Hi all:
I had an incident on one of my first few open water dives after certification, and I'd like your input on it. I will attempt to keep the background information brief.
I'm a new diver, certified last summer. After certification some friends and I went to Grand Bahama to dive. I carried with me a Zeagle regulator/octopus/computer setup to avoid renting. They are owned by a family member, a Lake Erie diver, who told me they had been overhauled 6 months prior, and then stored.
On our third dive of the trip, second of the day, I was at 45 feet with 800 psi reading on the tank. I had been watching the digital gauge closely (new diver paranoia). We were diving a shallow wreck directly below the dive boat, and our DM told us to just ascend when we got to our comfortable air point. This appeared to be the custom down there, despite my training, so I did it. (won't make THAT mistake again).
I signalled the DM I was heading up, and swam over to the line about 50-70 feet away. As I was starting to set my bouyancy for a slow ascent, my air abrubtly shut off. There was no gradual decline that I noticed - it was there one breath and gone the next. I immediately switched to my octopus, and after purging it, it didn't work either. I judged that the surface was closer than any other diver, and did a FAST swimming ascent.
Back on the boat, we found salt caked on the filter in the first stage. The regs worked on the surface. We surmised that a leak in the regs had allowed salt water to enter, which then evaporated on the filter. The lower pressure at the surface allowed operation there, but not at depth.
Scared the crap out of me. The ascent from 40 feet was not real difficult, but if had happened earlier in the day at 85, I might have croaked. I dove again a couple days later, on rental gear, and had a great time motoring around at 35 feet, but the idea of deeper dives worries me a bit now. Obviously, I learned my lesson about never leaving my buddy, but even still, if my buddy is swimming after a fish or something I have to catch him.
How often, really, does equipment failure of this nature occur? Most people don't use a pony setup for 60 foot tropical dives, but I'm no longer quite as trusting of the equipment now.
Any input would be greatly appreciated.
Jason
I had an incident on one of my first few open water dives after certification, and I'd like your input on it. I will attempt to keep the background information brief.
I'm a new diver, certified last summer. After certification some friends and I went to Grand Bahama to dive. I carried with me a Zeagle regulator/octopus/computer setup to avoid renting. They are owned by a family member, a Lake Erie diver, who told me they had been overhauled 6 months prior, and then stored.
On our third dive of the trip, second of the day, I was at 45 feet with 800 psi reading on the tank. I had been watching the digital gauge closely (new diver paranoia). We were diving a shallow wreck directly below the dive boat, and our DM told us to just ascend when we got to our comfortable air point. This appeared to be the custom down there, despite my training, so I did it. (won't make THAT mistake again).
I signalled the DM I was heading up, and swam over to the line about 50-70 feet away. As I was starting to set my bouyancy for a slow ascent, my air abrubtly shut off. There was no gradual decline that I noticed - it was there one breath and gone the next. I immediately switched to my octopus, and after purging it, it didn't work either. I judged that the surface was closer than any other diver, and did a FAST swimming ascent.
Back on the boat, we found salt caked on the filter in the first stage. The regs worked on the surface. We surmised that a leak in the regs had allowed salt water to enter, which then evaporated on the filter. The lower pressure at the surface allowed operation there, but not at depth.
Scared the crap out of me. The ascent from 40 feet was not real difficult, but if had happened earlier in the day at 85, I might have croaked. I dove again a couple days later, on rental gear, and had a great time motoring around at 35 feet, but the idea of deeper dives worries me a bit now. Obviously, I learned my lesson about never leaving my buddy, but even still, if my buddy is swimming after a fish or something I have to catch him.
How often, really, does equipment failure of this nature occur? Most people don't use a pony setup for 60 foot tropical dives, but I'm no longer quite as trusting of the equipment now.
Any input would be greatly appreciated.
Jason
