Incident during OW training

[Darkprincze]

Hey,

I recently started my PADI OW course and last night took my 2nd confined water dive. We were at the bottom of the pool and were practicing the routine for out of air / use your buddy's spare regulator drill. My buddy went first, signalled, grabbed for my spare reg etc then put it back. On my turn I did the same but didn't realise my buddys spare reg was upside down the first time I did it, so the instructor signalled for me to try again. I swapped back to my main reg which had obviously been hanging loose and it didn't seem to work properly. I gave my instructor a confused look as he signalled me to attempt the drill again. It was like the air supply was constricted. I had to suck really hard to get any air out of it. I signalled to the instructor that things were not ok. He seemed as confused as I was. I didn't panic (we were only 4 meters / 13 ft down). The instructor played around with my hoses, although I couldn't see what he was doing as my field of view was blocked by my mask. Suddenly air was flowing normally through my regulator. I gave my instructor the ok and we continued with the lesson. I have a few questions if anyone would be good enough to answer.

a) What happened in anyones opinion? After we got back to the surface I said to the instructor I had a problem with my regulator. He replied yes you seemed to. Possibly he didn't understand the problem.
b) Should we have continued the lesson or headed straight for the surface?

Any thoughts would be great.

Cheers, Paul.

 

[tplyons]

a) Ask for clarification next time. We're all out there learning in that environment. Your instructor should be able to inform you on what's going on.
b) Your gear was working fine, you weren't freaking out, and signaled okay. Continuation seems okay to me.

Just my $0.02.

 

[Dirty-Dog]

The idea that you should head for the surface any time there is any problem is itself a problem. You did the right thing by staying calm, addressing the problem and solving it. The only thing I might do differently would be asking what, if anything, the instructor actually did. It may well be that there WAS no real problem, and the perception of difficulty breathing was triggered by anxiety. It's equally possible that your reg had a sticky valve. There's really no way for us to know, at this remove.

 

[Scott]

a) What happened in anyones opinion? After we got back to the surface I said to the instructor I had a problem with my regulator. He replied yes you seemed to. Possibly he didn't understand the problem.

Since this was your second confined water dive I'm going to make a big assumption that the skill you were performing was the out of air, alternate air source. This is where the instructor turns the air off on one diver and they go through the OOA procedure you learned in confined water 1.
What most likely happened is your instructor failed to turn your air back on when you failed to properly perform the skill. While you were thinking they were 'fiddling' with hoses, they were turning the air back on.

b) Should we have continued the lesson or headed straight for the surface?

Simple, the instructor should have turned the air back on, no need to go to the surface.

 

[fnfalman]

Perhaps you didn't open your tank valve all the way and when your tank runs low, it doesn't deliver air like it would with a full tank. The instructor probably opened the valve up all the way. That's my guess.

 

[supergaijin]

+1 Scott's answer.

It can and does happen that instructors forget to turn the tank back on. It must happen regularly because even in the PADI OW video, it says to "make sure the air is turned back on by checking the SPG".

This is pretty bad to admit but, I have forgotten a couple of times when I was first starting out instructing. Now I keep my hand on the valve until the skill is finished and the student is breathing again. If I ever forget in the future then I can react in a hurry.

Humans make mistakes.

 

[TSandM]

Is it possible that you put your own reg back upside down? Some regs breathe hard that way.

If this WAS the air depletion exercise, it's possible just as the others have said, that the instructor had not yet turned your gas back on.

One of the basic ideas of Scuba is that, as long as you have something to breathe, everything else is an inconvenience. Although your regulator was not breathing easily, you were not out of gas, and there was no need to go to the surface unless the malfunction proved impossible to remedy. This is really an important lesson, because the urge to head for the surface to solve problems lies behind some of the worst accidents that novice divers have.

 

[Frosty]

OP--You lucky lucky lucky man.So early in your training you have had a real live issue. You thought the situation through and reacted in the correct way.That is just stunning -No mon I'm not being a sarky sod.
To be honest the only thing I would have done different is grabbed for the other guys octi again before trying to work out what the issue with my air supply was.
Incidently My bet is with the others. The instructor expected you to do the OOA signal as soon as your reg breathed badly.

 

[Diver0001]

....snip....

I had to suck really hard to get any air out of it. I signalled to the instructor that things were not ok. He seemed as confused as I was

....snip....

I suspect as some of the other do that the air wasn't turned on until you indicated that you had a problem.

The question in my mind isn't so much what happened but why everyone was confused. This is a really good learning experience but the real lesson here is that something happened and that the communication didn't immediately clarify the situation.

That's interesting.

I'm curious to know more details about the exchange that went on from the moment that the instructor intervened because of the upside-down alternate to the point that you were breathing normally again. Could you give us a play-by-play on that? I think you could get some good insights/learning out of just going over those few seconds.

b) Should we have continued the lesson or headed straight for the surface?

cyber-divers generally settle on one of two answers to this question:

- yes (for whatever reason)
- no (for whatever reason)

Personally I'm more in the grey area. I have this thing called my ABC rule for dealing with emergencies/issues that allows one to quickly and effectively structure and prioritize a response to an emergency and take appropriate action. In some cases I believe it's wisest to abort the dive and in some cases it's perfectly acceptable to solve the problem on the go and continue the dive. (ergo, the answer is "maybe").

In this case your instructor figured it out and solved the problem under water so there was no reason to want to abort. I'm sure if he thought for a second that it was going pear-shaped that he would have taken you to the surface.

R..

 

[Easdem]

Since this was your second confined water dive I'm going to make a big assumption that the skill you were performing was the out of air, alternate air source. This is where the instructor turns the air off on one diver and they go through the OOA procedure you learned in confined water 1.
What most likely happened is your instructor failed to turn your air back on when you failed to properly perform the skill. While you were thinking they were 'fiddling' with hoses, they were turning the air back on.



Simple, the instructor should have turned the air back on, no need to go to the surface.

I am with Scott 100% on this.