Incident in St Andrews Lake - Regulator failed shut

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At 30 meters, the instructor should be carrying a redundant air source aka pony.
I think they were just a buddy pair.

Regardless, I like to have redundancy at 30m too.
 
I think they were just a buddy pair.

Regardless, I like to have redundancy at 30m too.

They had each other
 
Interesting. I had a first stage freeze closed a number of years ago. Fortunately, I discovered it just before getting in the water. I'd set up my gear on the boat and was able to breathe off the second stages. Got on the inflatable, and just as we were all about to backroll off, I put my reg in my mouth and got no air! We had to unscrew the high pressure hose before we could get the first stage off the tank.

The reg had been serviced before the trip and was fine for 30 dives before freezing up on the last day. Turns out one of the parts put in during the servicing was defective. Fortunately, one of my buddies had a spare regulator and I was able to do the last 2 dives. (This was on a liveaboard in the Galapagos Islands. Between my group of buddies we brought spares of pretty much everything!) The part in question was shaped like a thumbtack, but the pointy part was too long. (As we discovered when I took it back to the LDS after the trip.)
 
The "valve partially closed" is the closest fit in my mind.... I've come across a few valves that didn't take that many turns to have significant impact.....

Hopefully more info will be forthcoming.....
Valve partially closed doesn't create a sudden loss of air.
 
Interesting. I had a first stage freeze closed a number of years ago. Fortunately, I discovered it just before getting in the water. I'd set up my gear on the boat and was able to breathe off the second stages. Got on the inflatable, and just as we were all about to backroll off, I put my reg in my mouth and got no air! We had to unscrew the high pressure hose before we could get the first stage off the tank.

The reg had been serviced before the trip and was fine for 30 dives before freezing up on the last day. Turns out one of the parts put in during the servicing was defective. Fortunately, one of my buddies had a spare regulator and I was able to do the last 2 dives. (This was on a liveaboard in the Galapagos Islands. Between my group of buddies we brought spares of pretty much everything!) The part in question was shaped like a thumbtack, but the pointy part was too long. (As we discovered when I took it back to the LDS after the trip.)
Sounds like the first stage high pressure seat. Something like this?

Sub Aquatic High Pressure Seat For Apeks Regs
 
Valve partially closed doesn't create a sudden loss of air.
Agree, but when it happens it will have the same psychological effect on the diver.

The reason the 1/4 turn back was taken out of BSAC training is because that’s enough for some valves to be nearly turned off. I’ve only come across it once, in Granada on a 40m dive. The casualty had breathing difficulties from 20m, but knew the problem and got their buddy to fully open the valve.
 
I’ve done many dives to 30 meters and never seen an instructor carry a pony even once...
Pony bottle is not part of OW training by any agency im aware of
 
Pony bottle is not part of OW training by any agency im aware of
I usually teach using a twinset. Mostly because it is handy but also because I don’t want to depend on a student for gas. In the U.K. commercial training requires there to be a diver capable of rescuing the instructor, so no single instructor teaching at OW/AOW/rescue.

Anyway this was just a couple of divers, no training or instructors involved. 30m at that site is quite serious, unusually cold and quite dark and nasty. It demonstrates that people need to be close enough and mentally prepared to manage issues. That takes a bit of experience and regular diving.
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/peregrine/

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