short inflator hose - safety risk?

[NWDCGUY]

Hi gear heads -

I recently had a mishap in which my inflator hose disconnect after backrolling in. I have a DSS wing with 13" hose. Plate with 5' long hose primary and 22" secondary on necklace.

This was a somewhat risky situation since I was in a deep bottom situation and I was overweighted due to have a new wetsuit. I also failed to pre-inflate and test my inflator prior to a rushed backroll. I accept full responsibility for the failure to adequately pre-dive check and for being overweighted.

As a result when I tried to hit my inflator at 10' it went BANG and disconnected. Unsure of the source of the noise, I let go of the inflator. While negatively bouyant at about 20' and dropping I attempted to recover my inflator and LP hose, I was unable to locate either by using my left hand. There was no reconnecting them without removing my bc, and certainly not while trying to kick and maintain depth with negative bouyancy.

I got to about 60' open ocean poor viz. I decided that I needed to consider dropping my weight belt. I removed it, held it in my hand and decided to ascend calling the dive. I kicked to the surface, signaled for the boat and canceled, somewhat winded from the finning, and with one weight belt that was saved from being dropped.

I think I handled the situation adequately, however does anyone here think that I could have recovered the bc inflator and LP hose in this situation had it been longer and more reachable?

Oral inflation would have been an option but the 13' inflator was simply impossible to find with my left hand it was probably floating over my back, way too short to see.

 

[cool_hardware52]

If your corrugated hose was 36" long and floating over your back how would that have changed things?

Chances are you didn't have your lp hose fully attached to the Power inflator. Connect, pull to verify, test inflate.

Tobin

 

[tbone1004]

@NWDCGUY

unsure if you can see it clearly, but see the black band on the corrugated hose that goes over the LPI? You are supposed to have some sort of retainer to keep that hose from flying back in an event like that. There are usually two of them. One closer to the top of your shoulder, the other closer to the end of the corrugated hose. This keeps the LPI tied to the corrugated hose which is ideal.

article explaining everything a bit in depth here

FKD - WING INFLATOR HOSE ROUTING

 

[TrimixToo]

Also of concern is that you be able to disconnect it in case it runs away (i.e., won't stop inflating). It must be long enough for you to reach it and disconnect it. You can dump while the runaway is happening so you don't pop, but you should be able to minimize your gas loss by disconnecting it promptly.

Tobin's and tbone's advice is excellent. Always test your inflators (and, for that matter, your regulators!) before splashing.

 

[Sevenrider860]

So had you back rolled in with your gas off and were unable to turn it on, would the title be “cylinders on our backs - safety risk?” The safety risk was the failure to perform a good predive check...and you accept that.

On a more serious note...glad you kept your head and recovered. I personally do not think a longer hose would have made a difference unless you retained it...like you should be doing with the short LPI hose. I do something very similar to what @tbone1004 shows. I use a rubber o-ring instead of bungee...but same idea.

 

[divad]

Hi gear heads -

I recently had a mishap in which my inflator hose disconnect after backrolling in. I have a DSS wing with 13" hose. Plate with 5' long hose primary and 22" secondary on necklace.

This was a somewhat risky situation since I was in a deep bottom situation and I was overweighted due to have a new wetsuit. I also failed to pre-inflate and test my inflator prior to a rushed backroll. I accept full responsibility for the failure to adequately pre-dive check and for being overweighted.

As a result when I tried to hit my inflator at 10' it went BANG and disconnected. Unsure of the source of the noise, I let go of the inflator. While negatively bouyant at about 20' and dropping I attempted to recover my inflator and LP hose, I was unable to locate either by using my left hand. There was no reconnecting them without removing my bc, and certainly not while trying to kick and maintain depth with negative bouyancy.

I got to about 60' open ocean poor viz. I decided that I needed to consider dropping my weight belt. I removed it, held it in my hand and decided to ascend calling the dive. I kicked to the surface, signaled for the boat and canceled, somewhat winded from the finning, and with one weight belt that was saved from being dropped.

I think I handled the situation adequately, however does anyone here think that I could have recovered the bc inflator and LP hose in this situation had it been longer and more reachable?

Oral inflation would have been an option but the 13' inflator was simply impossible to find with my left hand it was probably floating over my back, way too short to see.

This sounds like a frivolous yarn.

 

[divad]

This sounds like a frivolous yarn.

"somewhat risky deep bottom situation" indeed.

 

[cerich]

normally a short inflator hose would be much easier than a long one, as Tobin pretty much pointed out.

You got good advice in this thread.

Stop diving over weighted, there is no reason to

 

[Caveeagle]

but see the black band on the corrugated hose that goes over the LPI? You are supposed to have some sort of retainer to keep that hose from flying back in an event like that. There are usually two of them

A 1/2" piece of inner tube from a standard road bike (bicycle) tire works perfectly.

 

[RayfromTX]

Thank you for posting this thread. I recognize several things that contributed to your incident that I will take heed of. As you noted a good pre-dive check wasn't performed and I think that is a common mistake that people get away with on thousands of dives each day. It started the chain of events. I will remember.

The gear setup could have made a big difference in making it easier to correct the problem you had. As was mentioned above, the right combination of inner tube and bungee can keep everything in place so it is always where you expect it to be. I'll make sure I maintain mine in that configuration and when my inner tube starts to get old I'll replace it instead of thinking it will be ok to fix it later. It all matters.

When the inflator hose popped loose, you released the inflator. This was another understandable mistake. The hose isn't that important but the inflator is. I'll be remembering that awareness of it's location can be critical when there is no hard bottom; just as important as a dump valve on ascent to prevent corking.

We can easily get used to everything going right and lose the sense of urgency in doing things right that we had when training. It happens in everything we do from distracted driving to careless use of power tools. It is perhaps easier for it to happen in a hobby where relaxed zen-like calmness is the name of the game.

Thanks so much for putting yourself out there and making me think. You joined SB in 2005. In all those years you have posted 24 times. I guess you save them for the important stuff.