But seriously, a bungied octo really can save your life

[Dr. Lecter]

SB already contains a fair number of posts addressing the hypothetical advantages of the long primary/necklace secondary regulator configuration. I thought I would offer the events of last night's dive as an example of just how valuable the bungied octo can be.

I and my buddy planned a 4pm shore dive off Honolulu's Magic Island lagoon, but it wound up being a 5:45pm dive. No worries, we had the lights and navigational equipment for a night dive... so ahead we went. As usual, we entered the water at the lagoon and then headed out into the ocean through the second cut in the breakwater. This has substantial overlap between the sides of the breakwater, providing protection from the waves.



We dropped under and swam out through the cut without incident, regrouped far enough away from the breakwater to not get tossed onto it by the significant but not unmanagable surf, and descended to do our dive. The light was fading when we headed out, but within 10 minutes it was fully dark. At our turn point, we decided to ascend to take a compass bearing on the breakwater since even around 40' we had experienced significant surge and a cross current. At the surface, we found our bearing and decided to conduct a surface swim to conserve gas for the dive back through the breakwater, as the surf was looking worse than when we left.

Near the breakwater, the surf was much worse than when we left. We shot a last bearing for the cut we wanted, dropped down, and swam for it hard. My buddy made it in, but between the surge pushing and tumbling me, the bubbles destroying the viz, and the dark, I missed the cut and the next breaker tossed me up and dropped me down onto the rocks. Landing belly first with double 130s on my back wasn't what I'd call fun, but then the next wave knocked me off the rocks and into the cut.

My reg got knocked out of my mouth and off around my neck while I was tumbling around in the spin cycle. Finding it at the end of the long hose while holding onto my light wasn't something I felt I had time to do--the conditions were just too violent to pause. Coming up for air wasn't an option for the same reasons, plus I was heavily negative to fight the surge's effect. Knowing exactly where it was under my chin, I quickly reached up and pushed the bungied octo into my mouth, and moved forward as fast as I could into the safety of the lagoon.

Lesson learned (among others): there may come a time when you find yourself in rougher conditions than you expected, and having a secured secondary regulator right where you need it can save your life when that happens.

 

[TSandM]

Great story! I had an experience of trying to get into a dive site where the wind had blown up choppy water which had picked up bottom sediment, so you couldn't see where you were walking at all. Although I was trying to be careful, I managed to slam my shin into a rock and fall straight forward onto my face. I didn't have a reg in my mouth (my bad) but what could have been a bad situation was trivial, because I just popped my backup reg in, floated to the surface, turned around and told the people behind me, "Like I said, watch for the rocks . . . "

 

[dumpsterDiver]

You could have breathed off the inflator too. I would think the lesson learned should include the avoidance of large double steel tanks when there is a decent potential to get thrown into rocks by the surf.. in the darl.. when you are lost....

 

[Dr. Lecter]

True enough regarding the inflator, at least theoretically speaking. However, between the relatively short corrugated hose on which mine resides, the violent tumbling, and the need to continue propelling myself forward with fins and hands... anything other than a reg with a mouthpiece wasn't really an option.

I'm of two minds on the double 130s for such dives. They are cumbersome beasts above water, but aren't much different from anything else underwater and their volume and redundancy offer protection against all sorts of problems that could occur on riskier dives like last night's...and more than once last night I was glad I had the equivalent of a steel carapace protecting my back. On the other hand, their mass is a liability in the surf and all but precluded trying to just rock scramble over the breakwater, which I could have easily done in a single HP100.

The real lesson from last night was that nightime surf exits through narrow breakwaters are damn dangerous and will be avoided in the future Additional lesson: I'm glad I spent the money for good gear. I was sure my Fusion drysuit was going to have at least a puncture or three, but the Bullet skin seemed to have come through geting the crap beat out of it just fine.

 

[Scott L]

You could have breathed off the inflator too. I would think the lesson learned should include the avoidance of large double steel tanks when there is a decent potential to get thrown into rocks by the surf.. in the darl.. when you are lost....

Why would anyone plan that as their secondary gas source?

 

[ianr33]

SB already contains a fair number of posts addressing the hypothetical advantages of the long primary/necklace secondary regulator configuration.

Hypothetical?

 

[Dr. Lecter]

Hypothetical in the sense they're of the "in X scenario, the long hose/bungied octo would be helpful for Y reasons" type. As TSandM points out, there are also plenty of other posts addressing how the configuration actually was helpful.

 

[JamesK]

I had a situation where the bungees onto helped me out as well. I was exciting in some heavy surge and choppy water at a dive site in Guantanamo Bay called the slot. The entrance is a small pool about four feet deep that you step off a rock shelf to enter. You then follow a six foot wide cut in the rocks down to twenty feet. This area is very difficult to exit at whe the water gets rough, but is the easiest spot around Upon exit I stepped from the pool on to the rock self which is knee deep water. I could not see the hole in the rock that my left foot slid in. I went backwards in to the four foot water with my foot stuck in the hole. The current was pulling me on me and my reg was ripped from my mouth. The bungeed backu was right where it should be and was easy to get in my mouth. It took a minute to free my leg and stand back up. It could have been worse.

 

[dumpsterDiver]

Why would anyone plan that as their secondary gas source?

It is more of a tertiary source, but it could be important.

---------- Post added December 10th, 2012 at 11:35 PM ----------

True enough regarding the inflator, at least theoretically speaking. However, between the relatively short corrugated hose on which mine resides, the violent tumbling, and the need to continue propelling myself forward with fins and hands... anything other than a reg with a mouthpiece wasn't really an option.

I'm of two minds on the double 130s for such dives. They are cumbersome beasts above water, but aren't much different from anything else underwater and their volume and redundancy offer protection against all sorts of problems that could occur on riskier dives like last night's...and more than once last night I was glad I had the equivalent of a steel carapace protecting my back. On the other hand, their mass is a liability in the surf and all but precluded trying to just rock scramble over the breakwater, which I could have easily done in a single HP100.

The real lesson from last night was that nightime surf exits through narrow breakwaters are damn dangerous and will be avoided in the future Additional lesson: I'm glad I spent the money for good gear. I was sure my Fusion drysuit was going to have at least a puncture or three, but the Bullet skin seemed to have come through geting the crap beat out of it just fine.

I am absolutely in favor of the bungied back up. I witnessed a diver almost drown because he couldn't get to his second stage and when I saw his rig, i knew it was stupid and said nothing and I felt bad for not being a know it all and telling him his rigging sucked. So I completely agree with your primary assessment about that.

As for your justification for double 130's for a presumably shallow? beach dive? I learned about 40 years ago that when diving in surf, near rocks.. wearing a dry suit and a heavy rig is much more dangerous than something light that you can scramble up rocks with... We "rescued" a guy getting bashed on a jetty at night and he couldn't get out without our help while wearing the 45 lbs of lead his suit required.

Double 130's at night with the potential for dealing with rocks and surf.... I think you are safer wearing a lot less.

 

[frontiernurse]

Oh BungIed!!! I kept reading that as "Bungled" Octo... sorry, continue...