Reg Blow Out at 60 ft

[danurtnowski]

Well handled.

A couple of additional suggestion:

Try to stay closer to your buddy. If I understood you correctly, you were at 60 ft while your instabuddy was having problems on the other side of a large crowd at 45 ft with the instructor. If he was having a runaway ascent, you wouldn't necessarily want to chase him at full speed, but you would want to already be moving in that general direction unless it was already obvious he was back under control and moving back in your direction.

When you headed for the surface, did you signal a thumb to the instructor and your buddy? A thumb should be non-negotiable, and in general, they should be ascending with you, to make sure you're alright, especially given that it's a class and you've already had a significant issue with that dive.

'Next' time, if the instructor (or buddy) gives you a clueless look, I wonder if grabbing his octo and breathing off it for a bit might help get the point across that you've had a problem with your breathing source.

Unfortunately, my buddy zipped past the bar on the way down, and, I think (it was dark and it can be hard to recognize people in the water), then was the one who zipped past me on the way up, trying to correct himself, and kicked my reg. People practicing on hang bottles also had their regs pulled out by him on the way up because he grabbed the lines the tanks were on.

The instructor was following him, and that is why I was left behind. The plan was to descend to the bar, then navigate from the bar to the wall and back while maintaining buoyancy, then ascend, doing a safety stop. One group would wait at the bar, while the others did the navigation. Obviously, we never got that far. When I was ascending, my buddy was on the surface, having skipped the safety stop.

It would certainly help for me to learn more hand signals and review them. In this instance, though, I felt breath from my bright yellow octo and waving my reg sans diaphragm should have been a clear message. At that point, in that place, at that time, I was most comfortable just handling it all on my own rather than rely on strangers for help, and it didn't really matter that he didn't notice. I gave him the OK signal at the hang bottle, and he surfaced... obviously, he was unaware of what had happened.

 

[Doubler]

Good job Dan. You touched on a subject that has always driven me nuts. ADVANCED OPEN WATER certification in a freaking Silo. Same as a quarry or a spring, it is not Open Water. No current, no surface wave action, no large inquisitive creatures with lots of teeth.

 

[FPDocMatt]

Dan, you are to be congratulated for handling this situation so well.

A recent poster had the same thing happen in shallower water, panicked and lost consciousness. Fortunately, somebody noticed him and saved his life (not his buddy).

The most valuable experience I had in the first pool session of my open water class was the 2 times I inhaled water through my nose, and practiced coughing into the regulator. It was all I could do to keep myself from lifting my head above the water to breathe, but I forced myself to just cough into the regulator until I stopped choking.

After that, I now know that I can handle choking under water.

Now, choking and vomiting at the same time, they say you're supposed to do all that into the regulator as well, but I've never tried it.

Unfortunately, they can't make choking on water a requisite part of the OW class, since it's dangerous. But I kept inhaling water through my nose every time I cleared my mask, so I got free practice that way.

(The way to avoid that, I eventually learned, is to start exhaling through your nose before you lean your head back.)

 

[ianr33]

Yes,if the diaphragm comes off the reg will shut off. What I was really asking (badly!) was what if the reg failed in a way that it was freeflowing? (dirt in reg,blown O ring,blown LP hose etc) An Al 80 will empty in not much over a minute with a violent freeflow. That's not much time to collect your wits and get to the surface.

 

[agilis]

Nice job. Staying calm and focused is incredibly difficult when you are choking and coughing up water while trying to breath through a regulator. I stay as far away from other divers as possible when I find myself in that kind of group. I've seen all kinds of craziness from semi-panicked and/or incompetent divers who are frightened for no particular reason. Kicks in the head, people dropping from boats without looking, fins in the face, all kinds of things. I don't buddy up with strangers, and don't let divemasters/helpers touch my equipment or tell me what to do. I smile and nod, but follow my own plans. I keep my distance from the mob while underwater. I almost always surface last, an easy thing when diving with a pack of hyperventilating bug-eyed AOWs who have burned through an amazing amount of air. The extra hang time never hurts.

 

[t-mac]

When the diaphragm came out of the front of the reg, the controlling mechanism opens all of the way, shutting off air flow.

Hmm. I never thought to ask during training when they tell you that the advantage of a demand valve is that is "almost" always fails in the open position. I guess this is one of those exceptions. Anyone know if there are others? I have DM class tonight and I want to screw with my instructor!

 

[openmindOW]

You handled it well. Thank you for posting.

 

[GrumpyOldGuy]

One of the problems you encountered was the training site itself. Valhalla is essentially a night dive at 60' which added to the other issues (too many divers, idiots with lights on their mask, cold water, etc...) made it unsafe. I am glad you worked it out.

While you have responsibility for diving with know bad gear, I would have serious questions for your instructor as you never should have been left without a buddy on a night dive which is essentially what happened. The 4:1 ratio might be OK for a day training dive, although even this is questionable. Definitely not a night dive where it is very possible for the instructor to get separated from the group when assisting another student. All the classes I have seen have a DM or assistant in the water with the instructor to avoid this type of issue.

 

[flots am]

Hello, everyone.
The story really starts in Cozumel, where the crew on the boat cracked the faceplate of my reg. It still functioned and seemed secure to me. I was in the middle of a wall dive when I felt the crack in the plate. Everything operated properly and I had no issues.

Just a couple of thoughts:

Any of your equipment can fail at any time. You happened to notice the crack, but it could have been anything at all. For example a contaminated tank with a missing dip tube can suddenly stop delivering air for no other reason than you went head-down for a few seconds. You need to be ready for any breath to be your last.

Although diving with known-broken equipment is a bad idea, any equipment can fail at any time, so you always need to be ready to perform the skills taught in Open Water. For breathing problems, that would be: Switch to your alternate second stage, or share air with your buddy and surface, or surface without your buddy.

The only equipment that actually qualifies as "life support" on an OW dive is between your ears. As long as you remember your training and don't panic, everything else will be just fine.

flots.

 

[jar546]

Thank you for sharing. These stories always drive many important factors home. Nice job with your situation.