Wife doesn't want to dive anymore due to botched freeflowing reg incident

[Jim Lapenta]

The breathing effort adjustment knob. Turn it one way and the reg gets stiffer. Turn it the other and it gets easier to breathe. The venturi switch is a lever on the side or top that moves a vane that deflects some of the air to push the diaphragm out to stop or reduce free flows under certain conditions. What make and model reg was she using?

 

[shmuggy]

OK- I think one of the big problems you will have getting her back to diving is that she has been diving in a lake which is pretty boring- I have done it. So what is the upside for her- she probably hasn't experienced seeing cool sea life and has experienced a life threatening incident. You don't say where you are from but I would consider going to someplace like the BVIs where there is lots of cool fish life and shallow dives and make advance arrangments with a DM who will work with her while she improves her skills after buying a new regulator.

I don't know what your proximity to her was when the problem started but if you were not really close in- you need to approach this differently. I had a free flow and it emptied my tank in no time flat and I could not see anything around me while it happened causing me to ascend more than I would have wanted to- not a good feeling but my buddy was right infront of me the whole time so I could tell him I had a problem and then when it blew- he could hold my leg and keep me lower and give me his octopus. Hope it works out for you whatever happens. Diving is a wonderful sport especially when you can dive with someone you care about.

 

[bowlofpetunias]

I know I am late to this thread but I have read the entire thing. There has been some good advice and some not so good advice. Welcome to the world of the internet where some people seem to lose their manners and concern for other's feelings. Welcome to the internet where there is also a wealth of knowledge and people who care enough to try to help others they will never meet

IMHO Quero hit it on the head when she suggested you and your wife spend time in shallow water doing easy dives practicing the skills you were taught in your classes. I would also suggest you review your books together as well. If you work together this way it will build skills and confidence in YOUR ability to cope as a TEAM! Once you are comfortable at this level then would be the time to look at going to an instructor and be able to get the most out of the additional training. All of this will build a better dive team but I think it also has the potential for building a better relationship as you rely on each other and share this wonderful sport.

There is something that I think has been missed. You mention that your wife remembered to breathe out all the way up. That means she did not go into a total blind panic... she was doing some thinking and following her training. I think someone needs to point this out to her! She needs to be reminded that she did follow her training to some degree in a pretty bad situation for a new diver. She can gain some confidence from that fact. Remind herself that while she didn't do everything right.... she did follow enough of her training to keep this situation from becoming a tragedy! IMHO that is a solid foundation to build her self confidence on

You mention your occy was "meh" I went out and bought an occy that is as good as my main. I figure someone needing my gear underwater may go for my main or my occy. Either way they will need a good breathing reg and so will I. Both my main and occy have a toggle and a dial to adjust how they breathe so whichever I wind up on I will be able to adjust to my comfort as well. I figure in an emergency both myself and whoever I have donated to will need the best breathing regs possible.

I had a problem with my original occy and left it at a shop fir the tech to it to check it out. He said it was fine and downplayed my concern. A couple weeks later the annual service was due so I took it to another shop. When he took it apart.. their tech called us to say the Occy was not reparable! I got trashed on the rocks and probably damaged it then. Needless to say we have never let the original tech near our gear again because in my opinion he put me back in the water with a piece of equipment that was unsafe. All techs are not the same and when it comes to the equipment we rely on for our safety...the gear can only be as good as the last person to service it.

Anyway thanks for sharing your story! I hope things have gone well for you and your buddy. It is a great sport!

 

[billmas]

Hi All,

The advice about practicing breathing from a free flowing reg by holding the purge button is entirely valid, but I can honestly say that it will never equate to the reality of an actual free flow.

The reason: When you're practicing with your finger on the purge button, you can stop whenever you like.

When it happens in real life, you do not have that choice. You will have an empty cylinder in anything between 30 and 120 seconds - fate and regulators don't choose to be nice just because you're at 30m (~100 ft).

Do people panic? Absolutely.

Source of this information / opinion? Personal experience - and there's actually a vid of my one posted on this forum.

To the OP, sounds like your wife had a bit of an incident, I commend you for recognising that you won't be helping her by pushing her to continue - a little encouragement, lots of support etc, but not pushing. Even the "hairy arsed⁽¹⁾" divers get a little shaken by these incidents when they happen to us.

Best of luck to you both my friend,

Cheers
Bill
(1) I don't actually have a "hairy arse" - it's British slang, I think in the US the equivalent would be "Old Salt" or somesuch.

 

[Steve A]

We did the ssi ow in sharm this year and this is the first i have heard about freeflowing regs, going to read my book again to see if it was missed.

 

[johncon3]

I am also a new diver (OW in July, 20 dives total this year) so my classes are still relatively fresh in my mind.

One of the things we covered in class (and practiced in the pool) was how to breath from a free flowing reg, am wondering if you and your wife got that training also? This, IMO should be something every diver should be ready to deal with at any time as a free flow is a relatively common thing to encounter. I had my first one on my last dive (very shallow, 22 fsw) so I was able to breath normally and ascend under control. If you didn't cover this in class, I would put a friendly call in to your trainer and recommend it be something they make a point of covering.

