When drills become thrills - incident caught on video

[billmas]

Hi,

The video very much speaks for itself. It's worth noting I'm on a single steel 15 litre and 3 litre pony, my buddy is on manifolded twin 12's.

[video=youtube;X8Vu8NBzzHA]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X8Vu8NBzzHA&hd=1[/video]

And a dive profile showing SAC/Depth. The SAC is a heavily smoothed curve, hence the missing first two minutes and the slow rise to over 500 lpm. I could check the raw data and would guess that it is actually somewhere around 700 lpm.



You'll probably ask yourselves why Ian (my buddy) didn't do a shutdown, well he openly admits that he can't reach his manifold - that is something we've discussed before and are dealing with separately. I knew I could do it for him but was not willing to risk shutting down the wrong pillar/valve/manifold etc particularly as at that point I myself had nothing left to donate had I screwed it up.

It is for this same reason why I didn't ask Ian to shutdown my main cylinder (which would avoid the risk of water ingress and a clean/visual on the cylinder). The possibility of him shutting down my pony by mistake was not a risk I was willing to take.

So boys and girls, please don't turn this into a Pony debate, and we're both aware of the changes Ian needs to make in order to operate his manifold. Other than that fire away!

Kind Regards
Bill

P.S. One other lesson learnt which wasn't mentioned on the video. Top cover reckons it took him three days to unclench his sphincter .... apparently two freeflows on the low pressure side at the same location make for a very impressive sight at the surface, but not very pleasant waiting to see if we're okay.

​​For those who like the Cliff Notes version, HERE is a summary post of the first several pages of answers, and what I got out of them.

 

[PfcAJ]

Glad you made it!

I could sit here and armchair quaterback a lot of things, but what stood out the most to me was that both of you guys were (are?) unfamiliar with each others gear and are weak in communication. You should know what's what and how everything works on his kit, and vice versa. He should be able to tell at a glance that you're on a pony, and you should be able to shut down the appropriate valve to stop his leak. Standardized kit configurations work wonders here.

Communication is another thing. You've GOT to be able to communicate clear and concise information to your buddy. Those delays put everyone at an increased risk. Similarly, your buddy needs to respond immediately to that information. Team protocols need to be firmly in place, and everyone needs to respect and adhere to those protocols.

 

[ajduplessis]

Glad you made it!!

 

[jago]

You and your buddy are alive and not hurt. So I consider you have successfully managed the issues.
But I have some suggestions :

• I'm sure you know the "end of exercice" signal (make a cross with the arms). Alternatively, put your free-flowing reg in the hand of your buddy and he will understand.
• If you are not sure to be able to shut down the good valve, let it open but dive with a closed manifold and adapt your plan.
• If you perform a line ascent and have a free-flow, inflate your BCD or your dry-suit (by the way why Ian didn't inflate his drysuit ?) before being OOA and use the line to slow down the ascent.
• If you're cold, if the surface isn't quiet, or if you are low on air, don't make a safety stop.
• At 6'05, I would communicate in an other way : "this" (the main reg) "issue" "OOA" signs, then "this" (pony reg), <remaining pressure>.
• Did your tanks look like this ? Why don't you consider a stage mounted config ? No risk to shut down the pony valve.

 

[grantwiscour]

+1 to jago's post

 

[TONY CHANEY]

Damn glad you guys made it out of the situation. Please don't get pissed off...just trying to help. 1) Do not create another signal for drill over. That works in class but the best signal to give is the thumbs up. Every diver I think in the world knows it. When my friends and I dive the caves, wrecks or whatever, thumbs up means end of dive no questions asked and anyone can call the dive at any time. 2) You noticed something wrong at about 02:06 but at 03:12 you were still estimating time before cylinder is empty. Why? 3) Why were you willing to stay down and thinking things like, &#8220;I will not abandon my buddy,&#8221; and &#8220;I need to let him get clear before resuming the urgent signal.&#8221; Sorry but you were the one in trouble at this time and you had to get back to the surface ASAP. It sucks leaving friends but you really had no choice. He would have looked for you for about one minute and then would have surfaced also. You did not even make it back to the surface until around 08:32, about 06:26 minutes after the first hissing noise. 4) Ian was trying to oral inflate but still wearing his weight belt. (I feel that after reading how many divers have been recovered still wearing their weight belts, more stress on this issue needs to be taught in class. 5) Ian has trouble with his valve shutdowns. OK, hell most divers do at first but why the valve protector cage? I thought that we got rid of those years ago. As for me, if I had trouble with valve shutdowns, I would remove any and all things interfering with it. Anyway glad all went well, thanks for having the strength to tell about when things go wrong. OBTW, get someone or yourself to replace that line and get rid of the excess line on the bottom. Looks to me like a heck of a trap waiting for some unlucky diver. Take care and have fun.

 

[Jax]

I'm watching all this, and didn't see you illuminate anything! Your thumb was dark, you could have shined on the freeflow . . . Big yes on the communication improvement necessary.

 

[TONY CHANEY]

Missed that point...thanks Jax.

 

[Jax]

Also, you were trying to control Ian's dive (waiting for him to get clear of lines) - :w-t-f: YOU had a problem! You should have kept up the agitated back and forth light, then highlight the thumb, back and forth, highlight the thumb. It was Ian's job to ascend safely with YOU. Poor form.

Did you think of turning down the gas so it didn't purge as fast? Or just go straight to the pony and shut off the main tank? Even a free flowing reg on a main tank is still a backup supply if you can feather your valve.

Lastly - why did you stop to communicate? This is an emergency, blow your stop and if you cannot communicate and move, stop the freaking communication attempts.

 

[rongoodman]

I don't understand the leisurely ascent up the line and the safety stop once you knew you had a problem. Neither of you had the redundancy to deal with issues like this underwater, so get out of there smoothly but quickly. Also, you had a bright light to signal(and I mean emphatically) that you were in trouble, but I never saw you do it. Dark or not, your buddy isn't going to be able to ignore an HID signaling an emergency

(And what's the point of the valve protector on your buddies' doubles if he's not going to invert them, especially if he's already having trouble doing a shutdown?)