Dive Goes Bad Fast

[diverrobs]

This is long but please read if you have time.

My buddy and I had an incident yesterday diving the City of Sheboygan wreck near Kingston, Ontario. I would like some comments on the events from other divers perspectives.

Background.
I have 20 dives. My buddy has 30. I have PADI advanced open water and my buddy has PADI rescue diver. This was both of our first times deep in cold water. My gear was new in March, my buddies was fully serviced the last week in April. We decided to be buddies in April. We did a pool dive in april and practiced sharing air, using alternates etc. We did a dive in 3' visibility in innerkip quarry in 45F water next. We followed that with a dive to the Morrison wreck in 30' of 45F water. Then on this past Sat. we did a 30' dive in cold water at my cottage. On Sunday morning we headed out for the dives from the Picton, Ontario area. It was sunny and the lake was dead calm (perfect diving conditions). The City of Sheboygan lies in about 100' of water.


The Dive:
We geared up and decended to the wreck (95'). 100' of visibility (not kidding) and water was cold. Checked with my buddy, we both gave the OK and I headed back along the wreck. My buddy was following slightly behind me and to my right (on the wreck side of me), I checked on him frequenly and checked my air, I had 2500lbs as we passed under one of the fallen masts. The next time I checked on my buddy, he gave me the "I'm Cold singnal and pointed up", (I though a little early at 4min in but OK). I pointed back towards the morring/bouy line. My buddy shook his head no and gave me an emphatic up signal. I though OK. At that point his regulator started to free flow. He gave me the out of air signal and gestered for my Reg. I gave him my primary and went onto my alternate second stage(His reg. continued to free flow) (I also though that he might have been able to stay on the free flowing reg but whatever made him comforatable was best for this situation). We regained our composure. At that point two other divers joined us and they moved the free flowing reg behind my buddy, one of the divers and I look at his SPG and he had about 2000lbs and dropping. My buddy looked me in the eye and gave me the emphatic up signal again. We had lost a little bouyancy and I had to give some good kicks and move us up and away from the fallen masts over us. One of the other divers offered my buddy a secondary regulator, so my buddy took it. My buddy gave me anouther up signal (as we had not made much progress up yet and I gave a few more good kicks up). At that point, I though, well if my buddy isn't going to use my easy breathing primary, I will and I switch from my alternate to my primary. I got my reg back in my mouth, took one breath after clearing my reg and my buddy looks me in the eye and gives me a paniced out of air signal and reaches for the reg in my mouth (but does not yank it out). I give him my reg and fubble around for my alternate, get it in my mouth and clear it. I go back to look at my buddy and all I can see are bubbles, my ears are crackling, we are heading for the surface really fast, I do a long exhale, try to dump air from my BCD, try to get air out of my dry suit, take one more short breath, the air coming out of my lungs sounds like wind and there is just a wall of bubbles in front of me. I see the surface and break the surface. My buddy looks at me we let each other know we are OK. I say what the hell happened, we let the boat know we are OK. We swim 200' back to the boat.

On the boat we have a chance to feel things out a bit. My heart is going about 100 miles an hour but otherwise I am fine and so is my buddy. My buddy says the second air source from the other diver had cut out. The other divers stayed down and surface about 15 to 20 min later. By that point the adrenilin (spelling) is wearing off and my buddy and I are week in the knees, and feeling awful sick to our stomachs. There is 2 hours between dives so we thank God were alive and each other for keeping our cool under the water.

It turns out my buddy was cold but also that his regulator was studdering and he was not comfortable, that is why he initially wanted to surfaced. Because we were looking at each other when his reg. free flowed, he decided my reg. was easiest to get. When the other divers got there and we had started to ascend, he thought nothing of taking the other reg (from the diver that had moved the free flowing reg behind him and checked his SPG with me). I turns out that the reg my buddy was given was attached to a 6 CF pony bottle and we were at 95'. My buddy says he got at most 6 breaths off the 6CF pony. I figure, I kicked us up 20' in the 20 seconds that my buddy was breathing on the pony so we were probably at 70' to 75'. Once the pony ran out, he nearly lost it but kept calm enough not to grab my reg. As I had already started our ascent when we had to switch regs again, neither of us was watching our bouyance for 15 to 20 seconds. In that time from me starting kicking to the time we were both on my air again we had ascended from 95' to 55'. Basically we had now gone from 95' to 55' without dumping air from either of our BCDs or my dry suit (just did not have time given we were switching regs again). We must have ascended the last 55' in 20 seconds (crazy speed). Because we were down for such a short time we were not that concerned with the bends (4 min. from the surface to the point where the free flow happened (7min. total dive time on my computer). The others did the second dive without incident. The dive operators were great and very supportive.

The whole emergency situation last less than 3min. As I noted we are both alive and completely unharmed (except for our nerves).

My buddy and I leaned never to trust someone elses gear (just your buddies). That things can go from bad to really really bad, really really fast. That even with practice you can't deal with every situation that will arise, only be as ready and trained as possible. Thank God for the practice in the pool!!

We are getting my buddies reg checked out (Mares Proton) and he will probably buy a new reg regardless. I learned how rapid an ascent can be (I felt like I breached the surface like a dolphin jumping out of the water).

