Runaway buddy

[Tigerman]

Flare ~ Vent ~ Disconnect

For single tank recreational diving, when dealing with a stuck open inflator it is better to use the inflator vent button to dump the extra flow and not a shoulder dump, pull dump or rear dump which require you to go head up or head down and lose your flared position.

This is something that can and should be handled from a flared horizontal position... with one hand hold the inflator up and push the vent button and with the other hand disconnect (if even necessary) the lp hose.

Care should be taken not to dump more air than necessary, especially if the lp hose is going to be disconnected.

A couple of other things to consider:
1. Test your inflator with a quick burst before entering the water to see if it is sticky. If it is then fix it before diving with it.
2. Pay attention to your buoyancy. If you are getting unexpectedly positive listen for an inflator leak and take immediate but measured action.
3. Don't wait until the situation is out of hand before notifying your buddy but don't delay controlling the situation in order to notify your buddy. Left hand holds inflator up and vents excess air through mouth piece while right hand flashes light signal at buddy.

I can be horisontal and pull the cord and dump just fine, since the valves is located on the back of my BC and there is one up on the shoulder and one on the bottomn of the BCD.. Same as there where on the vest she was using. Also, as posted before, we where ascending when the freeflow happened, and what direction do you have your head in when youre ascending? Upwards, maybe?

1. I always test the inflator before going into the water and I infact fill my BC with it before going into the water...

2. When youre going upwards, dumping air to not become bouyant and the inflator get stuck without notice, what happens? You get bouyant, you stop ascending and THINK youre dumping, but, there is one issue you fail to adress.. When you ascend, you dont have only the air thats going into the BC from the freeflow to consider.. The air already in there is expanding as well.. If you can dump at the same rate as you can fill, youve gotten rid of the freeflow issue for now, byt you still have expanding air to get rid of..

3. As a result of 2, as youve noticed youre positive, youve started to dump, but if youre not getting out more air than the sum of freeflow+expanding air youre likely to only get into a deeper mess for every foot you ascend as youll become more and more bouyant, going upwards faster and faster. The situation can be out of hand before you even realize there is one..

 

[Uncle Pug]

It is just as important to develop the skill of situational awareness to go along with the skills required to correct or mitigate situations. Maybe even more important.

Most often there is a cascade of events that lead to an out of control situation. The initial circumstance sets the stage and the precipitating event itself can be minor. More on this at the end of the post.

Ignored and augmented by further events and degrading circumstance the situation develops to a point where it can no longer be ignored and sometimes can no longer be controlled.

For those who have weak or non-existent skills, especially the skill of situational awareness, the point at which a situation can be no longer be controlled can come well before the point at which it can no longer be ignored.

The situation can be out of hand before you even realize there is one..

The main point of evaluating an incident after the fact should not be to focus on the full blown out of control situation and try to figure out how it could have been handled... though that is usually what happens.

The point should be to identify and trace back the cascade of events to the initial circumstance. Changing the initial circumstance and eliminating minor events keeps situations from developing in the first place.

It is all a learning experience. Discussions like this online are helpful. For some it is a refresher/reminder while for others it may be the first time contemplating such things.

 

[H2Andy]

The main point of evaluating an incident after the fact should not be to focus on the full blown out of control situation and try to figure out how it could have been handled... though that is usually what happens.

The point should be to identify and trace back the cascade of events to the initial circumstance. Changing the initial circumstance and eliminating minor events keeps situations from developing in the first place.

indeed

 

[Tigerman]

...

The main point of evaluating an incident after the fact should not be to focus on the full blown out of control situation and try to figure out how it could have been handled... though that is usually what happens.

The point should be to identify and trace back the cascade of events to the initial circumstance. Changing the initial circumstance and eliminating minor events keeps situations from developing in the first place.

It is all a learning experience. Discussions like this online are helpful. For some it is a refresher/reminder while for others it may be the first time contemplating such things.

