Regulator catastrophe on New Year dive

[Marie13]

I think part of it is thinking "I'm just practicing for when I really have to." The risk however is if a second issue comes up, you are already behind.

Make it your default to switch to the other reg if you have an issue. You can always switch back to the original reg if you get the issue sorted. But to stay on the other reg? Nope.

You do have your inflators split up, correct? Drysuit on one and wing on the other?

 

[L13]

Make it your default to switch to the other reg if you have an issue. You can always switch back to the original reg if you get the issue sorted. But to stay on the other reg? Nope.

You do have your inflators split up, correct? Drysuit on one and wing on the other?

I did switch, but then switched back, lol.

Yes, BC left, drysuit right.

 

[Vicko]

I had a similar problem on a Sherwood second stage, mine cracked because it rolled one the boat while stoved on the tank with the mouthpiece wedged against the tank but the body did not fall apart, just breathed wet untill i found the crack.

Good job staying safe and calm.

 

[halocline]

Any comments on my decision to breath down the "wet side" in sidemount. Other than not turning the dive, was it the right decision?

I haven't read the entire thread yet, so someone else might have chimed in, but you did what I've been trained to do in the event of a leak; breathe down the leaky side first. That's for cave diving when there is no option to simply surface. Of course if at some point you're getting more water than air and can't manage it comfortably, you have to switch.

Back to the damage, unless you shared air with an alligator, I'd say that might have happened by the tank rolling over on the regulator. It's something I see every so often with SM cave diving in MX, where you are constantly stashing tanks by the entrance, hauling them in and out of the water over limestone rocks. That's one reason I switched to using metal 2nds for diving down there.

 

[halocline]

I know someone diving SM who had an issue not long into a dive. Diver feathered the valve rather than switching to the other one. I could never figure that one out.

Assuming we're talking about an overhead dive, that diver was smart to continue to breath the leaky tank until it became unmanageable, saving as much gas as possible in the other tank. That's for a tank where gas is leaking out, so I suppose this is different. But in a cave, if I were able to comfortably breathe off the wet reg, I would do so, after calling the dive. In fact I did have a pretty leaky exhaust valve once and had to do a long exit carefully breathing that side, but it was easily manageable. And I maintained the redundancy that you only have if the tanks are balanced in terms of gas.

 

[Marie13]

Assuming we're talking about an overhead dive, that diver was smart to continue to breath the leaky tank until it became unmanageable, saving as much gas as possible in the other tank. That's for a tank where gas is leaking out, so I suppose this is different. But in a cave, if I were able to comfortably breathe off the wet reg, I would do so, after calling the dive. In fact I did have a pretty leaky exhaust valve once and had to do a long exit carefully breathing that side, but it was easily manageable. And I maintained the redundancy that you only have if the tanks are balanced in terms of gas.

Open water dive.

 

[L13]

Open water dive.

My dive was open water, they were talking about another dive (and diver) which was an overhead dive.

 

[halocline]

My dive was open water, they were talking about another dive (and diver) which was an overhead dive.

You did fine, you evaluated the situation and managed the problem without sacrificing any redundancy. Even though you didn't need it on this dive, it's good practice if you ever intend to learn to dive in overheads (maybe you already do), because that's exactly the sort of thing you need to learn to do.

 

[rmssetc]

I don't think manufacturing defect, my money is on its taken a reasonably big hit, those cases are not fragile.

My guess (which is worth exactly what you are paying for it!) Is that a tank was put down on the regulator for moment.

[Edited scenario re. Sidemount]

..... the 2nd stage dangles below the tank, gets pinned for a moment, then the tank is lifted slightly and the regulator is free...but slightly cracked.

 

[BRT]

Probably because I was thinking "what would I do if I was gas limited." I think I made 2 wrong decisions for the opposite reasons.

1) I didn't turn the dive thinking about all the air I had on me and how close the surface was.

2) I breathed the wet reg thinking I needed to preserve every last bit of air.

It's funny how the human brain can do that, two opposite ideas at the same time. Talking about it here is reinforcing in my mind not to make the same mistakes again. Which is why I brought it up in the first place.

I'm not a cave diver yet, but what if I was an hour back in a cave? would breathing the wet reg still be a bad idea? I'm less certain of that and would like to be.

What circumstances, if any, would make it a good idea to breath the wet reg.

I'd have done it like you did.