Octopus free-flow at depth

[Hintermann]

My only serious incident thus far happened in Maldives in March 2008. We were diving off a thila with very strong currents and so a negative buoyancy entry was the norm. I had just followed Werner, my German buddy, into the water when I noticed that the local dive guide, also in the water with us, was gesticulating to me. He then swam up to me and pointed to my Apeks XTX 40 Octopus, which appeared to have a slight leak. He fiddled with the + & - lever and the leak appeared to stop and we continued the dive, Werner ahead and down-current of me.

About 30 minutes into the dive and at 23 metres (about 75 feet) depth, I routinely checked my pressure gauge and found that I had 60 bar left. Being used to my own air consumption, I was expecting over 100 bar and the low reading surprised me. Recalling the earlier problem with the octopus, I looked at it and was upset to find that the slow leak was back. But because the head of the octopus was near my groin in my horizontal dive position, the bubbles had been escaping between my thighs, until then unnoticed by me or Werner in front.

Thinking that it was a minor problem I tapped the octopus head sharply, hoping to close the leak. Next instant I was immersed in a full fledged fleeflow that would not stop whatever I did. Out of the corner of my eye I noticed that Werner had seen what was happening, but he was not able to turn around and fight his way up current towards me to help. Meanwhile, my SPG was visibly widing down fast.

Knowing that I had to help myself and fast, I began a steady ascent from 75 feet, rising with the current to minimise my breathing effort. When I reached 5 metres (16 feet), the SPG was nearly empty but I could still breathe. I levelled off and did a 'drifting safety stop', fully prepared to shoot up to the surface if my air ran out within the 3 minutes. But just over a minute later, I felt a tug on my shoulder and looked around to see the guide, who was up-current behind me, seen what happened and followed me, push his own octopus towards my face. I took it and the situation immediately reverted to 'normal' - but it could have been worse.

I have had the entire regulator serviced since then and done 60 odd more dives with the same octopus without any problem.

 

[DA Aquamaster]

Hitting the a reg to get it to stop freeflowing is a common reaction, but as you noted, it does not really do anything and runs the risk of creating a larger problem. If it is in full fledged freeflow and you have nothing to lose, it makes sense, other wise it's a bad idea.

My thoughts (meant as constructive critcism in what is a sport that rewards continuous improvement) are:

1. A good pre-dive check including a vaccuum check, breathing off the reg and a leak check would have probably detected the slight leak on the boat where it could have been fixed properly before getting in the water.

2. Once in the water, good technique includes a leak check with your buddy on the surface or in current on the way down. That is basically what the local dive guide did for you, but you and your buddy should have done it for each other as a normal part of the start of the dive. Just a brief bubble check and once over with an "Ok" signal is all it takes.

3. A diver with good situational awareness would have detected the freeflow very early in the dive, especially if it was enough to dump 40 bar during the dive. However you get kudos though for checking the SPG and noting that you had less than expected based on your SAC and the depth/time of the time.

4. The octo location was problematic as it made the bubbles harder to visually detect, but you should have still heard the bubbles escaping. Listening now and then during the pause between breaths (after allowing a few seconds for your exhaled bubbles to separate from you) will usually let you hear even a very small freeflow of gas.

5. Also consider how the location of the octo may impede an air share and consider moving it to a more functional location.

6. Your statement "knowing I had to help myself and fast" represents a clear error, a failure to properly assess the problem and a failure to recognize and efficiently utilize the available resources.

A. Your buddy was aware of the problem but could not get up current to you. However the other side of that coin is that you were up current of him and could have very quickly drifted/swam down current to him. That would have put you in contact with adequate gas much faster than an ascent to the surface. Your choice to begin a 75' ascent on your own when you were not sure you had the gas for a safety stop was a poor one. You separated yourself from your redundant gas supply (carried on your buddy's back) when your buddy was aware of the problem and willing to help. What you did should be reserved as an action of last resort when no one else is around.

