transferring scuba regulator from tank to tank underwater?

[knowone]

Happened to me once near East Germany. Loosened my harness so that I could reach all the important bits, twin 100's blah blah blah. Don't purge anything, opened good tank slightly, air pocket and screwed in my first. Position of either was not an option. Quick purge, lots of breaths, heart rate almost back to normal whew. I was surprised that water didn't come gushing out like I had my garden hose in my mouth. Anyways I wanted to keep diving but where was my redundancy now? Murphy must have figured that he couldn't get me twice when he saw me tapping out some morse on the hull of a passing submarine, making sure of course not to damage the DIN thread. As I was having lunch with the captain, bit of a language barrier but we were both underwater men and the vodka helped, the tech walked in. He told Vladmir that he couldn't find any perceptible water ingestion because even though I had sucked my hoses concave before 1st stage removal they are still an air space and the sintered filter and HP, less than pinhole size orifices had acted as partial seals. This would be depth subjective. Also save human intervention the regs would last at least 100 yrs. He knew of my SPG concern and was going to soak it in warm water then blow it out, but supplies were low and the crew, well. Time to go. Have patience, not from the forum yet, didn't have any spare rubles on me so I gave Vlad the diveshop, how much could air cost, its only air and you had all the stuff here anyway speel and if you're ever diving my way and I'm driving past in a sub and decamped.
MY BUDDY!!!! So up I shoot oops start surfacing, All a blurr. Which bubbles? Am I following a catostylus mosaicus? Am I narced, vodka'd? Then I see it. A hanging human at 10 ft aghast, Marty Feldman eyes. We had survived another dive. We were Ok.
Yes my bud was still there but remember dive time was the twinkle of a star, not the time a twinkle takes to get here.
Saving a fortune on cyalume sticks, must have used Strontium reg grease.
Any readers that have lasted this long may imagine there is some artistic licence involved here. You are correct. I was diving solo.
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[spectrum]

Maybe I missed it between the pages of posts but this has all been covered in Sea Hunt; Season2, Episode 9. You just move the regulator from tank to tank and complete the dive. Sure some amount of water will get into places where you don't want it but its not going to instantly corrode and fail. We're talking survival here, what's a little post dive service!

Of course in the day there was so SPG to worry about and a lot of the filming took place in crystal clear fresh spring water but the theory is still sound.

Pete

 

[Puffer Fish]

Maybe I missed it between the pages of posts but this has all been covered in Sea Hunt; Season2, Episode 9. You just move the regulator from tank to tank and complete the dive. Sure some amount of water will get into places where you don't want it but its not going to instantly corrode and fail. We're talking survival here, what's a little post dive service!

Of course in the day there was so SPG to worry about and a lot of the filming took place in crystal clear fresh spring water but the theory is still sound.

Pete

Ah, the recover the Nuke before it explodes episode...how could anyone forget that?

In the old days, we were taught to breath off of just about anything that had air...which included tank valves....and if you owned a fenzy... breathing off of your vest and changing regulators. Why did we do this? Don't have a clue, except that everyone was convinced that it all would break and we would be without air.

But then I never could figure out why we would jump off a boat with all our gear in our arms and put it on at the bottom...

 

[wadedeeper]

Your buddy is playing with you. I had a few course directors ask that very same question when I was a Divemaster and its meant to make you stop and think...

Truth is that though its possible to switch while underwater, and unless you find an air pocket large enough to bring the stages out of the water...you're going to get water in the system somewhere or somehow.

I would recommend answering his question with a question. Ask him what purpose there is to switch if diving within recreational limits with a buddy and adhering to the dive plan and knowing how much air your buddy has at all times? Whereas while diving tec you may be forced to perform such a feat, you would really never have to under any other circumstance.

 

[Trace Malinowski]

Hi there,

I am a Divemaster and a friend of mine who is an Instructor asked me how would you transfer a scuba regulator from one tank to another underwater, if one tank was out of air(but has a good reg) and the other tanks regulator had malfunctioned (second stage and octo but tank is full) without flooding the reg?,

I cant think of an answer for him and dont know of any tricks to do this or even if it is possible to do it without flooding the good reg, I have the feeling he knows something and is trying to trick/test my knowledge

any answers/solutions would be appreciated,.....he is a real smartass

Swim up into the moon pool hatch of the Jules' Undersea Lodge. Remove gear in the wet room. Rinse off in the shower. Change into jeans and T-shirt. Grab a Coca-Cola from the refrigerator. Microwave a piece of pizza. Watch a DVD. Have another piece of pizza. Finish the Coca-Cola. Call a friend to make arrangements to have the bad regulator serviced. Invite him for a BBQ chicken dinner in the habitat if he picks it up and takes the reg to Silent World. Switch regulators while listening to The Rolling Stones on the stereo.

Be luxurious. Think big!