If your regulator fell out of your mouth...

[death_by_bloop]

Related tangent: there's a youtube video that's been posted before, where a woman is diving and her mouthpiece separates from her regulator. She eventually gets to her buddy, but the panic response is almost instant and it's a good example of what not to do. Anyone have the URL? I looked and couldn't find it.

This is only my 5th post, so SB won't let me post a URL, but I believe the video you're looking for is the first Youtube search result under "regulator accident." Someone with enough post cred can post the actual URL.

My reg got kicked from my mouth by my buddy on my third checkout dive. I was thrilled that my brain just went "click - no reg in mouth - blow stream of bubbles, locate, replace, exhale (I still had half a lungful), reassure freaked-looking buddy, continue." Besides teaching me not to single-file buddy dive anymore and to protect my mask/reg (or dodge) if another diver's fins are close to my face, that event made me realize in retrospect that I could have spent much longer replacing the reg than I had. If it had been somewhere besides in plain sight, as it was, I could still have gotten to it or to my "golden triangle"-positioned octo before I needed a breath.

Nevertheless, I'm in the bungee necklace camp now as well.

 

[crispix]

I believe the video you're looking for is the first Youtube search result under "regulator accident".

Yup, that was it, thanks!

YouTube - Diving Accident Broken Regulator

 

[Yellowmask]

The only thing you might want to watch out for is admittedly a pretty rare situation: if you're sharing air due to your buddy being OOA and they have your octopus rig, you're going to need to be able to recover your primary reg if anything knocks it out of your mouth.

 

[DevonDiver]

Hence why so many instructors stress the need to constantly keep in practice with the skill of AAS donation. Task loading in such situations can be extremely high - sufficiently so to place an inexperienced diver right on their threshold of panic. The thing most likely to knock a regulator out of your mouth on an AAS ascent...is the very diver you are attempting to assist.

This is also the reason why some experienced divers opt to utilise a 2m 'long hose' for AAS ascents.

 

[DeputyDan]

In this case I would make a reasonable effort to recover the primary but would not hesitate to use the octo if need be. Certainly would not take too long in trying to retrieve the primary before using the octo.

I will normally breathe some from the octo anyhow on a dive trip just to make sure its working properly.

 

[Web Monkey]

What if you are exhaling and just about ready to inhale when your regulator somehow is knocked out of your mouth.

Wouldn't it make more sense to just grab your secondary regulator, which is right in front of you, attached, exactly where you know where it is and can see it, and then while breathing quickly get your regulator behind you?

Sure. Why not? You don't get any "SCUBA Points" for fishing around for your regulator.

Just switch to your alternate and then go find your primary.

While you need to be able to recover a lost reg, there are no prizes for making it more difficult.

Terry

 

[boulderjohn]

Here is a thought on the regulator recovery situation. I think the problem is with how it is taught.

In class it is typically taught in shallow water while the student is on his or her knees, sitting upright. The discarded regulator falls back behind the student, where it is hard to find. The student using the reach method often has a particularly hard time, for as the student reaches back, he or she tends to lean back, and the tank falls away from the hand reaching for it.

I stopped teaching that way a while ago, and the difference was truly illuminating.

Now my students are neutrally buoyant while doing this skill, leaning forward in something of a fin pivot position that more closely resembles a normal diving posture. Unless the student makes a real effort to hide the regulator, as soon as it is discarded it falls directly in front of the shoulder, near the hand that wants to get it. With the reach method, gravity puts the hose right behind the ear, absurdly easy to find and grasp.

Regulator recovery is extremely simple in a normal diving position. If it is accidentally knocked out rather than intentionally discarded, your hand will normally get to it before it goes anywhere.

For those of you who advocate a bungeed necklace for the alternate, I assume that your primary is wrapped around your neck on a long hose. In that case, the lost regulator is even easier to find than on a conventional rig.

And by the way, most new divers will be renting their gear. I have never seen a long hose and bungeed necklace in rental gear, so that advice will not be all that helpful until the diver is making a decision about a personal purchase.

 

[mako781]

just stay calm and focused, that always keep you safe.

 

[bigslick]

plenty of food for thought, i have one query if your octo is bungeed round neck does it not make it tricky for a buddy to use to easily?

 

[micklock]

plenty of food for thought, i have one query if your octo is bungeed round neck does it not make it tricky for a buddy to use to easily?

You donate your primary and switch to your bungied reg.