free flowing reg question

I thought about this after reading another recent post where a diver had a free flowing reg at 80' and then shared air with his buddy to surface. I was wondering if it would be wrong to continue breathing from the free flowing reg and then buddy breath with your buddy if it came to that?

The freeflowing reg can be breathed, but personally I'd prefer to move the cloud of bubbles off to one side and share air (using octo, not buddy breath) with my buddy.

If you are breathing your buddy's air, you also have the option of reaching back and shutting down the tank valve.

Charlie,

Wouldn't you want to use up your own air for as long as possible before starting to deplete you buddy's supply? I guess the length of the dive so far might be a factor to consider (maybe not because if it's well into the dive, and you're low, then s/he's low, too), but that would be my thinking.

It's not hard to breath on a freeflow - it is distracting! i'd breath it while it was still giving air - why waste it!

best way to stop a freeflow - i see many beat the snot out of the reg ( i guess to punish it for the free flow ), is to cover the mouth piece with a couple of fingers and the exhast port with the palm ot the other hand. this will stop >90% of freeflows, except in icing conditions.

I would be more apt to share with your buddy first and foremost [we're talking sharing on an alternate, not actual buddy breathing right?]. Share, then deal with either stopping the freeflow, or shutting down the tank.

A freeflow is going to be a high stress situation most likely, and bubble interference could definately cause more problems. Combine the bubble interference with a rapidly depleting ballast [e.g. the loss of the gas weight], and you're running the risk of an uncontrolled ascent; which can then cause a buddy separation when your gas supply is finally gone.

So, I would suggest breathing off the freeflow until you can get assistance from your buddy; get a reliable source of gas, then attempt to deal with the problem [stem the freeflow or shutdown the freeflow so you have the gas if you do have a buddy separation on your egress]

As far as using your buddies air... you both did plan to have enough in reserve to get both of you out of the water.. right?

Assuming you can't get the freeflow to stop...
(1) grab buddy while shutting down your own gas
(2) prepare to share air with buddy
(3) check to see if yours is a first or second stage problem - if it's a second stage problem, when you try to breathe immediately after you shut down your air supply, you'll get nothing - or near nothing, while a first stage problem will leave the intermediate hose fully charged and you'll get a full breath or two or three.
(3a) Second stage problem: put your non-freeflowing second stage in your mouth, crimp the second stage line going to the freeflowing reg, turn your air back on and breathe from the second.
(3b) First stage problem: modulate your air supply by turning on the gas until you get a little freeflow, then closing the valve while you breathe the IP down a little - with a little finesse you can set the valve for a minimum freeflow and still breathe comfortably.
(4) Keep your buddy close and at the ready to share air if required.
E.

Given a no-deco dive, I'd be breathing off the free-flowing reg as long as possible while ascending to the surface with my buddy.

The primary reason would be that you are in conditions that just caused one regulator to freeze up. If two people are breathing off one first stage, I'd say that you're raising the odds of that particular first stage freezing up, which would definately not be fun.

If you were doing any sort of deco dive, shame on you for having only one source of air each, forcing you to use your buddy's secondary reg.

I'll say I'm a strong proponent of having a pony bottle on cold dives to any real depth for this reason. I've seen too many regs freeze up the one weekend I was out in the real cold water to think it can't happen to me. (I was amazed it didn't however).

it was kind of the midpoint of the dive, my buddy had about 1500psi and we watched my spg go to below 1000 while we attempted to stop the freeflow (I had switched to my octo to get a better look at the primary). When we both signaled to ascend, my buddy offered his octo and I took it. It seemed easier to do so at that point, than to continue to monitor my spg, deal with the freeflow, and ascend all together.

Had we been at the end of the dive where we were both lower on air, I may have continued to use my air as long as possible.

As I learned, its hard to know exactly how you'll react, until it happens. It does help to practice and be prepared.

J.

To All,

Having recently had a icy freeflow at 30metres, I personally decided to breath from my buddy's octopus.

It seemed like the best idea at the time, as it can be a very stressful situation.

I had the added benefit of knowing that both my buddy and I had full tanks at the start of the ascent, and I started to freeflow as soon as we got to 30Mtrs (100Ft).

However once a situation becomes stressful underwater, the stress can also become very contagious and your buddy will also start to worry, especially when it's dark, and there are bubbles just about everywhere you look.

To cut a long story short, after deciding to breath of my buddy's octopus, I ran in to an immediate problem - He was using a new Octopus Holder, one of these Velcro ones, and I couldn't free the octopus from his BCD. Because of this a normal situation, one we have all trained for became one your nightmares.

I tugged and tugged at his octopus, praying that it would come free, and somehow it did, but by the time it had come free my general stress had become an extremely stressful situation.

Not only was I extremely stressed, but my buddy was no longer thinking clearly after seeing me tugging to try and get at his octopus.

Because of the ensuing situation, we both spent 5 hours in the decompression chamber as a precaution;

We never stopped and regained control of our bad situation and we weren't ascending no matter how hard we swam up, my Buddy's stress began to show and he decided to use his BCD to get us to the surface, however our ascent rate was a lot too quick. So once we had calmed down at the surface we took a drive to the local hospital (Which has a Tank) and they decided to treat us.

To Summarise; What I am saying is - Let Your buddy know that you have a problem, signal your need to ascend and start to ascend, staying close and breathing from your free flow.

Make a safety stop if required, and breath from your buddy's octopus ONLY when you are out of air.

Then if things get worse, at least you are shallower, maybe shallow enough to do an Emergency Ascent if you really need to.

Although you have to have a good buddy and be able to read their responses to situations, you also have to be self reliant.

My mistake was not following the training. In the event of a free flow - Breath from it whilst ascending.

I hope my comments helps, the situation has definately helped me. For one, I replaced my cheap Mares Regulator set, with one designed for cold water. Also I am considering a Pony bottle for those just in cases!

Paul

=-)

beaker once bubbled...
Given a no-deco dive, I'd be breathing off the free-flowing reg as long as possible while ascending to the surface with my buddy.

Click to expand...

My apologies. I personally treat every dive as an overhead dive... I don't believe there should be any reason to alter your planned ascent profile.