Primary Reg hose Ruptured at 110 feet.

[spectrum]

I wonder if things really turned to custard, and you closed off your tank valve until it was almost shut, you might be able to whack your own alternate in your mouth and breathe from the airflow still coming through, and then with the reduced flow you might be able to kink the busted low-pressure hose like a garden hose?

Yes but......
In this case the problem is obvious and it would work with a sharp kink.

The problem comes when you extend this line of thinking to free flows. In the case of a freeflow it can be a stuck second stage or a second stage(s) that is overwhelmed by high pressure flowing from a stuck first stage. When you kink the hose downstream of a stuck first stage a nasty hose rupture is likely to result.

Pete

 

[Cacia]

OOOhhh, I liked this thread. I want to stick up for your girlfiend's very reasonable and prudent decision to make a calm normal ascent (solo, at that point) on the line back to the boat. I have been in a similiar situation and had the chance to think this basic scenario through before. I know it challenges the dive dogma out there BUT : I think: on an early unplanned ascent (assumably usually because of a problem) it is very important that someone who had observed the problem could make it back to the boat and relay this imformation the captain. If she had drifted with you both, perhaps your pick-up would have been compromised either by being later or them not being so certain which direction to look, etc.
There was a "group death" of Japanese divers a few years back and from what I had understood from the Palau boat captain, was that they had ascended all together as a group, almost immediately, and the crew was not looking for them yet. They drifted a long way and were never found before they all died of hypothermia, or exposure. I think your girlfriend showed excellent common sense and I expect people to disagree with all sorts of scenarios of things that could have happened to her but, I like to think of the most probable scenario, and that would be, her getting back to the boat in an easy controlled way and reporting your problem. She deserves kudos for her decisive course of action and ability to process the entire circumstance.

 

[Diver0001]

If you're using one of these swivels, think about that set screw as well as the rest of your hose systems!!!

Bet that freaked the bejezus out of you. Nice work to keep thinking through it!

Just about the suggestion I quoted. I would go one step further and suggest thinking it *all* the way through. Don't just think about the set screw, think about what you would need to do in order to eliminate the swivel entirely.

R..

 

[Uncle Pug]

The split ball swivels are not the ones to use. If you need an angle adaper between second stage and hose this is the kind to use:

 

[StSomewhere]

The split ball swivels are not the ones to use. If you need an angle adaper between second stage and hose this is the kind to use:

Scubapro also makes a nice, simple 120° version, I like Zeagle's 90° swivel better as it just seemed to route better for me.

As UP so wisely says, I wouldn't use a split ball swivel on a bet.

 

[Willie]

... By the time he turned my tank off, and we could see, we'd been blown off the wreck and had lost our second buddy.

We got bouyancy control back ...

Another buddy team saw the blowout and the two of us get blown off the wreck. They aborted their dive, grabbed my girlfriend, and became a new team of three for a completely "normal" ascent up the anchor line.

Thanks for sharing this story and thanks to all who responded. I found myself thinking of it in terms of what to do if I were the one in your position as well as what to do if I were the third watching the situation.

It seems to me, inexperienced as I am, that you handled the situation very well. As for the fortunate fact that there was another buddy team there willing to assist your third, from my perspective that was also an excellent choice made by them and by her.

Since you had been 'blown off the wreck' to the point where you 'had lost your second buddy'. It would seem likely she couldnt see you either. If there were no current you could look briefly while stabilizing, but in current it hardly seems like an option.

Since this happened so fast I think I would be hesitant to attempt to follow the action if I were in her fins. If I had good visual contact, I might attempt to follow, but not if I had no contact, especially with another team to head up with. She probably had no idea what had happened until you explained it on the surface.

What a tale. Thanks again for posting.

Willie