My husband and I just returned from spending the holiday in Cancun. This was an unplanned, last minute trip. We were both supposed to have our gear serviced back in September, but as we did not plan on doing any more diving this year, we decided to put it off until next year. When the trip came up, we decided to dive with our own gear even though it had not been serviced. MY mistake and I completely own up to it.
First dive day we decided to do a couple of easy reef dives...30' max depth with zero current to give ourselves a chance to get weighted properly, test out the gear, etc. Once we got on the boat, a single diver began asking if anyone was DIR certified. No one on the boat was. My husband offered up the fact that I was a divemaster (bless his heart...NOT) and, since no one else on the boat held a similar certification level, our single diver decided that we should be buddies. I explained that my husband and I were buddies, but after listening to him for 10 minutes I finally relented and offered to dive as a three person buddy team. This was still unacceptable so I finally agreed to be his buddy. Mistake #2...never pick up an insta-buddy if you already have a buddy traveling with you, even if his certification level indicates that he would be a good one.
We geared up, went through our pre-dive buddy check. My new buddy was very thorough and asked alot of questions about my gear set-up. I am not a tech diver, but my regulator is on a 5 foot hose. The hose comes up under my arm and I have a swivel which allows the reg to sit in my mouth without the normal sideways pull you get with a normal gear setup. Again, not a tech diver...just personal preference.
We enter the water and start the dive. At about a depth of 20 feet, the O-Ring in the swivel blows and my reg starts free flowing out of the swivel. At this point, not a big deal. I have 3,000 psi in my tank, I can still breathe off the reg with no problem and I am only 20' down. Game plan is to signal to my buddy to buddy up with my husband, signal to the DM that I am returning to the boat, surface, turn off my tank and return to the boat which is still directly above me.
Unfortunately, my buddy has other ideas. Just as I start to look for him, my regulator is ripped out of my mouth...on an inhale. I go from calmly looking around for my buddy to sucking in a lungful of saltwater and immediately start choking. Next thing I know, my buddy has shoved another reg in my mouth so forcefully that I originally thought the guy had broken one of my teeth. He grabs my BC, pulls the rip cord to dump my weights (I have a Zeagle Ranger) and starts hauling me to the surface at a rate which my computer did not like at all judging by all the beeping that was going on. Once we break the surface, he grabs my inflator hose and blows me up like a baloon, even though there was no chance of me sinking without weights.
At this point I'm on the surface, my reg is still free flowing because the tank had not been turned off yet, I'm trying like hell to stop coughing and this guy is hauling me back to the boat. I finally get back to the boat and spent the rest of my surface time (I actually was able to make the second dive...wasn't a bad o-ring just that the screw on the swivel wasn't tightened down) listening to this guy tell everyone how he had saved my life.
Lessons learned...
1.) ALWAYS service your gear on time
2.) NEVER give up a buddy to dive with someone you don't know
3.) A better trained diver does not make a better diver
First dive day we decided to do a couple of easy reef dives...30' max depth with zero current to give ourselves a chance to get weighted properly, test out the gear, etc. Once we got on the boat, a single diver began asking if anyone was DIR certified. No one on the boat was. My husband offered up the fact that I was a divemaster (bless his heart...NOT) and, since no one else on the boat held a similar certification level, our single diver decided that we should be buddies. I explained that my husband and I were buddies, but after listening to him for 10 minutes I finally relented and offered to dive as a three person buddy team. This was still unacceptable so I finally agreed to be his buddy. Mistake #2...never pick up an insta-buddy if you already have a buddy traveling with you, even if his certification level indicates that he would be a good one.
We geared up, went through our pre-dive buddy check. My new buddy was very thorough and asked alot of questions about my gear set-up. I am not a tech diver, but my regulator is on a 5 foot hose. The hose comes up under my arm and I have a swivel which allows the reg to sit in my mouth without the normal sideways pull you get with a normal gear setup. Again, not a tech diver...just personal preference.
We enter the water and start the dive. At about a depth of 20 feet, the O-Ring in the swivel blows and my reg starts free flowing out of the swivel. At this point, not a big deal. I have 3,000 psi in my tank, I can still breathe off the reg with no problem and I am only 20' down. Game plan is to signal to my buddy to buddy up with my husband, signal to the DM that I am returning to the boat, surface, turn off my tank and return to the boat which is still directly above me.
Unfortunately, my buddy has other ideas. Just as I start to look for him, my regulator is ripped out of my mouth...on an inhale. I go from calmly looking around for my buddy to sucking in a lungful of saltwater and immediately start choking. Next thing I know, my buddy has shoved another reg in my mouth so forcefully that I originally thought the guy had broken one of my teeth. He grabs my BC, pulls the rip cord to dump my weights (I have a Zeagle Ranger) and starts hauling me to the surface at a rate which my computer did not like at all judging by all the beeping that was going on. Once we break the surface, he grabs my inflator hose and blows me up like a baloon, even though there was no chance of me sinking without weights.
At this point I'm on the surface, my reg is still free flowing because the tank had not been turned off yet, I'm trying like hell to stop coughing and this guy is hauling me back to the boat. I finally get back to the boat and spent the rest of my surface time (I actually was able to make the second dive...wasn't a bad o-ring just that the screw on the swivel wasn't tightened down) listening to this guy tell everyone how he had saved my life.
Lessons learned...
1.) ALWAYS service your gear on time
2.) NEVER give up a buddy to dive with someone you don't know
3.) A better trained diver does not make a better diver
(that's me by the way)
