Good morning folks. Long time reader, first time poster. Wanted to share my experience as it is still fresh in my mind. This happened on a multi-day liveaboard trip 2 days ago. First day of diving, dive number 4 or 5 for the trip.
I will preface by saying I had noticed some leaking on my regulator hose where it meets the first stage a month or so before the trip. I took the reg set in to my local dive shop with the intent of having them replace all of my hoses as they were nearing 10 years old anyways. The techs checked them out and said they didn’t need to be replaced and would essentially be a waste of money. I did make a half dozen or so dives afterwards without incident but it’s my fault for letting them talk me out of replacement.
The Incident-
So right before the incident at the surface I tell the DM on the liveaboard that my hose was having some leaks on the previous dive and asked him to double check the tightness of the hose, which he did and we played around with it and couldn’t identify any more leaking so I geared up and splash with my dive buddy. On descent I notice if I tilt my head back that it’s the pressure of my head hitting my first stage that’s causing small releases of air so I think to myself just don’t tilt my head and I will be ok. I hit the sand at 80’ and take a shot at a grouper which in this case I am glad to say that I missed the shot. I reload my speargun and about the time i get my second band loaded there is a loud POP noise and i am immersed in bubbles screaming all around me. I take a breath from my regulator and i have nothing so i look to my buddy and he is looking at me trying to figure out whats happening and i give him a pretty dramatic Out of Air sign and start swimming down to him (i must have ascended 20’ in the rush of bubbles). My buddy was kinda fumbling around still trying to figure out whether he is going to give me his regulator out of his mouth or his octo so I just grab for the yellow and get some air. Now we are spinning around eachother trying to keep from being all tangled up. This whole time is basically a whiteout of bubbles and it is LOUD. Somewhere in the chaos I think i pounded my air inflator before my air ran dry- because we broke the surface in what seemed like 2 seconds. i will say i didn't necessarily intentionally inflate my BC so i imagine it was instinctual (right or wrong). Now we are at the surface. My tank is completely empty so i go to snorkel and look for the diveboat who are clearly wondering WTF just happened. I symbol the OK sign and start frantically swimming back to the boat as the current at the surface is very strong and 4-5 ft seas. Finally make it back to the boat and tell everyone what happened and realize that my regulator and hose are just gone. the only part left was the compression fitting that screws into the first stage. The hose had come completely out of the fitting. After a few minutes talking it over, my buddy and I decide to go back down to 25’ and hang for 20 minutes. A few more mentions, we had only been at 80’ for a minute and all previous dives were in the 40-50’ range. While we did ascend quickly, after talking to the captain and DM who watched from the boat they think that we didn’t ascend as quickly as I thought we did. I did have my GoPro with me but have not watched the video yet. I will try to post it tomorrow when I get back home.
Lessons Learned-
Trust your instincts on your gear. If something doesn’t seem right then don’t dive or don’t think twice about replacement. Your life is worth more than a few replacement hoses.
Practice self rescue. At home I almost always dive 100+ so this could have just as easily taken place on a 2nd dive to 120’ which would have likely ended in me (and my buddy) being bent. I realize that this incident should have gone a little differently with the responsible thing being to use MY Octopus and ascend on my own but quickly diminishing air source. Or I should have used my buddies octopus like I did and just had controlled our ascent better. Turns out I panicked a little more than I wish I would have. I think we are really lucky that this happened in 80’ with very minimal nitrogen load. I intend to promptly look into taking a rescue diver course to get some knowledge and practice for this type of situation.
Using a snorkel in 4-5’ seas SUCKs. Also if I had come up unconscious or bent it would have been pretty ugly as the dive boat had a pretty firm ‘we won’t come pick you up until all the other divers are up’ I’m not confident that my buddy could have done much for me in those conditions and we might have drifted for 20 or so minutes before we got picked up.
Anyways just wanted to share my story and I will add that I did finish out the trip, doing another 8 or so dives on a loaner regulator.
I will preface by saying I had noticed some leaking on my regulator hose where it meets the first stage a month or so before the trip. I took the reg set in to my local dive shop with the intent of having them replace all of my hoses as they were nearing 10 years old anyways. The techs checked them out and said they didn’t need to be replaced and would essentially be a waste of money. I did make a half dozen or so dives afterwards without incident but it’s my fault for letting them talk me out of replacement.
The Incident-
So right before the incident at the surface I tell the DM on the liveaboard that my hose was having some leaks on the previous dive and asked him to double check the tightness of the hose, which he did and we played around with it and couldn’t identify any more leaking so I geared up and splash with my dive buddy. On descent I notice if I tilt my head back that it’s the pressure of my head hitting my first stage that’s causing small releases of air so I think to myself just don’t tilt my head and I will be ok. I hit the sand at 80’ and take a shot at a grouper which in this case I am glad to say that I missed the shot. I reload my speargun and about the time i get my second band loaded there is a loud POP noise and i am immersed in bubbles screaming all around me. I take a breath from my regulator and i have nothing so i look to my buddy and he is looking at me trying to figure out whats happening and i give him a pretty dramatic Out of Air sign and start swimming down to him (i must have ascended 20’ in the rush of bubbles). My buddy was kinda fumbling around still trying to figure out whether he is going to give me his regulator out of his mouth or his octo so I just grab for the yellow and get some air. Now we are spinning around eachother trying to keep from being all tangled up. This whole time is basically a whiteout of bubbles and it is LOUD. Somewhere in the chaos I think i pounded my air inflator before my air ran dry- because we broke the surface in what seemed like 2 seconds. i will say i didn't necessarily intentionally inflate my BC so i imagine it was instinctual (right or wrong). Now we are at the surface. My tank is completely empty so i go to snorkel and look for the diveboat who are clearly wondering WTF just happened. I symbol the OK sign and start frantically swimming back to the boat as the current at the surface is very strong and 4-5 ft seas. Finally make it back to the boat and tell everyone what happened and realize that my regulator and hose are just gone. the only part left was the compression fitting that screws into the first stage. The hose had come completely out of the fitting. After a few minutes talking it over, my buddy and I decide to go back down to 25’ and hang for 20 minutes. A few more mentions, we had only been at 80’ for a minute and all previous dives were in the 40-50’ range. While we did ascend quickly, after talking to the captain and DM who watched from the boat they think that we didn’t ascend as quickly as I thought we did. I did have my GoPro with me but have not watched the video yet. I will try to post it tomorrow when I get back home.
Lessons Learned-
Trust your instincts on your gear. If something doesn’t seem right then don’t dive or don’t think twice about replacement. Your life is worth more than a few replacement hoses.
Practice self rescue. At home I almost always dive 100+ so this could have just as easily taken place on a 2nd dive to 120’ which would have likely ended in me (and my buddy) being bent. I realize that this incident should have gone a little differently with the responsible thing being to use MY Octopus and ascend on my own but quickly diminishing air source. Or I should have used my buddies octopus like I did and just had controlled our ascent better. Turns out I panicked a little more than I wish I would have. I think we are really lucky that this happened in 80’ with very minimal nitrogen load. I intend to promptly look into taking a rescue diver course to get some knowledge and practice for this type of situation.
Using a snorkel in 4-5’ seas SUCKs. Also if I had come up unconscious or bent it would have been pretty ugly as the dive boat had a pretty firm ‘we won’t come pick you up until all the other divers are up’ I’m not confident that my buddy could have done much for me in those conditions and we might have drifted for 20 or so minutes before we got picked up.
Anyways just wanted to share my story and I will add that I did finish out the trip, doing another 8 or so dives on a loaner regulator.