Scuba Death in Cozumel Early this Week???
- Thread starter got4boyz
- Start date
Please register or login
Welcome to ScubaBoard, the world's largest scuba diving community. Registration is not required to read the forums, but we encourage you to join. Joining has its benefits and enables you to participate in the discussions.
Benefits of registering include
- Ability to post and comment on topics and discussions.
- A Free photo gallery to share your dive photos with the world.
- You can make this box go away
scubafool
Contributor
I think I've been convinced to take my razor knife to my hose protectors. Here is my routine. Gearing up for dive: Set out all gear & make sure everything that I need for the dive is there. Put BC onto my tank, than pick up BC AND tank by the top of my BC & shake REALLY HARD. Now is the time to find out if the tank is going to slip. (Yes, I've had one slip, but only once) Check O-ring on tank, then hook up up reg, BC hose, clip of console. Turn SPG face down & crack tank valve, after about 30 seconds, I check tank pressure. Then I breathe off of both regs for a couple of deep breaths, then attach my secondary. Defog mask, check the strap & buckles on mask, check strap & buckles on fins, look over BC straps & buckles. Put on suit, put on weight belt. Get into BC & adjust. Check tank valve to make sure that it is turned on (this also makes sure I can reach the valve in case I'm in the midst of a stupid fit & just turned it off).Grab mask & fins & get to the entry point. Then I put on my mask & fins. NOW I FULLY INFLATE MY BC UNTIL THE BACK DUMP VALVE LETS GO. That lets me know that my tank is turned on, my inflator valve works, & that my BC still holds air.. Put my reg in my mouth & start to breathe. Now I get in the water with my valve on (checked multiple times), mask & fins on & ready to use if need be, BC fully inflated so I will float in case I forgot any of the above, & reg in my mouth just in case. Then my buddy & I do a shallow buddy check. NOW we can do our dive. During the dive I'll flood my mask multiple times & then clear it, I'll take my mask off, put it back on & clear it, take it off & swim for a while. I also remove my weightbelt & put it back on regularly, do the same with my BC. Every few dives my buddy & I practice swimming while sharing air, finding our own & eachother's alternate, signals. What else could I/we do to lessen the risk of an emergency & better prepare ourselves for one? I truly would like any suggestions anyone could offer.
You know, this is really interesting. In Cozumel, my friend almost drowned (5th dive) by getting a regulator (RENTAL set) from a smaller dive shop there that gave her a mix of air and saltwater suddenly at 60'. She paniced and took the reg out of her mouth at 60'. The DM shoved it back in two times on the way up to the surface. At the surface, her lips were blue but she was still conscious. She had inhaled a lot of saltwater. Overnight at the hospital and she was OK. Here's the scary part - diving two days later...my other girlfriend got the exact same reg set - and it also failed on her. She didn't panic, just swallowed the water and ascended. Second scary part, neither of them ever thought to reach for their seconds. The DM that day, just briefly took the basic parts apart and declared it functioning while on the boat. THAT ended our going with that dive op ever again!
TropicalDiver:
Who was this operator????
Semper Safe,
Rick
Studio Blue
Snowbear:
Good point, not all new divers are comfortable with plugging in the LP hose to the inflator, some have more difficulty than others.
So:
Leave it plugged in, and don't cheat unless you have too.
Thanks for pointing out the obvious Snowbear. At times I forget that translating what we do to what others may follow leaves out one important fact. We do not know what skill level the reader is, and have to be very carefull to recommend *the* safest possible course of action.
Regulator faceplates don't just pop off, at least not on ones that have been serviced and maintained properly. I have too agree that this would seem to be the cause of the problem. However I would also like to know just how the BC inflator assembly came loose? It may have been pulled off in the ensuing panic, however that's only a guess.
