Stupid me

[farsidefan1]

Realize how fortunate you were to have learned this lesson at the ladder. Lots of worse scenarios, in fact just about all of them are worse. Having learned it this way I doubt you will ever forget. Congrats on learning an important procedure without harm.

 

[Ben_ca]

Me too.... and I make sure I watch my buddy test his out.

 

[Diver0001]

Be honest -- how many times have you tested your secondary air supply before entering the water? I know in my 50+ dives, I have only put it in my mouth and breathed from it when the instructor told me to do so. Usually I just "test" it by purging it.

Good post.

This just goes to show you that the buddy check is not some optional step to be glossed over. Proper procedure for testing the regulator is for both divers to breathe simultaneous from the regulator (one from the primary and one from the octopus) before the dive. This way any deficiencies in the regulator have the biggest chance of being noticed.

It's odd, isn't it, that the buddy check is where most problems can be avoided and it's the thing that so many divers stop doing (properly) after they're certified.

R..

 

[Rich Keller]

I always breath off both and check the BCD inflator as well. After breathing off each reg I am putting the mouth piece to my ear to listen for the slightest free flow as well. During these tests I also have my eye on the SPG to make sure the tank is on all the way and looking at all the connections to check for leaks. I do these tests before the boat leaves the dock so in the case of a serious problem I can get off the boat or replace the equipment and in the case of a minor problem I have time to fix it before the boat gets on site.

 

[Searcaigh]

BTW The above is like checking the air in your spare tire before a trip.

And probably >99% of drivers do not check their spare ... assuming they have one these days.

 

[Colliam7]

Be honest -- how many times have you tested your secondary air supply before entering the water? I know in my 50+ dives, I have only put it in my mouth and breathed from it when the instructor told me to do so. Usually I just "test" it by purging it.

EVERY DIVE, before entering the water, 3-4 good forceful breaths off both the primary and the alternate second stage. Also, my second stages are always a matched / identical set, whether on a single tank rig or a doubles set up.

I think my buddy and I need to actually breathe from our secondaries each dive before jumping in. And we need to practice buddy breathing. And another good reason to buy a "good" reg for the secondary, not just "something that works".

Yes, yes (presuming you mean alternate air source use), and yes.

Sounds like a great dive! Got to see some really cool creatures, AND learned an important lesson without serious negative consequiences.

 

[DA Aquamaster]

I think more than 1-2 good breaths per reg is wasting gas- at least as a reg check. It does however ensure you've used enough to note a drop in the SPG if the valve is off. On a technical diving configured regulator with just a single second stage and inflator hose, the system's volume is low enough that 2 breaths will do it, even with a long hose primary.

What I've often seen come across the service bench are exhaust valves that are completely glued shut with salt, scum, etc, often to the point that it takes a hot soak or hot ultrasound dip to free them up. Obviously those octos will still deliver gas, but breathing off them would take an extreme degree of both calm and solid understanding of what was wrong.

From time to time I've also seen objects in octos such as sand, silt, kelp, moss, and now and then a dead critters (small hermit crab and a fish). All of the above will potentially block the lever and prevent adequate gas delivery.

Many divers bash the Air 2, and it has it's faults in some aspects of diving, but my take away on it 28 years ago when i started diving was: "It's important to use the alternate air source on e very dive to ensure it gets used and thoroughly flushed on every dive, to ensure it will continue to work on every dive".

Consequently, I think it's far more important to actually use your back up reg on every dive, rather than just test it with a few breathes at the start of the dive and call it good. For a recreational diver, that's readily accommodated with a long hose primary and bungeed octo, as the primary can be clipped off for a few minutes while the diver switches to the octo, building skill in smooth reg switches as well as using the octo on every dive.

 

[RTee]

I always check all the regs I carry with me by breathing through them before every dive. It was also interesting to compare the diaphragms of my double set when we serviced them as you could easily tell which one was the primary (relatively flat) and the secondary (bulging). Since then, I always attempt to use both at some point during the dive. I will also do likewise from time to time (using octo) with my recreational set-up just to ensure proper operation at depth and in the shallow just to ensure proper operation.

 

[Mike]

I think more than 1-2 good breaths per reg is wasting gas- at least as a reg check

Wasting gas? Like the Owl wanting to know how many licks to the center of the tootsie pop, how many breaths are in a tank of air?

If I hit my safety stop with 600 psi, at 15 ft how many breaths do I have left in that tank? 200?300?400? I can't see a couple of breaths making any difference at all, so I've got 398 breaths left in the tank when I board the boat instead of 400. I don't think holding the purge button down for 10 seconds, 3 times to test before a dive would make a bit of difference, let alone a couple of breaths of the tank to test it. There is a huge reserve of gas left over in a typical recreational divers tank at the end of a dive. A couple of breaths pulled on a tank to test it is nothing in the scheme of things, it's like worrying about a grain of sand on the beach.

 

[TSandM]

This is a very good post, and thank you for writing it.

I think one of the problems with people checking their backup regs is that, in the standard configuration, they are often secured by some method that is a pain to reset. This quickly results in divers deciding NOT to pull the reg out of its retainer -- so not only do they not know if the regulator is breathing well, they don't necessarily know if it's even deployable. This is one of the really nice things about the "donate the primary" system with the necklaced backup -- the backup is easy to reach and easy to test, and since it's for YOU, anyway, you have a strong motivation to make sure it's working.

And, btw, although I have skipped or missed a variety of steps in pre-dive checks over the last seven years, I have never gone underwater without having checked both of my regulators. Why skip that step? It's so easy to do . . .