Experienced diver analysis requested

[JustinF]

I would like to explain an incident that happened to me on a dive yesterday in hopes that people with more experience then me, would take a look at the situation and tell me what I did right/wrong.

A little background:

I was certified OW in June of this year. My cert dives (1-4) had all been completed in a Dry suit & rentals and 2 of my 4 certification dives were completed at Whytecliff Park.

I am fairly comfortable with the area and the low viz that is common here in BC @ this time of the year.

I took my OW class with one other person who was going to be my buddy but bailed on me after certification, so I was essentially buddy less.

After certification I purchased a full set of gear, my new gear consisted of a Dry suit, BP/W, tanks, regs, and computer, light & asst. accessories.

I signed up for a AOW class to pursue further training & hopefully meet other divers in hopes of starting to establish a group of contacts whom I could dive with.

I wanted to take the gear out and test if before the course starts, which is tommorow, to ensure everything was ok and I wouldn't upset the class with bad gear.

On Scubaboard I found a person who posted in my area that he had new gear and wanted to test dive with it all. I also wanted to do the same thing. He had already done his test dives but had graciously offered to dive with me to let me test run my gear.

So that puts me & dive 5, good overall but one small tech issue, the lp hose that runs to my BC had a small leak at the valve on the BCD. Tightened that up and everything was good. I am OW trained with a limit of 60ft, but passed that and maxed at 70 with an average in the 40’s, as my computer was set in metric, and I was off in my conversion rate. I thought 3 to 1, apparently not.

Dive 6:

Whytes islet, first time there but everything was corrected with the gear so we decided to make a full dive, as opposed to staying near shore over the shallow bottom incase something went wrong.

While swimming out along the leeward side of the islet, I was following my buddy. I was approx 3-4 feet behind him, but close enough to be clearly see him as well as ahead of him, as viz & depth was approx. 15’. We were roughly around the 50ft range, just casually swimming up & down along the wall checking out all the beautiful marine life.

As we moved from the 40ft down to about 55ft range I became noticeably more negative. To correct, I attempted to add a little air to my BCD. I heard a strange sound like “blub blub” as opposed to the hiss one expects. I look over at my inflator and press it again. More “blub blub”. At this point I realize what had happened is somehow my hose (the big corrugated one) had become detached from my inflator, so when I attempted to put air in, it was escaping in large bubbles.

The time it took me to figure this out only seemed like seconds, but I had stopped swimming. My buddy had not, so as I looked forward, he was gone.

I dropped my light off my right hand (21W DiveRite HID on Goodman) in attempts to get a better position to hold the inflator in my right hand and grab the corrugated hose which was floating up in my left.

About this time I notice I am still descending, 65ft. I look down & see the bottom just visible. I attempt to gain a little buoyancy to stop my decent by adding air to my dry suit. That doesn’t work out to well, as in my horizontal position the air goes to my feet (I am swimming horizontal DIR style) and I guess I bent my knees while I was working on the inflator. So I start to go to a feet up position. I don’t want to add more air and make it worse, and I am still descending. I look over my shoulder and see I am just a few feet off the bottom, so I come to rest on my back, with it horizontal and my feet up in the air. I check my computer, 80ft.

NOTE:
As I started to flip into a feet up position, I thought about flipping myself back over, putting myself in a head up, or ditching my weight and heading for the surface. But I could see the bottom was close & I was not freaking out or anything, so I thought I would just hit the deck & fix it. I am trying to be as self sufficient as possible, so I figure this is just good practice.

I look in the direction of my buddy, no sign.

This whole process took what felt like about 15 seconds at most.

So I am lying on my back, with my feet up in the air. I place my light on my stomach aiming to the surface; the ambient light is more then enough to see the hose from the corner of my eye.

I try to reinsert the hose on to the inflator assembly, but the zip tie that holds the hose on is still in place, preventing the hose from stretching over the hose barb on the inflator.

That is when I pull out my knife. I look over & realize the hose is soft, so I put my knife away and just squish the hose to pull the zip tie off.

This is when my buddy shows up, when he looked back and saw my light aiming at the surface he figured something was wrong.

I was just getting it re assembled as I tried to explain to him what happened in hand signs.

He asks if I am ok, I sign yes & we ascend up to 40ft to continue the dive.
Note: in hind sight maybe I should have called the dive here, but really I was comfortable & didn’t see it as a real problem, now that I had it fixed. To be honest the thought of calling the dive never crossed my mind till after it was all over.

So we continued on the dive. When we reached the pre determined air supply of 1200psi we decided to turn around.

As we ascended to the surface, I had a small problem. The hose popped off again, and again I lost all the air from the BCD, as it flooded I became negative, again. I attempted to stop the decent again by adding air to the dry suit and again I started to turn into a feet up position. Again I thought ok put it back on, but this time air was low, so I added enough air to send my back up. Because I added all the air, I was headed up to the surface from about 15ft, but this time my legs were like the Pillsbury dough boy. I was not shooting to the surface, but I was sure as hell not sinking.

