short inflator hose - safety risk?

[Youngandfree]

One thing my instructor hammered into me when floating on the surface after ascending, is to orally inflate once you surface. Mainly for a scenario like this, even though it happened to you when you rolled in. One of my dives during my first week of diving proved his point. I'm not sure when the hose came off the inflator, but once I was floating, I happened to look down and saw it wasn't connected.

Your experience also hammers the point that I need to work on adjusting my weights, since I'm still a greenhorn newbie.

 

[stuartv]

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.

If you occasionally practice reaching behind you to find things behind your head, this story might have had a different ending. Accidents happen. People splash with their tank off. People splash with the inflator not connected properly. People splash without connecting their drysuit inflator. I've done the first and last of those. Proper pre-dive checks are definitely important, but accidents still happen (mainly, I guess, from people forgetting to do said checks completely and thoroughly - but probably not always because of that). Being prepared to handle the accidents is also important.

I would suggest to (in the water) occasionally practice to reach back and make sure you can reach your tank valve (so you can turn it on when you splash with it off - I literally have an occasional nightmare about this exact scenario), reach your second stage hose where it comes out of the 1st stage (so you can find a lost reg even if it's caught on something that is preventing the normal reg recovery procedure from working), reach your BCD inflator hose where it comes out of the 1st stage (for situations just like what you experienced), reach the elbow where the corrugated hose attaches to your BCD, and reach the HP hose for your SPG where it comes out of the 1st stage.

If you can reach all those things, then when an accident like yours happens, you should be able to reach your corrugated hose, no matter where the end has floated off to, pull it down, and oral inflate. Once you've gotten neutrally buoyant, you can relax, take your time, calm down, reach back, grab the BCD inflator hose and pull it down, re-connect, and carry on with your dive. Or, from there, let your buddy help you find your inflator hose.

Having to abort the dive because the inflator popped off is not what I personally (for myself) would consider as "handled the situation adequately." I don't get to dive enough. I would not be pleased with myself if I lost a dive because of something I should have been able to handle in the water and keep going.

 

[NWDCGUY]

Thanks for the responses. Naturally this was a failure to predive check.

There was no finding that hose. It was simply.out of reach. The dss inflator hose is also centrally mounted and thus somewhat obscured by the 1st stage.

Some suggested a retainer which I do use. Has anyone here considered the severity of the rubber retainer breaking leaving your inflator out of reach?

First time I have had an inflator related emergency.

 

[tbone1004]

Thanks for the responses. Naturally this was a failure to predive check.

There was no finding that hose. It was simply.out of reach. The dss inflator hose is also centrally mounted and thus somewhat obscured by the 1st stage.

Some suggested a retainer which I do use. Has anyone here considered the severity of the rubber retainer breaking leaving your inflator out of reach?

First time I have had an inflator related emergency.

I can't think of any time that a lack of LPI would be an emergency, just a nuisance. The corrugated hose should never be something you can lose if it is retained by a bungee at the d-ring.

Key to all of this though is do proper pre-dive checks, including adequate weighting. You have said that you acknowledge you failed to do this things, so no sense beating the dead horse for that. What you should have done in that situation though is establish neutral buoyancy before you start looking for the source of the boom. That should have been done by kicking while orally inflating the BC

 

[NWDCGUY]

No my point is what if the bungee fails, and it does therefore run away?

I guess that would be when you buddy would need to help.

 

[tbone1004]

No my point is what if the bungee fails, and it does therefore run away?

I guess that would be when you buddy would need to help.

I dove with my DSS wings plenty of times without any bungees or retaining mechanisms and never "lost it". Worst case you go head down and roll to the left and it shows up right in your face. Granted, you should still be able to reach the general location of the center outlet, and ironically you should be able to reach it easier than if it was on the left corner

 

[cool_hardware52]

No my point is what if the bungee fails, and it does therefore run away?

I guess that would be when you buddy would need to help.

I scooter, alot. I've had corrugated hoses blow behind my back many times, with singles rig, doubles rigs etc. Slipped out of the bungee, inner tube loop failed, I forgot to put the LP hose under the retainer etc.

I can actually touch the back of my head and neck. I can also touch my regs. Just reach back and pull the hose forward, or find the reg find the LP hose and follow it. As long as your LP hose is connected to the Power inflator the Power inflator will be at the end of the LP hose......

The industry offers endless orings / bungee loops / longer hoses / harness wraps etc. All of which can be applied if you find the need. I will note that you are the first out of many many thousands to report this problem.

Tobin

 

[tbone1004]

The industry offers endless orings / bungee loops / longer hoses / harness wraps etc. All of which can be applied if you find the need. I will note that you are the first out of many many thousands to report this problem.

Tobin

@NWDCGUY which is not to say it's an invalid problem, it is just likely something that can be adjusted in ways other than getting an excessively long inflator hose and detracting from a lot of the benefits of the short hose in the first place.
Many times things become an equipment solution to a skills problem, and this is hopefully something that can be easily remedied.

Can you set your gear up on a tank exactly as you would for a normal dive and take a picture of the whole rig so we can see if there is something easy we can suggest to make this better for you?

 

[rhwestfall]

pre-checks, practice and familiarity with your gear....

I routinely switch up rigs I dive, and that can be a problem.... Couple weeks ago, after splashing, my buddy never showed up. This was a drift, and a fairly fast current. I drifted for about 3-4 minutes, and figured I had to go up. This is not a good thing as the boat traffic is quite heavy, and the boaters here don't respect much of anything. Worst thing was that my buddy had the float/flag/reel.... Okay, time to shoot an SMB. Pulled it out, and prepped it for launch. Deep inhale, take reg out of my mouth, close valve (double hose with a DSV), inflate bag, and release it. Do my standard reach at my neck for my reg, and nothing! Damn, where is it? Roll right, arm sweep, and again, nothing! WTF I think?.... Start thinking about my octo, and it dawns on me.... Hey STUPID! You are diving a DH today. It will be floating above your head! Reach up, at there it is! Pull it down, put it in my mouth, purge, open DSV and all gets better....

Routine practice........ practice as a routine......

 

[stuartv]

find the reg find the LP hose and follow it. As long as your LP hose is connected to the Power inflator the Power inflator will be at the end of the LP hose......

The OP specifically said that the LPI popped off the power inflator.

No my point is what if the bungee fails, and it does therefore run away?

I guess that would be when you buddy would need to help.

In the situation you had, with the corrugated hose floating somewhere up above and behind, how would having a longer hose floating up above and behind your head have helped?