Free flow disaster! Help!

[String]

It sounds as though this shop may not have invested in good cold water regs. High flow rates and very cold water ARE a recipe for freeflow, though.

Have fun in warm water, and come back and dive in the UK when it isn't snowing.

They wouldn't have got it through the HSE paperwork if they werent. (Its a legal requirement).

The soaked drysuit and so on though hints at substandard equipment. Was this a commercial school or a BSAC club?

Then again, i saw 10 students dangerously hypothermic being dragged through a quarry in baggy 7mm wetsuits this weekend by a club. Wonder how many were put off for life even without considering the safety aspect.

 

[chloe_blackman]

I'm not really sure, I did it with Aquasport in Birmingham UK and from what I could tell they seem pretty decent. All of the instructors were incredibly helpful and patient with me as well as the other students and when I asked for different regs etc they were happy to oblige. If I'd been given a wetsuit for these kind of conditions I don't think I'd have even considered getting in the water, that's insane!

 

[Crass3000]

A lot of people seem to think they will be warmer in drysuits and are not (I guess that depends on the time and temp) . I sometimes dive waters that are close to freezing and find a 7mm suit with hat and gloves to be just fine. As others have said, the regulators you are using must be garbage if you are having so many free-flow problems. What kind of rigs have they had you using? I had a free-flow on my first deep dive for AOW in a quarry (~35F) and went to the dive shop and bought a good rig. I basically told them I didn't want it to happen again and they pointed me in the right direction. Ironically APEKS from the UK is my favorite and I couldn't be more happy with it. They are very nice rigs made for the waters you dive in. To be clear we were doing sort of multilevel dives where there are multiple thermoclines and the water warms up drastically once you get back on top of the first. Personally I dive everything in 7mm though do to cost. If I need a drysuit I am not going to dive it but I haven't found that boundary yet.

 

[fjpatrum]

They wouldn't have got it through the HSE paperwork if they werent. (Its a legal requirement).

The soaked drysuit and so on though hints at substandard equipment. Was this a commercial school or a BSAC club?

Then again, i saw 10 students dangerously hypothermic being dragged through a quarry in baggy 7mm wetsuits this weekend by a club. Wonder how many were put off for life even without considering the safety aspect.

Sealed when bought doesn't necessarily mean well maintained/tuned, though. Just about any reg can be turned to a piece of junk with improper servicing.

OP: Consider "purging" by breathing out through the reg quickly, next time, rather than using the purge button. A forceful exhale will purge the reg well enough to breath from with less likelihood of causing the instant freeflow. So far I've never used the purge button to clear a reg (though I've only dived in waters down to about 5 or 6 C) and haven't had any kind of freeflow issues, even with unsealed regs.

 

[Edward3c]

Hi Chloe,

Well done for controlling yourself and not bolting for the surface.

A leaking dry-suit. like you describe, is worse than a properly fitting wet-suit. Aquasport (a PADI School) should have a suit that fits you without leaking. Just be careful not to pull the neck seal too far down your neck or it will leak; wrist seals should be tight, but not stop the blood-flow.

All UK regs are certified for cold water, but breathing off them before getting in can lower the temperature inside the 1st stage enough to form ice and cause a free-flow.

Might be worth considering doing the open water stuff in warmer water if that's where you plan to dive.