Changing Tanks Underwater?

[rocketry]

As a seasonal diver with limited resources (and a school schedule!) I do not get to dive as often as I would like to (I have about 60 dives under my belt). When I was doing my OW certification 3 years ago, I distinctly remember a chat between two of the dive masters. One of them was boasting about a stunt he had pulled with some friends, convincing them of his "un-humanly low air consumption." He explained that while his friends thought he was just an amazingly talented diver, he had actually planted a tank underwater, and then switched over to it before he started his ascent (his safety stop took some air out of the tank, making his reading somewhat realistic). Did I hear right? Is that possible? Short of having an entire apparatus (tank & regulator both connected underwater) I always thought this was impossible. I had asked him if he had had a regulator attached to the extra tank he had planted the night before, and his response was "no" (I, being a scared newbie, did not harp on the topic any further). It seems like water would flood the first stage and ruin the reg for that dive (this is taught in the first OW pool session!, no water in that area!). Would the prescise alignment of air bubbles make this possible? Your insight would be appreciated. While I would never even THINK of trying this, I am trying to discern scuba fact from scuba tall-tale.

 

[El Orans]

Nice story.

BTW, welcome (Scub)aBoard! :happywave

 

[rocketry]

I take it by "story" you mean it is not possible. Ehh---just something i thought i'd throw out there. I've been a non-registered reader of ScubaBoard for the past 3 months or so, but have never registered! I plan on contributing as much as I can!

 

[The Kraken]

A wise man once said something to the effect that one should believe nothing one heard and only half of what one saw . . . .

the K

 

[TeddyDiver]

The way you described it NO WAY. It's possible however breath from a tank like from freeflowing regulator which may have happened here. Extremely dangerous DON'T DO IT!!!!

 

[K Mejean]

There was just a story like this in Scuba diving magazine last month. Some idiot tried it and almost died. He couldn't get the tanks swopped out before he ran out of air. If someone hadn't been watching him he would have died. So it has to be a story.

 

[teknitroxdiver]

BS.

But it is possible to pull off a yoke reg and put it on a different tank. It'll need rebuilt, and will probably screw up your spg, but it works. Ask an experienced tech diver.

 

[jamiep3]

There is a scene in Cousteau's "World Without Sun", where two divers get too far from the habitat and use one of established underwater communicatons stations to have a spare set of tanks brought to them, they remove the regulators from their tank and transfer it to the new tanks. It also was once demonstrated on an old episode of SeaHunt, but that could have been faked.

 

[sharkattack]

BS.

But it is possible to pull off a yoke reg and put it on a different tank. It'll need rebuilt, and will probably screw up your spg, but it works. Ask an experienced tech diver.

+1 what he said.

 

[K Mejean]

I have no doubt that there are people that can do it. I just have to doubt the validity of the story. If the guy said he had a spare reg then I would believe it but as the story stands I think it's probably a load of crap.