Where was the instructor?

[84CJ7]

During my AOW class, I had trouble getting down at the surface, but even at 40 feet I needed air in my BC to get back to the surface. That was because we were wearing full farmer john suits in the 6.5-7mm range with gloves and hoods, those things compress like mad when theyre new.
At 80 feet in the deep hole of the quarry the gloves that were so tight on the surface I had trouble getting them on and off would flop on my hands tehy were compressed so much. If I had an inflator failure down there I would either have to orally inflate my BC or strap my fins to my back and invent the sport of underwater cliff climbing.

 

[Chuck Tribolet]

If I had an inflator failure down there I would either have to orally inflate my BC or strap my fins to my back and invent the sport of underwater cliff climbing.

If you had an inflator failure down there, you would already be neutral and could ascend
without adding any air to your BC.

 

[SadiesMom]

Umm. Never?

In fact, in the case of any kind of failure that would require oral inflation, I'd be deflating it, because I'd be on the way back to the surface, since the dive would be over at that point.

I may be a little dense today, but I can't see this as a very useful skill, and certainly not one that needs to be in an OW class.

Terry

Sure it is. If you developed a power inflator free flow (i.e. your inflator hose kept leaking air into your BC) all you'd have to do would be to disconnect the hose, dump some air to get neutral buoyancy, but you wouldn't have to abort the dive. You could continue your dive normally by just orally inflating when you needed to add air to your BC and dump your BC normally using your dump valves to maintain neutral buoyancy.

There's nothing magic about using a power inflator hose. You don't have to abort the dive simply because you don't have a power inflator...heck, you could do the whole dive just using oral inflation if you wanted to....

 

[String]

Which is something i did for about 8 months last year after my inflator unit started leaking 30-50 bar of air per dive through a fault I only stopped doing it when the backplate also snapped on the BC so had to buy a new wing. Oral inflation is very much possible HOWEVER i do have reservations about taking a nice working reg out of my mouth to orally inflate a jacket in cold water where theres an increased freeflow risk.

 

[Web Monkey]

That would depend on if the diver was using an integrated spare second and inflator (Air/2) or not. If they were, there would now be no spare second, and I would call the dive.

I understand it's possible to dive without an inflator. In fact, it's possible to dive without a BC, however I tend to be on the cautious side, and will call a dive after any major failure. There's always the next dive unless something Really Bad happens on this one.

Terry

Sure it is. If you developed a power inflator free flow (i.e. your inflator hose kept leaking air into your BC) all you'd have to do would be to disconnect the hose, dump some air to get neutral buoyancy, but you wouldn't have to abort the dive. You could continue your dive normally by just orally inflating when you needed to add air to your BC and dump your BC normally using your dump valves to maintain neutral buoyancy.

There's nothing magic about using a power inflator hose. You don't have to abort the dive simply because you don't have a power inflator...heck, you could do the whole dive just using oral inflation if you wanted to....

 

[PRL]

Sorry. In this post I just rambeled on about the power inflator. And I don't think that this topic is the place for here but in a general discusion. So I deleated it.

But I am interested if there is anymore info about the incident.
From the two versions of the story I tend to believe that the instructor was not at fault. And he must be feeling pretty low reading only the other version in the media, not being able to talk about his version of the story because of a possible civil action against him.
I wonder if it would be productive for some divers to go to his shop and without pressuring for further details just say "hey I'm with you, I hope everything turns out OK." or maby just an e-mail. Would that be appriciated or would that be a nusance.

Having said all of that, I also hope that the student comes out of this without any pernament alterations to her lifestyle and will not be reminded of this incident for the rest of her life.

 

[Chuck Tribolet]

That would depend on if the diver was using an integrated spare second and inflator (Air/2) or not. If they were, there would now be no spare second, and I would call the dive.

Some would make the case that there was no spare second WITH the Air2. I've had
an OOA diver on a normal Octo hose and, not wanting a repeat of that experience,
I went to the long hose. I REALLY wouldn't have have wanted that fellow on a short,
normal second stage, while I was breathing off an Air2.

 

[DiverBAS]

Umm. Never?

In fact, in the case of any kind of failure that would require oral inflation, I'd be deflating it, because I'd be on the way back to the surface, since the dive would be over at that point.

I may be a little dense today, but I can't see this as a very useful skill, and certainly not one that needs to be in an OW class.

Terry

Umm... how about on nearly every dive? I use oral inflation to adjust buoyancy on nearly every dive.

What do you do when you are negatively buoyant while at depth? Hit the power inflator. But by doing so, you are using air that you will not be able to breathe and are thus wasting air. If you orally add air to the BCD you are using air that has already been through your lungs. That is the point of fin pivot/oral inflation drill, to economically establish neutral buoyancy.

When we (meaning my teaching partner and I) teach PADI OW, in addition to the oral inflation during fin pivots, we combine oral inflation with CESA. The reasoning is that if you are doing CESA it is because you are out of air and there will may not be any available when you hit the LPI to fill the BCD. When the students head breaks the surface - guess what - there is a whole atmosphere of air available to be blown into the BCD to establish positive buoyancy at the surface.

IMHO, oral inflation is a useful skill and one that is rightly taught in OWS courses.

 

[Web Monkey]

I bring along an extra few PSI to handle this.

What do you do when you are negatively buoyant while at depth? Hit the power inflator. But by doing so, you are using air that you will not be able to breathe and are thus wasting air.

Oral inflation is a nice skill, but I don't think it's worth the risk to have new OW students repeatedly taking their reg out of their mouth every time they want to add air.

IMHO, oral inflation is a useful skill and one that is rightly taught in OWS courses.

J-Valves worked OK also, but eventually technology marches on.

Terry

 

[Scuba_Steve]

Umm... how about on nearly every dive? I use oral inflation to adjust buoyancy on nearly every dive.

What do you do when you are negatively buoyant while at depth? Hit the power inflator. But by doing so, you are using air that you will not be able to breathe and are thus wasting air. If you orally add air to the BCD you are using air that has already been through your lungs. That is the point of fin pivot/oral inflation drill, to economically establish neutral buoyancy.

When we (meaning my teaching partner and I) teach PADI OW, in addition to the oral inflation during fin pivots, we combine oral inflation with CESA. The reasoning is that if you are doing CESA it is because you are out of air and there will may not be any available when you hit the LPI to fill the BCD. When the students head breaks the surface - guess what - there is a whole atmosphere of air available to be blown into the BCD to establish positive buoyancy at the surface.

IMHO, oral inflation is a useful skill and one that is rightly taught in OWS courses.

Well thanks for that info, but I highly doubt it's that squirt from your LPI that is gonna be the difference.

I personally prefer to also let the student know of things like the buddy system, and just how totally wrapped around the axle they'd have to be to get into a CESA situtation in the first place. I basically tell them to get a new hobby if they ever do such a thing.

I've yet to find the reason for a fin pivot, except maybe when I look at the CESA and realize that that skill is even further from how I want people to dive. LOL

Regards

.