Your thoughts....

[ScubaNoob]

Hello everyone!

I had what I think is my first Scuba incident while on my 2nd day of open water diving......let me explain. On the first day I discovered that I am a heavy breather (not out of shape, I just breathe a lot). I was able to complete all of my required skills on the first day without incident, had plenty of air and left Gilboa feeling good about how things were going.

On the second day....

Discussed the heavy breathing with my instructor and he decided that since I was running pretty low on air during the previous day that I would breathe from his octo while watching other divers perform required skills on the training platform (20 feet deep) and then I would switch to my reg for my skills.

We entered the water and decended to the training platforms. I was breathing from my reg until I got to the platform...my instructor hands me his octo and turns his back to me to start watching the other students.....this is where my trouble began! I removed my reg and put his octo in my mouth while pushing the purge...nothing, no air...it was full of water and guess what...I needed to inhale (I had exhaled prior to removing my reg...duh)! My instinct was to bolt to the surface, I looked up...then decided to sweep and regain my reg...push the purge and breathe. It worked..I took a few breaths and then was able to actually "clear" my instructors octo and start breathing again. I never told him about the stressful situation that happened, I just calmed myself down and continued on with the required skills.

My question(s):

Should the purge button always expel water and leave the regulator free to breathe from? I was calm and cool until I pushed the button on his octo and nothing happened! Was this situation easily avoided by ME actually having lungs full of air to purge his octo??

What I learned:

Staying calm and deciding to secure my reg was the best option. Problems underwater are best solved...underwater, so I hear.

All of this happened last July (2008), I think about it a lot and wonder if I did the right thing or if I made a mistake!?

Honest feedback is welcome......

 

[Solly]

the good thing you reacted calmly, as you mentioned thinking clearly with no panic will help you overcome any trouble, even if the only solution is to go out of the water (which should be in very rare cases) you will decide that with clear mind.

The mistake you did is to exhale just before getting your reg out of your mouth, you should inhale fully such that once you get the octo to your mouth, even if the purge didn't work as expected you still have some air in your lungs to expel the water out of the octo.

I think you should have talked with your instructor about the issue and trying to do it again to see why his octo behaved like this or was it something you did that caused this to happen, just to be sure you understand how things went to avoid that in the future.

did you get your certification?

dive safe.

 

[Walter]

Should the purge button always expel water and leave the regulator free to breathe from?

Yes.

Was this situation easily avoided by ME actually having lungs full of air to purge his octo??

That makes a great deal more sense. It's also wise not to give up a working air source until a new one has started giving you air. Don't every drop a working regulator until you have another working. You should have had to make a sweep, the reg should have still been in your hand. That's why we have two hands. You could also have (although you were likely not taught this) cleared your regulator by clucking (moving your tounge from the roof of your mouth to the bottom making a clucking sound). Two or three times will clear a regulator.

I'm not terribly impressed with your instructor's decision to have you breathe off his regulator while waiting to do your skills nor by his decision to pass you his octo and not watch you until you were successfully breathing from it. I'd look for a different instructor for future training.

 

[openmindOW]

Thank you for your post, ScubaNoob. By posting on this Board, you are helping other divers to learn. Thank you.

You did fine. You remained calm and you didn't bolt. That's super. Pat yourself on the back.

I don't know anything about the Octo in question, so I am not going to address that. Nor will I, at this time, address the manner in which the class may have been conducted, because I wasn't there.

I would suggest, my friend, that it might be beneficial for you to consider what factors may have contributed to your high air consumption rate.

Also, I would urge you to consider taking additional training. I would suggest that you consider a Peak Performance Buoyancy course. You may not have been appropriately weighted, and you'd go through the weighting exercise again in that course. You'd also get some more practice with buoyancy skills, which we as divers are always working on. You'd have to request this class, but I think you would enjoy it.

Welcome to diving.

 

[ScubaSteve]

I have to echo Walter's comments. I do not think your instructor showed the best judgement having you breathe off his octo while skills were being performed. For your benefit, just think of what might have happened had one of the student paniced requiring the instructor's full attention. Secondly, as Walter commented, to hand you the octo but not confirm t that you were breathing properly was an error in judgement as well.

As for your incident....You have some good comments so far. I would like to confirm one thing though. Did I interperet your post correctly to say that your instructor's OCTO purge button did not function at all? If this is the case, then you really should have notified them even if it was topside. Failing equipment can lead to very serious accidents if they are not handled properly and when dealing with OW students, one can not always assume they will be handled properly every time.

You handled yourself calmly which is good. If you can maintain the ability to think underwater when things do not go as they should, then you should have a safe diving future. Bolting to the surface is not usually a display of thought. You acted correctly in that you followed STOP, THINK, ACT.

 

[TSandM]

I'll echo the opinion that putting you on your instructor's octo was a significant error in judgment.

But I will share a story with you -- When I did my OW dives, I ended up choking and wanting to bolt, just like you (although mine was from flubbing a mask clear). Like you, I pulled myself together and didn't end the dive. That single experience taught me a critical lesson about one's ability to control panic, and I have had several occasions since where that knowledge has allowed me to stay calm and in control when it has been important.

Good luck with the rest of your certification, and know that you have a big asset already as a diver!

 

[ScubaNoob]

Thanks to everyone for the comments.

Just to address a few of the questions/comments:

I never thought about what would have happened if another student had a problem and went to the surface! Would my instructor take off after them and with him goes my air? Yikes! I'm not so sure it was a good idea for me to be sharing his air....I blindly trusted what he was telling me to do. He moved to Cozumel last winter so all of my future training will be done by another instructor.

I really should have discussed the equipment situation with my instructor, bad me! I think I was embarrassed, didn't want anyone to know I wasn't perfect! Haha, lesson learned!

Replaying the day in my head I think I have one of the problems with my breathing figured out. Entering the water I tried to tighten my BC (because it was shop owned and too big for me) and I broke one of the straps. I had to exit the water, run back to the shop trailer and replace the BC. This did not make me tired (I run in my spare time), but it did cause some anxiety because my instructor and all of the other students had to wait for me to get back into the water (at the surface). I sensed some annoyance with my situation and during our first dive noticed that I was really uncomfortable. We ascend and talk about what we are doing next, I check my air and realized I am lower than everybody else in my group which is when we decided I would just use his octo when we went back down. The rest is history.....

I did pass the certification and love diving here in the Midwest, I make it to Mexico a couple of times a year so I get to experience both cold (low vis) and warm water diving.

I am taking AOW at the end of September, Peak Performance Bouyancy is one of the skills that I am looking forward to taking. I am always trying to get better!

TS and M- Thanks for the story! I realize a lot of us have probably had minor situations to deal with and it's good to know that I responded to mine in a logical manner.

Walter- I'm diving in two weeks, I'll try that clucking technique...thank you! I should NOT have let go of my reg, you are so right!

Thanks again everyone!