Incident Report (long)

[wreckchick]

Well folks, I'll be the test case for the kinder, gentler ScubaBoard and see how this goes. In the interest of passing on an incident report to be deconstructed and hope that others learn from my experience, I'll give you my dive from Sunday.

Location: Gilboa Quarry, Ohio
Air Temp: Low 60's
Water Temp: mid-50's on the surface, mid/upper 40's at the first thermocline, 39-41 (depending on whose computer you look at at 80')
Max Depth: 84 feet
Time: 11:30 am (approx.)
Previous Dives (Sun.): None
Total Dives: 23
Purpose: AOW Deep Dive
Plan: Descend to 60' platform, regroup, swim to deco ladder, line up and perform timed task at depth, ascend up a reference line, 5 minute safety stop at 15', surface
Divers in Group: 4 students, 2 instructors, 1 assistant instructor, 1 divemaster candidate
Regulator: Mares V16 with Proton 2nd

The only way to properly describe this dive is in terms of the three viewpoints from the divers involved. I can reconstruct the entire dive, but it makes more sense to do it from the individuals views so that you have the information that the 3 divers had while it was happening. I am Diver #1, my buddy is Diver #2, one of the instructors is Diver #3. I have spoken with my buddy a lot about what happened and have a pretty firm grasp on what happened from his viewpoint. The instructor and I have spoken a lot as well, but this is the one viewpoint where my account may differ more than the others.

Diver #1 (Me):
We descended to the platform and stayed in a group waiting to be collected. As we are waiting I noticed that as I was inhaling I was seeing a couple bubbles float past my mask. I realized that my regulator was letting a little more air through than usual and signalled my buddy that something was wrong with my reg. I wrote on a slate that I was fine but keep an eye on me. The problem did not seem to get worse and I decided to go ahead with the dive.

We headed over to the ladder, by buddy and I holding hands to stay close, and lined up. The instructor running the class started check on us starting with me. Since I was fine, the regulator was behaving, I gave the OK and she moved to my buddy and to the next students.

It was about this time I felt my reg start to freeflow. I turned to my buddy and signalled him, then grabbed his octo with my left hand and his bc with my right hand. The instructor was behind us and we tried to get his attention. He saw us and started swimming over and with my left hand I turned and pointed at my tank valve.

At this point the visibility dropped to zero due to bubbles and I was holding the reg in my mouth with my left hand and still holding my buddy with my right. It felt like someone was trying to pull the reg out of my mouth, but I wasn't having it and clamped down tighter. At some point I saw a glimmer of yellow in front of me and realized the instructor was trying to give me his air so I took it and let go of my buddy and grabbed the instructor. Not long after I looked up and saw the light coming toward me and realized we were ascending and dirty words passed through my head.

We surfaced and I told the instructor I was ok, inflated my bc. My buddy then surfaced about 20 yards from us and he was gasping a little. The instructor asked him if he was ok, and he gave the "not so good" hand signal. I told the instructor to go check on him and I swam back to the dock which wasn't far off at all.

On the dock were a couple really nice guys from Ontario that I believe were there working with some intro deco diving stuff. They helped me up, walked me to the tables and helped me get my gear off and asked me all the right questions. If you are on this board and reading this, thank you very much for your assistance.

My buddy and the instructor came in and we all did a brief reality check and we were all doing ok.

Diver #2 (my buddy):
(starting on the ladder)
I am shoulder to shoulder with my buddy when she looks at me and points to her regulator. I see the bubbles but think she's exhaling until I notice the bubbles don't stop. She reaches over and grabs my octo so I grab her bc with my right hand and the ascent line over her right shoulder with my left. I try to get the instructor's attention behind us but I don't see him see us so I give my buddy the signal to ascend and start up the ascent line. I remember hitting the first rung, 10 ft above, and going above that and between that rung and the next I need to dump some air so I let go of the ascent line to try and find my inflator hose. It seems to be pinned to me and I look down through the bubbles and see my buddy's hand wrapped around it but immediately the bubbles knock my mask off and I get all manner of water up my nose and my mask is flooded. From there I can't find the ascent line again and I'm going up so I dump air and flare to slow my ascent and pop up. During the surfacing my mask popped off my head. I look over and see my buddy and the instructor....... etc.

Diver #3 (instructor):
I'm bringing up the rear on a group of AOW students and I'm behind them while they are hanging on a ladder. One of the students gets my attention and I realize that her reg is freeflowing. She turns and points at her tank valve, but I don't want to shut down the tank until I'm sure she has good air. I'm holding on to her arm and trying to get her to take my octopus and swim over to the line which I can see but can't get to. She doesn't at take the octo at first but then does and grabs me. I then realize we're ascending so I dump my air, and dump her air but the ascent is pretty rapid and there isn't enough time to get us slowed down enough to arrest the ascent....

After the fact: the instructor downloaded the profile and saw that we had a pretty controlled ascent from the ladder rung to about 65 feet where we really started to ascend quickly and our max ascent rate was in the neighborhood of 3 feet/sec.