 

[ScoobaCat]

Sounds like she panicked...I'd like to hear from long time instructors if people that have panicked in the past are able to overcome their flight response through more training, or hear about their experiences with divers overcoming the urge to flee when panicked.

I think it's both skills practice and also an imbalance between skill levels of buddies puts added pressure on the less comfy buddy. Usually self-inflicted pressure as the buddy who also happens to be the husband seems very supportive and just happy to be diving together with his less comfy wife.

My husband and I went through the certification steps together, but we have a pretty different diving personalities - he was comfortable from the start, and I was super cautious and pretty nervous. Weird because I love to swim and he hates it. The end result of this is that he's advanced quicker than I in underwater comfort/skills. We've sorted out the buddying and I don't dive without him, although he will go for deeper dives with instabuddies.

First point: The difference in our comfort levels resulted in a pretty deep discussion, the bottom line of which is I AM RESPONSIBLE FOR MYSELF, THEN MY BUDDY ... and HE IS RESPONSIBLE FOR HIMSELF, AND THEN HIS BUDDY. This was actually quite freeing - finally getting, *really* getting, this concept that I have responsibility for myself and I am NOT dependent UNLESS I get into an issue then it's expected that he, as my buddy, will support. And vice-versa, which has happened as on the first couple of dives on our vacations he is an absolute air hog and I never am. We love to dive together, when we dive together it is to my comfort level, and I look forward to many more decades under water with my dude.

Second point: On about half of my first 10 open water dives, down to hard bottom no more than 40 feet in the big Caribbean sea, I would look up and go 'holy ****' and start to panic. I actually bailed on one dive from 40 to the surface with no safety stop...felt like a tool later, but at that moment I HAD to be on the surface, stat. Didn't care about my buddy, notifying DM, anything but breaking the surface. Over the course of the next few dives, it became apparent I was laying down a pattern. Descend, achieve neutral buoyancy, all good, this is awesome, then about 10 minutes in, 'what the heck am I doing here? anxiety'. Look around for my buddy and cling. Then we had the talk of first point above. Then I started to seriously work through this because I really LOVE to dive.

I started practicing skills more on dives with my buddy. I took responsibility for myself and stopped going along with a dive that I thought might be too much for me on that day. I have sat out a couple of dives so far that sounded like they would be too challenging for my comfort level.

On my 12th dive my reg came out of my mouth at around 45' - have no clue how. I glanced at my buddy who was at that exact moment looking the other way, did the one arm sweep, tongued it, purged, and hey presto - I had air. Muscle memory and practice. Zero panic.

Having said all that - I've never had an actual freeflow issue which must be scary because of noise and bubbles. I've also never had to do a CESA in real life. But although these totally freaked me out in the open water tests, I made the instructor sit there while I did it over and over and over again. Moi OCD over stuff like this. I still practice these occasionally in shallow dives or ascents after safety stop with my buddy. If it is freaking you out, it is an opportunity to practice the skills to deal if it becomes a real life need.

 

[uncfnp]

Cliffpiper, I don't know if you are still following this thread but if you are I'd like you to know that after reading your post and the responses, my dive buddy (spouse) and I verbally reviewed what we would do in this situation and plan to practice it next time we are in the water. It's been a while since we reviewed this senecio and your post served as a good reminder and the responses made us think of ways to respond we had not thought of ourself.

Can you give us an up date on your progress?

 

[Steve_C]

I remember when I started diving 0-20 ft was nothing. 30-40 ft I was more aware of depth. At 45 ft I was aware of the depth. Not scary but an extra tension. I agree. Take a LOT of shallow low stress dives. You can see lots of fish and have a good time and never be deeper than 25 ft for example in the Keys.

Practice air shares.

Practice free flowing reg.

There is another common problem. I know a number of people who have had the mouth piece come off their regulator including myself on one of my first dives. You can breath off the reg anyway. You can switch to your octo if you have practiced switching to your octo and know where it is. This was the cause of my first real air share. I was leading two first time salt water divers, just certified in a lake divers, on a shallow wreck off the NC coast. On the boat the younger one went to put spare reg in the usual place but no clasp. Captain told her to put it in her pocket. We had been down to 40 ft for about 10 minutes, and all seemed good, and I looked away, when all of sudden she is grabbing for my spare. Handed it to her. Went through the calm down routine. After a couple minutes she had relaxed a lot and the eyes were normal sized. Turned out her mouth piece had come off. She did not know that she could breath off reg anyway. She reached for the spare. It was not where it was in OW training. She thought she had no air supply and went into a semi-panic. Fortunately she came over to me (I was only six feet away and we had gone over where my spare reg was and how hand off would go) for air and all went well. Once calm I gave her her spare and we went ahead and finished the dive with me staying within 3 - 4 ft.

Point is that it is best to practice and review before each dive.