fldiver1
Contributor
Ok so here is how this starts. I have been using a NEPTUNE II FFM for several years now and absolutely love it. My previous mask had an OCEANIC DELTA 2nd stage on it which worked perfectly. Well, it was getting worn so instead of spending alot of money on this one I knew where I could get a good deal on another one brand new wit the factory NIRA REG. This came from a VERY LARGE authorized dealer and like I said is brand new in the package right off the shelf. Picked it up Friday, brought it home, gave it a good lookin over and then set it up on my regs and a bottle to check it out. Everything was perfect just like it should be for new merchandise. So, we go to Blue Springs yesterday to do a dive. Masked worked perfectly, performed just like my last one(without the leaks of the last one) and the built in factory reg performed flawlwssly. So my group calls this morning wanting to go back up to Blue to do another coupel of tanks with the kids today. We get there about 11am and get rigged and head to the water. Upon descent I notice that when I tried to clear the little bit of water that was left from donning the mask on the surface, there didnt seem to be much pressure in the purge. Didnt really think much of it, it didnt catch my attention as alarming????(probably should have but didnt) So we do the first tank and after a while head back to the cars for fresh tanks and SI. Head back to the water, descend to 60ft when my reg stops delivering air. I crank the cracking adj. all the way out till it freeflows a little but it still wont give air on demand. I signal my buddy and we start ascending. He knows about the problem but I told him I was ok for now although not getting much air besides what is bleeding off from the adj. being all the way out. Was having to "sip" the air. We get out, pull the faceplate and the demand lever is laying down against the spray bar???? No wonder I didn't have much purge on the first tank, the lever was working its way down to nothing. Quesiton is, how the hell does this happen on brand new equipment. Same stuff I and some friends have been using and are familiar with for years??? How tdoes it just work it self loose enough to stop delivering air?? And why did it wait till at depth to stop??? Luckily I didnt panic or have to bailout of the mask as my dumb butt didnt take my spare mask this time. I usually carry a spare regular mask so if I had to go to octo I could still see ok.