We are going to get back in the water with some instructors next week (him with a new reg and me with a better alternate octo). It is going to take some time to get my comfort level back up. What a scary experience for both of us!!

 

[Notso_Ken]

I also have a Mares Proton reg. It is not a cold water reg, and mine has free flowed in a spot where people frankly have died from free flows. If you're going to dive cold water get a good cold water reg.

Also, 4 minutes is indeed short enough that you probably don't have to worry about the bends, per se. But there are other problems that can result from the situation you found yourself in. An extremely rapid ascend (55' in 20 seconds equals 165 feet per minute) can cause, for example, an embolism. But with one advanced diver and one rescue diver you should know about those as well.

So, get the proper gear for the situation (I enjoy diving deep cold water mysrelf), and watch the ascent rates.


Ken

 

[diverrobs]

Yep, I know wat to do to avoid embolism, breath out. An I conciously was doing so during the ascent. I knew we blew the ascent rate but give the situation found I had little control over it. I was busy getting my buddy and consequently myself air.

The Mares Proton is an environmentally sealed reg but obviously not suitable for cold water (even though it probably should be given it has the environmental seal). I will let my buddy know it is unsuitable.

 

[Arizona]

Diverrobbs,

Thanks for sharing and being so open with your experience. It is so hard to second guess. You seem to already have found the answer in the sense that you need to watch your depth while sharing air. I think getting in the water sooner than later would be good. When sharing air a “panicked” diver can move you quicker to the surface than you may want. It sounds like his low pressure hose was still able to pump air. Did he push your ascent faster? Controlling that would not be easy while in the Roman-handshake posistion, but as you are regular buddies discussing this may help. I tend to dive warm water, but it seems reg choice could be an issue. I use a Proton in warm with no issues.

AZ

 

[Jimmer]

I'm glad to hear you guys made it out ok, we actually had a very similar situation occur with 2 divers on our charter in Lake Erie yesterday. Massive freeflow from 100 feet, both his primary and octo freeflowed, then on the ascent his son's reg freeflowed, I'm guessing from overbreathing it while panicking about his dad's double freeflows. Cold deep water can play some pretty serious pranks on your regs.

Good work on keeping your head on your shoulders. It's never a situation that you want, but every once in a while a "scare" can set you back to basics and make sure that you dont get too complacent.

Dive safe,

Jim

 

[Splitlip]

Maybe I missed it, but why did your buddy take the other reg from the third diver? That (obviously) was a mistake. Added another factor into the mix. You should have kept control of the situation.

 

[stairman]

If he had an h-valve with 2 first stages,he could have isolated the bad reg.With a single valve tank[1 first stage]he may have had enough air to surface on his backup second,but excessive bubbles on ascent can be a problem.If you gave him your backup then you could have shut his tank off and the bubble equation would have been erased.As for the stranger offering to help?no thanks.Whos to say what mix was in his buddy bottle?If it was a high o2 percentage for deco your buddy would be dead.

 

[fppf]

Sounds like you both freaked out a little, even if you don't think so.

You can and should easily breath off a free flowing reg.
Then when easy to do so, switch to a secondary and turn the tank off with the free flow. This will allow the reg to thaw out so you can use it again later on during the accent.

Some regs free flow more easy, make sure to have good cold water gear for up here. Also how you breath is very important, if your nervious and breathing like a freight train you will cause a free flow in almost any reg.

If your buddy diving, dive with your buddy not someone else. You should know your buddies gear config and be familiar with it. When your buddy was breathing off of your reg and you both had air why switch to someone elses reg. If you notice the person with a 6CF pony you now know why most people chuckle at them on the boat, there is really almost no point to them up here.

After you have shared air the next goal should have been to get to the moring line. Making a free accent at the point of your carrier is almost impossible. It takes a lot of practice to make a free accent alone, without sharing air. You should have had more than enough air to calmly swim to the line and starting making a controled accent.

When practicing in the quarry don't do a dive to practice skills. Go do a fun dive in a quarry, then when at a safe depth and your buddy is not expecting it, do an OOA drill. See what happens, do they responed correctly? But don't stop there, in the real world you don't just breath a few breaths then switch back, do an accent breathing off your buddies octo.

Lastly, anytime your doing something new and pushing your limits, think about having an instructor with you. I'm suprised your AOW course did not cover deeper diving.

 

[MikeFerrara]

Yep, I know wat to do to avoid embolism, breath out. An I conciously was doing so during the ascent.

Keeping an open airway should avoid an embolism but it might not.

I knew we blew the ascent rate but give the situation found I had little control over it. I was busy getting my buddy and consequently myself air.

Cold water, especially deep cold water, calls for being able to handle free flows smoothly and comfortably midwater while controling depth/ascent rate.

Look up the dual fatality that happened at Gilboa last year.

 

[diverrobs]

Yeah, we both said in hind sight that taking the other reg from the other diver was a really bad idea (lesson learned). We are both thinking that doubles are a really good idea (H valve isn't bad either) but doubles would be better. After my buddies new reg, the doubles are next on the need to purchase list. Thank god it happend early in the dive and I had lots of air. I really wish we had time to watch the bouyancy. Once the second emergency arose (the out of air on the pony) we had no chance to catch the ascent (air was more important immediately).