Her Air Stopped on 140 Foot Dive

[octotat]

Intersting that this happened at Blue Hole. I dove with Aqua Divers also and they were pretty seedy. One of the divers on the Blue Hole trip had just completed his last cert dive for open water and they took him down to 130 fsw. I couldn't believe it! They never asked me for my C card, didn't ask me by experience, and had the total "its all good" attitude. The dive group (lots of novices) really bunched up and were kicking each other in the face. Only 1 DM for the whole group (about 15) and he never looked back. I dropped off the back on purpose so as to not get my mask kicked off and to be in a better position to help anyone with issues, and they never noticed nor cared. I heard that they had an OOA emergency the previous year and that the person panicked and rocketed to the surface and was helicoptered to a chamber. This incident doesn't suprise me at all.

 

[DandyDon]

Related Trip Report: http://www.scubaboard.com/t62140.html

 

[Iruka]

Bretagne...sometimes on the way BACK to the beach, I'll jokingly tell my diver "ok, I carried your gear out, so now you have to carry mine BACK." Hasn't happened yet, though, ha ha. Basically I just want my paying customers to know that I'm ready to help them in any way I can. And at 6-foot & ummm...200lb-ish (90kg or so)...part of that is offering to help with heavy gear, especially when I have customers who are often less than 100lbs (45kg). Besides, when I'm in a hurry, I often carry 4 tanks at a time (2 per hand) so ONE extra tank/BCD isn't that big a deal.

Had an athletic Danish woman a couple weeks back, willing to do a 25-minute surface swim (each way) in order to dive a wreck....in her case, I didn't offer to do the heavy lifting. "One size doesn't fit all" in diving.........

 

[RichLockyer]

Nobody touches my gear unless I hand it to them. Once my reg is on my tank, it does not leave my sight.
On the swimstep, a DM reaching for either my SPG or my valve is greeted by an abrupt turn, pulling the "target" out of their reach and a polite "please do not touch my gear".
A repeated attempt results in a polite comment to the Captain when the dive is over.

I hate cattle boats.

 

[d33ps1x]

Thanks, Mike! I was wondering why I'd forgotten the "test breath and watch SPG" think; because it's worthless.

All the way - so i'll be all the way open, or all the way closed and you'll know it. Better idea...

I've only been diving a little more than 3 years, with just ove 200 dives, and I'm amazed at the severe problems I've seen - and personally survived. But any problem in this sport can be "severe."

The combination of a full physical valve check, purge reg while watching spg, then test breath UNDERWATER is pretty effective.

I find no end of annoyance in listening to openwater instructors telling buddychecking divers to purge their regs on the surface to test em.

A breath with the reg submerged is the only sure way to properly check the funtion of a second stage. A second with the diaphraghm removed or damaged will happily purge away until your heart is content. Try breathing it...

Step 1 let's you know the tank is on all the way
Step 2 confirms it and makes sure there is no crap (hopefully) in the second stage that you are going to breath in like shells, cockroaches, etc...
Step 3 lets you know it's time to move on to the next phase of your predive check and closer to diving.

Grand total time and effort? Around 10 seconds.

 

[edneeves]

I was always under the impression that the 1/2 turn back was so that you knew your valve wasn't stuck. How many times have you tried to turn on your vavle with quite a bit of force and a few naughty words only to find that the bugger was already fully open.

1/2 a turn back and this would be avoided.

Just my tuppence worth.

Ed.

p.s. Sorry if I'm repeating what someone else said.

 

[Damselfish]

I'd love to know the real reason for the turning back advice.

What I was originally told in OW was that you did this to _prevent_ the valve from sticking. (Was not told half turn though, that that was too much, instead do a little like 1/8.)

What I heard years later was only certain old types of valves would have sticking problems but new ones didn't, and it was obsolete advice that people did because it was always done that way.

It would be a shame if people did this for no good reason, when there are clearly some drawbacks.

 

[jhelmuth]

We were diving to the stalactites & columns in Belize’s Blue Hole, from an Aqua Dives boat (whom I’ll never go out with again!), with one Dive Guide leading, one DG bringing up rear point, and the new-kid employee staying on the boat. One of the divers got more than halfway down when her air suddenly stopped (that has got be a lousy feeling at 80 feet!!), and I understand that she didn’t think of grabbing her buddy’s alternate second stage, but instead abandoned him, instinctively swimming up – probably holding her breath…!

Fortunately, she did keep her reg in her mouth, and found air as she came up, then swam over to the rear point DG, pointing at her first stage. He turned it on, and she turned to see her buddy who’d been following, so they continued the dive. Thank Gawd this did not happen at 140 feet under narcosis.

Her buddy swears he checked the tank, and I know that this guy knows lefty-loosy well, but someone apparently had turned the tank all the way off, then half a turn open. We suspect the new-kid employee.

Lessons that should have been learned:

[1] Do not encourage divers with inadequate skills (I don't care what their card says) to go on dives they are not properly able to manage. You assist in putting them into harms way - not good.

[2] You are responsible to only yourself and your buddy. Treat that with equallity. Check valves, SPG, both second stages, pony (if you carry one), etc. DO yours AND your buddies, at donning stage and ust prior to entry. Hold at surface together and re-check. Then proceed with dive.

[3] Don't allow for "trust-me" dives or be convinced to go beyond your abilities and training. It's not safe (this was a great example of why).

[4] Do not rely on the DM/DL team to carry you through the dive (from pre-entry checks to SIT). They are well meaning and usually helpful. But they are human being, and prone to an occassional error. Again - it you responsibility (the entire dive). If you can't do it on your own, you shouldn't be there.

 

[Soggy]

To complicate matters, some of us do not use SPG's... *gasp!* (but use air-integrated or wireless computers) the guage check idea does not seem to work well unless the air pressure sampling rate is less than a couple seconds. My wireless Vytec transmits every second, but took 4-5 transmissions to tell me that the pressure had dropped 1500 psi after shutting off the valve and taking a huge breath. The security backup is that I get 3 beeps from it when the pressure dips below 500 psi.

Sounds like a good reason to buy an SPG and dump the over-priced wireless transmitter to me.

 

[MSilvia]

Sounds like a good reason to buy an SPG and dump the over-priced wireless transmitter to me.

Hey... he already said the advantages of being air integrated outweigh the disadvantages of not having a means of checking tank pressure that works properly and in real time. He didn't get into what those advantages are, but I guess we all have to make decisions about the gear that works best for the dives we do.

For my part, I agree with you though Soggy... give me a reliable brass SPG over electronic gagetry any day. I don't have to reset it, wake it up, wait for it to catch up, or wonder how the battery's doing. It gives me all the info I need, and is clipped off nicely out of the way until I want it.