Landlocked123
Contributor
I apologize for the long post. Friday passed I met up with a new dive buddy. Given we had never dove together we spent a considerable amount of time going through our respective equipment configurations and did a pre dive plan and assessment of OOA contingencies, weight ditching etc.
Our dive plan was to do a 100 foot dive with a very limited bottom time (2-3 minutes) and a long slow ascent. He was diving 32 and I was on 29 mix. I had an HP133 with a 30 bailout back-mounted. He was diving an HP100. We had plenty of gas to do the dive. Our biggest concern was a layer of 3-5 feet thick zero viz inducing sediment which was reportedly suspended at the 60 foot range. Our goal was to punch through it as it had been reported that visibility under that layer improved. We took this with a grain of salt as it seemed unlikely that a lot of light could pass through this layer to substantially improve visibility given our depth would also be increasing.
So our predetermined dive plan stated that unless visibility got substantially better to the 4-5 foot range minimum we would abort the dive immediately and ascend. I had a diving / go pro helmet with camera lights mounted on it and he had a flash light so we figured we would not lose sight of each other given we would stay close on the descent. We figured we had planned for all contingencies. On our way down we could see the layer of silt at 60 feet. As we punched through it we became separated. I could not locate his light. I ascended to the safety stop and we met there and aborted the dive.
At the stairs leading to the water we were discussing what had happened. Buddy noticed his regulator (primary secondary) had started to free flow a little bit. It was intermittent. We decided to go back down. Just get to 50ish or so and do an easy shallow dive. We had depleted gas already, his reg was acting up, and it made zero sense to even attempt the deeper dive. We did our dive and ascended to the safety stop. It is here that the incident happened.
His primary began to truly free flow and when we went to his alternate it also began to free flow (not as bad as his primary). I deployed the long hose. Buddy handled himself very well and was able to get his regs to at least partially stop free flowing. He continued to breathe out of his primary which had a manageable free flow. What I am getting at in this post is that no matter what you plan for it seems there is always an uncertainty around the corner. Never would I have imagined one could experience a double free flow. Ultimately we had made the smart decisions before the incident. We had no deco so this was going to end well either way but I learned another valuable lesson.
Small things can become larger things and if there is any doubt then there is no doubt. Abort the dive, modify the dive, but error always on the side of caution as best you can. Had this happened at depth in 2-3 foot viz it would have been a whole other situation.
Our dive plan was to do a 100 foot dive with a very limited bottom time (2-3 minutes) and a long slow ascent. He was diving 32 and I was on 29 mix. I had an HP133 with a 30 bailout back-mounted. He was diving an HP100. We had plenty of gas to do the dive. Our biggest concern was a layer of 3-5 feet thick zero viz inducing sediment which was reportedly suspended at the 60 foot range. Our goal was to punch through it as it had been reported that visibility under that layer improved. We took this with a grain of salt as it seemed unlikely that a lot of light could pass through this layer to substantially improve visibility given our depth would also be increasing.
So our predetermined dive plan stated that unless visibility got substantially better to the 4-5 foot range minimum we would abort the dive immediately and ascend. I had a diving / go pro helmet with camera lights mounted on it and he had a flash light so we figured we would not lose sight of each other given we would stay close on the descent. We figured we had planned for all contingencies. On our way down we could see the layer of silt at 60 feet. As we punched through it we became separated. I could not locate his light. I ascended to the safety stop and we met there and aborted the dive.
At the stairs leading to the water we were discussing what had happened. Buddy noticed his regulator (primary secondary) had started to free flow a little bit. It was intermittent. We decided to go back down. Just get to 50ish or so and do an easy shallow dive. We had depleted gas already, his reg was acting up, and it made zero sense to even attempt the deeper dive. We did our dive and ascended to the safety stop. It is here that the incident happened.
His primary began to truly free flow and when we went to his alternate it also began to free flow (not as bad as his primary). I deployed the long hose. Buddy handled himself very well and was able to get his regs to at least partially stop free flowing. He continued to breathe out of his primary which had a manageable free flow. What I am getting at in this post is that no matter what you plan for it seems there is always an uncertainty around the corner. Never would I have imagined one could experience a double free flow. Ultimately we had made the smart decisions before the incident. We had no deco so this was going to end well either way but I learned another valuable lesson.
Small things can become larger things and if there is any doubt then there is no doubt. Abort the dive, modify the dive, but error always on the side of caution as best you can. Had this happened at depth in 2-3 foot viz it would have been a whole other situation.
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