B. You also left your buddy alone placing him at greater risk as well as yourself.

7. You also obligated the guide to come after you and separated him away from the rest of the group. That placed the group as a whole at risk and also failed to utilze the multiple resources that were available within the team that could have been brought to bear on the problem.

8. Even with a full blown freeflow and no buddy in sight, being able to manipulate your own valve(s) will let you manage the situation for a safe ascent and safety stop with minimal gas loss by cracking the valve breifely for each inhale. Ideally you should be able to reach the valve with the tank still back mounted.

9. The immediate response to any problem should be stop, breathe, think - then act rather than react to the problem.

10. All of the above should be covered and then drilled into students in OW training but most of it is not in probably 90% of the OW classes out there as the classes taught are taught to at best create a diver who is DM dependent. It's an important limitaion to be aware of. And if you plan to stay in the sport and you plan to dive with any frequency, work on improving your skills and problem solving abilities as it will make you much more self sufficient and much safer in the water.

 

[Rick Inman]

What DA said.

Works out good to develop automatic buddy awareness, where you know where they are at all times and keep them in a position where you know you can get to them quickly any time. It's a bummer to need them and THEN come to the conclusion that you can't get to them. Although, it sounds like in this situation you easily could have.

Thanks for sharing this so we can all learn!

 

[openmindOW]

Hintermann, thank you for your post.

By posting on ScubaBoard, you are contributng to this forum and helping other divers to learn. Thank you.

You handled yourself well. Ignore the armchair quarterbacking that you might see here. Some of our members get to prove their manhood by criticizing.

Keep diving, Hintermann.

 

[DA Aquamaster]

I suppose I could have read the original post with a suitable sense of drama and then applauded the diver for his escape from a "dangerous" situation, but the fact is a freeflowing octo is a pretty commonly encountered failure - one that I will argue most divers will experience in their careers.

From that perspective, my intent in posting my response is two fold.

1. Potentially hundreds of divers will read this thread. I would hate for a relatively new diver to read the original post, and then from the successful ending, conclude that it was a good response and file it away for future use in their own emergency. They may not be as lucky in getting away with what was a poor response to the overall situtaion.

In general, open water divers have the option of bailing out to the surface and in fact one maintaining that capability during the is one of the requirements of the certification. But that does not mean a conditioned response of resolving a problem by bolting to the surface is a good one. There are almost always better options, and in my experience a diver who defaults to a response of immediately going to the surface to resolve a problem is not all in all a very safe diver.

2. I'd hate to have the OP consider his reponse and the events that led up to it as being a "success". The fact of the matter is that it could have been prevented and could have been handled better with less risk to all involved. The important thing here is not massaging someone's ego or or improving someones self esteem, but rather ensuring learning occurs from the event.

-----

Failure is one of the most effective teaching tools and there is no reason to back away from a failure, be ashamed of it or hesitate to talk about it in an upfront manner. I have made my fair share of mistakes and have had my fair share of failures over 25 years of diving and to be honest I wished I would have had the same access to constructive feedback then as new OW divers have now. I suppose I could be elitist and choose not to sahre wehat I have learned from similar mistakes, but that would benefit no one. Everyone started with a frst dive, knowing virtually nothing about diving and we all, no matter how long we have been diving, still have much that we can learn. Learning it is a whole lot easier if we communicate.

It is not fair, accurate, or constructive to call such a process "arm chair quarter backing" especially when it is a situation many divers, including myself, have been in before. I will admit I do apporach it from a bit different perspective as my responses are those of a cave diver where the same event if it occurred a half mile back in a cave at twice the depth is very much an situation that requires proper action on your part and proper utilization of personal and team resources to survive. Even in that far more demanding environment, such an emergency when properly handled by a properly trained and configured diver, is not really even an emergency - it's just an equipment failure that you handle in the course of aborting the dive.

Now it is fair to say the OP is not cave diving and that level of response is not needed to survive in OW, but that level of knowledge and response is a good goal to strive for as if it works easily and effectively to prevent or handle emergencies in extreme environments, it will add a great deal of safety, confidence and professionalism in less demanding environments.

