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Near Misses and Lessons LearnedHere is a forum to discuss those incidents that ended well but could easily have ended badly, and the lessons learned from them.
Please note: The last reply in this thread was more than 2 month(s) ago.
This sounds like a good idea to me - be very interested to learn best way to have octopus bungied up around neck as I'd be keen to use similar config
I don't want to hijack the OP's thread so I'm not going into this too far, however, you deserve a decent answer. Look at this: Hogarthian (South Florida Dive Journal -not my link)
I keep the backup reg much closer to my neck and practice going to it hands-free.
"Donation" is one coordinated move (if you are in control of the donation). Take the good reg out of your mouth, entend arm, press the purge to focus the needy diver's attention away from you, put your backup in your mouth with your other hand, "donate" gas and hang on to the needy diver's BC/Harness. Stay eye to eye with a death-grip on them and get a coordinated ascent going. Most likely, you will be adjusting their buoyancy until they get it back together.
Stay safe.
Indeed, don't mean to hijack and will PM you if I've any questions (like: isn't this (Hogarthian) likely to strangle you?!) Thanks for explaing tho - I'll have a play somewhere safe and see how I get on. Cheers, John
I am not sure if this is real, but come on.
If it is real, don't expect all divers sucking sea water to overcome the panic and calmly go through the correct drills.
EDIT:
Robert: not meant as a reply to your post. Sorry
Splitlip is absolutely correct. I had this happen to me on a shore dive entry in Bonaire. I had taken my reg in to be serviced before the trip and some nitwit cut the lip of the mouthpiece off. It wasn't zip tied on. There wasn't even room to zip tie it back on. Shame on me for not checking it closely, but I had checked it out in the pool before the trip and it was fine. It was fine on a few boat dives and some other shore dives. But this particular entry was very rough and I got knocked around by a wave and the mouthpiece came off. All of a sudden I was sucking sea water. Luckily I was where I could stand up, but I truly doubt I would have "calmly gone for my secondary" after breathing in water. You can talk all the theory you want, but this was not a gradual out of air occurrence where you suck in and nothing comes out. That gives you some time to think. This was sucking in and getting an airway full of water unexpectedly.
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The cure for boredom is curiosity. There is no cure for curiosity - Dorothy Parker
Yup, this happened to me too. Cozumel, drift diving, 60', rental equipment from my DM instructor too ...
Everything was great when my next breath was water... I had a moments pause in disbelief then training kicked in and I looked for my buddy. He was about 15 feet away (some random guy from the boat) and looking the other way. I then looked up at the surface thinking.. I can make it if I have to. Then I remembered my octopus and looked down for it. It was GONE! You know when some people look blankly ahead in shock cuz some things you just can't believe? Anyway, I looked ahead probably to re-evaluate again when I noticed the DM from the boat was directly in front of me trying to shove my octo in my mouth. He got a chuckle out of me putting up my hand in the stop sign so I can spit out the the mouth piece before I could accept the octo.
As punishment, he sent my buddy back to the boat and held my hand through the rest of the dive. :(
As for holding my breath, I didn't. There's a thread about breath skipping here on scuba board. I don't exactly breath skip, but don't totally expel all air from my lungs when drift diving as it helps to regulate buoyancy to ascend a foot or two to avoid oncoming coral. So I had some bubbles to blow. As for grabbing the 2nd and using it without the mouthpiece? Didn't even occur to me in those 5 to 10 seconds it took me to think about everything else.
As for grabbing the 2nd and using it without the mouthpiece? Didn't even occur to me in those 5 to 10 seconds it took me to think about everything else.
Carmen
And what is so totally confusing about the experience is, you think you have your reg in your mouth but you can't get any air, and you say to yourself: "Man, is this thing breathing wet."
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The cure for boredom is curiosity. There is no cure for curiosity - Dorothy Parker
I may be wrong, but the sequence looked like this to me:
- She does her little somersault in the water column
- Reg decides to separate and go it's own way
- She actually *spots* it float away for a moment, and turns to look at her buddy, putting her hand up to her mouth to confirm that that reg has gone bye-bye...
- At this point, she's still *blowing* bubbles... hasn't sucked any water
- She has a moment of reflexively grabbing, with her right hand on her ribcage, *below* the strange place her octo is clipped, to see if something with air will float into her hand -- nothing there...
- Boom... PANIC... Heads up for a moment... decides to go after her buddy's whatever...
Leads me to believe that if the octo *were* in a place she could reflexively grab it, whether necklaced, or on a lower waist mounted d-ring, where your hand naturally brushes it, this video wouldn't have ever been the subject of a post...
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Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty is a well-armed lamb contesting the vote...
My first scuba instructor was very keen on Scubapro's AIR II (and not only because he sold them). He had a litany of reasons why. The one I still find compelling has to do with the fact that the motion of reaching for a power inflator is automatic--the left hand of even a newly certified well-trained diver almost instinctively knows where to locate it. So, with an AIR II in place of a power inflator, a diver's left hand will instinctively know where to locate his "octopus" reg. No hunting, unsheathing, unburying, unclipping required. No surgical tubing or bungee cord necklace required. Simple. Slick. Only thing required is practice, which is done, in effect, every time the diver dives.
I sold my first AIR II (a 2nd generation AIR II, if memory serves) to free up some cash needed to purchase a second complete regulator required for the cavern/basic cave course I was about to take. As soon as I was able, I purchased another AIR II (3rd generation, I think). This was in the late '80s. I dive with this AIR II still when I'm wearing rec rather than tech gear.
I wonder if an AIR II (or something similar) would have benefitted the diver in this video?
These 2 members have said "Thank you." to rx7diver for this useful post:
I usually use a necklaced secondary. My daughter is a new diver. I have put an SS1 on her inflator hose. I don't believe in conventional octos.
When somebody rips her 2nd stage out of her mouth, I don't want her hunting for a back up breather that as often as not ends up dragging behind.
When she is compfortable enough, I hope she will let me necklace her secondary.
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Tim
Any intelligent fool can make things bigger and more complex... It takes a touch of genius - and a lot of courage to move in the opposite direction.
Make everything as simple as possible, but not simpler.
Albert Einstein
Indeed, don't mean to hijack and will PM you if I've any questions (like: isn't this (Hogarthian) likely to strangle you?!) Thanks for explaing tho - I'll have a play somewhere safe and see how I get on. Cheers, John
That's what I though initially, however if you look at the picture, you'll notice the hose comes up under the right arm, across the chest, then around the neck, but never makes a complete circle around the neck.
In fact, if you have a 5' hose, it's not actually long enough to strangle yourself with (it can't make a complete circle around your neck) when routed like that.
I just switched to doubles and long hose, and I have to say that after spending years with a short hose and Air-2, this is a lot easier to actually share air with.
...
Carmen
