Freeflowed this afternoon

[Xaryo]

For the last dive of the year, I went to the Rockport's wall in Ontario. The weather was crapy, but not really cold. It was about 10C outside water with really strong wind making quite some waves on the water.

The water was at 36F. I went down with my buddy. I was diving wet and he was diving dry. About 10 minutes into the dive, I signaled him to stop maintain the depth (we were at 60ft), and not long after that, I signalled to turn around and go back because of the current gettin stronger. Also, I was starting to feel that my reg was breathing way to easy.

Just after we turned, I started to freeflow. I faced my buddy showing him the bubbles comming out of my reg and pointing at his bungied octo. I thought he would understand I was freeflowing and give me a reg and then turning off my tank. Maybe I was not explicit enough, he didn't understood.

During all these "long" what? thirty seconds, my tank was emptying. I signalled to surface and started climbing the wall at a fast but safe speed (my computer didn't screem).

Midway to the surface, I looked down to see how far he was behind me. Waited 2 seconds and restarted going up again. I was starting to feel really uneasy. I didn't panicked but ...

At the surface, I inflated my BC and tried making contorsion to reach my tank to shut it off. Than he finaly surfaced and I shouted to shut it off. He told me he never saw I was freeflowing.

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In afterthough, I think that what I did was really idiot. I should have insisted on him giving me his reg. Had his octo not been bungied to his neck, I would have taken it right away. But it was bungied and I was reluctant to grap his reg and I didn't wanted to remove my reg from my mouth to give the signal "give me your air" since I was still able to breath for it.

We were at the start of the dive, with plenty of air (he had a 120cuft and I had a 100cuft). That why I started alone toward the surface. Maybe that was the right thing to do on the spur of the moment. Maybe not. I don't know.

I'm ok, but I'm still trying to figure it out. One thing's clear, when diving cold water, be sure to review carefully the procedure in case of a freeflow and don't be shy of grabbing the available reg of your buddy and stay close together.
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After beeing safely on shore, I looked at my reg to see what was wrong. The first stage seemed ok and free of ice. The problem was on the second stage. we unscrewed the cover and saw that the lever or the spring was incased in ice. There was the problem. Maybe the Sherwood SR1 is not made for that kind of coldness.

 

[battles2a5]

Wow, glad you held it together and got yourself out of the situation. A few things to consider that would help in the future:

1- Be familiar with your buddy's gear and practice s-drills. If he was wearing a bungeed back-up he "should" be donating his primary in an OOA situation. If not, then he doesn't understand why he has his backup bungeed. In either case, I always go over the OOA routine with new buddies and/or anyone not familiar w/ the long hose config.

2- In cold water, you may want to consider doubles or an H-valve. A freeflow is probably the most common cold water failure and can be easily addressed with redundant first stages. If not, practice shutting down your own valve and throttling the valve to get you back up in the event that your buddy is clueless again.

3- Find a new buddy. Not donating in an OOA situation, not helping you shut down your valve, not doing anything for 30 seconds while your tank is draining, then not ascending with you (assuming you were correct about your ascent rate). That's 4 reasons that I would not want to be in the water with this person.

Chalk this one up to experience. Murphy let's us off the hook every now and then. Just be prepared for him next time he gets you in his sights

 

[acqua_girl]

You just forgot to mention that checking not only the gear and buddy, but also reviewing the signs.... Maybe a "I'm running out of air" sign should made it more explicit of what was happening.

 

[tstormdiver]

Even with doubles, a free flow can be a major problem, though not nearly as likely. Last month I was finishing up my Adv. Nitrox course when I had a free flow of my secondary while my primary was shut down in a drill. I was at 90ft at the local quarry (42 degree water) in my doubles. My instructor gave me a slate that said, "your primary regulator just failed, switch to your back up & & shutdown the primary". I switched regulators & then had to reach back with my left hand to grab my wings & pull my rig upwards. The cold made me stiff & I could not easily reach my valve with my right hand. Just as I got my primary shut down, I'm guessing (still don't truly know what happened) that I must have bumped my secondary purge valve causing it to start free flowing. I leave my secondary regulator (both regulators are SP MK25/S600's- definitely not made for cold water) in pre- dive mode & have the adjustment knob turned all the way in to help prevent a free flow & that's where it was set when I had my problem. Well, here I was at 90 ft trying to breathe off a majorly free flowing regulator & taking in nearly as much water as air. I was trying to figure out what to do; my left hand was holding one side of the regulator mouth piece out to prevent over pressurizing my lungs, so it was useless to assist again on reaching my primary valve. My instructor was there in a flash & grabbed hold of me. He even tried to give me his primary, but I couldn't see it & didn't know it was there. He said that he was even considering just turning off my secondary to let it defrost, but was worried that it might freak me out, so he opted to take me briefly to the surface to get things back under control. We then went right back down to do our decompression. No problems after that other than I was still a little stressed, which I worked out after a couple of minutes. After the dive he commented on how I didn't freak & bolt on him as he expected to happen (If he only knew how close I was). Everything happened so fast, I wasn't even aware that we were heading to the surface until we were only a few feet down. When we discussed the episode, he pointed out all the options available- turning the primary back on & shutting down the secondary, taking his primary & shutting down the secondary, using my 50/50 deco bottle & beginning an immediate ascent to get to or above the MOD & shutting down the secondary. Until then, I never thought of that as an option in a life or death situation. As far as the information I had it was off limits. I am in no way saying that having redundancy is bad, but sometimes that can fail too. Have contingencies ready if you need them.

