Regulator clean-up after underwater incident?

Here's what happened yesterday, my question is at the end.

Me and my buddy went for a night dive yesterday. We go for the first dive, everything is going well, we're greeted by 3 really huge walleyes (we're the only ones on the site so they haven't been scared away), we drift in the lock, explore a bit and come back. Overall it goes very well but I feel a little bit queasy at the end of the dive, but it all stops as soon I'm out of the water.

We do our surface interval, eat supper and go back for another dive. After maybe 40 minutes, I start feeling queasy again so instead of going to drift the lock a 2nd time in the dive I signal my buddy that we're going out from the top of the lock. We get to safety stop depth and then I'm feeling really bad, so I bite hard and puke through the regulator, feeding the fishes with a good dose of Italian BMT with hot peppers ; )

Turns out I didn't bite hard enough because my reg gets ejected from my mouth. I recover it, purge it and cautiously breath from it since I'm unsure if it's going to breath well. It breathes a bit wet, but after a few purge cycles it's good enough for the 3 minutes of diving I have left to do.

A few observations...

• If you ever have to do that, bite really hard, and consider holding the regulator with your hand so that it doesn't get ejected.
• Chew down your food properly before diving
• If there's enough matter in suspension in the water your buddy might not even notice you're puking through your regulator (although he was ready with his octo as soon as he saw me eject the regulator)

Now the question... when I got back home to rinse my gear I noticed there was still a lot of chunks in the regulator, I tried rinsing them out but I can't seem to eject them.... so... is it safe to try to open the 2nd stage to clean it? Or is it better to just bring back to the LDS for clean-up by a properly trained technician (which will surely be grossed out). I feel like I shouldn't screw around with it, but I'm wondering if I'm not just overly cautious. It's a Sherwood SR1 if that makes any difference.

Thanks for the info.

As for your reg, I would unscrew the cover and remove the diaphram and then soak and swish in lots of fresh water.
Posted via Mobile Device

As fisheater said, removing the front cover and soaking should do the trick.... but if you have any doubts, take it to a tech.... and don't be embarrassed, it happens, and if the tech has been around it wont be the 1st time they've seen, ummm, chunks in a 2nd stage

Also, good job on not panicking. Having something like that happen can be spooky, you handled it well.

Best wishes.

Thanks to you two for letting me know I wasn't stupid by trying to fix this myself. I finally decided to unscrew the front cover and clean the inside. Wow, there was quite a bit of stuff left there, I'm surprised I could breath through that. Just gotta test it before going diving with it again.

It's also been educational, as I think I got a better understanding of why it would breath wet since the chunks would prevent the one way valve from properly closing.

This happends a lot in the Islands, mostly after the 1st night welcome party with the "Rum Punch."

If it happends, use your hand(s) to hold the reg in your mouth as you feed the fish. Then a good swish of the reg to clear it.

Like others have said, It Happends.

Now, if your event was caused by the Rum Punch, there are DCS and hydration issues that should also be gone into, not to mention who/what/where you did what or woke up with/where.

Just hope no one had a camera - it should be What Happens in Vegas, Stays in Vegas.

No rum punch involved ; )

I would suggest not doing what I have seen lots of times, throwing the reg into the closet with all the funk still in it and getting it serviced a year later.

Snowflake4727: Finally something that is more gross than wet suit booties left to fester...

Atom: Congrats on the lack of panic! I'm glad I've never personally had to test my regs for particulate emission compatibility, but it's good to know all the same. From instructors and friends who had it happen, I have heard the reason for the biting and keeping it in is the involuntary inhalation reflex following the regurgitation. Seems to be a 50% split on people keeping the reg in to replacing the reg quickly enough.

Anyway, after disassembling / reassembling the reg, you now have more understanding of the working mechanism, which is never something to sneeze at.

Did you consider switching to your secondary? Normally, you have your primary and your octopus/secondary. Providing the reg that's just gotten contaminated doesn't free-flow, or can be isolated (independent 1st stages), leaving it hanging in the breeze might be one of the best ways of cleaning it and giving you a clean-breathing air source.

Gerbs

Gerbs, I thought about switching to the octo, but since I was at the safety stop and very close to the shore I decided that what I had was good enough to finish the dive (only a few more minutes). Thinking about it now, it would probably have been the better option, cause if anything else had happened afterward it would have been easier to handle with a clean regulator.