Safety Question

[DandyDon]

AT NO TIME DID I SAY THAT I WOULD INFLATE MY BC AND DO AN ASCENT FROM 85 FEET.

Nope...

The regulator hose blowing out brought another situation to mind. We doing a drift dive in about 40 feet of water with strong current. The dive site was Mini Reef out of Puerto Morelos MX. When we surfaced I was joking with my wife that everytime I looked for her she was twenty yards away and going the other direction.

We got in a discussion about what would be the safest thing to do if the regulator hose blew on that drift dive and I could not use my octopus. I say that I should inflate my BC and head for the surface. She thinks that maybe I should try to swim to her and use her octopus, and she would be twentty yards away and going the other direction.

But don't do a buoyant ascent from 40' either. CESA maybe. Use BC lightly for buoyancy control, fully only on surface as a rule.

Well, I hope you have DAN dive insurance, at least the middle plan as the cheapest one is a dog, and you buddy gets better at sticking to your side. Same-ocean diving is kinda not good, but - I got a pony to offset unfortunate buddies,

 

[penguinpete]

Thanks herman I think you figured it out. The dive boat was configured so the tanks were stowed across the stern of the boat. We hit some bad swells at one point and the eight tanks fell forward. They did not hit hard enough to snap the valves, thank god, but it is possible the hose might have been damaged when this happened.

Thanks again.

 

[penguinpete]

Jim,

We approach diving from two different points of view. I would guess that you are a dive professional (dive master, shop owner) and I am a recreational diver. For many years I was lucky to go on one dive trip per year. The last several years I have been able to dive several times per year.

Did I have to learn the terminology for all of the equipment, yes but that was fifteen years ago. I do not own a BC, reg or tank so I have to rent when I go diving. When I am renting equipment and the dive shop is responsible for the equipment does knowing the name of each piece of equipment (except BC, reg, tank, mask and fins) make me a better diver? No. Someone can know the official name for piece of equipment down to the o-ring but that doesn't necessarily make them a good diver.

When do I need to know the name of each piece of equipment? My wife and I are considering buying a BC and reg. When I take the equipment in to have it professionally repaired/maintained I will definitely need to know the terminology.

Concerning leaking regs, I am guessing that you do not rent equipment. I probably get a leaky reg about 40% of the time I dive. This is the nature of rentals. I avoid any shops where I consistently get a leaky reg.

For someone that is genuinely concerned about safety I am a little confused that you would consider a dive master checking air supply "hand holding". I am fine being responsible for my air supply, I do it every dive. The reason that I brought it up was Belize is the only place that the dive master never once check air. We had a father with a young daughter on two dive and a couple that just started diving on four dives. I would have felt better if he would have checked their air at least once.

I hate to tell you that I dove with a couple (did not know them) where the wife ran out of air during the safety stop and had to buddy breath on both dives and this is with the dive master checking air.

We are all at different levels. That is why I posted this in the basic scuba discussion board.

 

[DandyDon]

Jim,

We approach diving from two different points of view. I would guess that you are a dive professional (dive master, shop owner) and I am a recreational diver. For many years I was lucky to go on one dive trip per year. The last several years I have been able to dive several times per year.

Well, some are a bit stronger on some subjects than others, but if you're interested in becoming a safe diver - you might want to consider some suggestions rather than defend a sand castle.

Concerning leaking regs, I am guessing that you do not rent equipment. I probably get a leaky reg about 40% of the time I dive. This is the nature of rentals. I avoid any shops where I consistently get a leaky reg.

I never dive rental regs so not familiar with how true that may be with good ops, but it strikes me as unacceptable. See Saltwater Aspiration Syndrome And there are worse possibilities.

I travel with 3 regs: one for my back gas, one for my pony, and one as a spare. Yeah I own them all, have them professionally serviced, and test dive them before trips.

For someone that is genuinely concerned about safety I am a little confused that you would consider a dive master checking air supply "hand holding". I am fine being responsible for my air supply, I do it every dive. The reason that I brought it up was Belize is the only place that the dive master never once check air. We had a father with a young daughter on two dive and a couple that just started diving on four dives. I would have felt better if he would have checked their air at least once.

I hate to tell you that I dove with a couple (did not know them) where the wife ran out of air during the safety stop and had to buddy breath on both dives and this is with the dive master checking air.

