Having less than 20 dives myself, your report has given me several new things to think about, scenarios to run through my head, and stuff to practice in the pool. In my OW we weren't taught to shutdown a tank to stop a freeflow, but instead to take the regulator out of our mouth and bang on it a few times. Is the tank shutdown method the best/quickest way? Having had a free flowing reg on my first OW dive I can certainly attest to the noise and loss of visibility it causes. During a freeflow is the air rushing out of the tank so fast that a diver should be rushing to resolve the problem or surface, or would it be appropriate to slow down and take ones time to solve the problem? If I need to rush I want to practice it that way, and if not I want to practice staying calm, thinking clearly, and taking slow well thought out actions. Has anyone with an air integrated computer have a typical range of psi/minute for freeflow?
Incident Report (long)
- Thread starter wreckchick
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WJL
Contributor
A longer hose on the reg your buddy donated might have made it easier to control the situation. Then you could have kept a little more separation and maybe seen him better. It might also have made it easier for both of you to deal with the air in your bc's. This is why a 7 foot hose on the primary is recommended even for open water diving.
MASS-Diver
Contributor
That's a nice time to have a buddy with a long hose that you can just grab and he can go to his back up (under his chin). Ideally, the instructor should have let you two continue sharing air and made sure you ascended properly.
Once the situation is stable, like everyone has said, shut down the tank - if you can't reach it try anways and someone will firgure it out and turn it off for you. Then ascend, there is no reason to hurry to the surface, if fact, even if the vis is low you might want to hang out near the bottom for a couple of minutes and let everyone calm down and get comfortable for the ascent.
Glad you're OK, that's a pretty close call.
Once the situation is stable, like everyone has said, shut down the tank - if you can't reach it try anways and someone will firgure it out and turn it off for you. Then ascend, there is no reason to hurry to the surface, if fact, even if the vis is low you might want to hang out near the bottom for a couple of minutes and let everyone calm down and get comfortable for the ascent.
Glad you're OK, that's a pretty close call.
Glad you're OK, Rachel.
Perhaps you guys should practice air sharing more often. Ever since I had my close call getting dragged up from 85 feet, I try to practice air sharing.. at safety stops, at depth, whatever. I think that next time it happens, the stress level will be way lower since my buddy and I will know exactly what's going on and is going to happen.
edit: One other thing. Perhaps you should have taken the time and gotten things settled completely at depth before you started to complicate things by ascending. Get a good air supply, shut down the freeflow, get situated, get calm, then ascend.
Perhaps you guys should practice air sharing more often. Ever since I had my close call getting dragged up from 85 feet, I try to practice air sharing.. at safety stops, at depth, whatever. I think that next time it happens, the stress level will be way lower since my buddy and I will know exactly what's going on and is going to happen.
edit: One other thing. Perhaps you should have taken the time and gotten things settled completely at depth before you started to complicate things by ascending. Get a good air supply, shut down the freeflow, get situated, get calm, then ascend.
norcaldiver
Guest
Spooky and glad everything is ok with you and your buddy.
Hindsight is 20/20, but here's an idea...
on the freeflow you could have done the head tilt, taken a breath and then hold the reg at arms length either to the side or above you. This gets the bubbles out of your face AND creates one heck of a sign that there is a problem for the inst/buddy. Exhale slowly, then take another drag off the freeflowing reg, then get it back out away from you. You still have one hand to grab your buddy, grab you own octo, control your bouyancy and do a safe accent.
Either way, get that reg out away from you and your buddy, so BOTH of you can see each others eyes-it helps curb panic before it starts.
Hindsight is 20/20, but here's an idea...
on the freeflow you could have done the head tilt, taken a breath and then hold the reg at arms length either to the side or above you. This gets the bubbles out of your face AND creates one heck of a sign that there is a problem for the inst/buddy. Exhale slowly, then take another drag off the freeflowing reg, then get it back out away from you. You still have one hand to grab your buddy, grab you own octo, control your bouyancy and do a safe accent.
Either way, get that reg out away from you and your buddy, so BOTH of you can see each others eyes-it helps curb panic before it starts.
OP
I left out my editorial comments and tried to present facts only to see what you all thought before I gave my interpretation. What you've said has been exactly what I was thinking so I'm glad we're on the same page.
1st things first: the reg "should" have been fine, there has never been an incident with that regulator without a cold water kit from the shop where I bought it and had it serviced. The reg is there currently and there's a call into Mares to see if there's something wrong with it. Before I take it back out, if I take back out, it will have a cold-water kit and a longer octo hose put on it. I don't trust it at all right now so I'm not sure I want to use it again. On Saturday we didn't do anything deep, but in the cold water by the tubes it was crackling a little.
