My first underwater emergency

[Doc Harry]

I can relate to your story of a free-flow. I had a similar experience with a free-flowing secondary reg as a novice diver.

There was no real "emergency." My buddy was close and we were ready to share air. We were moving toward the safety stop.

But the free-flowing reg was a tremendous distraction. "Sensory overload" is a great description. All the noise and bubbles made it difficult for me to think clearly and manage my ascent. Thank goodness for my buddy. And thank goodness when the tank finally went emtpy and that horrible racket ceased! Too bad my buddy didn't have a long hose - it was a real PITA to have to remain so close to her for such a long period of time.

Now I watch my "rock bottom" gas very closely, keep my buddy close at hand, and plan detailed responses for emergency situations.

"What doesn't kill you makes you stronger."

 

[TSandM]

Well, my face is red this morning. I asked Steve if there would have been value to having my buddy turn my valve off -- apparently he DID, but the tank was already empty. Goes to show you how aware I was of what was going on during the ascent, huh?

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

It was very clever of Steve to arrange that particular type of failure for a training dive ... those GUE instructors are incredibly imaginative ...

Sorry it didn't work out for you to join us for the second dive. I am concerned that Roy could not diagnose the problem.

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[Ber Rabbit]

TSandM, have you done much work with a free flowing regulator in training? Free flowed one for fun at the end of a safety stop for instance? I was just wondering if you had experience with a free flow in controlled situations or if you feel there is value in having that sort of experience. I really am glad it worked out well.
Ber :lilbunny:

 

[TSandM]

We did learn to breathe off a free-flowing reg in my initial training, but that wasn't an issue here, because I had another regulator that was functioning normally. I've not played with this since.

Roy wasn't in the shop last night -- Sandra put the reg on the bench and tested the IP.

 

[Ber Rabbit]

Not necessarily the breathing off of it but trying to do other things while dealing with the distraction.
Ber :lilbunny:

 

[LSDeep]

first of all, nice all went (relatively) good.
here a tip, to be even yourself more in control of situations like that. first, if you own your tanks convert them to Y or H valves and use the regulators with seperate 1st stages, so you can shut off the freeflow. if you dont own your tanks or travel a lot, where you use rented "standard" tanks - apeks has a nice little tool, called FCD (basically an inline shut off valve applied between your reg hose and the regulator). you can check it out @ http://www.apeks.co.uk/home_frameset.htm its one of this sites where it seems all is made in flash , so you need to go to products, regulators to find it. seems there is no way to link directly to the product.

 

[FFMDiver]

first of all, nice all went (relatively) good.
here a tip, to be even yourself more in control of situations like that. first, if you own your tanks convert them to Y or H valves and use the regulators with seperate 1st stages, so you can shut off the freeflow. if you dont own your tanks or travel a lot, where you use rented "standard" tanks - apeks has a nice little tool, called FCD (basically an inline shut off valve applied between your reg hose and the regulator). you can check it out @ http://www.apeks.co.uk/home_frameset.htm its one of this sites where it seems all is made in flash , so you need to go to products, regulators to find it. seems there is no way to link directly to the product.

Just had my first free flow too. At 45' my buddy and I were cleaning some debris around a boat. My first thought was Anger..."get this S600 fixed NOW". Went to my Xstream 2nd and began sticking my thumb & fingers inside the holes to stop it. Looked at my computer after a few seconds and saw the dreaded hour glass stop signal. I drifted up to 30' too fast. Caught myself at 20' and calmed down and made a 1-min. safety stop at 15' (we were only at depth for 3 minutes so it was a recommeded at best). My buddy was occupied and things happened in split seconds. What made me even more angry was I never thought to shut the dumb thing down on my H-valve even though I had recently practiced it! The blast in the mouth was a task overload for me, but the bubble wooshing when it wasnt in my mouth was worse. Back to practicing the shut-down. Its difficult to decide to handle things yourself right away or to just go right to your buddy. I'm sure he could have shut my valve down, but my brain was racing. Diving cold is tough and ads to task loading for sure. Glad to have the experience in a relatively shallow, safe quarry.

 

[TSandM]

Ber, thinking about playing with freeflows makes me nervous -- the only other time I've had one was bleeding a tank to do a weight check, and it probably froze. With our water in the mid 40's, I'd be worried about doing that again. Maybe I should play with this in the tropics. Desensitizing to the bubbles might not be a bad thing.

 

[Darnold9999]

It seems that the newer regs free flow alot easier than the ones I started with. Never had this happen until i bought my new regs. I am thinking about regs build 25 30 years ago. I suspect they were a lot harder to breath, but less prone to free flow - does someone know if this is true or just my incorrect perception?