DM checking air is babysitting to me, unless it's to monitor a turn pressure for a group - the only times I can remember being checked of the times I dived with a DM. Sounds like you've dived with some very poor divers who need to hire private DMs.

We are all at different levels. That is why I posted this in the basic scuba discussion board.

Maybe I am not understanding you? Do you want to learn or defend your sandcastle?

I see you're not answering about your dive insurance.

 

[herman]

........................................DM checking air is babysitting to me, unless it's to monitor a turn pressure for a group - the only times I can remember being checked of the times I dived with a DM. Sounds like you've dived with some very poor divers who need to hire private DMs.
.........

Babysitting or not a good DM is going to ask your air pressure at least several times on a dive. If I am DMing you will be ask several times during a dive and you will respond one way or another to my request. I have more than once checked someone’s SPG. With a group of divers I do not know, the only way I can be sure that they have an appropriate amount of gas is to check periodically. No doubt they are responsible for their safety but so am I and the only way I can be sure I don't have someone about to be in a low air condition is to do a pressure check a couple of times during the dive. How much I do it depends on the dive and how well I know the diver(s). Buddies I know well, I check at the beginning just to make sure neither of us missed something and again around 1/2 tank. With unknown divers regardless of their "experience" they get checked every 500psi (my usage) until I know their SAC rates and am confident they are also keeping up with it. Babysitting it may be but as a DM I much prefer to pester good divers about their air pressure than to have to deal with an OOA diver who was not paying attention....and we all know they are out there.

 

[pnw_diver]

Assuming they were AL tanks, way too much pressure. The hose between the first and second stages would not likely have blown from this at it would have been stepped down to about 140-110 psi. In the case of such an over-pressure the most likely point of failure would have been the burst disk, which would have emptied your tank in record time.

3000psi tanks are hydro tested at 5000psi, and IIRC, have burst disks that are designed to fail at 5000psi. Not that filling an AL80 to 3900psi is a good idea, but it likely would not cause the burst disk to fail.

 

[Crush]

3000psi tanks are hydro tested at 5000psi, and IIRC, have burst disks that are designed to fail at 5000psi. Not that filling an AL80 to 3900psi is a good idea, but it likely would not cause the burst disk to fail.

All true. However, it is way too much pressure and the most likely failure point is the burst disk. A tank out of vis for five years is not likely to blow with a 3900 fill unless you have abused it. Try filling that same tank to 3900 psi when the burst disk is as old as the tank is out of vis - good chance the disk will fail.

 

[stargazer61]

Babysitting or not a good DM is going to ask your air pressure at least several times on a dive. If I am DMing you will be ask several times during a dive and you will respond one way or another to my request. I have more than once checked someone’s SPG. With a group of divers I do not know, the only way I can be sure that they have an appropriate amount of gas is to check periodically. No doubt they are responsible for their safety but so am I and the only way I can be sure I don't have someone about to be in a low air condition is to do a pressure check a couple of times during the dive. How much I do it depends on the dive and how well I know the diver(s). Buddies I know well, I check at the beginning just to make sure neither of us missed something and again around 1/2 tank. With unknown divers regardless of their "experience" they get checked every 500psi (my usage) until I know their SAC rates and am confident they are also keeping up with it. Babysitting it may be but as a DM I much prefer to pester good divers about their air pressure than to have to deal with an OOA diver who was not paying attention....and we all know they are out there.

I've always assumed the DM was asking for turn pressure reasons. I can understand you wanting to monitor air on those fresh out of OW course perhaps. But on the other hand if this was the general approach it could easily result in divers getting into the habit of only checking when asked by the DM, that wouldn't be great.

 

[ktomlinson]

lugging gear around the world isnt the most thrilling thing to do, especially on the way back if you dont get a good hot day to dry everything before leaving. At the very least, buy yourself a regulator and take it with you. forget the risk involved and the quality it will bring to your dive will be enough to justify doing so.

 

[stargazer61]

lugging gear around the world isnt the most thrilling thing to do, especially on the way back if you dont get a good hot day to dry everything before leaving. At the very least, buy yourself a regulator and take it with you. forget the risk involved and the quality it will bring to your dive will be enough to justify doing so.

And an air-integrated computer is handy and easy to carry. It is not uncommon for dive groups to all be "sharing" the DM's computer. I did two dives in Greece last month where the instruction was "don't go deeper than me" and apart from that pressure groups, nitrogen loading and surface intervals got no mention. This seems to be fairly normal in some places.