There are plenty of things that could have been done differently on this dive, but I'm leaving out my own commentary for the purpose of getting everyone's opinion on what should have happened, or what could have been differently by any of the divers given the information that they had. Points to note: I didn't know for a fact that my buddy ever had a hold of me, my buddy never saw the instructor until we surfaced, the instructor didn't know that I was on my buddy's air at any point, and I didn't know we were going up until we were probably 10-15 feet from the surface and headed that way rapidly.

We are all fine and seem none the worse for wear after this incident.

Try to be nice, I think this is a good test case.

Rachel

 

[Spectre]

The bubbles from freeflow cause plenty of confusion. I would have to suggest that after you first got a regulator that was reliable to breathe off of [e.g. your buddy's octo], I would have shut down your tank to stop the freeflow. You could try turning it back on to see if the freeflow stopped, or leave it off for the time being.

That takes the massive flow of bubbles out of the mix and will lessen the confusion and potential panic. Without the bubbles all over the place, you might have noticed, or your buddy might have been able to communicate to you, that you had a hold of his inflator hose and couldn't dump air.

 

[Big-t-2538]

First, glad to hear everyone is O.K...

I agree with Spec in saying it might have been a good idea to stop the free-flow. Was that the only time during the weekend your reg acted up? Was the reg sealed or did it have an enviro kit on it for cold water? Did you do anything deep on Saturday?

As for future free-flow prevention with that reg....if there was no kit on it, might be a good idea to get one, also, try waiting until you are in the water for a minute or two before you turn on your reg, that might have helped.

 

[wreckchick]

I am absolutely in agreement that the tank should have been shut down ASAP. Problem was, I couldn't feel that my buddy had a hold of me to shut it down myself, he didn't think to do it, and the instructor wanted to but not before he was sure that I had good air.

If you noticed, I tried to signal the instructor to do it. I couldn't look my buddy in the eye and signal him because his octo hose was too short and I was stuck at a weird angle.

R

 

[Big-t-2538]

Another good reason to practice skills on a regular basis. I think the DIR guys call those S-drills, me, I call it save my arse drills when the crap hits the fan.

I need to get my brother doing those kinds of drills, Brian and I do that stuff, but I'm not sure he ever has.

 

[AggieDiver]

My only thought about what to do different is as soon as you saw the bubbles from your reg, I would suggest that you should have checked your own octo to see if it would work. I am assuming that with the freeflow probably resulting from freezing in the first stage, switching to the octo wouldn't have done alot, but it was worth checking. Also, giving the instructor the OK when things were not OK is not a good idea. Never be afraid to give the "marginal" or "so-so" signal if you are working through a problem. That way the instructor knows to keep an eye on you and it won't be as hard to get their attention.

The only other thing I would have done differently is make your buddy responsible for bouyancy and dump your air in your BC. That way you can hang on to him and keep control of your air source while he controls your ascent with air from his BC. Also, you dont have to let go of him to dump your own air and risk losing your air source.

I do have one question though...what kind of alternate air source did your buddy have? From his version of the story it sounds like maybe he had an alternate on his BC inflator hose? If so, he should have taken that and given you his primary. That way he would still have access to his inflator hose to dump air from his BC.

AggieDiver

 

[Spectre]

biscuit7 once bubbled...
If you noticed, I tried to signal the instructor to do it. I couldn't look my buddy in the eye and signal him because his octo hose was too short and I was stuck at a weird angle.

What were you doing with your left hand after you got the octo? If you switched hands and grabbed your buddy with your left hand, you would have 1) not been holding his inflator hose, and 2) would have had your right hand free to try and reach for your valve. Trying to signal 'tank shutdown' would be tough without a specified signal for that. Seeing you trying to reach up to turn it off is a better signal to get help on that.

 

[SueMermaid]

Sorry to hear about the scariness, and that your buddy had so much trouble. Your rapid, unplanned ascent could have been a real problem, and I am glad everyone is OK. You seem to have a good idea of what happened and why things might have gone differently.
Look at it this way: If you or a buddy has a similar thing happen, you will know to act and when, and what is important to think about at the time.
Look at it as another book in your own personal knowledge library.

 

[Spectre]

AggieDiver once bubbled...
I do have one question though...what kind of alternate air source did your buddy have? From his version of the story it sounds like maybe he had an alternate on his BC inflator hose?

Now there is a scary thought, and another reason not to grab your buddy with your right hand. If her buddy had an AIR2, taking his reg from his mouth and then grabbing his left strap leaves him out of air with no way of getting to his air2.

 

[wreckchick]

I signalled ok to the instructor because at that moment, everything was ok. I wasn't seeing any extra bubbles and wasn't super worried about an imminent freeflow. Turns out that wasn't so much how it played out, but in reality, the reg was fine at that time.

He had a standard 2nd stage on a 100 cm hose. With my left hand I believe I tried to signal the instructor to the valve and the reg in my mouth was getting beat around pretty good so I ended up holding it in my mouth with my left hand.

I wasn't having any problem breathing off the freeflowing reg, but I knew that I wanted the tank shut down for a variety of reasons and it makes far more sense to obtain an air source prior to shutting down your own air supply. That's why I went for his octo, but the tank shutdown never happened.

R