Pool session gone awry...

[AmyinWV]

Just a quick message, not sure if it has been mentioned yet, as I did not have time to read all the pages of replies. Just advice from my experiance.

1) You should have given him your primary and you should have used the octo, as it usually has a shorter hose.

2) Whenever you put any regulator (primary or octo) in your mouth, that was in the open water, place it against your lips and give the purge a good long press, flood your mouth with air before taking that breath. This will clear it and prevent a breath full of water.

And just so he knows, his reaction was normal (not good when diving but normal), even for someone with years of experiance, air starvation makes our bodies react, often without any control. It was a human reaction, not just that of an inexperianced diver.

I wish many safe dives to you both, it has been a great togetherness sport for my husband and myself.

Amy

 

[BobRussell]

This incident reinforces the value of confined water sessions prior to diving in open water. The most important thing is to LEARN from the problem. Taking in a bit of water can be a stressor. I always get my students to practice "coughing" through the reg very early in the pool session to convince them that it is easy to solve the "little water" problem while underwater. Cough away, then use the purge button.

 

[Sideband]

Just a quick message, not sure if it has been mentioned yet, as I did not have time to read all the pages of replies. Just advice from my experiance.

1) You should have given him your primary and you should have used the octo, as it usually has a shorter hose.

Only if you are diving with a long primary or DIR style. In a basic scuba class they are going to have hoses of equal length or the octo will be a bit longer.

2) Whenever you put any regulator (primary or octo) in your mouth, that was in the open water, place it against your lips and give the purge a good long press, flood your mouth with air before taking that breath. This will clear it and prevent a breath full of water.
Amy

Again, I'm going to disagree. It takes very little air to purge the reg. and a long blast is not necessary. It might even cause water to get around your tongue and enter your throat and cause choking. Place the reg in your mouth and give a small purge with your tongue up to block water, breath in slowly and purge a little again or exhale hard if there was still a small bit of water in there.

This was how I was taught.

Joe