Diver dies in San Diego

[nereas]

Dumpster is correct. GI3 was showing how you could depress both buttons and breathe from the hose. It is fresh tank air not recycled air. There is a link to the DIR III video in this thread if anyone would like to watch the techinque. http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/dir/250226-here-hi-res-download-dir-iii.html

GI3?

I though he was history?

I though he was officially extricated from scuba diving?

Wonder how long his ghost and bad ideas will linger... .

 

[GuinnessDiver]

No.

The main problem is that after a breath or two, you will be down to 15% O2.

Then a few more breaths, and 10% O2.

Then depending on your depth and ppO2, you will be unconscious fairly quickly and quite by surprise.

And that would be like breathing seawater.

As I said, although perhaps you weren't listening/reading, you are infinitely better off keeping your reg in your mouth, and breathing from your tank as it gives up more air/nitrox due to the decrease in ambient pressure in accordance with the laws of physics.

If you are on your way up and you have no air in your tanks, you still have to vent expanding gas from your BCD - so why no breathe it. The O2 level is not going to go down in the BCD because you are not breathing the exhaust back into the bladder, you breathe it out into the water. If you exhaled back into the bladder you would have a run-away ascent.

I'm sure the air coming out of a BCD would be very nasty and you might get some nasty infection but they have treatments for infections, I don't think they have any effective treatmensts yet for death.

 

[ScubaAndDreams]

No.

The main problem is that after a breath or two, you will be down to 15% O2.

Then a few more breaths, and 10% O2.

Then depending on your depth and ppO2, you will be unconscious fairly quickly and quite by surprise.

And that would be like breathing seawater.

As I said, although perhaps you weren't listening/reading, you are infinitely better off keeping your reg in your mouth, and breathing from your tank as it gives up more air/nitrox due to the decrease in ambient pressure in accordance with the laws of physics.

4 breaths is better than none (and that's not what GI3 was explaining anyways..see above).

The thing about GI3 is that while extremely rude he was usually correct. Unlike your crap dribbling all over this board.

My condolensces to the family in this incident.

 

[BlueDiver-SB]

I would wonder what their weighting situation was like as it is not at all unusual to be heavily overweighted as new divers and perhaps the lift capacity of the BCD should be questioned as well...

I imagine that it would be difficult for the son to bring up his father (who was most likely in (at least moderately) panic-mode...

Terribly tragic and so avoidable, it's unfortunate.

I agree that the certifying instructor / dive shop should be questioned in detail. I also believe that the son get help to deal with this.

 

[Noboundaries]

I don't know about you guys, but depending upon the water temp and the amount of neoprene I'm wearing, I give my BC probably six to ten short shots of air by the time I get down to 100 feet.

Lets say I find myself in an OOA situation because my scan broke down, I became too focused on doing something, whatever. It is my fault and I just sucked my last breath. I start a CESA (Controlled Emergency Swimming Ascent for those who can't remember what the C stands for).

You better believe I'm going to remember those six to ten air shots I blew into my BC bladder on the way down.

My regulator is in my mouth but I keep my airway passage open. I try breathing any expanding air in my tank as I ascend and get nothing. But wait, I gave my BC six to ten shots of air on the descent, several as I neared bottom for neutral buoyancy. Those last several were dense air shots.

Am I going to "breathe" from my inflator tube purge? Heck no. But I am going to stick the delator end in my mouth, press the purge button, and suck the expanding air into my lungs to give me a boost of air before the world and my existence turns black. Yes, you have to be careful of water intake, but that's good air in your BC bladder. Use it as it expands.

 

[UnderSeaBumbleBee]

Why not? I see to recall watching the DIR3 video and hearing George Irvine say you can do just that in an emergency. The gas in there is going to expand as you ascend and breathing it as you vent can't hurt.

Of course that is a possibility. The risk of infection etc. is unimportant relative to the emergency. I actually know a solo diver who did just that and he said he just barely made it to the surface. However, to be honest I think it would be very difficult in a real emergency, but if you had nothing at all to breath.....

