Over breathing your reg

[Marivan377]

Should add one more note of caution - you say you were in 39F water temp. I don't know what regulator you are diving, but excessive breathing in cold water is one of the factors that contributes to freeze up, which usually results in free flow not OOA. Depth also contributes. So in cold, deep water your dive plan should be deliberately less stressful.

I was diving a mk20/s600. There was no ooa or freeze up. My reg never failed. My normal breathing did. I never had a free flow. When I needed to purge the water from my mouth it worked flawlessly. My respiration rate was out of control.

 

[IncreaseMyT]

People here say you can't over-breathe a reg. But I was told you could over-breathe a diaphragm reg. I actually got into a big argument here about it. I think you would have to be pretty deep, and task loading.

Thats why I use a piston reg, cause there is no chance you can over-breathe it. When I am spearfishing and shoot a big fish in 100 ft plus, I will suck down a 133 in no time. Ive seen the critically low warning on my Teric too many times lol

 

[JackD342]

I was diving a mk20/s600. There was no ooa or freeze up. My reg never failed. My normal breathing did. I never had a free flow. When I needed to purge the water from my mouth it worked flawlessly. My respiration rate was out of control.

I didn't think you had an OOA issue, I am just cautioning you about other potential issues that can snowball/cascade in a similar situation, similar environment.

 

[jgttrey]

I disagree that all problems with gear are better addressed on the surface. For some problems that could be the ONLY viable option, but for lots of other problems, trying to resolve
in place may be much better.

I don't think anyone said all problems are better addressed on the surface, but, in this case, it was clearly the right thing to do. Nor did anyone advocate bolting for the surface.

Here a diver on an NDL dive was abandoned by his buddy, is hyperventilating at 60', inhaling water and blowing through his gas. It's time to come up.

The advice was stabilize yourself and initiate a controlled ascent. 100% the right thing to do in that circumstance. It would be proper lost-buddy protocol anyway, and more importantly here he's got a potential issue with no one around to help if he can't fix it. Yes, pause and collect your wits if you can (stop, breath, think, act), but the proper "act" here is to head up.

Especially if you are a newish diver and you don't know if you have an equipment problem or not, or necessarily how to fix it, you should not be farting around at depth by yourself while in distress. One big lungful of water and it's a problem. Better to be on the way up. Even if there is some risk of losing control of the ascent, that's a better choice than drowning at 60' if it turns out that this problem is not one that he could fix.

 

[a878bob]

Makes me wonder what is a typical maximum flow rate through a second stage is, if anyone knows.

 

[JackD342]

No such thing as typical. I believe the current EU EN250 test standard for coldwater resistance is 165 feet, 725psi, 63.3 liters/minute. That tests for cold water performance, and also measures the Work Of Breathing (joules per liter) cited by most manufacturers.

 

[happy-diver]

Yeah really scary stuff that thing overbreathing yourself, and not being able to take a break

Congratulations Marivan377 you've become a bona fide member of the heart exploding
lungs screaming, sphincter sphincting club, and you scored yourself a ticket to this place

from simply being out of breath

A great call the surface, and something to promote diving with out a compulsory stop
because in the seconds you realise it has taken you, there aren't many more seconds
before the gasping and gulping and spinning unconsciousness and then death follow

as most replies suggest, divers have difficulty grasping what has actually occurred
and your decision shows that you realised the problem and acted correctly quickly

sometimes when the water has you in its grasp, the possibility of stopping is slight
in current there is none

No doubt your gasping body aided in your airway control during ascent
despite what you were taught, or what you forgot, that your body didn't

Pretty simple huh!


The buddyscism is no system at all

 

[doctormike]

I disagree that all problems with gear are better addressed on the surface.

Yeah, I disagree with that too. That's why I didn't say that.

 

[johndiver999]

sorry maybe I took it out of context or misinterpreted what you meant? "Whatever problem there is with the gear, it's better dealt with on the roof."

 

[doctormike]

sorry maybe I took it out of context or misinterpreted what you meant?

Bingo.

"That having been said, if any new diver finds themselves alone with a significant gas delivery problem and no alternate gas supply, I wouldn't blame them at all for just surfacing. Whatever problem there is with the gear, it's better dealt with on the roof. A borderline panicked new diver alone in the ocean at depth is a bad situation."

I don't think that it makes sense to imply that an inexperienced, panicked, unintentionally solo diver with a gas delivery problem at depth needs to deal with the problem underwater. I think that's a recipe for disaster. Events spiral out of control in seconds. Why would we tell a new diver who is in that situation that they need to fix the problem at depth? Why would we even put the idea in their head that ascending to the surface is something to be avoided?

In the paragraph before this one, I pointed out that pretty much everyone said that the first thing to do when hyperventilating is to take a vent. No argument there, and no one was saying that at the first sign of trouble they should make an uncontrolled dash to the surface.

There is a reason why in Mod 1 CCR training they tell you to just bail out if you aren't sure what the problem is, but you know there is a problem. Sure, many things can be fixed while staying on the loop. The more experience you have, the more likely you are to be able to do that. But no one should be shamed for that choice, especially if they are on the verge of panic.

Same concept in this situation.