 

[battles2a5]

Having doubles won't prevent a free flow from occurring, but it definitely should not be a major problem if it does occur. The free flow you experienced is a little bizarre since you typically don't shut down a working valve unless you are practicing, but once you become proficient in dealing with shutdowns going back on your primary should be very easy and quick to do. And as you mentioned, you still have other options even if both valves are free flowing (e.g. air share, throttling valves, etc.). I would consider going onto a deco gas beyond its MOD and/or surfacing with a deco obligation an absolute last resort as there are many workable solutions to exploit before these would come into play.

 

[imasinker]

Xaryo...

First of all I am glad your alright! Little freaky huh? It is easy to say after the fact what you should have or could have done. I experienced my first free flow ( buddy) this summer. I agree with some of the previous posters replies that getting to know your buddies equipment configuration is a must. Knowing and going over pre dive signals along with equipment checks to make sure you understand eachother is also something you need to do especially with a person you havent dove with before.

I am a new diver like you, I can't sit and judge you on what you did as being stupid or wrong. I can offer my opinion and take it as such. I am sure you have had time to think about it and come to a conclusion on what you could and hopefully will do if this happens again. It sounds to me like you did a good job maintaining control by not bolting to the surface. Seems you were aware of the situation, didn't panic and make things worse. You took a situation and made it work for you at that time. This was something I was told about in regards that a free flow reg. It is still usable if you need air breath from it, ascend as you need to safely. The closer it gets you to the surface the better chance of survival you have. I dive here in Ontario and have seen in the past month at least three free flows and a couple of frozen octo's. The way you deal with the situation is what is going to decide the outcome. If you can't rely on someone you must rely on yourself and not become the next victim. So no I don't think you were an idiot, you just had to deal with something you have never experienced before, by yourself and untill anyone else faces that situation they really can't judge your actions. In my opinion you did good, and you did learn something in the process.

Good luck! and Safe Diving!

Something I have been advised, and maybe someone else with more experience can reply... When diving cold water, in freezing air temp or close to it, either keep your reg in the water or out. Having your reg dip in and out of the water can cause the candle effect. Water in the reg freezes and gets coated with more water and freezes each time it is dunked and pulled out of the water. Try not to breath your reg out of the water as well as moisture also forms around the inside and can freeze. Even some of the better cold water regs have froze up. I have seen such as Aqualung and Apex have froze up, caused sometimes by diver error at the surface. Hope this makes sense. Like I said maybe someone else with better experience can explain better.

 

[tstormdiver]

Having doubles won't prevent a free flow from occurring, but it definitely should not be a major problem if it does occur. The free flow you experienced is a little bizarre since you typically don't shut down a working valve unless you are practicing, but once you become proficient in dealing with shutdowns going back on your primary should be very easy and quick to do. And as you mentioned, you still have other options even if both valves are free flowing (e.g. air share, throttling valves, etc.). I would consider going onto a deco gas beyond its MOD and/or surfacing with a deco obligation an absolute last resort as there are many workable solutions to exploit before these would come into play.

You are quite correct, as I said we were doing drills for the course. Yes, I know I need to become more proficient at working the valves, that comes only with time & practice, which I have been doing. I was actually surprised at being taken to the surface at the instructor's discretion, to be honest, we were only in simulated deco for the course. Yes, I know the deco bottle or surfacing should only be used when all other options have been exhausted & the only other option is drowning. It was certainly a great learning experience on my part & in a way,... glad it happened, especially in a more controlled environment (a course setting).

 

[battles2a5]

It was certainly a great learning experience on my part & in a way,... glad it happened, especially in a more controlled environment (a course setting).

Absolutely! Any real failure is going to be a much better learning experience than a drill. Nothing renews my energy around practicing drills like the pucker factor induced by a real issue

 

[TSandM]

I posted a while back about my husband having a freeflow, and what the learning experience was for me: Struggling to reach your valves for class is one thing, but struggling to do a shutdown when you are losing gas is another thing altogether. Watching him made me really glad I bought my Fusion.

To the OP: Your story reminds me of an experience I had in my Fundies class. I was told to practice air-sharing with my buddy, and I was to be the diver out of gas. I swam over to the buddy and gave the "out of air" signal. He looked at me. I did it again, and he RETURNED it! By this time, I was completely confused; had I gotten it wrong, which one of us was to be out of gas? At this point, my instuctor came over my shoulder pushed me away, spat out his regulator and gave emphatic "I'M OUT OF GAS, DAMMIT!" signals to my buddy, who obediently donated.

The lesson I took from this is that communication underwater sometimes has to be more like shouting than speaking pleasantly, in order to be unambiguous and clear. You were not in an emergency, but behaving as though you were might have gotten your buddy to pay more attention and realize what the problem was.

As everyone else has mentioned, going over what procedure you are going to use in the event of a freeflow is a good idea, too. Some people are not taught to share gas and turn off the tank of the freeflowing diver, and if you do so, you have to trust that your buddy can control an air-sharing ascent, so that you don't get your only gas supply pulled away from you while you're going up.

 

[hollandj]

That's the reason why i think that a "pony" is ones bets( but not only) buddy for an 'out of air situation', if u dive with divers that u don't know.

.... it's always there when and if u need it......

later