What went wrong on your dive today/recently? And what did you learn?

[steinbil]

Following on from the soaking yesterday with the unseated QuickNeck seal, the undersuit and drysuit now dried, I tried again. Need to check the new drysuit and thick BZ400 heated undersuit and lots of diving coming up.

Went to the lake with sidemount kit as they won’t allow solo on a rebreather. Kitted up and descended down he ramp, no leaking yay!

Mooch around a bit and got to a container which is also a platform. Was preparing to enter through a window-sized hole cut into the side of it when "boom", utterly inundated with bubbles as a reg unexpectedly free-flowed.

Quite a surprise, so tried to stick a finger into the mouthpiece to no avail. Then switched regs to see if breathing it would stem the flow — of course not. Then started to shutdown the valve, loads of warnings going off about ensuring I shut down the correct valve. Stopped the flow. Waited for a few seconds and turned the valve back on again, more freeflow, so shut down again.

Now down to one cylinder, made my way to the exit and re-tried the valve and it didn’t freeflow, until I took a breath, then it freeflowed.

Damn it. Obviously my kit hates being in freshwater!

Checked the intermediate pressure when I got home, all fine. No freeflow in air either. Need to take a look inside; the XTX50s have been recently serviced along with the Mk25 first stages.

Lessons learned

• It’s the first time in my diving career that a real freeflow has happened underwater.
• Was quite a surprise and consumed a lot of gas as I should have been far quicker to do the shutdown — shallow lake, sidemount, no decompression obligation, so no real issues.
• Was surprised how violent it was, far more than being air-gunned by an instructor. Little wonder it induces panic in some people.
• As I was diving sidemount, it was easy to do the shutdown. Backmount would have been harder (although I regularly practised that when I dived backmount).
• A single tank would have meant a fast ascent to the surface (although I was diving solo, so a single with no pony would be out of the question)

Let’s hope the forthcoming sea dives are less eventful!

How was the reg tuned? Did you try the Venturi or the adjustment knob? I dive XTX50s and I usually have my necklace in - to make sure it doesn't freeflow. My primary is + and all the way out so it doesn't take a lot to make it flow, but usually flipping it so the mouthpiece faces down stops it.

BTW.
If the IP is fine, does that mean that the freeflow was caused by the second stage? Are there other failure modes of the first stage that leads to second stage freeflow?

 

[Wibble]

How was the reg tuned? Did you try the Venturi or the adjustment knob? I dive XTX50s and I usually have my necklace in - to make sure it doesn't freeflow. My primary is + and all the way out so it doesn't take a lot to make it flow, but usually flipping it so the mouthpiece faces down stops it.

BTW.
If the IP is fine, does that mean that the freeflow was caused by the second stage? Are there other failure modes of the first stage that leads to second stage freeflow?

Adjusted full out — as per every time I’ve dived them. They were my backmount regs with Tek3s before being re-purposed for sidemount and bailouts. Would be thoroughly pissed off if they'd blown a load of helium bailout!

They have been recently serviced, so will open them up to check.

In the meantime I'll swap them over for a pair of ATX40s; those work very well.

 

[Belzelbub]

Loaded my truck very early in the morning and it seemed like less than normal amount of stuff. Looked over everything mentally went through the contents of my gear bag and reassured myself it was all good and I didn’t need the emergency oxygen bottle for this trip. Drove 30 minutes, and my brain suddenly tells me I left my spearguns leaning on the garage wall. I got them out the night before checked them and had them ready to grab in morning. Lesson: when something seems like it might be missing, double check!!

I've done something similar. Got all my gear gathered, and placed on the boat. As we were gearing up to dive, I realized I'd forgotten something important. Had tanks, BC, regulator, computer, mask, fins, etc. Had stringer, spearguns, knife, etc. What I had forgotten to bring was the tube with my spears. Oh well, I guess we are just diving this time.

I changed my checklist and routine after that one. I use a checklist that's in Notes on my iPhone, iPad, etc. Speargun and Spears are two separate items now.

Yes, one of the arguments against using an AIR 2 (or similar) is that if it malfunctions, you might just lose two pieces of important gear, namely, your BC power inflator and your back-up 2nd stage.

People, especially people who dive very cold water, practice disconnecting the BC power inflator hose--in case they have to IRL. If these people are using an AIR 2 (or similar), then they need to keep in mind that they have just disabled their backup reg, too.

Yeah, that's probably true. I don't dive in very cold water, and mainly do local rec dives, so this works for me. With everything, there are tradeoffs. You just need to understand the pros and cons.