On the way from about 10ft-5ft. my secondary (octopus) regulator started blowing air like HELL. Upon further inspection the regulator had come lose from hose, so it was leaking like all hell. I mean it looked like a Jacuzzi but worse, the water was white with all the air.

I fiddled with it trying to get it to stop, trying to turn it over. This worked. Upon inspection later & home, I determined the connection was easily corrected by spinning the regulator back onto the hose (it had come loose to the point you could spin it with one finger). At this point I was feet up at the surface. I checked my SPG and I was at about 200 psi. I tried to flip over, but with my fins sticking up it was useless, and with so little air I decided (after about 2 seconds) I would just fix the hose.

I actually had some trouble putting it on this time as my mask came dislodged in the ascent and was flooding my left eye. So I had only my right eye, so I couldn’t see the inflator to put it back together, I had to do it by feel. I didn’t know how many breaths I had left on the 200psi (and counting).

To summarize, I am upside down, feet up & out of the water with legs like the Pillsbury dough boy, BCD is full of water & won’t hold air, I can’t see out of my left eye, I am out of air, and still don’t have the inflator hose in.

I wrestle it in by feel, pump the BCD like hell so I flip back over & am in the head up position. My buddy is laughing his *** off at me, and to admit it must have been very comical.

I laughed as well & called it a good dive. In my log book I wrote the same.

But after reading some of the out of control descents & incidents & accidents, the speculation surrounding deaths, it’s hard to say in my limited experience “what if I did this” or “should I have done that”.

I am wondering if this could have come out a lot worse, and I am not grasping the seriousness of the situation.

So if you got this far, thank you for taking the time to read my short novel.

What I would like to know is people’s opinions on what I should have done, what I did wrong, what I did right, what are proper procedures for these things.

I guess I just want to learn from my mistake.

Thanks for your time!

 

[PavoDive]

Well, I have no dry-suit experience, but would like to add some insights about your experience.

First, I think you already got the most of it, just by analyzing what happened. I'm pretty sure you'll get a lot of advice from this forum, but the sole analysis you already did is a very good thing.

Regarding new equipment... well, I like to "test drive" it in a POOL first. It is really a controled environment. The idea of testing your equipment in a controled environment is avoiding what just happened: if something goes wrong, at least not everything has gone astray (you still can see, won't sink too much, etc.)

Then, there's the subject of underwater repairs. Techs -and hardcore divers- will likely disagree, but in my opinion, it's always better to call off your dive if you have an equipment failure like the one you had with the corrugated hose.

For me there are several reasons that back that option: first, there's perceptual narrowing. No matter how experienced you are, if you have to focus on re-placing the hose in the hose barb (and specially in this case, because of the position of it, partially off the field of vision), your attention is pretty much on that. Your notion of time and space is almost lost, and for some of us there is the tendency to hold our breath (not sure? try to do something difficult that requires your attention with your left hand (if your right-handed) and tell me if you didn't stick out your tongue while holding your breath!), both bad things if you're diving. I consider perceptual narrowing coupled with breath-holding (and consequent CO2 build-up) as keystones of the panic cycle.

On this I hope somebody can check me, but I think that using the Drysuit in lieu of the BC can make things worse later, as your -most certainly comic- fins-up experience showed. I understand that kicking to the surface with all the lead oftern used with DSs is hard, but I also think is way safer than risking loosing control of your position and rate of ascent.

But, as I said before, whatever conclusions you (and your ScubaBoard-found dive buddy) got after analyzing the experince are what really matters.

Safe diving!

 

[DameDykker]

After certification I purchased a full set of gear, my new gear consisted of a Dry suit, BP/W, tanks, regs, and computer, light & asst. accessories.

Was it new or used equipment?

I don't know what a zip-tie was doing there and an occtopus coming loose- sound like OLD equipment.

I only use the BCD on the surface except over 25-30m deep. I think you need to reevaluate/train to get the lead down. How much are you wearing (size, wight, DS type)? If you are forced to your back your trim might also be off.

If you get air in the legs - curl up and force the air into the torso with possiblities of wenting.

And thanks for the storry - you handed yourself good in a difficult situation!

Keep on diving and gain some more experience.

 

[TeddyDiver]

Well, you had the lesson of your life. It's ok to correct things while submerged.
Lot of DS divers use only their DS for boyancy control (as well I) and you should take some practice doing it to be comfortable with it and to learn how to stay horizontal and how to recover from legs up situation (it's possible). It's also a possibility that you were overweighted so make a boyancy check.
Check carefully LP hose and get a new one if any doubt about it.

 

[Tassie_Rohan]

Congrats on staying level headed and laughing the dive off as a learning experience - that’s the best attitude to have. A lot of beginners in your situation would have panicked. Instead you’ve had a learning experience that’s made you a better diver.

Get your BC and regs checked- sounds like they need a bit of an overhaul. Did the LP hose pop out the first time - or did you go in with it unclipped to your inflator? If the later then remember to do a buddy check next time...

