Reg goes missing during cave diving course

[Blackcrusader]

I'd been diving for quite a few years before this incident happened. I do wonder if I was a new diver what my reaction would have been. It seems almost like a design flaw that could result in a catastrophe.

Happened to my dive buddy and he nearly drowned. But he is a BSAC Sports dive leader and quite experienced.
Read pages 16 & 17. If you guess I now check ties on all regs for myself and dive buddy before a dive you would be correct.

Have you ever used scuba equipment you absolutely hated!

Never used a air 2, never will a small amount of common sense tells you they are horrible in a real world situation if the other is panicked, which is likely. i have seen multiple posts that say that with proper training and predive meetings, this can be avoided.

scubaboard.com

 

[Blackcrusader]

That night I reflected on how I'd reacted. I wasn't happy with my response. If I was a new diver what my reaction would have been. It seems almost like a design flaw that could result in a catastrophe.

Your response was fine really. You kept yourself alive and your quick action got you an air supply. Your own or another's sharing a reg or a using a secondary is fine. You did not panic. Life goes on.

 

[Miyaru]

....
I find the necklace to be great. Won't be losing it....

A necklace is great.
On your alternate, so you never have to look for it.

But since you always have to able to donate your primary, that one must not be restricted by a necklace.

In a perfect world, when you dive lead in a cave, you watch the light on the cavewalls from your teammate behind you. The moment that light moves back and forth horizontally, you switch to your alternate while turning around, offering your primary. A necklace would restrict that.

 

[Jacob BV]

My other point would be that standard training teaches us to check lots of things, but not the mouthpiece. Its been a while since I did my open water so please correct me if I'm wrong...

Our new training manuals (BSAC) include a negative check on the regs, a loose mouthpiece is very obvious in this test...and usually the main reason this test fails. To clarify you pressurise the regs, turn of the cylinder, then breath the reg down until empty and try and suck - if you can't suck at all there are no majory leaks and the exhaust valve is working correctly, if you can get significant air through you need to check why.

 

[Dody]

Attached by a velcro tab to my right shoulder; has never come loose accidentally; and I have frequently been tossed . . .

I am not a cave diver but that’s exactly what I do. Octo slid through a sleeve on my right shoulder jacket BCD (yes, I know) and secured with a velcro. It stays there. Having anything around my neck disturbs me.

 

[Marie13]

I am not a cave diver but that’s exactly what I do. Octo slid through a sleeve on my right shoulder jacket BCD (yes, I know) and secured with a velcro. It stays there. Having anything around my neck disturbs me.

Wouldn’t fly for diving sidemount like the OP and I do.

 

[Dody]

Wouldn’t fly for diving sidemount like the OP and I do.

Some people fear being hanged or strangled even by accident way more than flying. I love traveling (roughly 50 times a year for the last 25 years) but I hate flying because I am not in the cockpit. I could not fly a plane anyway. Atavism, maybe?

 

[Miyaru]

Some people fear being hanged or strangled even by accident way more than flying. I love traveling (roughly 50 times a year for the last 25 years) but I hate flying because I am not in the cockpit. I could not fly a plane anyway. Atavism, maybe?

"Wouldn't fly for..." is an expression meaning that it wouldn't work.
A similar Dutch expression would be "die vlieger gaat niet op".

 

[leadduck]

In sidemount, there are two schools of how to setup the regulators:

(A) long hose + short hose backup with bungee necklace, see for example
(B) two hoses of same length and no bungee, see for example
The method "always donate primary" works only with (B), whereas with (A) you always donate the long hose reg, which is in your mouth with 50% probability, and clipped away with 50% probability. So it's an open debate which one is more important to DIR philosophy: "always donate primary" or "long hose + short hose bungeed necklace". Can't have both in sidemount.

Seems your instructor favors (B) as he removed the necklace. But did he also tell you to use a longer hose on that one so that you can donate it, and show how to change your regulator boltsnaps so that you can use the clipped away regulator as a backup?

 

[Lorenzoid]

I carry a mouthpiece-sized ziptie in my drysuit pocket for just such an event. Mouthpieces do separate from regs occasionally. It happened to my wife once when we were doing S-drills in a lake, and she handled it calmly. I think the fact that we spent years doing this kind of practice before taking a cave class was beneficial. Cave class is not the best time to first experience this.