Why didn't I handle a freeflow situation?

[ryshannon]

now thinking weather or not to carry on diving.

Glad to here you & your buddy made out alright on your experience. I to have had a couple of freeflows. If you are heading towards your divemaster cert. Before you consider not diving, Take the next course Rescue. This course will help you in reconizing a possible panic before it happens and will teach you to calm yourself before you or other divers reach that point.
Question When was the last time you serviced your regs and what type were you using?

 

[HowDidIGetIntoThis?]

For me it is a question of experience: if you had , let's say, 100 dives more, all of them without incident, you would have handled the situation way better. Just because you would have been more at ease with diving.

So: dive more, have that regulator checked and (if you can) get a second first stage.

Cheers!

For the same reason I sucked 39 degree seawater on a bad roll-off last week. In an emergency your mind does NOT re-run the last six courses while searching for an immediate best response. Real training is diving. We both knew what to do, we both did something somewhat short of optimal. Keep at it.

Stay safe.

I must disagree with Chernish. 100 more dives without incident simply puts a person that much further from their training and more likely to have trouble remembering how to respond properly. Regrettably, we only learn the really valuable lessons from experience (although frequent drills must help).

Lowviz summed it up nicely. I did something similar when I strode off the boat with a hard-breathing (rented) reg. Until the panic subsided it was really hard to believe that it was not necessary to sprout wings and that a slow draw was better than none. Lesson learned: when you suck on the reg to ensure that the air has been turned on before splashing, suck fast and hard. That's not the time to try to conserve air.

Somewhat off-topic but relevant to argue that experience outranks instruction: (From a different dive) four feet of separation between is nothing until OOA situation arises and then it looks as big as the Gulf of Mexico. Lesson learned: I will never, ever, accept a same ocean / same day buddy again. (At least not until I figure out how to predict when an emergency is going to happen and time it to happen only when I have lungs full of fresh air.)

Cheers,
HDIGIT

 

[mddyver]

What caused your regulator to free flow?

Mike

 

[firstdive2005]

Ya dont throw the towel in. You have the gonads to put this out for people to see and give advice that speaks lots to your values in learning/experiencing dive skills. Check out all the free-flow threads here. That might help settle some nerves. Here ya go, practice the skills. I mean on a dive get close to your buddy and fake an OOA. YOU are actually in control but go with it. You dont have to go to surface. Now you need to have a buddy that can handle that kind of wolf call. Mine's used to it now. I faked a oxtox hit and my lip got pinched real good when he was keeping my reg in my mouth. No sympathy later.
It is good you are here to talk about it. Thank-you. kev

 

[mark01]

I'm a bit ahead of you in the number of dives I've done, but not by all that much, and I had an near panic experience in heavy surface swells and a poorly rigged line from the boat to the descent line. I was not happy with how I reacted, but I now know how not to repeat the experience.

What you've shared here indicates to me that you have enough sense and courage to examine critically your response and learn from it. When my buddy and I dive locally, we spend some time on every dive practicing skills and one that I spend time on is breathing from a simulated free flowing reg. (Hold the purge button in and breath from the reg as per training) I can do it pretty well at this point. I know it'll jack my heart rate somewhat when a free flow happens, but I KNOW I can breath from the reg when it's free flowing so I know I have time to do what needs to be done.

What's been offered here is excellent advice. And one other thing I would offer is that if all the guys on this board quit diving after an event in which things did not go according the the textbook, we'd have 3 guys diving.

Hang in there buddy!

Mark

 

[bluebubble1995]

breathing from a simulated free flowing reg. (Hold the purge button in and breath from the reg as per training)

Mark

I never had to do that. What's it like...any tricks?

 

[driftwood]

hi im an advanced openwater diver with 50 dives under my belt not much i know so clearly still a novice.

The other day me and my buddy was diving a local site when after 5 minuits into the dive i had a freeflow situation. I hadnt had to deal with anything like that before. in my training i totally understood what i would need to do in this situation, however the other day i totally lost it and instead of being calm i paniked and started to hyperventilate at 25 mtrs. i grabed my buddys octo and exchanged for my freeflowing reg. Now i should be ok knowing that i now was reasonably safe but i couldnt get enough air as i was paniking still, so i tried to get to the surface as quick as i could, with my buddy!!! we failed to hold a safety stop we are both ok but i put my buddys life in danger and am now thinking weather or not to carry on diving.

any thoughts would be greatly appreciated
thanx

P.S sorry buddy

I think that you did just fine and learned some hard lessons.

Think about all the things you did right. You were close to your buddy, you KNEW where his octo was, cleared it and saved your butt when you were under real life 'stress'. You got a lot more right than any 'points for style' that you missed. BTW, you were not lucky, YOU saved your ass by remembering your training. Not a bad job at all and I would dive with you or your buddy any day.

Get your gear serviced, go back to 25m with your buddy and see how you feel. If you can get past this incident, you could become a very good DM or instructor.

 

[driftwood]

I never had to do that. What's it like...any tricks?

Not pleasant, but you can sip air from the stream of bubbles. Don't try to 'get on top' of the bubbles, sip from the side of the stream. Personally, I would stick my thumb into the free flowing reg and go for my alternate.

 

[herman]

I never had to do that. What's it like...any tricks?

There are several different ways but in general you sip the air from the bubble stream, in much the same manner as you would drink from a garden hose. Remove your reg from your mouth, hold it in frount of you and press the purge button, I like to fold the wings of the mouthpiece back, then sip from the air stream. It's noisy, confusing and waste a huge amount of air but if you have never done it I highly recommend you try in a very safe (standing area of a pool) place. It is an experience you do not want to have for the first time on a dive. If possible, find an instructor or DM to help you....now why you did not have to do it in OW is what really concerns me. All out students get to do it several times before OW dives and again during the OW dives.

 

[Scubakevdm]

Hey man, the more you dive the more effed up stuff you're gonna see. An experienced diver is just a guy who's seen alot of stuff go wrong. All of us have made mistakes that could have hurt ourselves or others.

I think that you are right to recognize that the choices made weren't good, and that there was a potential for serious injury or worse, but if you decide to just throw in the towel you're only making it halfway though the process. The first half is recognizing the problem, the second half is correcting it. The way to correct it is through training.