Out of air incident

[lermontov]

If they can't handle 6m/20ft and problems with a wing, then it's probably better that they don't dive in the nasty real world where you can't blame someone.

If the instructor does this, he should probably warn in advance that he plans to do such things in the briefing.

Its a big call for an instructor to make a psychological assessment ( an area that they are not trained in ) that this person wont panic if i do this - ive seen very experienced divers stress out over things that they "should" be able to manage. Id say if your going to give them ( a beginner) a stress test or equipment malfunction test then It needs a build up and that often involves warning people in advance, then one can have some feel for their ability to deal with the next level of stress test.
Having said that an instructor with many years of training is likely to be able too gauge that better then an freshly minted instructor

 

[cerich]

Its off topic and does not help the original poster. And actually quite the opposite as it distracts from the main line. If you want to discuss the way different agencies teach the skills you can just open a separate topic. My post was talking about how pre-dive checks should not be compromised by “saving” pennies on the gas which is in line with what we were discussing here.
You keep pushing it to deviation from standards for some reasons. Thats a great topic but not relevant to the topic of discussion.

On that, you need to read the OP's post again, she did breath on regs, your assertion doesn't well match narrative.

My take us she took too shallow of breaths to establish the problem.

 

[Hassan P]

it takes a lot of courage to admit this. Thank you for sharing your incident! I assume you were training with Brian Kakuk?

 

[Stoo]

As an aside, you aren't ready for cave diving, in my humble opinion.

 

[306dive306]

As an aside, you aren't ready for cave diving, in my humble opinion.

why do you think she is not ready for cave diving? I'm not trying to be antagonistic; just trying to understand your thought process.

 

[306dive306]

it takes a lot of courage to admit this. Thank you for sharing your incident! I assume you were training with Brian Kakuk?

YES!!! It does take a lot of courage to comment on one's own flaws and mistakes publicly. KUDOS to the OP for doing so.

We're all humans and we all slip into normalization of deviance. I never had the problem she had but I just learned from her experience.

THANK YOU for posting your experience!!

 

[Marie13]

I keep the OP’s incident in mind. When I was diving in cave country last week, we were making our way out of Devil’s at Ginnie, when my left reg (breathing off it at the time) started leaking a lot. Thought it was a free flow. Turned out to be the 90 degree adapter had come a bit loose upon later investigation. There was no panic. I switched immediately to right reg and shut the left tank down. Had plenty of gas in right tank. Went on our merry way to the exit.

 

[Marie13]

why do you think she is not ready for cave diving? I'm not trying to be antagonistic; just trying to understand your thought process.

She panicked over what should have been a simple immediate switch to the other reg.

 

[Stoo]

why do you think she is not ready for cave diving? I'm not trying to be antagonistic; just trying to understand your thought process.

"…seriously panicked and thinking I’m going to die in the cave today"

That doesn't strike me as the mindset of a cavediver...

 

[lermontov]

"…seriously panicked and thinking I’m going to die in the cave today"

That doesn't strike me as the mindset of a cavediver...

the OP doesnt say but im wondering if sidemount diving is a new discipline for her and doesnt yet have the ingrained muscle memory -reg switching should be an action that is automatic, if it that is the case a bad experience like this is a teaching lesson she'll not forget, Ive no doubt shell go away reassess and come back better prepared. If however she is an experienced sidemount diver then Id tend to agree with you