Pride is destroyed but walked away with no injuries...

[spectrum]

Empty lung regulator recovery is a shamefully under taught skill, many divers never even consider the scenario. In OW training you get to take your time, get in your happy place and the do your diver trick to get a hand clap. The good news is that you can practice it in shallow water anywhere and then be prepared. The purge function really does work but you need to learn to trust it.

Lacking that skill no number of working regulators will bail you out.

Good job not letting this go to full panic but there are plenty of lessons to take away.

Pete

 

[antattack]

Learning has been achieved. Thank you very much for sharing your experience. This is one of those cases where it is best to learn from someone elses experience

Do a few more dives to build up your pride, skills and experience. Your ability to confront, share and learn from a challenging experience tells me that you are on the road to becoming an accomplished diver.


Dive safe!

 

[DandyDon]

Empty lung regulator recovery is a shamefully under taught skill. many divers never even consider the scenario. In OW training you get to take your time, get in your happy place and the do your diver trick to get a hand clap. The good new is that you can practice it in shallow water anywhere and then be prepared. The purge function really does work but you need to learn to trust it.

Lacking that skill no number of working regulators will bail you out.

Good job not letting this go to full panic but there are plenty of lessons to take away.

Pete

I always purge with the button, rather than my lungs - not ascending.

 

[Insta-Gator]

Glad you're ok.

Moral of the story: It's better to dive in a fountain than a toilet.

 

[openmindOW]

Where did this accident take place?

 

[InTheDrink]

Big take away, for everyone: drill often.

 

[Ayisha]

Whenever practicing reg removals, we always purge the reg with the button as this builds muscle memory.

A lot of us don't use the purge button unless we have to in extremely cold water because it can cause a free(ze)flow at depth. It's something that should be remembered and practiced sometimes.

 

[smellzlikefish]

The bigger lesson I see here is always keep your head. With a cool head, you can not only think your way out of lots of situations (like remembering to push the purge), but your available air will last a lot longer when you are calm. On an empty set of lungs, you should be able to swim surprisingly far (roughly half the distance you go on a full set) as long as you can keep your mind from spinning out of control. Congrats on surviving a tough scenario.

 

[Mitchell Teeters]

Thanks for sharing. Another drill for me to work on.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[Peter_C]

A lot of us don't use the purge button unless we have to in extremely cold water because it can cause a free(ze)flow at depth. It's something that should be remembered and practiced sometimes.

Then nor do you breathe off both your second stage regs before ever getting into the water, which we consider a requirement at the surface. Both are condition dependent drills.