Freeflowed this afternoon

[Eric Castillo]

My wife asked me, why I don't carry a redundant air source. The best answer I came up with is, No one requires me too. So, needless to say I will now carry at least a small spare air on all my open ocean dives. As hollandj said, "So I can take care of myself." If you think about it, there is no good reason not to carry one. Right? It's too much trouble. I used to carry one but I never used it (duh, that's a good thing!). Oh, it's cool I only dive in waters shallow enough that I can reach the surface if something happens. When I dive alone I never go into an over hang. I know that dive site like the back of my hand. I am a photographer so it's like I'm diving alone, so now I just dive alone. We have all heard that diver try and rationalize their lack of safety. I guess it's the, do as I say not as I do syndrome. My rule, If I teach others not to do it, then I shouldn't do it. If I get hurt or die doing it, I deserved it. Stay safe.You might want to think about upgrading from the SR1, just a thought.

 

[Ayisha]

A spare air really isn't very useful due to the size. The redundant gas source should be enough to bring you from your furthest point to the surface, making any planned or necessary stops or dealing with any other issues that may arise.

I am a very petite female and I carry a 19 cf pony, no problem. I can't even feel it, doesn't bother me a bit. For many men or larger women, a 19 cf pony may not be enough; some carry a 30 cf pony. Of course, doubles would be far superior, but for recreational, non-overhead dives, especially very cold, deep ones, many people feel more secure with at least a 19 cf pony.

 

[diveactive]

hi . This is one of those times where I say. When you become a diver. Practice the what if?

I wrote the what if article to the HSE in the UK. Now I will say this again to all you divers. Yes I had a close miss or two. But one bit , Twice bit ha ha! More then ever shy!

I trained my self the what if. In the oceanic centre tank in Ottery st mary Devon UK

Practice putting my self in all situations, what would I do if?

one was free flow. it happens from badly maintained equipment or in wreck diving when your hoses get snagged.

the best bet is once you know its going to happen or has stated. is to take a big deep breath . Compensate . and quickly don off your equipment as you did in your training
revers the Jacket BS or BCD . turn down the air. find the leak. urn the air on lowly and Breath from the free flow. Turn dow or off the air between breaths. if you buddy is close then . do the right thing. buddy share ascent. If you have enough for both.

This happened to me at 26 m when taking a German diver for a leisure dive. Just because I left my kit to be set u by the boat boy. You don,t jump out of a plain unless you packed your shoot your self or inspected it!
Well at least you got back. Cheers.

Communication and dive planning , no matter how good the conditions should always be done.

 

[TSandM]

the best bet is once you know its going to happen or has stated. is to take a big deep breath . Compensate . and quickly don off your equipment as you did in your training
revers the Jacket BS or BCD . turn down the air. find the leak. urn the air on lowly and Breath from the free flow. Turn dow or off the air between breaths. if you buddy is close then . do the right thing. buddy share ascent. If you have enough for both.

Diveactive, I'm not sure you understand what the OP was describing. He was talking about a freeflow from a frozen regulator, where excessive gas escapes from the second stage. He was not talking about a leak from behind you. If you have a massive leak from behind you in a single tank, I think the first thing you should do is secure a breathing source, because there aren't many things in a single tank which would cause a massive leak behind you, that you are going to be able to fix.

And finally, with respect to your comment, "If you have enough for both" -- I firmly believe that every diver diving with a buddy should reserve enough gas in his tank to get both of them from wherever they are to the surface at any point in the dive. A diver should know how much gas that is, and should consider that amount sacrosanct. It should NEVER be a question of whether you have enough gas to get your buddy to the surface.

 

[Straegen]

For my own purposes, wouldn't it be better to give a hand wobble, low on air then an I need air signal? If that didn't work, hit him with the out of air signal. All that followed by a surface signal. What I am curious about is how would others convey the message?

 

[Ber Rabbit]

What I am curious about is how would others convey the message?

I drop my regulator from my mouth and give the out of air signal if I've decided I'm not in a position to safely breathe the freeflow to the surface. I always drop my reg then give my OOA signal; the signal plus the fact I no longer have a reg in my mouth leaves no question in my buddy's mind about what I need. Strange little hand signals, showing bubbles to buddy's, etc. are VERY easy to misinterpret.

(My octo is under my chin and I can pick it up for a few breaths if I need to beat my buddy over the head for failure to comply.)
Ber :lilbunny:

 

[Ayisha]

Don't forget you can just grab your buddy's alternate if you need to.

The plan for my buddy and I when we do extremely cold deep dives around here, where we would each have a pony, is for the person with the freeflow (for ex. me) to switch to the pony. We can turn off our main tank, but since it's easier for the buddy to do it, the buddy turns off the main tank. We begin our ascent slowly, completing any stops we planned. During our ascent, I can turn on my main tank or my buddy can do it and see if it is still freeflowing or if it has thawed out. If it's still freeflowing, shut it off again and try again shallower. If it's working properly, switch to the primary tank. We can instead just use our pony for the entire ascent, since we know that it has a sufficient amount of gas to bring us to the surface safely from our deepest point - whatever we have planned for that dive.

We could just breathe off the freeflow as we were trained, but we do not believe our single tank will provide enough gas for the entire ascent from, for example, 130 feet at 36 F including stops that we have planned. Also, we're pretty sure that our mouth will be numb from the freezing temp long before we surface. It's simply easier to switch to an alternate.

We do not plan to simply switch to a buddy's alternate at these extremely cold depths because it increases the work of the possibly only working reg. This is like overbreathing a reg in very cold temps, which can cause it to freeflow. Now you have 2 people breathing off one reg, which could more easily freeflow than separate regs. What are the chances of 2 people having enough gas in a standard single tank to breathe one freeflow from depth to the surface and make any planned stops? None.

We have not planned for feathering the valve because we have never practiced it and it seems like too much task loading for us.

BTW, with our single tank, each of us always reserves a rock bottom amount of gas (pre-planned according to dive) for both of us to complete our dive safely plus deal with any issue that may arise. In addition, for extremely cold deep dives, we each bring along a 19 cf pony strictly for redundancy.

Of course doubles are far superior to a pony, but we do not feel doubles are necessary for the dives that we do at this time.

Hope that helps with some other options for freeflows.