Well, I had a scary experience yesterday which could have been a whole lot worse.
I was diving at the Alderman Islands off the east coast of New Zealand. We had already been down for 1 dive, and I had switched tanks and was preparing my gear for the next dive. When I opened my valve to turn on my air I heard a the air fill the hoses, then heard a rush of air as though the tank o-ring had gone. That lasted for less than a second before there was a loud bang. I quickly shut off my air, and had a look to see what had happened.
My first stage (Scubapro Mk20) had blown itself in half. The lp end (swivel end) had blown clean off the hp end. I can't stop thinking how that would have been underwater. I know there are a number of reasons other than poor gas management why you would end up OOA, but I had never seriously considered that one. I trust my dive buddy and feel sure that we would have coped had this happened underwater, but I am glad I didn't have to find out the hard way. Thinking, if it blew between breathing out and breathing in, I could well have breathed in a mouthful of water. Controling the coughing, and sorting myself out to share air with my buddy would not have been pleasant.
Lessons learned:
*You never know when a gear failure might leave you OOA with no warning.
*Don't trust swivel first stages.
I was diving at the Alderman Islands off the east coast of New Zealand. We had already been down for 1 dive, and I had switched tanks and was preparing my gear for the next dive. When I opened my valve to turn on my air I heard a the air fill the hoses, then heard a rush of air as though the tank o-ring had gone. That lasted for less than a second before there was a loud bang. I quickly shut off my air, and had a look to see what had happened.
My first stage (Scubapro Mk20) had blown itself in half. The lp end (swivel end) had blown clean off the hp end. I can't stop thinking how that would have been underwater. I know there are a number of reasons other than poor gas management why you would end up OOA, but I had never seriously considered that one. I trust my dive buddy and feel sure that we would have coped had this happened underwater, but I am glad I didn't have to find out the hard way. Thinking, if it blew between breathing out and breathing in, I could well have breathed in a mouthful of water. Controling the coughing, and sorting myself out to share air with my buddy would not have been pleasant.
Lessons learned:
*You never know when a gear failure might leave you OOA with no warning.
*Don't trust swivel first stages.