2nd: if I had it to over again, I probably would call the dive at the FIRST SIGN OF TROUBLE, and that was on the platform at 60'.
3rd: I wasn't taught shutdown in my OW class, I acquired that nugget from reading this board.
4th: For anyone going through OW now, or who hasn't thought a situation like this through, I think the best thing would have been to stay on the rung of the ladder until either the tank was shut off or the air supply in my tank was exhausted. Starting an ascent in that confusion compounded the problem much further than it had to. I had 7 divers with air and a pony bottle within 15 feet of me when the freeflow started and any one of those 7 other divers could have donated to me, or worst case me and my buddy. If it had been just the 2 of us, I still think we could have handled the problem on the bottom if my buddy had had a longer hose so we could get some seperation and see what was happening. The rapid ascent was the most dangerous part of this, not the freeflow.
R
1st things first: the reg "should" have been fine, there has never been an incident with that regulator without a cold water kit from the shop where I bought it and had it serviced. The reg is there currently and there's a call into Mares to see if there's something wrong with it. Before I take it back out, if I take back out, it will have a cold-water kit and a longer octo hose put on it. I don't trust it at all right now so I'm not sure I want to use it again. On Saturday we didn't do anything deep, but in the cold water by the tubes it was crackling a little.
2nd: if I had it to over again, I probably would call the dive at the FIRST SIGN OF TROUBLE, and that was on the platform at 60'.
3rd: I wasn't taught shutdown in my OW class, I acquired that nugget from reading this board.
4th: For anyone going through OW now, or who hasn't thought a situation like this through, I think the best thing would have been to stay on the rung of the ladder until either the tank was shut off or the air supply in my tank was exhausted. Starting an ascent in that confusion compounded the problem much further than it had to. I had 7 divers with air and a pony bottle within 15 feet of me when the freeflow started and any one of those 7 other divers could have donated to me, or worst case me and my buddy. If it had been just the 2 of us, I still think we could have handled the problem on the bottom if my buddy had had a longer hose so we could get some seperation and see what was happening. The rapid ascent was the most dangerous part of this, not the freeflow.
R
A very valid point, but I beleive that the rapid ascent might be (at least a little) related to the lack of viz and confusion that was present...which is caused by the free-flow
Spectre
Contributor
As well as the fact that as the air dumps out of your tank, your bouyancy increases. Combine that with the confusion; good luck keeping a controlled ascent.
OP
Big T:
The rapid ascent was very much caused by the confusion. The point I was making is that if we had stuck on the crossbar, instead of heading up the line and waited for the bubble confusion to end, the ascent would have been controlled. At the rate I was losing air it wouldn't have been more than a minute or 2 even if the tank was never shut down. The buoyancy problem of starting up without securing the means to vent air on BOTH of us is what caused the rapid ascent. If we had stuck on the bottom and let the air go we would have had a clear view and been able to control our buoyancy up the line and even done a safety stop for how ever much time we could, air permitting.
The freeflow caused the confusion, ascending prematurely caused the rapid ascent.
R
The rapid ascent was very much caused by the confusion. The point I was making is that if we had stuck on the crossbar, instead of heading up the line and waited for the bubble confusion to end, the ascent would have been controlled. At the rate I was losing air it wouldn't have been more than a minute or 2 even if the tank was never shut down. The buoyancy problem of starting up without securing the means to vent air on BOTH of us is what caused the rapid ascent. If we had stuck on the bottom and let the air go we would have had a clear view and been able to control our buoyancy up the line and even done a safety stop for how ever much time we could, air permitting.
The freeflow caused the confusion, ascending prematurely caused the rapid ascent.
R
WJL
Contributor
Practice, practice, practice...
I'm sure you already can see this, but regular repetition of standard drills helps prepare you to deal with situations like this. As your buddy found out, dealing with a lost mask while dealing with a free flowing reg while trying to control the air in your bc can get you close to panic in a hurry.
It helps to regularly practice things like air sharing, and then no-mask air sharing, while maintaining neutral buoyancy. Then when a real incident like yours happens, your training can help you get through it with a minimum of fuss and bother.
I'm sure you already can see this, but regular repetition of standard drills helps prepare you to deal with situations like this. As your buddy found out, dealing with a lost mask while dealing with a free flowing reg while trying to control the air in your bc can get you close to panic in a hurry.
It helps to regularly practice things like air sharing, and then no-mask air sharing, while maintaining neutral buoyancy. Then when a real incident like yours happens, your training can help you get through it with a minimum of fuss and bother.
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