Video of a CO2 hit & Rebreather info

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almitywife

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thanks to Chris (SB'er DiveTub) for letting me know about this footage... as someone whose hubby is a rebreather diver, any info on safety and rescue/assistance is greatly appreciated

CO2: The rebreather incident

its a bit long but fascinating and a great learning tool...... give it 10 mins of your time, its worth it



cheers
 
Absolutely Horrific in regards to what has transpired.

For the newbies and the experienced heed the warning in regards to getting one of the fundamentals wrong. :no
 
I saw this footage over on RBW earlier.

This "Instruction" as presented in the video is NOT!!!!!! taught anywhere!!!! I'm not sure who taught this, but he should be shot NOW!

I have NEVER heard of this practice.

CO2 is one of the prime issues with CCR. There are many considerations on how often to change your scrubber, but I have NEVER heard of mixing old scrubber with new. No point, no advantage, no one in their right mind would consider it.
 
Actually, over the years people have repeatedly asked about "repacking" scrubbers, and the issue has been discussed more than once in various forums and mailing lists before that. So this is not a new issue, though I'm suprised that it still happened in this day and age.

On the other hand Martin Parker not too long ago wrote to the Inspo Owner's List, and IIRC also posted on RBW, the correct procedure to pack their scrubbers. Most people were caught by suprise as they had been taught differently! Once this became known to AP they went to great length to straighten out this problem, even made instructional videos posted on their website complete with downloadable files.

I still wouldn't be suprised if people pack their AP scrubbers too tightly.

As for this not being real, knowing Simon Pridmore as well as Martin Parker I doubt they would pretend it was. Aside from being posted on a governmental website.

There are several very important lessons to be learned from that video, not just about the importance of correct scrubber packing and the dangers of hypercapnia (CO2 poisening), but also about proper bailout planing and procedures, and the need for team procedures.

And as the video/supporting text states, this not only concerns rebreather divers, but divers in general. Emergency bailout and team procedures are obvious, but hypercapnia isn't necessarily rebreather/scrubber related. The real danger is the CO2 the diver retains, and that can happen on OC as well as during freediving. "Shallow water blackout" is a well known danger, and OC divers working hard against currents, panicing or holding their breath while taking pictures or filming are a common occurence. Not venting your lungs properly is the real danger, and it's not limited to rebreather divers.

This is a very well done accident analysis that benefits from the video footage taken during the incident. Seeing it with own eyes just brings the point across a lot better. The mistakes that lead up to the incident, as well as those made during the emergency were all to real, the lessons learned too important to devalue them because they were stupid, or they should have known better.

Gordon Smith used to say something like "don't focus on the worst possible failure, focus on the most likely ones". Wise words, it's the stupid mistakes, the little, simple things that go wrong and pile up, often leading to the worst outcome.

Too many good divers have lost their lifes because of dumb-*** mistakes!
 
That video should be the very start of every RB class.
 
Very interesting. I love learning about CCR's, especially their dangers. Very cool video, glad he made it out alive.

I think the best part was watching it all in real time.
 
stunning. It's just hard to imagine that such a practice would be even slightly common. On one hand being overly conservative is a waste, but re-mixing and re-packing old sorb is clearly just russian roulette.
g
 
What I didnt know from the video is how the affect of a CO2 hit does not go away once on OC. Even if you bail out in time you can still be screwed..although if this guys buddies would have reacted appropriately he would have made it to the surface before running out of gas.
 
It's a terrific video for newbies and oldies.

I do remember some folks talking about mixing / re-packing scrubbers during the earlier days of RB diving. It made sense in only condition - being a cheap a__. If a RB diver considers that repacking as a viable method of saving sorb it really means you have no business diving a CCR.

Additionally, the video surprises me in how piss-poor their buoyancy skills are. Actually, I'm not surprised, but always wondering why some RB instructors cannot manage to teach RB divers the value of being in a horizontal position during ascent and swimming...even with a video camera. It's apparent the divers are less-than-adequate swimmers from the video. Additionally, the up line is only meters away. Nice to use it as a method to get up vs. stabilize oneself vs. kicking like a nut in one position and building up greater amounts of CO2.

I have had a CO2 hit deep - twice It's not nice. New scrubber, less than adequate scrubber design IMO. Muscular strength goes and coordination becomes far more difficult than anticipated. What I managed to do was get to one spot and work it through. I had buddies shove regs at me, but I had enough of a my wit (diminished) to stay on the loop and add dil, flush till I got my wits. I knew going off loop deep could carry some consequences especially since I didn't know the exact % bailout my buddies were carrying. I imagine 17/38 etc??? Last thing I needed was a ox tox hit deep. I guess, it all comes down to knowing your personal limits. At 200 ++ feet a CO2 hit is not very pretty.

X
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/perdix-ai/

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