I had an older regulator that started running wet a few years ago. As I descended deeper it got worse too the point that I was sucking air through water. Switched to my octo and tried to see if I could locate the problem under the water, you know, a weed or other foreign object stuck in the exhaust diaphram. Saw nothing, and called the dive. However if the regulator just fell apart and I suddenly sucked a lung full of water what would have happened? I would like to think that I would think my way through it. But thats just something you cannot practice, your instincts and reflexes may just override your conscious mind and take over. The only thing we can do is drill OOA over and over again, in the hopes that it will make reaching for your alternate a strong enough reflex to help in a situation like that. The fact that I own all my own gear, and pride myself on it being very well maintained should lessen the chances of this happening to near zero.
I have to say that the regulator failing to remain intact may very well be the cause of this completely avoidable death. But hopefully the investigation should bring all the facts to light.
I had an older regulator that started running wet a few years ago. As I descended deeper it got worse too the point that I was sucking air through water. Switched to my octo and tried to see if I could locate the problem under the water, you know, a weed or other foreign object stuck in the exhaust diaphram. Saw nothing, and called the dive. However if the regulator just fell apart and I suddenly sucked a lung full of water what would have happened? I would like to think that I would think my way through it. But thats just something you cannot practice, your instincts and reflexes may just override your conscious mind and take over. The only thing we can do is drill OOA over and over again, in the hopes that it will make reaching for your alternate a strong enough reflex to help in a situation like that. The fact that I own all my own gear, and pride myself on it being very well maintained should lessen the chances of this happening to near zero.
I have to say that the regulator failing to remain intact may very well be the cause of this completely avoidable death. But hopefully the investigation should bring all the facts to light.
I did have a regulator where the face plate came off, luckily it was after a dive. The face plate was basically just the rubber diaphragm with a metal ring to secure it. After a dive i noticed the metal ring was missing and found it lieing on the dive deck, dont k now how it came off it wasnt after a service or anything like that.
Last season i saw a panic (luckily from no deeper than the safety stop), where the tie wrap on the mouthpiece must have come loose so it just came away from the 2nd Stage and the guy just bolted to the surface, not pretty, and I should have thought to check mine better but last week waiting to climb back on the boat (surface for me so not so bad), mine did exactly the same, big mouthfull of water. It was quite strange as i could still feel my bite on the reg but first instincts didnt let me realise what had happened until i saw the 2nd stage away in front of me
Last season i saw a panic (luckily from no deeper than the safety stop), where the tie wrap on the mouthpiece must have come loose so it just came away from the 2nd Stage and the guy just bolted to the surface, not pretty, and I should have thought to check mine better but last week waiting to climb back on the boat (surface for me so not so bad), mine did exactly the same, big mouthfull of water. It was quite strange as i could still feel my bite on the reg but first instincts didnt let me realise what had happened until i saw the 2nd stage away in front of me
diverrick
Contributor
Two weeks ago I had my octo Cover and diaphrgm come up missing after Dive #1. Good thing I didn't need it.
Reg was serviced about 4 months prior, and a second Dive shop also looked itover while changing some other parts.
On the day of the dive, it ops checked fine. I did not see anything wrong with it when I started the first dive.
The cover threaded on, and I find it hard to believe that it went around enough to fully unscrew. I never found the missing parts to discover how it came off, but I have to assume it cracked across the threads, thus allowing it to fall off rather than unscrew. I did however notice afterwards that there was no method of locking this cover into place as a redundant backup to prevent just such an occurance. I guess the LDS could have put it on incorrectly during the servicing, but it certainly looked and operated fine right up until the time it departed the reg. So it is possable for it to happen. BTDT
Reg was serviced about 4 months prior, and a second Dive shop also looked itover while changing some other parts.
On the day of the dive, it ops checked fine. I did not see anything wrong with it when I started the first dive.
The cover threaded on, and I find it hard to believe that it went around enough to fully unscrew. I never found the missing parts to discover how it came off, but I have to assume it cracked across the threads, thus allowing it to fall off rather than unscrew. I did however notice afterwards that there was no method of locking this cover into place as a redundant backup to prevent just such an occurance. I guess the LDS could have put it on incorrectly during the servicing, but it certainly looked and operated fine right up until the time it departed the reg. So it is possable for it to happen. BTDT
Similar threads
