-hand POSEIDON regulators that had just been serviced by a specialist. I was so happy. I was using a primary first stage with a JetStream and a secondary first stage with a Cyclon 5000, along with the direct system and SPG.

We were in a quarry, where the water was 8 degrees Celsius at -20 meters. Everything went smoothly at first; the exercises were successful, and the initial dive was completely fine.

Towards the end of our second dive in the afternoon, I told my instructor that I was starting to feel cold in my 7/8mm Apeks wetsuit. He moved us closer to the surface while we continued exploring. Checking my SPG, I saw I was down to 100 bars (1400psi). I thought it was a pity; had I not been cold, we could have stayed longer at -20 meters.

When we reached -7 meters, one of the instructors asked me to deploy my SMB as an exercise. I placed my Cyclon 5000 in the SMB's mouth and pressed the purge button, but then the Cyclon went into free flow, sending me up a few meters in a storm of bubbles, blinding me. I felt one of my instructors grab the tip of my fin to prevent me from surfacing. They struggled to bring me back down to the bottom. I felt a hand groping over me to find my purge valve and felt my BCD deflating. The Cyclon was still in free flow, and one instructor had to manipulate it until he could shut off the Cyclon's valve.

I was still breathing from the JetStream because my tank has two valves, and thankfully, I was. Checking my SPG again, I was down to 30 bars (400psi). I signaled to my instructors that I was on reserve and finished the dive breathing from one of their octopuses.

All's well that ends well, and they commended me for staying calm. One instructor mentioned, "This kind of problem at 7 meters is manageable, but at 40 meters, it's unforgiving." I know the issue was technical and beyond my control, but I still can't help feeling a bit guilty, even though I can't explain why...


View attachment 829893

I’ve settled on this method. Hope it helps you.