My first underwater emergency

[Cacia]

most of the dives are not too deep there. the deepest point of the Rhone is 75 ft or so and it sits on a slope. Read the history of this wreck! You all will have a blast. The Baths is another world class phot op. Huge boulders, you all probably saw it last time. I thought it was a beautiful spot for splits, BTW. have fun!

 

[Willie]

A free-flowing reg should allow you to swim upwards for at least two minutes while you're still breathing off it, so it might not (depending on other factors) require that you assume horrendous unnecessary risk.

I had a freeflowing secondary on one of my dives. I just stuck it in my mouth, tucked my primary in my pocket and finished the dive. It breathed fine as long as it was in my mouth. This was a shallow, good vis dive with a good buddy. I would not have stayed at 80' with it that way.

Willie

 

[California Diver]

ive had a similiar issue with my backup reg. we were doing a 150 ft deco dive. we were desending down the canyon slope at about 90 ft whenmy reg started freeflowing. i shut down the left post and immediately thumbed the dive, i fixed the reg at my car and we did the dive a couple hours later.

 

[Mike Newman]

As I intellectually knew, a freeflow empties a tank FAST.

Scary isn't it how quickly a reg freeflow does exhaust air. It's great to see folk share this sort of experience. We all learn from the event.

Your notion of regular training is one that my buddy and I have fixed on after an embarrassingly poor performance on a low air not long ago.

All tribute to you and your buddies on the day. Dive safe!

 

[mikerault]

Crimp it one hand, breath, head for the surface in a controlled manner. I would rather replace a hose then risk my life.

 

[Cacia]

I asked once about the crimp thing....does that work? That hose is pretty rigid. too bad there is not some big strong alligator clamp that could work....

 

[Diver0001]

From what I've heard it doesn't work very well. The pressure in the IP line is still 140-150psi. That's a lot of pressure to hold back by squeezing it shut. Not to mention having to do everything with one hand more or less tied up after that.....

R..

 

[JohnL]

From what I've heard it doesn't work very well. The pressure in the IP line is still 140-150psi. That's a lot of pressure to hold back by squeezing it shut. Not to mention having to do everything with one hand more or less tied up after that.....

R..

Potentially more than that if the reg is freeflowing. If it is a first stage issue a higher IP would be causing the freeflow. Crimping the hose will only get the other reg freeflowing.

My first post on this thread...but I wanted to say good going Lynne. Glad to see that training pays off. It was a great reminder to me to start practicing emergency drills again (slacked off when it got cold). I may also have to give the long hose a chance now that I can no longer tell myself that this NEVER happens.

 

[Peter Guy]

I had a long talk with our local service rep. He checked out the regs upside down and sideways and couldn't find anything wrong. It is his working hypothesis that the first stage iced as a result of having both regs being breathed and then the one reg (2ndary) being allowed to "go positive" and free flow for a few seconds finishing the icing "on the cake."

Now what?

 

[gcbryan]

Don't do OOA drills so often