Regulator Kicked Out of Mouth by New Diver

[johndiver999]

^This.

Yeah, new divers don't have the best trim and they tend to kick wildly. But if you get your reg kicked out of your mouth, that means that you put your face near the other divers moving fins.

They can't see behind themselves, but you can see what's in front of you. It's great that the OP kept calm and put the reg back in, but I don't see how it's the other diver's fault, and I'm not sure what the point is of trying to berate someone underwater using sign language in that situation.

Yes, I agree. If the original post had been supplemented with a video of the after incident underwater hand signing communication between the op and the stranger from another group, the video might have been priceless!

As others have said, having the regulator kicked from your mouth should be a non-event (assuming no injuries were sustained). The op should be glad his mask was not dislodged simultaneously.

Also as others have indicated, better situational awareness might have avoided this in the first place. However, if you are diving in a group of people (and there is a lot of ambient bubble noise) a diver might be unaware that a totally clueless diver who has lost control of his buoyancy might be kicking above their head. If the diver continues to sink and ends up, "attacking from above" there is not a good way to be aware of this, since most people don't look directly above their head while on the bottom.

 

[eleniel]

I’ve been kicked multiple times by my buddy (nearly always my fault for being that close - really awful visibility makes a fin to the face a sometimes necessary risk. I’ve kicked him too for much the same reason) and multiple times by new and “experienced” divers lacking situational awareness and dropping on top of us with no warning (or just assholes - like the guy who kept zooming down on top of me with his GoPro whenever he saw me taking photos on the reef. I hang back and do photos when things are clear and this guy just kept watching me so he could charge in rather than find anything interesting himself) and once a huge group of mixed ability level divers drifted chaotically through our small group literally bouncing indifferently off us.

Now my buddy and I stand guard for each other when taking photos or video - it’s nice to have a second set of eyes.

So far it’s mostly been a minor annoyance with the exception of photo sniper (he caused quite a bit of damage to coral and such with his hyper aggressive behavior. At the end I started just recording him kicking coral and such)

 

[Belzelbub]

I also noticed a group of new divers (I knew they were new by their vertical stance and furious fin-kicking actions) but which I thought was not too near to us. As I was going nearer to the reef, all of a sudden I found my regulator kicked out of my mouth by another diver's hard fin kicks, and I was taking in water at 18m. Fortunately for me, I was able to be calm and proceeded to retrieve my 2nd stage while i was blowing bubbles.

It's one thing to have this happen after you've got some experience underwater. It's quite another thing to have this happen during a checkout dive. When you are 10.

Happened to my daughter on her 3rd checkout dive. This one was at Devil's Den, so it was fairly dark. I was observing the class, and was her buddy. While I was watching the skills drills the day before, I got to wondering how she would do if she had to do an unplanned regulator retrieval. It happened the next day. She was following the group, and one diver managed to kick her regulator out of her mouth. I was just behind her and could assist if needed. It took every ounce of willpower to hold back for a minute to see how she would handle it. Turns out she handled it just about perfectly. Her primary went into freeflow, and stayed just out of reach of her retrieval attempt. So, she grabbed her second, purged and resumed breathing. At that point, I allowed myself to assist. Got her regulator, stopped the freeflow, and handed it off to her. No panic at all. I got to see what I was wondering, and she handled it pretty much like a veteran.

 

[AfterDark]

regulator necklace.

 

[KLY]

It's one thing to have this happen after you've got some experience underwater. It's quite another thing to have this happen during a checkout dive. When you are 10.

Happened to my daughter on her 3rd checkout dive. This one was at Devil's Den, so it was fairly dark. I was observing the class, and was her buddy. While I was watching the skills drills the day before, I got to wondering how she would do if she had to do an unplanned regulator retrieval. It happened the next day. She was following the group, and one diver managed to kick her regulator out of her mouth. I was just behind her and could assist if needed. It took every ounce of willpower to hold back for a minute to see how she would handle it. Turns out she handled it just about perfectly. Her primary went into freeflow, and stayed just out of reach of her retrieval attempt. So, she grabbed her second, purged and resumed breathing. At that point, I allowed myself to assist. Got her regulator, stopped the freeflow, and handed it off to her. No panic at all. I got to see what I was wondering, and she handled it pretty much like a veteran.

It must have been a relief and proud moment for you to see her being able to handle the situation perfectly.. some new adult divers would have panicked and darted to the surface.

 

[Laurie S.]

I was diving in Cozumel in 2012 in a moderately strong current. I was working on taking some photographs when all of a sudden one of the women in the group when tumbling out of control from behind me and yanked the regulator out of my mouth as she passed by. I grabbed it back, and got my shot. The guide grabbed her and checked to see if I was okay. Yes, angry, but okay.

 

[outofofficebrb]

I'm so glad you're okay and that you remembered your training while remaining calm. Small things often snowball into large issues when panicking happens.

When I get close to anyone's fins or back end, especially if in stronger current and there's less predictability, I usually put my hands over my mask and regs to loosely guard them, similar to what you do when you backroll or giant stride in. I would rather just be careful and save the hassle.

 

[moosedaisy]

This happens all the time ... Not a big deal..put the reg back in and continue dive .. In other news water is wet.

 

[Belzelbub]

It must have been a relief and proud moment for you to see her being able to handle the situation perfectly.. some new adult divers would have panicked and darted to the surface.

Yep. Certainly answered any questions I had. Up until that point, I was seriously wondering how she would handle herself in an emergency. Then I knew. At the surface, we talked about it. It was mostly a non-event to her, which was great to hear.

 

[outofofficebrb]

This happens all the time ... Not a big deal..put the reg back in and continue dive .. In other news water is wet.

If you're a new diver and have never had this happen to you, then this doesn't happen "all the time" from an experience standpoint. Some folks may have also dived for a while and have never had it happen to them. I don't think we should be dismissive of the acknowledgements and lessons learned from another diver's experiences. Perceptions and experiences vary from one person to next. While it may not be a big deal and is a very simple fix to you and many others, the idea of that happening and reinforcing the need to stay calm while recovering the reg and remembering our training can be a learning opportunity for others who have never had this happen before and a reminder for some others.

I think we should be supportive of others' lessons and near misses to help them reflect on what they could do better and reinforce the good things they've done instead of approaching it the way you did in your post. I'd like to think that we want to encourage folks to post instead of having people worry whether they are posting about something they fear will be ridiculed or dismissed.