I will give my most recent encounter with this problem
First, I bungee my short hose around my neck (I dive doubles BTW). Normally I bungee the long hose to the right tank (as you wear them), older style cave technique. Now, after a bunch of people prodded me, I decided to try the DIR style- around the shears/can, around the neck. Well, this style has its benefits, but, as I had worried it has its drawbacks. But, I tried it on various dives before, it seemed to work. Last week, I went in with the anchor to hook the U-352. Now, I am not positive of what happened, whether the anchor caught the hose or the safety chain or what, but....after hearing "GO!", I plunged in, my next breath was seawater. While spitting and wondering what had happened(total failure of reg, tank, etc) I switched to my back up. Now, I used my left hand to do this (still clinging to the anchor with my right). I happened to notice my computer reading 70 fsw. I took a second to look up, saw no excessive bubbles, so I shut the right post and proceeded on my happy little way to the stern where I hooked in. Once done with that, I turned back on my right post, looked for bubbles, tested it, filled the bag we put on the line, and reailised that just the mouthpiece had seperated. I practice a lot of things, especially swapping regs, so my reaction was natural, though I freely admit, not the least unnerving experience I have ever had. My thoughts did include heading for the surface, though only for a fleeting moment. Now, before anyone says- you should check your gear, EVERY time I am about to go in, I do a thorough check including zipties. The best I can figure is that the anchor pulled down and jerked the long hose just right, and I was biting hard enough that the mouthpiece seperated instead of just being pulled out. Vis had been hovering in the 20ft range, so I was a bit stressed that I might not spot the wreck. Luckily, I made it throught the dive, reacted the way I should, and the story had a happy (aside from the fact it was the U-352) dive. Now, watching the video, I personally feel that it wasn't so much a lack of experience (technically that was an experience, and honestly, it wouldn't teach too much without someone else's input). I feel it was a lack of knowledge- the diver had no alternate airsource, and I doubt the diver had ever seen things like bungeed backups, let alone tried one. The diver did the basic training from OW- sorta- go for the buddy. OW also doesn't get into trying your octo- in many cases this would waste precious time (say the first stage flooded). In the video, it looks like the outcome is ok, not great, but no casualties. I truely doubt that she realized it was the mouthpiece, or anything besides the fact she was trying to breath seawater. And she did the thing they don't talk about in OW- or usually even until tech, an OOG diver will go for your reg-it works, its visible, etc. Sorry this is so long, but, as a working DM, I have seen a lot of this stuff on the boat- OOG, equipment problems, in adequate planning, and my fave- beeping computers from missed stops- how hard is it to say in OW if your computer gives you a stop- DO THE STOP!!! And plan better next time so you don't go into deco. Hopefully, the diver in the vid reads a forum like this, and learns different ways out of the situation, and is able to continue to enjoy diving.
-J