On the Pro side, the setup is quite streamlined. My alternate is where I need it. During a recent course I took with a couple regular buddies, only one of us had an issue with air sharing (primary donate), and that was the buddy with the standard inflator and separate octo. He'd had his hose tucked into a pocket. Most of the time, it worked fine, but one time, he had a bit of trouble getting the octo after he'd donated his primary. Hoses just got tangled up a bit.

Apart from the issue I mentioned above, this is the only trouble I've had with the setup, and that wasn't really a problem. Proper weighting helped. I had enough weight to get down, but not so much that a swimming ascent would have been difficult. I've seen at least as many problems with standard inflators, and part of that may be how they are cared for. Most AIR devices remain attached to the BC. Sometimes those don't get the same care as the regulator. The Zeagle Octo Z and Atomic SSI are designed to remain attached to the regulator. I had to take apart a friend's inflator not too long ago as the shrader valve was crusty and stuck.

 

[grantctobin]

Forgot my suit-heater battery because it was still on the charger.

Primary light's battery died because I'd run it down the previous week.

Learned to charge all batteries when I get back from the weekend's dive, not put off the task until the night before.

If it's going to be more than a few weeks between uses, your battery will last longer by not storing them full.

 

[SlugLife]

• It’s the first time in my diving career that a real freeflow has happened underwater.
• Was quite a surprise and consumed a lot of gas as I should have been far quicker to do the shutdown — shallow lake, sidemount, no decompression obligation, so no real issues.
• Was surprised how violent it was, far more than being air-gunned by an instructor. Little wonder it induces panic in some people.

That sounds VERY similar to the "Lost Improperly Tightened 2nd-Stage Regulator" post I linked above. There were so many bubbles I couldn't see, or find my other regulator (that wasn't clipped or retained). I probably learned (or learned the importance of) about a dozen lessons from that incident.

I didn't have redundant air, but managed to stay calm, and could see how many divers would panic.

I've learnt that creating a comprehensive packing checklist in Word is well worth the effort - just print it off before starting to pack, cross off the things that aren't needed on a particular trip, and then carefully pack the rest.

I was thinking about making such a checklist, and probably will.

I simply completely set up my gear in my family room

I used to do that, but I've got very limited space at the moment.

 

[TimPB]

Drove 10 hours to Scotland for the weekend. Gearing up for the first dive, my drysuit zip, which has been gradually getting worse over the last couple of months, finally gave up the ghost catastrophically!

While watching the rest of my friends head off on the rhib to dive what they later described as a spectacular pinnacle, the decision not to bring my spare suit came back to haunt me.

Lessons learned...

1. Take the damn spare suit. Just because it doesn't have dry gloves is no reason to leave it behind. Wuss!

2. Get stuff fixed before it fails. In my defence I havent had a long enough break from diving to get the suit done over winter.

Still, could be worse. North West Scotland is one of the most beautiful parts of the world and an amazing place to explore, even if I was in a van, not a boat.

 

[Wibble]

Drove 10 hours to Scotland for the weekend. Gearing up for the first dive, my drysuit zip, which has been gradually getting worse over the last couple of months, finally gave up the ghost catastrophically!

While watching the rest of my friends head off on the rhib to dive what they later described as a spectacular pinnacle, the decision not to bring my spare suit came back to haunt me.

Lessons learned...

1. Take the damn spare suit. Just because it doesn't have dry gloves is no reason to leave it behind. Wuss!

2. Get stuff fixed before it fails. In my defence I havent had a long enough break from diving to get the suit done over winter.

Still, could be worse. North West Scotland is one of the most beautiful parts of the world and an amazing place to explore, even if I was in a van, not a boat.

Been there! First dive of a week in Scotland and the drysuit zip fell apart.

Thankfully managed to rent a drysuit from Puffin Divers in Oban. They could have replaced the zip but didn’t have that length in stock. They’re a great dive shop with their famous coin operated cylinder filling station.

 

[stretchthepenn]

If it's going to be more than a few weeks between uses, your battery will last longer by not storing them full.

I usually go dive every weekend, but thanks for the advice.

 

[TimPB]

Been there! First dive of a week in Scotland and the drysuit zip fell apart.

Thankfully managed to rent a drysuit from Puffin Divers in Oban. They could have replaced the zip but didn’t have that length in stock. They’re a great dive shop with their famous coin operated cylinder filling station.

I know Puffin quite well and have had mixed experiences with them.

I did consider going to them but it was a 5 hour round trip, which I'd have to do twice and I was content to explore the local area, even managed to take in a distillery tour on Skye.

 

[TMHeimer]

I learned something today. When you hide your spare car keys under the rock you keep for that purpose and put the key (in ziplock bag) and rock on your car hood after the dive, don't drive away with them on there. I did retrieve them (unlike the time I left them on the base of the windshield and drove away-- to the tune of a $250 US replacement). DAMN those chip keys the last 15 years !!!