Freeflow at 140'

[JEScholz]

I want to share an experience I had about a month ago. I was diving on the F.T.Barney in 160' in Lake Huron when I experienced a free flow. My buddy and I had decended to just above the deck at 140' and started to swim above the wreck when I cleared my mask and ended up getting water in nose. After coughing and spitting the water out of my regulator it started to freeflow. Knowing what was gong on, I figured that the combination of spray from the cough, cold from the depth and flow from the demand had caused the reg to freeze. The first thing I did was try to heat up the reg by putting my tongue on the heat synk. All this did was freeze burn the end of my tongue. Next I tried to flood the regulator but that did not work either. I thought about switching to my pony and have my buddy shut off my tank to flood the reg again, but figured by the time he understood what I wanted him to do I might be low on air in the pony and I didn't want to be at 140' with a low pony and my main turned off. After about 30 seconds, I decided to swim past my buddy and head back up the anchor line. Keeping the primary reg in my mouth, I did a controlled ascent up the line to our hang tanks at 30'. Once I passed above the thermocline and hit the deco tanks at 30', I had 500# left and the freeflow stopped. I did a series of safety stops at 30, 20 and 10 and hit the surface with enough air to fill my BC and swim to the dive ladder.

Lessons to share...

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Plan your dive and dive your plan! We had not planned to do deco on the first dive but hung the tanks just in case. We also were both diving on 100 cuft tanks. I had a 20 & my buddy a 30 cuft pony tank.

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As long as you have air, you have time. As long as you have time you can work on a solution to your problem. DON'T PANIC!

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You can breath off a freeflowing regulator. Why switch to a backup when you can steal the air you need from the freeflowing reg. Switching to an octo or pony immediately just wastes the air coming out of the freeflowing regulator.

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My spg showed that I dropped from 2500 to 500 from the time I started the free flow to the time I hit 30' Don't waste time trying to recover a line or other gear. A freeflow will QUICKLY turn into an out of air emergency

 

[ShakaZulu]

Wow. Good job keeping calm and making the best out of a bad situation!

 

[H2Andy]

nice

the only thing i'd do different is thumb the dive so my buddy ascends with me.

that way we stay together all the way up

 

[Jason Ooi]

Reg set is the primary concern "freeze" buy a reg for cool water environment, I recommend MK17/S555 good performance diaphragm first stage regulator designed for use in cold water or contaminated environments.
Good experienced in flee flow, in that scenario good in handle that critical situation with no panic....
Thanks you for sharing…good dive

 

[Sasquatch]

Good job on staying cool. Speaking of which, what was the temperature at 140'?

 

[TSandM]

I'd have to ask . . . If you had a pony, could you switch to it, turn off your primary, and let it thaw? If you had a buddy, could you go on his air supply, turn yours off, and let yours thaw?

I had a freeflow, and it was daunting. It was at 30 feet, but I learned a ton of lessons from it. I agree with you that you can breath off a free-flowing regulator, but why? Turn it off. You had both a buddy and a pony. Your free flow was probably freezing, as was mine. Turn the air flow off. The reg will thaw, and you will get it back. If not, you have two alternate air sources.

The bubbles are very loud and distracting, and interfere with your vision. In addition, the freeflow will bleed your tank down to where you have to have a viz on it before you can get it filled again. Why do that?

You are so very right . . . As Diver0001 pointed out to me in my thread, the only emergency is a lack of air. Once that has been rectified, whether it's your pony or your buddy, the rest is an inconvenience, and should be solved in the least annoying manner possible. It's not an emergency. This was hard for me to swallow when Diver0001 pointed it out, but he was absolutely right.

 

[Bigcape]

I wonder what all the "spare-air" lobbyists have to say about this one ehy?

It is a great feeling to have a 30cf or 40cf right there at your chest.

I think it is funny how many guys i see with their main gear all expensive ie: MK25T/S600t Yet the first and second stage on the pony looks like it had been used as a hockey puck!

 

[drbill]

Sure glad my water temps only rarely dip below 50 F.

 

[ArcticDiver]

Super job! Thanks for sharing.

My experience is that in situations like you report the only wrong action is the one that gets you killed. Sure, in the calm of cyberdiving someone may come up with a different answer. In retrospect you may even decide you could have done something a bit "better".

But, in an emergency there is only one criteria: Did it work? Was it effective? No one really cares whether there might have been a more elegant, or more efficient solution. Only, did it work? In this case your solution worked! You succeeded!

For the future though anyone who has an emergency should have some Lessons Learned. Could you post what lessons you learned from this? Why? Anything I can learn from your experience puts me a step up when my turn comes.

 

[Scubydoo713]

I'm a firm believer that the type of diving that you were doing (deep & cold), should not be executed on a single tank. As you have discovered, a freeflow at 140' without adequate backup leaves you little time to attempt to fix the problem. I commend you on keeping your cool and doing what was needed to bring you safely back to the surface, but I would suggest that if Great Lakes deep wreck diving is something that you enjoy and intend on continuing to do, get the right gear for the job. That includes doubles with an isolation manifold, backplate with wings, adequate thermal protection, all the gear that goes with technical diving, and above all else, the proper training to go with it. You stated that you didn't plan on getting into deco on the first dive, but at that depth,in order to avoid it, you would have had to basically do a bounce dive. Why not get the proper gear and do it right? The FT Barney is a beautiful wreck that deserves more than a cursury glance.
Your situation could have very easily become an diving accident.