Please do track back and find out what went wrong that we could have done BEFORE the inflator got stuck then?
The inflator worked fine all the time during the dive, untill we where to ascent and then its stuck and off we go. From the inflator stuck till I noticed the buddy pick up pace, I dont know how long time it took. However from her starting to pick up speed untill I realized I wouldnt be able to catch up without putting myself at risk, it took maybe 15 seconds..

What MIGHT have happened is of course that she for some reason got sand grains or similar stuck into the inflator button, but as we where the first group of people down there that day and we really didnt stir up the bottomn a lot, I dont really see that as very likely. But, then again, Murphy is a real pain in the ***..
From what Ive understood from her she didnt really realize that her inflator was freeflowing either, untill she got hold of the line again, barly within the proper depth of doing her stop..

 

[H2Andy]

Please do track back and find out what went wrong that we could have done BEFORE the inflator got stuck then?

well, for example (this is not an exhaustive list)

--she could try to keep her inflator connection clean
--she could check topside whether the inflator is working properly

(these two will go a long way towards preventing the problem)

--she could be more aware and noticed the freeflow much sooner. she probably got a few signals, such as a constant "positive bouyancy problem" before the main event

(this could have prevented any further problems)

--as soon as she noticed the main event, she should have immediately known to start venting and then attempt to disconect the inflator, preventing a runaway ascent

(this could have lessened the problem considerably)

once the runaway ascent starts (the "problem" most people will perceive) the real "problems" have been going on for quite a while.

as you see, in this example (by no means exahustive) there are a series of links any of which could have been broken in the chain of events that led to what you describe. the real "problem" is not the runaway ascent, but the failures that preceded it.

 

[Tigerman]

well, for example (this is not an exhaustive list)

--she could try to keep her inflator connection clean
--she could check topside whether the inflator is working properly

(these two will go a long way towards preventing the problem)

--she could be more aware and noticed the freeflow much sooner. she probably got a few signals, such as a constant "positive bouyancy problem" before the main event

(this could have prevented any further problems)

--as soon as she noticed the main event, she should have immediately known to start venting and then attempt to disconect the inflator, preventing a runaway ascent

(this could have lessened the problem considerably)

once the runaway ascent starts (the "problem" most people will perceive) the real "problems" have been going on for quite a while.

as you see, in this example (by no means exahustive) there are a series of links any of which could have been broken in the chain of events that led to what you describe. the real "problem" is not the runaway ascent, but the failures that preceded it.

Her gear appeared to be nice and clean.
She did try her inflator before entering the water.

Yes, she could probably have realized there was a freeflow sooner.
Part of why she didnt realize was probably the fact that we where already on ascent when she noticed anything. Maybe she was overweighted and had a freeflow before we even ascended, but didnt notice since her BCD needed to be full to keep her neutral to begin with? Cant say I noticed any other bubbles from her other than the regulator tho..
Yes, she should have disconnected the hose right away (which I said in the original post).

 

[TSandM]

I just want to throw in that I have hose hats on the inflator hoses on my singles and doubles regs, and use them with two different wings and my dry suit, and I've never had a problem with them getting stuck or impeding getting the hose properly fastened to the inflator.

 

[Scuba Brian]

Am i hearing this right, there are instructors not teaching this? My students are required to, in the shallow end of the pool hold the inflator button down and disconnect the hose without breaking the surface. Using the dump valve and or the deflator/oral inflation button. It's a PADI standard for confined water training pool session 2. Above the surface and below.

 

[ams511]

Brian, I learned this years ago but my OW training was spead over 4 weeks. Now it seems that instructors have really shorted the training time so students tend to forget more. I haven't read all the posts in this thread but most people realized that she could have just unplugged the hose and inflated the BC manually with her exhalations if she needed lift to get off the bottom.

I think one of the problems is most training agencies do not stress practicing skills enough, so when a problem crops up the solution was forgotten soon after class.

 

[mikerault]

My Bare drysuit came with a much better disconnect than this hose hat thing, they just put triangular fins on the side of the connector that allow you to easily get a hold of it in gloves, pops on and off easily without that "tophat" rim to catch on the corragated hose if I use it for the BC inflator diving single with no drysuit.

Mike