a spin off to the dying a hero thread...

[JS1scuba]

I don't want to die diving. It came across to me as newbie tech wannabe, 5th dive in doubles yesterday, asked to unclip & reclip deco bottle,fine, mask got flooded, ok fine, clear it, tank is dangling, wait it's not clearing and oh now I'm ooa.....everything looks blurry, no air to clear mask...hmmm...signal ooa, no I have a necklaced alternate my hand was on it a couple of times, my brain still said no you are ooa, blurry vision OK someone jam a reg in my mouth now! I could see my buddy in the blur...air...ahhhh... Now this was all controlled, my buddy was right there, the instructor was right there, but I just wanted air NOW!

Nineteen pages of a pure train-wreck of a thread.

Lemme see if I have this right.

You are a certified scuba instructor.
You were taking a "technical diving course" with an instructor and another student
This was your 5th dive in doubles.
You were tasked with some skill that put you without a regulator in your mouth.

Without the reg in mouth you got starved for air. The unfamiliarity with the gear prevented you from seeking air from one of the 5 sources you had available to you. This caused you to rethink the possiblitiy of expiration from lack of something to breathe and is causing you to rethink this whole technical diving stuff.

(the 5 sources are: your three regulators and the one reg in each of your instructors and buddies face)

As a scuba instructor I suspect that you had mastered all of those great leadership skills that were done during your training (ditch/don/bailout, no mask swimming, breath-hold horizonal 60 foot swim etc.) but may not have practiced those in a while and this equipment ladden situation where you were really not in control took you by surprise like a 2x4 up-side the head.

I've been at this technical diving game for a while. What I can share with you is this. The probability of being truly out of air in most well planned dives is quite small. It will rarely happen from equipment failure if your gear is well maintained. It will usually only happen when you get complacent OR distracted, AND if you did not plan well.

Even though you may be an experienced scuba instructor you are now back at the Beginners Mind Set when it comes to learning how to do this stuff. Go put your tanks back on and go diving. Do a nice recreational dive with your doubles. Don't worry about being out of air, or sharing air with anyone. Go get your balance in order and become one with your gear. THEN go play with some skills.

Good luck,

cheers

 

[TSandM]

Hmm . . . I'll have to think about that. In a single tank setup, if my primary regulator stops delivering gas, I think I would signal my buddy before I went to my backup. There are very few failure modes that will cause a second stage to stop delivering gas, and any problem in the first stage is going to be equally bad for both second stages. And of course, if I'm OUT of gas, neither reg is going to be helpful.

 

[Thalassamania]

I was diving at Pt. Lobos, CA with my Assistant Instructor. We were at about 40 FSW, 15 minutes into our dive. My buddy, after signaling me, took off in pursuit of a large Eagle Ray, I was along side of him, about 2 feet back. He suddenly stopped, spat out his regulator and pointed to his mouth (signaling me to buddy-breathe). I gave him my regulator and we settled into a two-breath-each rhythm while maintaining our neutral buoyancy. We were under a very dense kelp canopy and had to buddy-breathe while traveling about 100 yards to a point where we could surface. We did so without further incident, surfaced, returned to our surf mats and to shore. Later examination of his regulator second stage showed that he had bitten off a tab from his mouthpiece and it had lodged in the regulator behind the actuating lever in such a fashion as to cut off his air supply. After some experimentation I found that in this circumstance, if I attempted to depress the purge button I could feel it stick and that if I sharply stuck the second stage it would then function.

 

[Blackwood]

Later examination of his regulator second stage showed that he had bitten off a tab from his mouthpiece and it had lodged in the regulator behind the actuating lever in such a fashion as to cut off his air supply.

That's a new one.

 

[manni-yunk]

Hmm . . . I'll have to think about that. In a single tank setup, if my primary regulator stops delivering gas, I think I would signal my buddy before I went to my backup. There are very few failure modes that will cause a second stage to stop delivering gas, and any problem in the first stage is going to be equally bad for both second stages. And of course, if I'm OUT of gas, neither reg is going to be helpful.

Exactly the reason I cannot understand why some people are so against a Redundant air supply (pony) in recreational diving. If the second stage isnt delivering gas - and its is due to a 1st stage failure - your other second stage isnt worth anything. Add a potential buddy seperation or very bad vis and a tragedy could occur.

 

[Wormil]

Exactly the reason I cannot understand why some people are so against a Redundant air supply (pony) in recreational diving. If the second stage isnt delivering gas - and its is due to a 1st stage failure - your other second stage isnt worth anything. Add a potential buddy seperation or very bad vis and a tragedy could occur.

Upstream reg failed closed comes to mind....

 

[asimpkinsjr]

This seems odd to me, if you have never experienced an OOA situation how do you know what to expect? my intructor did it to me during OW, albeit he told me he was going to do it he wanted me to know what it felt like....so why wouldnt this be allowable?