You're overweighted - that’s common for new divers. Do some surface floating tests and get your weight down.

With 6 dives I'd worry about getting your weight right and getting use to controlling buoyancy with the BC and/or drysuit. Do a search on 'drysuit buoyancy' for an extensive and heated debate on the matter: I'd recommend keeping the minimum amount of air in the suit (maintaining a bit of a squeeze) and use the BC for buoyancy. This (or correct weighting and using a well-fitted drysuit for bouyancy) will keep the amount of air in the drysuit under control. Do a few dives in the shallows with an experienced drysuit diver if you can: practising buoyancy and rolling to get the air out of you legs (or do a drysuit course for same effect). A good fitting drysuit and 2 pairs of socks will help keep the air out of the feet.

Worry about maintaining 'DIR' style after you've got all the basics sorted out. Ascend slowly in a head up position to assist venting air from the drysuit.

Never consider dropping your weight belt at depth, especially when wearing a drysuit: its a good way to embolise. With your weight correct this shouldn’t be a factor. Drop your weights at the surface if need be (ie bc failure).

Don’t worry – many experienced divers have suffered similar and even far greater embarrassments when using drysuits for the first time. We all learn not to raise our legs when adding air... With your outlook and attitude I’m sure you’ll nail it soon enough: continue to analyse your dives (what could be done better, made easier, etc) and you’ll get there.

Cheers,
Rohan.

 

[Charlie99]

I was just getting it re assembled as I tried to explain to him what happened in hand signs.

He asks if I am ok, I sign yes & we ascend up to 40ft to continue the dive.
Note: in hind sight maybe I should have called the dive here, but really I was comfortable & didn’t see it as a real problem, now that I had it fixed. To be honest the thought of calling the dive never crossed my mind till after it was all over.

Others have already commented on overweighting and gear maintenance. The other thing you should carefully review is your thought process during the dive. The fix was temporary, you knew that a repeat failure would probably put you into an out of control situation again. The more conservative response would be to start your ascent and stops while also starting your transit back to the exit point.

I'm also a little confused about why you weren't able to maintain depth by simply going head up/feet down and finning, even before adding air to the drysuit.

The real thing to think about though, is your reluctance to modify your original dive plan to reflect the problems you encountered.

 

[CD_in_Chitown]

...The more conservative response would be to start your ascent and stops while also starting your transit back to the exit point.

The real thing to think about though, is your reluctance to modify your original dive plan to reflect the problems you encountered.

I would agree, the first chance I had with the inflator reconnected I would have thumbed the dive and stay out of the water until the problem is identified and fixed. It could be as simple as you already had neoprene gloves on when you hooked it up and never got it seated correctly, but IMHO land is the best place to figure out that kind of stuff. Not to mention that an incident like this plays all heck with your RMV. You're lucky you didn't run out of air earlier by attempting to finish the dive plan.

To echo other posters, you definately sound to have the right attitude for this sport though. Look critically at what you did to get yourself in the situation and take copious mental notes that will keep you level headed in other incidents and emergencies (if you keep diving they will come).

Its normal to wind up on your back when you go negative, the tank weighs more than most anything else. Once you're on the bottom (as long as its sand/rock and not coral) you can try and get into a head-up vertical position by holding onto rocks or whatever is available. Move that air from your feet and make another attempt with the drysuit, or be upright for making repairs to your lp inflator.

Either way though, for me, the dive would be over as soon as safely possible so that I could have my kit checked out.

 

[Diver0001]

A few things occurred to me:

1) you're calm under pressure. That's a very good sign and something to be proud of.

2) if you have an equipement problem you should abort the dive.

3) you're most likely grossly overweighted.

R..

 

[cool_hardware52]

Something I don't understand........

Having the LP hose pop of the inflator should not cause the loss of any gas from the wing. You should be able to use your wing with the lp hose removed. If removing the LP hose from the quick disconnect on the inflator results in the lose of gas from the inflator you have real problem with the inflator.

If you have gas in a wing, and remove the LP hose, and depress the "fill" button, while holding the hose over up, you will get a small stream of bubbles out the quick disconnect. In other words this isn't easy, and it does not go glub, glub.

Does your wing have a "pull dump" as part of the inflator assembly, by this I mean a pull dump on the shoulder you actuate by pulling on the inflator hose? If so did you have your inflator hose trapped on the harness in such a way as to keep this pull dump open? If so you might want to replace it with a simple elbow.

Regards,

Tobin

 

[Charlie99]

Something I don't understand........

Having the LP hose pop of the inflator should not cause the loss of any gas from the wing.

I interpreted his description of the failure to be that the lower end of the corrugated hose came off of the inflator assembly. Not as bad as losing the upper end of the corrugated hose off the shoulder dump, but still a pretty nasty failure. He made references to having to remove the tiewrap from the corrugated hose to get it to fit back onto the inflator.

Much different than the LPI hose popping off. For that I would have continued the dive.