What-If Scenario's, What would YOU do?

[NewFloridaDiver]

I myself would do a free flow acsent just press on the purge and sip the air all the way to the surface. Hopefully my buddy would turn around soon and see all the bubbles coming from me and head up to assist.(I said it was leaking water not that you didnt have any air)

You're lucky to have a cool head about such things. Not all people do! See this thread about what can happen when you experience a Wet Regulator... http://www.scubaboard.com/showthread.php?t=191367

 

[booth22]

How about this one.... diving with two buddies, 55 degree water and 10 foot vis. At 60 feet you realized you are having issues getting trapped air from the legs of your drysuit and your two buddies are swimming ahead of you into the murkiness. You've tried as much as you can to get the air from the suit, but no luck. As you try to keep up on the swim back to shore you realized the gradual slope ascent is starting to make you rise. With your buddies fin tips just about to disappear ahead of you, do you try to track them down (dealing with the slow ascent- and increase in air in your suit) , head back deeper solo to get your bouyancy under control and deal with the trapped air, or some other option? Oh and it's a sandy bottom so there isn't anything to grab to hold yourself down and you only have a small light which is pretty much useless for signaling buddies at this point.

 

[sea nmf]

If I got entangled in monofilament, I'd try to identify where I was caught and cut the line. I'd also immediately signal my buddy and indicate my plight. If I were separated from my buddy (in which case, shame on me AND him), this is one of the few times when removing one's gear underwater might be necessary. Luckily, since I don't dive weight integrated, I could do that without too much hardship.
QUOTE]

A couple of thoughts:

If you didn't see the monofillament, perhaps your buddy didn't either and you are both entangled.

I think about this a lot, for some reason. I always think that removing your gear is a viable option. I do carry shears but only one pair.

I have actually removed my BC (weight intergrated) in order to re-secure the tank to the BC because my buddy (a new diver) was unable to secure it. It was a bit of a rodeo because I didn't think about the weights being in the BC and not on me before I tried it, but I managed it. I was aware that I was only in 40' of water and could easily do a CESA if need be. Also, I wear a dive skin, not a wet suit so my bouyancy wasn't as much as it would have been otherwise.

Now I have a BP and don't carry extra weight on me, so if the situation arose, I'd be in the same boat as with a w/i BC. And removing the BP/W is more cumbersome than the BC in that you have the crotch strap (which is one more place to get entangled if you remove your equipment). Hmmm. I guess I have to rethink this now with the new equipment.

 

[piikki]

How about this one.... diving with two buddies, 55 degree water and 10 foot vis. At 60 feet you realized you are having issues getting trapped air from the legs of your drysuit and your two buddies are swimming ahead of you into the murkiness. You've tried as much as you can to get the air from the suit, but no luck. As you try to keep up on the swim back to shore you realized the gradual slope ascent is starting to make you rise. With your buddies fin tips just about to disappear ahead of you, do you try to track them down (dealing with the slow ascent- and increase in air in your suit) , head back deeper solo to get your bouyancy under control and deal with the trapped air, or some other option?

oh, this sounds more like me If I do not have a light out to signal buddy/buddies to stop, and they insist on proceeding to area that is an obvious danger to me (uncontrolled ascent), I would opt to stop even if it meant I am now alone. My regular buddy should soon realize to return.

I would not descend much as I would hope I would not have overshot too much before realizing I am in trouble with trapped air. If there is anything safe to grab onto, I would not move much at all. My priority would be to get my buoyancy in control, and since in this scenario there are two other divers, I am not too worried about their safety. They have each others anyway. If I had to, I would try to go back down the way we were coming, so buddies would relocate me easier. After getting myself in control, and if I still saw no buddies I would head up to surface as soon as safe assuming I am now "a lost diver".

 

[Tim Greaves]

I'm not sure what forum this should go into, so please Mr. Mod, move it where feasable or possibly start a sub-forum because I think this would be a valid forum, Thanks!

I'm curious to see people post various what-if scenarios and then read the varied responses that would likely come from them. Simple, "What would you do if...?"

So I'll start with this scenario; You're diving with a group of new OW divers in a murky quarry or other low-vis (5'-10') place at about 70'. You can see your buddy and a few others but they are hard to see. All of a sudden an errant fin-kick takes your mask away and your 2nd out of your mouth, and hurts bad! Now all of a sudden, you can't see anything, your mask is gone, but you manage to get your 2nd back in your mouth. Now you can't see your buddy, you've probably shot up a bit from kicking.
What would you do?

... Grab the guy by his fin and stab him with my dive knife.. Then put my mask back on and proceed as though nothing happend..

ok, I would fix the problem with myself first, put my mask back on and get situated.. Then continue in the same direction looking for my dive buddy.. If I couldnt find him I would do a normal accent to the surface and wait for him to surface..

If your going in a straight line then any good dive buddy will turn around often to check on his buddy and if he isnt there he should go back and look for him..

 

[TSandM]

As far as the air trapped in the feet scenario goes, this is so easily fixed that it shouldn't present an issue. Just go out of trim a little and drop your feet. I've always (except once, but that was a real aberration) been able to get the air out if I recognize that's what the problem is and just drop my feet.

But this scenario points out a big problem with buddy positioning, IMO. If you're behind the other two divers and you have a problem, how can they know? You can only hope they will look around for you before you've completely disappeared in the murk.

With respect to the wet breathing regs, I've done the exercise of exhaling completely and assuming at that moment that I am OOA. I did a twenty or twenty-five foot swim to an oblivious, photographing buddy, shaken his arm, signalled my problem, and gotten his reg. It wasn't entirely comfortable, but it was entirely doable. In the scenario presented, buddy is WAY better than surface as the next air source.

 

[frankc420]

Another scenario: You're at 100 feet, cold water, low viz, diving a single 130, and your primary reg freeflows and you can't get it to stop.

Pinch off the hose. Someone before said it would burst the hose due to 3000psi being in the tank or whatever, that doesn't apply here. Your 2nd stages are attached to low pressure ports on the 1st, which limits outflow, hense the specs on 1st stages of cfm. To my knowledge 1st stages are always flowing? The 2nd stages (primary and octo) are what close off the air pressure. I would say you have your HP ones as well but you generally just have your PG on that.

Maybe I'll hookup my 1st to one of my tanks and turn it on w/ the 2nd stage taken off, I wonder if it just pumps out air... I guess that would answer my question of whether the 2nd stage is a demand device...

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

Just curious ... how many of you who are advocating pinching a hose to stop a free-flow have actually tried it? How successful were you? What did you do before and after pinching off the hose?

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[frankc420]

I've never done it, just thought it would be a reasonable choice?

When I say 'pinch it' I mean like you would do a water hose..

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

Practicing "what-if" scenarios in the water can be a very useful thing ... just make sure to do them in controlled conditions (i.e. either the pool or a relatively shallow, benign open water location). Make sure you discuss with your buddy beforehand what you plan to do, and that one of you at a time practices the exercise, while the other watches ... ready to bail you out if things don't go according to plan.

Under the right conditions, it can be a great way to blow off that extra gas in your tank at the end of a dive ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)