I agree the OP did handle himself well in terms of not blindly panicking and swimming madly to the surface and that is an accomplishment at that level of training, especially in comparision to many of the less than well trained OW divers that are out there. But handling the event well extends beyond the actual event to what the diver does afterward to consider the event, how it could have been prevented, how it could have been handled better, how it can be prevented in the future, and if need be, handled better in the future. A similar process of continual self assessment looking at what went well and what did not during the dive is something every diver should be doing after each and every dive.

 

[Rick Inman]

Ignore the armchair quarterbacking that you might see here.

You should try being openminded.

 

[Hintermann]

Thanks everyone. I posted this incident in greater detail on the Sports Diver magazine at the time. There are a few clarifications based on what DA said:

That original slow leak seems a one off. It certainly was not there before and I have not seen it since. Werner and I did a full pre-dive check as always. When they serviced it, they could not find anything wrong with the mechanism and so I have no idea how this happened.

The position of my octopus was fine. It is always easily reachable by my buddy and my wife (who buddies me occasionally) and I have often practiced on each other. But in the ordinary horizontal swimming position the mouthpiece of the octopus was so positioned that the escaping bubbles were going between my legs. Werner and I were the last pair in the group and there was no one except the guide (who was really off to one side) behind me. Werner later told me that he assumed that the bubbles that he could see were my normal exhalation. Also, he was not looking for any problems.

The leak for fairly small before the freeflow. I do not know at what stage it re-started during the dive but I check my SPG regularly and upto 5 minutes earlier everything seemed normal as far as I could tell. I certainly heard nothing.

I am sorry DA, but I disagree with you on your staement that I made a "clear error". I was surrounded in bubbles and in the rapid current was not certain that I could aim for Werner's position where he was, surrounded by coral and rocks. In his defence, he came after me as I ascended so neither of us left the other 'alone'. It was just that the guide, who was up-current of me, got to me first.

You also obligated the guide to come after you and separated him away from the rest of the group. That placed the group as a whole at risk and also failed to utilze the multiple resources that were available within the team that could have been brought to bear on the problem

This makes no sense to me. There were 4 buddy pairs of experienced divers out and the guide had said that he was merely there to lend a hand if there was a problem. There was a problem and he lent a hand. I cannot see what else he could have done under the circumstances; I have seen other divers get into problems and the guide always goes to help, assuming that other divers will notice and go into a safe mode. I did not signal for help and so cannot see how I can be "obligated" for his actions.

I was on a single tank and most definitely could not reach behind me for the valve.

 

[Rick Inman]

That original slow leak seems a one off...

The position of my octopus was fine...

The leak for fairly small before the freeflow...

I am sorry DA, but I disagree with you on your staement that I made a "clear error"...

This makes no sense to me...

I was on a single tank and most definitely could not reach behind me for the valve...

Is there ANYTHING you would change or do differently???

 

[DA Aquamaster]

Is there ANYTHING you would change or do differently???

That's an important question. A "No" answer to it would be a good reason to step back and consider taking up something more long the lines of knitting.

I normally encounter things I'd change or do differently every now and then even without dives that don't have "problems".

 

[Bubbletrubble]

@Hintermann:
Thanks for sharing your story. We can all learn from it.

Along the lines of what Rick asked...
Would you consider diving closer to your buddy next time?

Warm water and good visibility can tempt a diver into buddy separation. I have to admit that I've been guilty of this, especially on my first warm water vacation. I've come to the realization that if I'm buddy diving, I really shouldn't be any farther from my buddy than I can comfortably swim after fully exhaling. What might happen if my buddy has a problem with his air source and he is down-current from me...without any way to get my attention?

I realize that many single tank recreational divers cannot operate their tank valves. One technique you might try is to use your left hand to reach down and behind you to help push up the entire tank while reaching for the tank valve with your right hand. On your next dive, see if you have the flexibility to do this. It's a nice thing to be able to do.

Take care and thanks once again for sharing your story...