Spotting for a valve drill

[TSandM]

I had an interesting experience last night that I wanted to share.

I was doing a valve drill, with my buddy watching. The drill started with a mistake -- I didn't purge my backup reg before I shut off the supply to the primary. I closed my right post, breathed the primary reg down, and took it out of my mouth and clipped it off. I reached for my secondary . . . and I couldn't find it. (Sometimes it gets pulled off to the side, I don't know why.) I groped around my neck and right shoulder, came up with the turned off primary reg, reached up behind my neck and grabbed the long hose . . . Anyway, the long and short of it was that I reached a point where I was going to need something to breathe and still hadn't found the secondary reg, which later turned out to be sitting on top of my right shoulder.

My buddy was now a little off to my side, and I don't know this person very well (never dove with him before), so I made the decision to turn my right post back on and just resume using my primary reg, rather than signal OOA. I was able to do that, but I was awfully glad to get the reg back in my mouth when I did.

When we debriefed the dive, I asked my buddy if he had seen what happened, and he said no. He said he was watching what I was doing with the valves, not what I was doing with my mouth. Pretty clearly, he was being vigilant to make sure I didn't turn off both posts, which is great.

But my point in posting the story is that any number of things can go wrong when you are doing a valve drill. One should ALWAYS confirm the availability and function of an alternate air supply before shutting down a post. It's not a trivial part of the drill. And when someone is deliberately shutting off their air supply, the person spotting really needs to be watching everything that's going on. This is another place where I think it's possible to get too comfortable because of doing drills all the time, and I'm sure I'm guilty of not being as carefully observant as I ought to be when my very facile buddy is twiddling with his valves.

 

[Meng_Tze]

I had an interesting experience last night that I wanted to share.

I was doing a valve drill, with my buddy watching. The drill started with a mistake -- I didn't purge my backup reg before I shut off the supply to the primary. I closed my right post, breathed the primary reg down, and took it out of my mouth and clipped it off. I reached for my secondary . . . and I couldn't find it. (Sometimes it gets pulled off to the side, I don't know why.) I groped around my neck and right shoulder, came up with the turned off primary reg, reached up behind my neck and grabbed the long hose . . . Anyway, the long and short of it was that I reached a point where I was going to need something to breathe and still hadn't found the secondary reg, which later turned out to be sitting on top of my right shoulder.

My buddy was now a little off to my side, and I don't know this person very well (never dove with him before), so I made the decision to turn my right post back on and just resume using my primary reg, rather than signal OOA. I was able to do that, but I was awfully glad to get the reg back in my mouth when I did.

When we debriefed the dive, I asked my buddy if he had seen what happened, and he said no. He said he was watching what I was doing with the valves, not what I was doing with my mouth. Pretty clearly, he was being vigilant to make sure I didn't turn off both posts, which is great.

But my point in posting the story is that any number of things can go wrong when you are doing a valve drill. One should ALWAYS confirm the availability and function of an alternate air supply before shutting down a post. It's not a trivial part of the drill. And when someone is deliberately shutting off their air supply, the person spotting really needs to be watching everything that's going on. This is another place where I think it's possible to get too comfortable because of doing drills all the time, and I'm sure I'm guilty of not being as carefully observant as I ought to be when my very facile buddy is twiddling with his valves.

Nice post. But I would imagine that IF you had signaled OOA, you would have gotten gas right? To be honest, maybe I would be in the same situation as well: not sure what you are doing, but as long as you don't shut down both regs, and you don't give me an OOA signal..... fiddle to your hearts content. We would have an interesting debrief on the surface though..

 

[limeyx]

I had an interesting experience last night that I wanted to share.

...
But my point in posting the story is that any number of things can go wrong when you are doing a valve drill. One should ALWAYS confirm the availability and function of an alternate air supply before shutting down a post. It's not a trivial part of the drill. And when someone is deliberately shutting off their air supply, the person spotting really needs to be watching everything that's going on. This is another place where I think it's possible to get too comfortable because of doing drills all the time, and I'm sure I'm guilty of not being as carefully observant as I ought to be when my very facile buddy is twiddling with his valves.

Which is also the purpose of signalling side to side with your light when shutting down a post...

 

[ArcticDiver]

Thanks for the post Lynn. It also points out the need for a really good pre-dive briefing when diving with a stranger and one or the other is going to practice an emergency procedure. Shutting off a portion of one's gas supply certainly qualifies as an emergency procedure although we refer to it with the mundane name of "valve drill".

