I finally completed my open water certificate this week while I was on a trip to Cozumel. What a place to dive! I did eight dives all around. Next to the last day I decided to do a one tank night dive to around 40 feet. This was the first time i have dove at night. I set up my gear and checked my pressure on my Vytec computer. All ok. I normally open my tank fully and then close it 1/2 turn. Well I must have been tired. I closed it fully and opened it 1/2 turn! Upon entering the water everything is ok ans we decended. The first 10 min into the dive everything is fine until I noticed that my Vytec was giving me a warning sign that it was not reciving a signal from my tank. I tryed to reset the computer to a new channel but that is not possible in the middle of a dive. So after I screwed around with it for a few more minites I started to notice that my reg was breathing a little hard toward the last of each breath. I then swam over to the dive master and signaled to his that I was haveing problems and wanted to end the dive. Upon asending my reg failed all together with 1000 psi still in the tank! OhOh I grabed his octo and started to breath it until it fell apart and started to free flow.
****! So I grabbed his second because I was completly out of air for a long time by now. Now I understand why buddy breathing is one of the last thing you do in an emergency. It is tough to remember to give it back when you are panicked! But I remembered to give it back. The dive master was able to squeese the octo hose and breathe off of it and gave me the second to use all the way up. We were still at 40 feet and both of us decided that we could now do a SLOW accent with a 5 min safty stop.
What a scare! It turned out that by being dislexic I had turned the tank valve the wrong way and cracked it open instead. The tank being full at 3000 PSI would breath easy but after the pressure drop it got harder to breathe. Being a novice I did not have the smarts to figure the problem out before I got to deep into trouble.
What I learned..... Stay close to your buddy, Check and recheck your gear, Don't always trust digital read outs for you tank pressure because they don't show quick pressure changes like a anolog would. And never close the tank 1/2 turn after opening. If I had not done the 1/2 turn I would have noticed no air while on the surface.
****! So I grabbed his second because I was completly out of air for a long time by now. Now I understand why buddy breathing is one of the last thing you do in an emergency. It is tough to remember to give it back when you are panicked! But I remembered to give it back. The dive master was able to squeese the octo hose and breathe off of it and gave me the second to use all the way up. We were still at 40 feet and both of us decided that we could now do a SLOW accent with a 5 min safty stop.
What a scare! It turned out that by being dislexic I had turned the tank valve the wrong way and cracked it open instead. The tank being full at 3000 PSI would breath easy but after the pressure drop it got harder to breathe. Being a novice I did not have the smarts to figure the problem out before I got to deep into trouble.
What I learned..... Stay close to your buddy, Check and recheck your gear, Don't always trust digital read outs for you tank pressure because they don't show quick pressure changes like a anolog would. And never close the tank 1/2 turn after opening. If I had not done the 1/2 turn I would have noticed no air while on the surface.
You just completed your OW that week and then went on a Night Dive? Were you part of a specialty class? Or just diving on your own? Just curious to know if the Instructor didnt check everyone out, or your buddy was at partial fault.
