Retrieving Regulator Underwater(OW skill).

[boulderjohn]

Why would you not hold your breath?

That is exactly the problem: if you are stressed, you may be ascending and not know it. Also, exhaling and not holding your breath are two different things. Just let a few bubbles come out of your mouth....you'll have opened your lungs but use very little gas.

I just want to make sure this point gets the attention it deserves. When even very experienced divers get task loaded, they can be ascending or descending rapidly and not realize it. It is something you need to work on a lot with new (and even not so new) tech diving students.

 

[tursiops]

It takes quite a bit of practice to just let out a few bubbles.
I think new divers are much more likely to exhale too much.
If they do not manage to retrieve the regulator and run out of air they have a bigger problem than they face by holding their breath...

Maybe you shouldn't dive at all...too risky. You might also get hit by an asteroid or something.

 

[rx7diver]

... If you grab the octo and breathe on that while recovering your primary, is that a fail? ..

Not addressing your question directly.

My open water instructor stressed that to recover your reg, you reach back over your right shoulder, with your right hand, to your 1st stage/cylinder valve. "Find" your IP reg hose, encircle it with your thumb and fingers, and straighten your arm to "find" your second stage in your right hand! Easy-peasy!

Having trouble reaching your 1st stage/cylinder valve? Then reach back, with your left hand, to the bottom of your cylinder, and push "up" in order to get the 1st stage/cylinder valve "higher" (i.e., closer to the back of your head).

This approach will "always" work, no matter your orientation, and even if your 2nd stage momentarily gets hung up behind you on your gear, even if you are being tossed around in the surf.

Keep in mind, your octopus reg just might have come out of its retainer and, so, might not be where you expect it to be when you're groping for it! However, your primary 2nd stage is "always" attached to your cylinder via the primary 1st stage.

(Oh, yeah. There's never a question where your AIR 2 or similar is!)

rx7diver

 

[Scubagermany]

Maybe you shouldn't dive at all...too risky. You might also get hit by an asteroid or something.

I fail to see the humor in that.
In case you did not realize: The risk of diving is much higher in geriatric divers!

 

[CG43]

Maybe you shouldn't dive at all...too risky. You might also get hit by an asteroid or something.

I fail to see the humor in that.
In case you did not realize: The risk of diving is much higher in geriatric divers!

Let us calm down !

First I think the same as Scubagermany .
Diving alone or with a diver like Scubagermany I would hold my breath .
Why ? I' used to calm down if I had to hold my breath . That's a biological reaktion
and comes from freediving .

In the diving buisiness this doesn't applys .
The Pros teach skills to use diving gear and knowledge .
Diving becomes like driving a car , flying a plane or a dancing course .
And this works good , as millions of dives around the world shows .
The rules are the result of the big experience that is collected from millions
of dives under these conditions . If I go to this buisiness I try to accept the rules
even if Idon't think they are nessesary for me .
I made my first certifikation (without course) after 20 years of diving because without
cert. i could not rent a tank . .
The instructor first don't believed my 20 years experience , thought I was a dangerous fool .
Buddybreathing I gave him my reg. but don't grabed him and don't bubbeld . On the surface
he told me how it should be done and I did . To be honest , diving with an unknown diver I'd
like to see bubbles too .

Relaxt greetings Rainer

 

[Scubagermany]

My open water instructor stressed that to recover your reg, you reach back over your right shoulder, with your right hand, to your 1st stage/cylinder valve. "Find" your IP reg hose, encircle it with your thumb and fingers, and straighten your arm to "find" your second stage in your right hand! Easy-peasy!

While I never failed in finding my regulator (always as a training) I was told to just circle my straightened arm backwards starting from my leg. It always comes to the front bearing the hose with the regulator. I was not taught whatsoever to exhale. Possibly because the whole exercise took max. 3 seconds.
I trained with a CMAS instructor.

 

[Ez E]

While I never failed in finding my regulator (always as a training) I was told to just circle my straightened arm backwards starting from my leg. It always comes to the front bearing the hose with the regulator. I was not taught whatsoever to exhale. Possibly because the whole exercise took max. 3 seconds.
I trained with a CMAS instructor.

My NAUI training(my original OW). was somewhat similar. We did the exercise like you mentioned but were taught to “blow bubbles” while retrieving it. My instructors were always insistent on never holding your breath. Blowing bubbles didnt mean fully exhaling but simply tried to get into our mind to not hold your breath. We also learned what rx7diver said. Retrieve your regulator by finding where it connects to the first stage and sliding down the hose till the second stage is retrievable.

My PADI refresher just taught the arm sweep method.

 

[DiveProKoko]

This got me thinking about the guy from jan/feb. I was wondering, if you are doing your OW course. You are taught to retrieve the primary regulator while exhaling bubbles(never hold your breath). What if you fail to retrieve it on your breath? If you grab the octo and breathe on that while recovering your primary, is that a fail?

I know this is kind of a stupid question but had me perplexed. Everyone always recovers it on their own breathe(that I have seen). So for the instructors out there is this considered a “fail” if you grab your backup and then recover the primary? Or does it show competency to grab the octo when you are out of air vs. freaking out and shooting for the surface?

I'm an SSI OWSI and we teach/evaluate both of those regulator retrieval techniques as separate skills. And they are both OW (checkout dive) skills. If you don't pass both, you get a "no go" and need remedial training. FWIW, I've never had anyone fail that portion. Things that fail you are not being able to retrieve the regulator at all, or not exhaling during the skill. If you're in a good diving position and lean in the direction of the "lost" regulator so it floats away from your body/gear, I don't know how you can't physically retrieve it, but I suppose there might be someone.... LOL

 

[MidOH]

Cheat. They never said how far you had to dump your reg. Spit it out, look around, put it back in.

Or use a long hose an set the reg in the water where a quick swing of the arm snags it.

I yeeted mine to the end of its long hose. Had to grab the hose near the 1st stage and trace it to the reg.

Nobody went to their air 2 secondary. I had a necklace.

This drill should be done with the mask off, to have any value. Too easy.

 

[DiveProKoko]

I just want to make sure this point gets the attention it deserves. When even very experienced divers get task loaded, they can be ascending or descending rapidly and not realize it. It is something you need to work on a lot with new (and even not so new) tech diving students.

This ....I've seen very experienced divers get task loaded and do things they know aren't good. That's why you repeat it so many times to make it automatic....“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.” - Aristotle