 

[TSandM]

Well, I HAD signalled side to side . . .

It really was a decision I had to make in my mind, which was going to be faster to get reliable air, to turn my post back on or do an OOA. I hadn't ever done the drill with this diver, and I just decided it would be quicker to do it myself.

I think it's possible that, if someone had been watching what I was doing with the regulators, they might have picked up on the fact that I never went onto my secondary reg, and might actually have been sitting there with a reg ready when I realized I was in a bit of a muddle. I think my GUE instructor would have. I'm not criticizing my buddy, because I think I would have missed this, too. I just wanted to reiterate that drills that involve turning off your breathing gas supply aren't a minor deal.

 

[texdiveguy]

Glad this time all turned out well for you....and wishing many more good dives to you.

 

[piikki]

I think what you could take from this, too, is that quit before your options are narrowed too much. I don’t know how worried you were of buddy not giving gas fast enough but sounds like a fair bit in the end. Since it was a drill, you could have quit looking for the secondary before you risked having to fumble reopening your valve. If you signaled a little earlier, you would have had time for your buddy to not ‘get it’ immediately.

I might be talking from my hind but I have a tendency to stubbornly try on my own a bit too long - maybe you too. I value solving the problem myself a lot but I am really trying to learn to understand to quit in time too. There is not much to achieve in snorting water, lot more in training buddy to be more alert – and being aware of unaware buddy.

 

[TSandM]

Yeah, it had occurred to me, as I was fumbling to unclip my reg, that maybe I had made the wrong choice in the first place, but at that point, it really was faster to finish what I was doing. If my buddy had been directly facing me so we could have made eye contact, I probably would have tried to ask where my secondary was, and failing that, gone OOA, but being unable to make eye contact, I just had the feeling that it might be faster to take care of it myself. I managed, but I'm not sure what I'd do if faced with that situation again, which I hopefully won't be because I'LL REMEMBER TO PURGE THE SECONDARY REG.

 

[Meng_Tze]

I think my GUE instructor would have. I'm not criticizing my buddy, because I think I would have missed this, too. I just wanted to reiterate that drills that involve turning off your breathing gas supply aren't a minor deal.

Thats the thing isn't it? This was no training course with an instructor.... but a practice dive, or a simply a normal dive.... so one can fairly assume that the divers at hand (GUE trained in this case I imagine) would be fine with how they handle themselves. Again, even though I personally would have caught on the fact that buddy is trying to do a valve drill, I would let buddy fiddle to hearts content as long as buddy does not shut down both posts and signals OOA.

There is something to be said for a nice pre-dive agreement on what is going to be done. But in real life, things just happen and sometimes you just (both buddies) have to wing it and be ready for it.... so some times you don't have that much of a pre-dive give away of what drills we are going to do. Obviously your comfort with the buddy is crucial here......

 

[ScubaMilo]

Well, I HAD signalled side to side . . .

It really was a decision I had to make in my mind, which was going to be faster to get reliable air, to turn my post back on or do an OOA. I hadn't ever done the drill with this diver, and I just decided it would be quicker to do it myself.

I think it's possible that, if someone had been watching what I was doing with the regulators, they might have picked up on the fact that I never went onto my secondary reg, and might actually have been sitting there with a reg ready when I realized I was in a bit of a muddle. I think my GUE instructor would have. I'm not criticizing my buddy, because I think I would have missed this, too. I just wanted to reiterate that drills that involve turning off your breathing gas supply aren't a minor deal.

Lynne,

Without trying to be overly critical.
I think once again we are seperating a drill type dive from a real dive.
Isn't the point of the drill to practice for a real failure?
In the event of a real failure opening that valve back up may or may not have been a real option.
Going to your buddy for help may have been a better choice.
Now I understand that this was a drill and that you knew that the reg was fine but...

I think the mistake was made well before you didn't purge the reg.
It was when you decided to make a dive with someone you were not confident could donate air to you in a timely manner.
I think you must have a confidence in your teams ability to help you or it will lead to bad decisions.
When our team practices valve drills the S-drill always precedes the valve drill (especially if the team mate is new to the team).
That way you are confident that if something goes wrong your teammate can donate properly and quickly.

Just my 2 cents
Milo