I experienced the following incident during a previous trip to Cozumel. No one I've talked to has ever heard of it happening. Any ideas/comments would be most welcome.
We were on our fourth day diving that trip, on a shallow afternoon dive, after having dived twice that morning. A few minutes into the dive, I noticed uneven delivery of air to my regulator. The problem gradually grew worse. I switched to my octo, but had the same problem. By about 15 minutes into the dive, the problem had gotten to the point that I could basically no longer get any air from my primary or backup regulators. I alerted my dive buddy, then used my Spare Air to surface. At the surface, I had to orally inflate my BC - no air supply. The boat came over and picked me up, no problem.
I immediately told the guys on the boat to mark the tank for inspection. They were sure it was my gear. I was sure it wasn't. My Atomic B2 has never let me down, and I've dived with it all over the world. Besides, I'd just had it serviced, as I do normally twice a year, having all internal parts replaced with new ones.
Long story short: Back on shore, we went immediately to the tech/repair people with my gear and the tank. They spent about a half-hour thoroughly checking, then pronounced my gear to be in perfect condition ("like new" they said). The next day, I dove with my same gear three dives, and the same for the rest of our stay without a single difficulty.
So what was the problem? The tank was almost full of air - I'd used little. My gear was perfect. One guy mumbled something about oxidation, but in an aluminum tank? No one could explain it.
Was this some million to one mishap? Any ideas out there?
We were on our fourth day diving that trip, on a shallow afternoon dive, after having dived twice that morning. A few minutes into the dive, I noticed uneven delivery of air to my regulator. The problem gradually grew worse. I switched to my octo, but had the same problem. By about 15 minutes into the dive, the problem had gotten to the point that I could basically no longer get any air from my primary or backup regulators. I alerted my dive buddy, then used my Spare Air to surface. At the surface, I had to orally inflate my BC - no air supply. The boat came over and picked me up, no problem.
I immediately told the guys on the boat to mark the tank for inspection. They were sure it was my gear. I was sure it wasn't. My Atomic B2 has never let me down, and I've dived with it all over the world. Besides, I'd just had it serviced, as I do normally twice a year, having all internal parts replaced with new ones.
Long story short: Back on shore, we went immediately to the tech/repair people with my gear and the tank. They spent about a half-hour thoroughly checking, then pronounced my gear to be in perfect condition ("like new" they said). The next day, I dove with my same gear three dives, and the same for the rest of our stay without a single difficulty.
So what was the problem? The tank was almost full of air - I'd used little. My gear was perfect. One guy mumbled something about oxidation, but in an aluminum tank? No one could explain it.
Was this some million to one mishap? Any ideas out there?
