lermontov
Contributor
doing deep dives on air - it all goes well until it doesn't, question we ask ourselves is despite the fact we know we are under the influence can we resolve problems when they arise.
I had a situation last week that happened unexpectedly, after completing a deep dive on trimix we were heading up and at 65m I suddenly inhaled a mouth full of water, thinking i had just bumped it and some water had crept in I blew it back expecting to clear it and take another breath - same result , straight away I knew what the problem was. The mouthpiece had disconnected and my 2nd stage was down by my side.
A quick switch and a minute to fiddle the mouthpiece back on and continue (tentatively) to my next gas bottle.
We discussed the incident later and the question was asked if I was not on trimix and pretty clear headed what could have been a different outcome. Swallowed more water, panic, grab wrong gas reg ?
The other consideration is muscle memory and gear set up -I dive sidemount 90% of the time and reg swapping and gear set up is well ingrained
So just to put an exclamation mark on it and reminder to myself and others look for weakness in your dive plan to see if there's a potential for cascading events
I had a situation last week that happened unexpectedly, after completing a deep dive on trimix we were heading up and at 65m I suddenly inhaled a mouth full of water, thinking i had just bumped it and some water had crept in I blew it back expecting to clear it and take another breath - same result , straight away I knew what the problem was. The mouthpiece had disconnected and my 2nd stage was down by my side.
A quick switch and a minute to fiddle the mouthpiece back on and continue (tentatively) to my next gas bottle.
We discussed the incident later and the question was asked if I was not on trimix and pretty clear headed what could have been a different outcome. Swallowed more water, panic, grab wrong gas reg ?
The other consideration is muscle memory and gear set up -I dive sidemount 90% of the time and reg swapping and gear set up is well ingrained
So just to put an exclamation mark on it and reminder to myself and others look for weakness in your dive plan to see if there's a potential for cascading events