1st stage failure

[AfterDark]

...and some people dive solo. Yikes!

- Bill

With redundant systems.

 

[rx7diver]

With redundant systems.

Or, stay "shallow" in a benign location and well within NDL's, so that you can simply do a slow CESA to your infinite supply of surface air. ("Shallow" here means "no deeper than the deepest depth from which you can comfortably complete a slow CESA.")

 

[GrumpyOldGuy]

Anyway, was thinking about what could have been had the regulator exploded underwater......

If a 1st stage really exploded, that would be bad. Above water the shrapnel from 3000PSI could be deadly. Even under water, its so close your head I don't know what would happen. Never seen one though.

In this case you are talking about a hose failure of some type. I think this Scuba Toys video demonstrates what will happen with either one.

Cutting a Scuba Divers Regulator Hoses - YouTube

 

[Fetch]

Someone mentioned turning off the tank - unless you have an overhead, it probably isn't worth the task loading. Especially at the surface - letting the tank empty will make it more buoyant, reducing concerns of dropping weights and possibly (by that point) orally inflating the BC.

Of course you want to keep things at 30fpm, and if you need the tank to stop venting to achieve that, then it's what you need to do.

 

[Akimbo]

You may find this article interesting:
Life Ending Seconds, 3000 to Zero in 72 Seconds, Advanced Diver Magazine By Curt Bowen

It provides insight into who long it takes for various regulators failures to deplete a tank.

 

[supergaijin]

As people have mentioned LP hose failure is a lot more dramatic than HP hoses. Depending on the failure point, the hose can whip around in the water with bubbles all but rendering the diver invisible.

This happened during a dive I was leading in Egypt where the 2nd stage came away from the hose. The diver handled it really well.

I swam heard it pop, swam in through the bubbles with my octopus and found the guy's mouth. I turned off the tank as we were getting whipped by the flailing hose.

 

[pasley]

What brand hose was it that failed?

 

[chillyinCanada]

You guys are scaring the crap out of me!

 

[dumpsterDiver]

Third dive of the day, buddy turns on his air on the boat and a few seconds later a hose blasts out, big noise, lots of air hissing out. Best guess is that the hose may have been overtightened and the threads were failing. (The reg was serviced a few months ago but not dived much since then.)

Anyway, was thinking about what could have been had the regulator exploded underwater. We were planning a 100ft dive, so at 100ft his tank would have emptied pretty quickly and likely well before we could have surfaced.

So I'm using this as an excuse to review safety procedures and to mentally go through the procedure had this happened to me or to my buddy at 100ft.

1. Remain calm.
2. Begin ascent with buddy, holding on to each other like we all learned in OW.
3. Share air. Buddy with air monitors gauges closely.
4. Control ascent.
5. Manually inflate BC at the surface. This is a big one and important to remember. I don't think it's practiced enough. No need to drop weights in most cases, barring some sort of simultaneous BC failure.

Frankly, I would skip the safety stop. Buddy's tank will be empty and we need to get up and buoyant slowly, safely, but without delay.

Anyway, just thought I'd share.

Remain calm.
Do NOT initiate an ascent.
Secure an alternate air source from your buddy (if you don't have two sources yourself)
I would ask that the valve be shut off, if the buddy was calm.
Then I would begin swimming up, maintaining a death grip on the buddy,
Do a normal ascent, knowing that if you dump too much air from the BC, you will need to kick harder or orally inflate.
There should be no need to cut the safety stop short, since your buddy should have enough air for both of you at all times.
Add air to BC on surface (orally)

or you could scream and shout and flail about...

Scuba Failure at 80 feet: GoPro Hero 2 - YouTube

[video=youtube;Bap2PxetarQ]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bap2PxetarQ&feature=share&list=UU1utDku8vJ RJYgBZImLyLJQ[/video]

 

[spectrum]

...and some people dive solo. Yikes!

- Bill

Almost less of a concern solo. When solo I have redundancy at my side ready to take.

When buddy diving the relationship is a little less predictable and certainly buddy/situation dependent.

Pete