StuartT
Contributor
This in in the near misses section but I though I would put it in our local forum too.
Free flow at 75 feet
Yesterday myself and 4 other divers were at Pavillion Lake in B.C. to see the fresh water coral(microbilites) formations that are there. Actually there were more than 4 others but for the sake of this incident there were 5 including myself for the dive. One buddy team of 2 and a 3 team. The dive plan was to go south to 100 feet then west parallel to the shore to look for the microbilites that live on the slope in this particular location of the lake according to one of the group that dived here before. The turn point was to be determined by the newest diver in the group diving an al 80.
I had arrived the night before and already done a shorter(43 min) night dive at a different location of the lake and saw some of the rare coral formations. I still had 1900 psi in my steel 130 from that dive along with my half full 40 cu ft pony and was planning to do the first dive the next day with that gas supply. Partially beacause most of the others were on 72's or 80's and some were fairly new divers and I thought I would have plenty of gas and I only had 1 other full 130 with me for the second dive. At the last minute I decided to switch tanks and dive the full 130 instead as there was a chance no else would be doing a second dive that day. The other choice was to leave my pony on shore as I felt I had plenty of gas for the planned dive with a good reserve. What I didn't plan for was at about 15 min into the dive I took my reg out for a photo op and it started free flowing and I couldn't stop it.
I tried turning it down towards the bottom, putting the lever back to the pre dive position but it wouldn't stop. One of the divers from the 3 team was closest to me and was the one taking the photos so she noticed that i was freeflowing and pulled out her octopus and offered to donate it to me. I signalled that I was ok and continued to breath from my freeflowing primary taking it out between breaths trying to stop the free flow. I forgot to try tuning down the primary with the dial on the side but more more interested in getting to the surface safely with my rapidly depleting gas supply. Also didn't think to try closing then reopening the valve which was suggested afterwards. I signalled to abort and continued to breath the freeflowing primary slowly ascending and paying very close attention to my gas and how fast it was going down.
The buddy closest to me continued the ascent with me offering to donate her octo several more times but I was ok breathing from the freeflowing primary for a minute or 2 then I switched to my own octo. I guess in the back of my mind I thought it better to either breath from my own freeflowing primary or my own perfectly functioning octo than to air share with another diver as I felt like I was handling the emergency fine and her octo was there if I did completely run out. When we got to around 20 ft my primary stopped freeflowing so I switched back to it and signalled that we should do a 5 min stop incase we had come up a bit fast. My tank had gone from about 2800 psi to 600 psi in about 3 minutes.
I quite regularly switch regs during dives either to my octo or my pony reg just for practice and I think this helped me in this situation by not panicking and also the fact that my buddy for the ascent didn't panic and stayed with me for the remainder of the dive. Upon inspection after the dive my first stage was at 160 psi which is high but was within the year since last service. Fortunately our dive tech was on site and tuned my primary down so I could do another dive. He was unable to tune down my 1st stage on site but I trusted that I could do another dive on my regs being tuned down plus I would be taking my pony and my 1900 psi 130 on the next dive. I'm glad I did the next dive to kind of work out the bit of anxiety from the freeflow incident. What I learned from this incident is that we should all practice regulator swaps more often as well as mask drills and other skills taught in certification
Free flow at 75 feet
Yesterday myself and 4 other divers were at Pavillion Lake in B.C. to see the fresh water coral(microbilites) formations that are there. Actually there were more than 4 others but for the sake of this incident there were 5 including myself for the dive. One buddy team of 2 and a 3 team. The dive plan was to go south to 100 feet then west parallel to the shore to look for the microbilites that live on the slope in this particular location of the lake according to one of the group that dived here before. The turn point was to be determined by the newest diver in the group diving an al 80.
I had arrived the night before and already done a shorter(43 min) night dive at a different location of the lake and saw some of the rare coral formations. I still had 1900 psi in my steel 130 from that dive along with my half full 40 cu ft pony and was planning to do the first dive the next day with that gas supply. Partially beacause most of the others were on 72's or 80's and some were fairly new divers and I thought I would have plenty of gas and I only had 1 other full 130 with me for the second dive. At the last minute I decided to switch tanks and dive the full 130 instead as there was a chance no else would be doing a second dive that day. The other choice was to leave my pony on shore as I felt I had plenty of gas for the planned dive with a good reserve. What I didn't plan for was at about 15 min into the dive I took my reg out for a photo op and it started free flowing and I couldn't stop it.
I tried turning it down towards the bottom, putting the lever back to the pre dive position but it wouldn't stop. One of the divers from the 3 team was closest to me and was the one taking the photos so she noticed that i was freeflowing and pulled out her octopus and offered to donate it to me. I signalled that I was ok and continued to breath from my freeflowing primary taking it out between breaths trying to stop the free flow. I forgot to try tuning down the primary with the dial on the side but more more interested in getting to the surface safely with my rapidly depleting gas supply. Also didn't think to try closing then reopening the valve which was suggested afterwards. I signalled to abort and continued to breath the freeflowing primary slowly ascending and paying very close attention to my gas and how fast it was going down.
The buddy closest to me continued the ascent with me offering to donate her octo several more times but I was ok breathing from the freeflowing primary for a minute or 2 then I switched to my own octo. I guess in the back of my mind I thought it better to either breath from my own freeflowing primary or my own perfectly functioning octo than to air share with another diver as I felt like I was handling the emergency fine and her octo was there if I did completely run out. When we got to around 20 ft my primary stopped freeflowing so I switched back to it and signalled that we should do a 5 min stop incase we had come up a bit fast. My tank had gone from about 2800 psi to 600 psi in about 3 minutes.
I quite regularly switch regs during dives either to my octo or my pony reg just for practice and I think this helped me in this situation by not panicking and also the fact that my buddy for the ascent didn't panic and stayed with me for the remainder of the dive. Upon inspection after the dive my first stage was at 160 psi which is high but was within the year since last service. Fortunately our dive tech was on site and tuned my primary down so I could do another dive. He was unable to tune down my 1st stage on site but I trusted that I could do another dive on my regs being tuned down plus I would be taking my pony and my 1900 psi 130 on the next dive. I'm glad I did the next dive to kind of work out the bit of anxiety from the freeflow incident. What I learned from this incident is that we should all practice regulator swaps more often as well as mask drills and other skills taught in certification
