Diver death - So Cal?

[mccabejc]

DOH !!! Yes, of course....

 

[scubacalifornia]

I did the same thing, looked thru my manual right after seeing Mike's post, and there's nothing in there about recovering from a failed BC inflator valve. And nothing in the BC manual (Seaquest Pro QD+) about how to repair or replace one. Guess I need to make another trip to my LDS and talk to my instructor.

As a sidebar to all of this, going through OW certification didn't truly give me a full appreciation for the magnitude of what an uncontrolled ascent from depth, or a full blown case of DCS can really do to the body. Sure, you learn to identify the symptoms and a few common sense responses (like don't go back in the water and high-tail it to a chamber), but after listening to an audio book of "The Last Dive", and now being in the midst of reading "Shadow Divers", descriptions like "the blood in his heart had turned to foam" really drove the point home about how unbelieveably crucial this subject is. Every bit of knowledge about how to respond to a bad situation is a great tool, and someday I hope to master all of them. Check out those two books....they're great reading.
PS - nice Homer Simpson impression.

 

[mccabejc]

My sister just sent me "Shadow Divers", and I've been trying to find some time to read it. "Foamy blood..." Cool.

 

[pasley]

I did the same thing, looked thru my manual right after seeing Mike's post, and there's nothing in there about recovering from a failed BC inflator valve. And nothing in the BC manual (Seaquest Pro QD+) about how to repair or replace one. Guess I need to make another trip to my LDS and talk to my instructor.

I remember doing the disconnect the inflator hose drill in my PADI course. As has already been pointed out, it should not leak air once disconnected. Disconnecting the hose under pressure is not hard. Reconnecting it under pressure is harder.

 

[ChrisM]

Yup , I remember this skill as well..... and that was a long time ago....Two things I learned to deal with a stuck LP Inflator valve - first, disconnect, second, if you can't, the valve is designed to dump faster than it fills, so if you can't disconnect get it over your head and dump if you can.

which brings up another related thorny issue, if you have an air 2 or simlar device that does not have a "Y" connector, if this happens and you disconnect the LP Inflator hose, any guesses as to what esle you've disconnected? And suddenly your buddy comes up giving the OOA signal... I KNOW they don't teach air sharing anymore....Read Into THin Air for a good lesson on how most accidents happen, lots of little things adding up to one big thing.

anyway, not to hijack the thread, just a pet peeve.

chris

 

[Mo2vation]

which brings up another related thorny issue, if you have an air 2 or simlar device that does not have a "Y" connector, if this happens and you disconnect the LP Inflator hose, any guesses as to what esle you've disconnected? And suddenly your buddy comes up giving the OOA signal... I KNOW they don't teach air sharing anymore....Read Into THin Air for a good lesson on how most accidents happen, lots of little things adding up to one big thing.

anyway, not to hijack the thread, just a pet peeve.

chris

A few things:

* As I've gone over a zillion times here, my OW sucked. We never ever covered this.

* Re-connecting a pressurized LP hose is no biggie - ask any Drysuit diver (we've all gone in, got squozed and then remembered we forgot to connect) To Pasley's point, its harder, but its not hard.

* The inflator for my Halcyon BP/W was sticking (not the stainless button model) and was intermittently filling slowly. As I only really inflated at the surface, once I dropped in, I would disconnect it. No biggie. I'd just re-connect at the end of the dive. I did this for a couple of weeks until my new one came in.

* On our recent FL trip, Jaye's SeaQuest Airsource was leaking at the surface (a little) but at depth was fine - so she'd go in with it off, and connect at depth. We knew if there was a problem on the way to depth, I'd have to share off her (not so long hose) primary.

This really is a no brainer. You can always orally inflate if your reg is still delivering gas and for some reason your inflator hose is off, or you can't get the inflator back on at depth.

One time the DM on a So Cal dive boat (I won't mention any names, but the boat is a complete biohazard with the initials B.S.) turned OFF my gas on my way in. I hit the water and started to sink like a stone. I kicked high, grabbed a breath from the air and orally inflated the BC enough to compose myself so I could reach back and turn myself back on.

Honestly, this disconnect / reconnect thing is much more simple than mask clearing or reaching back to turn off and on your valve. Its a good club to have in the bag.

K

 

[MikeFerrara]

I agree that being proficient at disconnecting your pressurized inflator hose underwater, while perhaps task loaded or emotionally overloaded, is an important skill to master. It could save your life under certain conditions. But I don't remember that being a required PADI OW skill. I'm not sure if that was part of my OW certification either (June last year). So I pulled out the PADI OW book, just to satisfy my curiosity. I'm not finding that skill in the list of skills you must demonstrate in any of the 4 OW dives, and I'm not finding any references in the index. I've been thinking about spending one of my upcoming dives practicing the basics, and that seems like a great one to add to the list. Mike, where is this in the PADI protocol? Thanks.

Kevin

It's a confined water skill. Module 2 as I recall without pulling the standards out.

 

[MikeFerrara]

Uh oh...I don't recall ever simulating a stuck inflator. Disconnecting the pressurized hose underwater with gloves on? Man, I don't recall ever doing that. I would probably have remembered the hose dumping air right by my ear. And I was a VERY good student

As I said in an earlier post it's a required confined water skill. It's not required that you use gloves.

Let's see...the inflator sticks open, your BC fills up full almost instantly, you start ascending. If you can figure what happened, you press the dump valve on the inflator and hope it works. If not, you find the hose connector on the inflator real quick, and, wearing gloves, try to disconnect the pressurized hose. The hose would be dumping air from the tank pretty quick.

I sure hate the way they teach this stuff...or don't teach it as the case may be.

If a inflator sticks you dump and disconnect it at the same time. Hopefully it won't be filling the bc too fast but in any case this is why a SLOW filling inflator is a good thing.

Disconnecting the LP hose should be doable gloves or not. BTW, this is also a required skill in a dry suit class and then it is a requirement that gloves be used.

Once the hose is disconnected air will not be dumping from the tank because the schrader valve will close when the hose is disconnected.

Don't dive again especially with gloves until you have this down. All it takes is a single grain of sand in the right place.

 

[ryanarcher]

One time the DM on a So Cal dive boat (I won't mention any names, but the boat is a complete biohazard with the initials B.S.) turned OFF my gas on my way in. I hit the water and started to sink like a stone. I kicked high, grabbed a breath from the air and orally inflated the BC enough to compose myself so I could reach back and turn myself back on.K

Your DM turned your air off? Why would they do that and how did you know - before your air was out? That seems like an incredibly stupid thing for him to do...is he still a DM?!

 

[Mo2vation]

Your DM turned your air off? Why would they do that and how did you know - before your air was out? That seems like an incredibly stupid thing for him to do...is he still a DM?!

Bedlam at the gate, etc. He just blew it and turned the knob the wrong way. Idiot.

I blew it. I was un a hurry to get in (a fin got knocked over board and was sinking fast) and I didn't inflate my BC before leaving the boat... as I knew I needed to hit the water and immediately descend or my fin was lost forever.

So I hit the top of the water, went to breathe in (got most of a breath) and heard "the sound"... I then reached for the BC inflator and zippo. Drysuit inflator - zippo. So I kicked back up, got a big breath, exhaled into the BC inflator and it was mellow.

This "issue" was 51% my fault - as most of these issues are, it was caused by me being in a hurry at the gate.

K