Cert dives what a PITA

[diver 85]

Sounds like you need to be around some better equipment.......

 

[RJP]

And I thought I had a bad weekend when the DiveMaster Candidate (with a grand total of 19 dives) lost his buddy! Read what you want into that statement but it is true.

What agency was that guy with? That's a standards violation in PADI. You need 20 dives to start the program. Seems like he was off by one.

 

[iztok]

On the first dive my instructors o-ring blew out, I was his buddy for the first dive, well he actually had two of us, no big deal, he was messing with it, trying to get it to stop, after about two seconds I realized he was going to run out of air fast, real fast and had the octo in my hand already for him.

Was the dive near the end? Because if it was not then it would take quite some time to run out of air.

Certainly with decent tank pressure at the event one has several minutes to make controlled ascent even if high pressure hose on regulator blows and one switches to one owns octo.

 

[tyesai]

Was the dive near the end? Because if it was not then it would take quite some time to run out of air.

Certainly with decent tank pressure at the event one has several minutes to make controlled ascent even if high pressure hose on regulator blows and one switches to one owns octo.

About a third of the way into it, and he kept his own reg until he ran out, it didn't take to long, it sure as hell wasn't minutes, I'm new to this sport but not new to pneumatics and a tank that small free flowing a couple thousand psi out the back isn't going to take several minutes to be empty.

I 'm sure it gets better, training is training, not sight seeing and kicking it at a relaxed pace. But a long day with little coversation, being new with faulty equipment, ( in hindsight another piece of lead might have helped my cause but I'm new, I didn't think of it till I got home ) buddies that leave ya, and a 3 hour drive through Turkish traffic will drain anybody. I love the Turks, great people that will bend over backwards for ya, I love their food, I love their customs and especially they way the treat little kids, but I've driven all over the world in some of the worst cities, Paris, Washington D.C., New York, ect; ect; nobody drives worse than the Turks.

I just wanted to wine and cry a bit, I've read all these great stories from others so I just wanted to throw out a small horror story.

 

[tyesai]

The Taleb book is required reading for my staff--an excellent use of your time. If you're interested in a more technical discussion of derivatives trading, read his Dynamic Hedging.

I realy don't know crap about derivatives trading or the stock market for that matter. Honestly his writting is a bit over my head. But I do enjoy his sarcasm and the way he just makes me think outside the box a little bit. The only other book I've read of his was, The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable, I thought it was a good book.

 

[vladimir]

If you understood half of those two books, you know more than 90% of the "market gurus" on CNBC.

 

[iztok]

About a third of the way into it, and he kept his own reg until he ran out, it didn't take to long, it sure as hell wasn't minutes, I'm new to this sport but not new to pneumatics and a tank that small free flowing a couple thousand psi out the back isn't going to take several minutes to be empty.

I spoke with a diver that took equipment specialty (PADI) and instructor demonstrated them the following:

Unattached high pressure hose (one that would attach to regulator for example) and opened the valve. After 5 minutes it was still going strong.

So even with half the pressure of AL80 (1500psi) should give enough time to signal ascent and safely do it from the depth you were in. (Assuming less then 40 ft due to OW training.)

 

[Crowley]

I agree with iztok - it takes a good while to empty a scuba tank even at the surface without a regulator attached. I've had to drain many hundreds of tanks for one reason or another (usually repair or for filling nitrox/trimix tanks) and it can take so long it becomes a right royal pain in the backside.

I also had a my high pressure hose explode for no apparent reason. It made a bg loud scary bang, there were bubble everywhere but between the incident and getting back to the boat for a new tank I lost about 50 bar (approximately 450psi) surfacing from 10 metres and swimming back to the boat (about 5 minutes from start to finish).

I'd agree with other posters that the OP is well in control of the ball and PITA it may well be, but as we say here in Egypt: "Maalesh" - s**t happens. Sometimes you just get days like that where everything goes wrong!

Good luck and safe diving,

C.

 

[vladimir]

I lost about 50 bar (approximately 450psi) surfacing from 10 metres and swimming back to the boat (about 5 minutes from start to finish).

Isn't 50 bar approximately 735 psi? (50 x 14.7)

 

[iztok]

Isn't 50 bar approximately 735 psi? (50 x 14.7)

So? Still if AL80 was at 3000psi and was down one third (2000psi) and 5 minutes only takes 735psi then you have 10+ minutes left in the tank.

Either way, it should be enough for the instructor to signal students for safe ascent and ascent.

Yes it is PITA as dive ends but the point is that even if HP hose blows out you have enough time for safe ascent (including safety stop) in most cases. So no panic is required. No panic usually equals safe return