Reg malfunction or diver error injures two - Lake Plansee, Austria

[Bigbella]

"Wide wang," wow, just wow! That, thanks to Google Translate, could eventually have international incident written all over it.

The last time that I had faced a panicked "make a run for the border" diver was in the late 1990s -- and he received my pony bottle and a fond wave goodbye . . .

 

[Cheizz]

All joking aside, there are a lot of alpine lakes I want to dive at. Here are some Google pictures to show the magic of it...

Fersteinsee, Austria

Plansee, Austria

Versasca river, Switzerland

 

[Seaweed Doc]

So the person you try to save can kill you if he bolts to the surface dragging you and the donated reg to the surface… hmmm…

Short story: An instructor at my LDS got hurt when an OW student panicked and ascended rapidly while sharing air.

Longer story:

'*The instructor was diving long hose, primary donate.
*Student got panicky for no good reason, and asked to share air.
*Instructor started to hand off the primary.
*Student grabbed primary and bolted, pulling the instructor by the neck. (The long hose still had a turn around his neck.)
*Instructor ended up out of action for several weeks/months until his neck mobility recovered.


I've got no qualms with sharing air with a panicked diver, but I don't use longhose with students. It's the same rig they use, so we're all familiar with each others' gear. In this case, if the hose wasn't around his neck, I'm pretty sure the panicked student would have lost the 2nd stage as he went up. I can't imagine a panicked person gripping a reg in their mouth so tightly that they could pull up an unwilling buddy. Seems far more common for panicky divers to REJECT the regulator rather than keep a death grip on it.

 

[johndiver999]

"Wide Wang", is my nickname the ladies gave me.

The guys just call you Wang though huh?

 

[1Cave Ghost]

All joking aside, there are a lot of alpine lakes I want to dive at. Here are some Google pictures to show the magic of it...

View attachment 772170
Fersteinsee, Austria

View attachment 772171
Plansee, Austria

View attachment 772172
Versasca river, Switzerland

Beautiful, never would have guessed the diving would be so impressive.

 

[admikar]

Short story: An instructor at my LDS got hurt when an OW student panicked and ascended rapidly while sharing air.

Longer story:

'*The instructor was diving long hose, primary donate.
*Student got panicky for no good reason, and asked to share air.
*Instructor started to hand off the primary.
*Student grabbed primary and bolted, pulling the instructor by the neck. (The long hose still had a turn around his neck.)
*Instructor ended up out of action for several weeks/months until his neck mobility recovered.


I've got no qualms with sharing air with a panicked diver, but I don't use longhose with students. It's the same rig they use, so we're all familiar with each others' gear. In this case, if the hose wasn't around his neck, I'm pretty sure the panicked student would have lost the 2nd stage as he went up. I can't imagine a panicked person gripping a reg in their mouth so tightly that they could pull up an unwilling buddy. Seems far more common for panicky divers to REJECT the regulator rather than keep a death grip on it.

Something is not passing the snuff test. How do you donate long hose with hose still wrapped around your neck? Even if diver grabs it from you and starts pulling, unless you have more than one coil around neck, hose would just slip behind your head.

 

[lowwall]

Something is not passing the snuff test. How do you donate long hose with hose still wrapped around your neck? Even if diver grabs it from you and starts pulling, unless you have more than one coil around neck, hose would just slip behind your head.

I'm picturing the diver tying off the hose on the instructor's head like you'd tie off a boat on a bollard.

Seriously even if the panicked diver inadvertently managed to get another half-wrap, all the instructor had to do was make a 180 and it would have slipped off. It sounds like the instructor lost situational awareness and responded in a way that compounded the problem instead of relieving it.

 

[Seaweed Doc]

Something is not passing the snuff test. How do you donate long hose with hose still wrapped around your neck? Even if diver grabs it from you and starts pulling, unless you have more than one coil around neck, hose would just slip behind your head.

I see what you're saying, and can't tell you. If my recollection (heard directly from instructor) is correct, I think the student grabbed it fast as you suggest. But in going up, the student took the instructor with him. Maybe in bolting for the surface the hose hooked under the chin?

In the end the instructor was out of action for weeks with an injury.

 

[Seaweed Doc]

I'm picturing the diver tying off the hose on the instructor's head like you'd tie off a boat on a bollard.

Seriously even if the panicked diver inadvertently managed to get another half-wrap, all the instructor had to do was make a 180 and it would have slipped off. It sounds like the instructor lost situational awareness and responded in a way that compounded the problem instead of relieving it.

Could be: I wasn't there, just heard the story after the fact from the instructor.

I wonder if the injury occurred quickly on the initial bolt, before the instructor rotated out. I'll ask the instructor if I see him again. For other reasons, he's not teaching much or at all any more.

 

[NW Dive Dawg]

My buddy never panics., never leaves my side, never gets low on air, never bolts for the surface, never looses situational awareness.........and never complains or drinks my beer.