With regard to the DIR tape, I think that you misunderstand what he was saying...As I recall, he says that you can breath off a standard inflator by depressing both the inflate and deflate buttons simultaneously (this would work if you had a second stage failure not a low or out of air condition). I don't recall him talking about re-cycling air in and out of the BC bladder, but I could be wrong??

Dumpster is correct. GI3 was showing how you could depress both buttons and breathe from the hose. It is fresh tank air not recycled air. There is a link to the DIR III video in this thread if anyone would like to watch the techinque. http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/dir/250226-here-hi-res-download-dir-iii.html

GI3?

I though he was history?

I though he was officially extricated from scuba diving?

Wonder how long his ghost and bad ideas will linger... .

Nereas, seems you are having trouble following the thread and comprehending the conversation. I quoted the part of the conversation to which I was responding and perhaps that will help you to follow along and respond in an appropriate and intelligible manner.

Let me break it down a bit more for you. We were discussing a video demonstration of breathing from the inflator hose using air from the tank as demonstrated by a person it appears you have personal feelings against. How you feel about a certain person has no bearing on whether a particular technique will work or not.

 

[dumpsterDiver]

I don't know about you guys, but depending upon the water temp and the amount of neoprene I'm wearing, I give my BC probably six to ten short shots of air by the time I get down to 100 feet.

Lets say I find myself in an OOA situation because my scan broke down, I became too focused on doing something, whatever. It is my fault and I just sucked my last breath. I start a CESA (Controlled Emergency Swimming Ascent for those who can't remember what the C stands for).

You better believe I'm going to remember those six to ten air shots I blew into my BC bladder on the way down.

My regulator is in my mouth but I keep my airway passage open. I try breathing any expanding air in my tank as I ascend and get nothing. But wait, I gave my BC six to ten shots of air on the descent, several as I neared bottom for neutral buoyancy. Those last several were dense air shots.

Am I going to "breathe" from my inflator tube purge? Heck no. But I am going to stick the delator end in my mouth, press the purge button, and suck the expanding air into my lungs to give me a boost of air before the world and my existence turns black. Yes, you have to be careful of water intake, but that's good air in your BC bladder. Use it as it expands.

Another important trick is the following: When in trouble and breathing off a tank that is at an extremely low pressure, it feels really bad to suck hard and get a very slow flow rate. A much more comfortable way (to drain a tank to zero) is to manually depress the purge button. This method will "blow" some air at you and allow you to "passively" inhale it. I am not exactly sure why the purge method is so much more comforting since i doubt it gives you a higher flow rate, but the feeling is much less likley to induce further panic.

You can experiment yourself with a straw. Sit at your desk and try to breath through maybe two parallel straws. Try to do this for as long as you can, hopefully a few minutes.

For trial one, try to suck really hard and fast. You feel like you are getting very little air and you are doing a lot of work to get it. You will likely feel panicky and bad pretty fast.

For the second trial, try to breath in very slowly and in a relaxed manner. Just "accept" the very slow gas deliver rate that a mild suction provides. For me the difference is pretty big.

 

[nereas]

If you want to imitate GI3 then there are a whole host of problems you can encounter.

Still, I strongly suggest you not ever use your B/C-wing as a breathing bag.

 

[Epinephelus]

Still, I strongly suggest you not ever use your B/C-wing as a breathing bag.

That'd make one hell of an epitaph...
"Here lies Joe Blow
Who, per nereas' direction
Refused to use his BC air
For fear of an infection"
E

 

[mwilding]

With regard to the DIR tape, I think that you misunderstand what he was saying...As I recall, he says that you can breath off a standard inflator by depressing both the inflate and deflate buttons simultaneously (this would work if you had a second stage failure not a low or out of air condition). I don't recall him talking about re-cycling air in and out of the BC bladder, but I could be wrong??

Ah yes, you are right. I stand corrected...