Sherwood Brut "freeze up" ?

[Trever]

We were diving with a group of five divers of yesterday in water temperature of 44 degrees at 80 ffw. The outside air tem was in the lower 80's, We had 3 divers using "cold water' regs and 2 divers using Sherwood Bruts. I/we think that both of the Bruts froze up. The first one "froze" very early into the dive, about 6 minutes, the diver using said that it started to become very dificult to get any air. So he aborted the dive.
The second one "froze" about 20 minutes into the dive. Her reg had the same symtoms, it became very hard to breathe off the reg. She continued to use the reg for her assent and said it got better when the water warmed. She also said that she has had this problem before in cold water. A few weeks ago we went to 108 feet in 43 degree water and her reg did fine, but we did not stay down long. (13 minutes)

On yesterdays dive there was no task load. The first diver is very new to diving so he may have been breathing harder/ faster than normal. The second diver is fairly comfortable underwater and was under no stress at that time of freeze up.

From what I understand about reg freeze up is that they usualy free flow. Do you think that the regs froze (atleast partialy) or was there another problem. Both divers dove the same regs in the same conditions the day before with no problems.

I would realy like to understand what went on yesterday. Any insight would be much appreciated.

 

[DennisW]

Why the heck would anyone be diving in 44 degree water? I would freeze up.

 

[Scottri]

I dive in water that temp all of the time with an unsealed reg and it's never frozen up. The only time I've ever had one freeze was ice diving. When they freeze up they do free flow. Not as much as if you held down the purge button but they do free flow. I doubt what you had was a freezing problem. I'd take the regs in and have them serviced.

 

[Trever]

Thanks for the insight Scott.

 

[Scuba Cowboy]

A Sherwood Brut is not exactly a high performance reg. Probably failed because it can't handle those extreme conditions. Just my humble opinion.

 

[Ber Rabbit]

Don't rule out narcosis, it's not necessarily the regs though I would take them to have them checked out for safety sake. You're probably right about your newer diver breathing a little faster/harder than normal and not exhaling completely leading to some CO2 buildup which can make narcosis worse. Just because you're not under stress doesn't mean the narcosis can't convince you that you're not getting enough air from your regulator. I know when I'm cold I tend to not breathe correctly; your other diver may have been building up CO2 from failing to exhale completely as well. Since the reg was breathing better as she ascended and the water warmed it really leads me to believe it was narcosis.

When we have a student in the pool who believes their regulator isn't giving enough air we have them switch to octopus while we breathe off their primary to check it. I've never found it hard to breathe off of one of these regs when a student hands it to me. It's a pretty good clue that the student is nervous and needs some extra one-on-one time to get them to relax and breathe normally.
Ber :lilbunny:

 

[Ber Rabbit]

BTW, judging by your location I'm guessing you were at Gilboa. Narcosis at 80 feet there isn't unusual whether you are a newer diver or more experienced as your two divers were. One of my AOW students found out that his narcosis that was easily managed at 120 feet in warm water on a Florida trip last year was a completely different animal at 90 feet in cold water forcing him to abort the dive. He said he was cold enough that he simply couldn't control his breathing even though he was telling himself to take long slow breaths and exhale completely. He ended up narced enough that he thought his computer showed he wasn't ascending after we started to abort (he was). Once we got above 70 feet he got his head together and his breathing under control but he opted not to continue the dive. Everyone is susceptible to narcosis and the susceptibility can vary from day to day and dive to dive.
Ber :lilbunny:

 

[Trever]

BER, we were at Pennyroyal in KY., but your point is well taken. Thanks

 

[Scottri]

I doubt a Sherwood Brut would fail because of the conditions. They are good regs just not the best. I would have it checked then serviced to verify that the req was indeed the problem.

 

[Ber Rabbit]

BER, we were at Pennyroyal in KY., but your point is well taken. Thanks

Never heard of that one, how deep does it go? I'm guessing it's on the western end of the state? The depth was what made me think you'd gone to Gilboa, I wasn't familiar with anything else that had 80 feet. Obviously I learned something new

Anyway, I'd do like the others said, get it checked just in case. I'm betting narcosis is the actual culprit though.
Ber :lilbunny: