Lesson Learned & MANY THANKS to my Instructor!!

[Charlie99]

you did fineand the 30 feet per min acent rate is still fairley new in the industry in the grand scheme of things

Agreed. A lot of people don't seem to understand how slowly risk changes with bottom time and ascent rates. USN tables allowed 30 minutes at 90', followed by a 60 foot per minute ascent directly to the surface.

The only critique/suggestion I have is to slow the ascent around 25', check gas supply, and come to a halt for a while in the 15' region if possible.

Having too rapid of an ascent is nowhere near as bad as what other divers have done ---- screw around on the bottom, and then run out of air on the way up.

 

[Bull74]

Thanks for all the input, I am glad it happened in the beginning of my diving experience. I really learned alot and realized I need to always keep on my toes. It is amazing that even when my head cleared from the narc I still could only think about getting to the surface. However I am addicted to diving......

 

[cummings66]

The weird thing about being narc'd is that many things combine to do that. You may have over exerted yourself which makes it easier to get narc'd, breathed to shallow etc. Just on a wild guess I'd say you might have been slightly narc'd and once you had the air problem you changed your breathing pattern which then narc'd you pretty heavily. Then you knew you wanted up and once that mindset takes hold your course is set.

I'm guessing you learned a lot from this and that's the goal. Because you're talking about doing math problems I'm going to assume this was your AOW course dive? How did it go?

 

[Doc Intrepid]

Bull,

You responded okay. Lessons learned are a huge part of the entire show. If every dive went perfectly you'd never learn anything, huh?

Coupla observations, some alreadly made previously;

- if your reg freeflows you can breath over it. Practice breathing through a regulator while holding in the purge button for 5 minutes or so on your next practice dive.

- you can take the reg out of your own mouth (while blowing the tiny stream of bubbles, etc.) and shake it yourself to stop the freeflow. Or block it with the palm of your hand, etc. You don't necessarily need to complicate the issue with the whole "sharing-air" routine... (put a secondary second stage around your neck on a bungee - it's pretty handy there...)

- an 80 with a free-flow may still have quite a bit of gas left in it. Certainly plenty to make a controlled ascent from 90'...(recognizing that it's your first time and all, still, check your SPG and slowly ascend with your buddy. No need to bolt.)

- Calming down and breathing slowly will help tremendously, and that will come with experience. That said, there are cold water regulators out there that offer significantly higher resistance to freezing. Do yourself a favor and look into them.

Hope you enjoyed the class, and don't be in a huge hurry to go real deep. (Trust me, in Puget Sound there isn't anything down deep that doesn't exist higher up the walls! )

Dive safe,

Doc

 

[regul8r]

I would wonder what kind of regulators they were using that freeflowed at 90ft so easy and they couldn't stop it.
But thats me....
Course the important thing is that everyone is fine.. the instructor kept his cool and managed to get both of them out of what could have been a very bad situation okay.
Diver freakin out can cause all kinds of problems ...

 

[TSandM]

Bull,

I was at about 100 dives when I had my first freeflow, and I vividly remember how disconcerting and anxiety-provoking the enormous noise and visual distraction of the bubbles were. I was with an instructor, and after both of us tried to stop the freeflow, he put me on his long hose and we ascended, and I also recall that ascent not being the most graceful or controlled one I've ever done I honestly shudder at the thought of that happening during my AOW class.

The moral of the story, though, is along the lines of what Doc Intrepid wrote. Practice breathing off a free-flowing regulator; practice putting yourself on your own octo, and practice air-sharing with your buddies, and air-sharing ascents. Things can and do go wrong underwater, and honing your emergency procedures skills is always a good thing.