Even careful people do dumb things.

[Web Monkey]

First, I'd like to say that I'm generally very careful, bordering on obsessive when it comes to SCUBA, and will call a dive at the drop of a hat if something seems wrong. However I apparently got complacent when diving somewhere I've been dozens of times before.

This past weekend my buddy and I went diving in Alexandria Bay on the St. Lawrence river, which is about 35F right now.

I always bring my pony (with a sealed Z1) in very cold water, except this time, since I had left it at the shop for a fill and and the shop wasn't open (you can probably see where this is going).

We got to the site, hit the water and did a bubble-check. My buddy's Air-2 was leaking so he disconnected it. I figured it wasn't a problem, since we were only going to around 40' - 50', I had plenty of air and a functioning Air-2 and couldn't think of any likely failures since my reg (Atomic M1) has always been bulletproof in freezing water.

Anyway, it was a very nice 45 minute dive until the very end when we did some lift bag practice. I took out my bag and spool, unrolled the bag, switched from my primary to my Air-2, gave the bag a little shot of air, let it straighten out, then gave it a longer shot of air and let it fly.

It took off beautifully, and everything worked perfectly. If we had a video, I'd post it here.

I switched back to my primary took a couple of breaths and noticed it was free flowing a little. Then I noticed it was free flowing a lot. Every time I took a breath, it got worse. Then it was just dumping like crazy. Figured "No problem. My buddy is right here". Then I realized "****. he's got no alternate."

So now I have a tank that's dumping air like it's on Mythbusters, my tank pressure is dropping like a stone, my buddy's Air-2 is broken and I probably don't have enough time to go over and try to hook it up again (it's really hard to get the quick disconnect back on underwater with gloves while it's pressurized). If I try buddy breathing, I'd probably kill both of us, since neither of us has been trained in it.

Instead, I just did a reasonably fast ascent (a lot closer to 60'/M than 30), ignored the safety stop, surfaced, and everything worked out fine. I'm not injured, it was a nice dive and life is good. I got lucky.

However I learned a couple of new things.

• Diving with no redundant air source (pony or buddy) is just dumb.
• Diving with broken equipment on either diver is dumb.
• I didn't know as much about the Atomic M1 as I thought

This week I called Atomic and talked to a technician about the free-flow. It turns out that although it's pretty much impossible to freeze the first stage on the M1 no matter what you do or where you dive it, it's entirely possible to freeze the second stage on almost any reg if you take it out of your mouth and let it fill with water, then use it again, as I had done when filling the lift bag. If I recall correctly, he said that ice can build up around the lever, which keeps the valve from closing, causing a free-flow.

Although this is completely reasonable in hindsight, I never thought about it before.

I just wanted to leave a note here in the hope that it might prevent someone from doing two dumb things in the same dive.

Next time I fill a lift bag in cold water, I'll use a reg on a different tank (pony or doubles that I can shutdown and isolate). And if something seems wrong, I won't dive.

Terry

 

[Cacia]

Next time I fill a lift bag in cold water, I'll use a reg on a different tank (pony or doubles that I can shutdown and isolate). And if something seems wrong, I won't dive.

great point

So...we you all fine buddy breathing from 50 ft.? What made you uncomfortable about that? The very cold water? (35..that's cold!)
Sounds like it went well to me, as long as you get the air two out of your mental picture.

I'm one of the few that likes inflating on my LP inflator hose. Not sure how I would feel about that in a drysuit though.

 

[PerroneFord]

It's the little thing that bites you in the butt sometimes... Sometimes I am thankful for diving in overheads. The environment dictates that you simply cannot skirt your way around the details. Not having a redundant airsource means no dive. My second backup light crapped out last week. No cave diving until it's fixed or replaced.

Little details, but things that MUST get sorted out. prior to diving.

I'm glad you came out of it ok.

 

[Footslogger]

I flushed my socks down the toilet once ...and I am normally very careful !

 

[Web Monkey]

great point

So...we you all fine buddy breathing from 50 ft.? What made you uncomfortable about that? Sounds like it went well to me, as long as you get the spare air out of your mental picture.

We didn't do any buddy breathing because neither of us had ever tried it.

A direct ascent seemed safer at the time.

Terry

 

[Cheekymonkey]

Thank you for the post, can never hear these things too many times.

 

[Web Monkey]

great point
The very cold water? (35..that's cold!)

It was a little nippy, but on a sunny day it somehow doesn't seem as bad.

Sounds like it went well to me, as long as you get the air two out of your mental picture.

The Air-2 really isn't evil. It's just not a great breather. I'd switch to an octo (probably another M1), but the shop teaches with the Air-2 so I need it for class.

Terry

 

[TSandM]

I think one of the big lessons here is one we all need to be reminded of on a frequent basis . . . There is no such thing as a "safe" dive. As I thought, as I tried to turn my gas back on the other day, you absolutely can drown in 25 feet of water.

It's easy to get into the frame of mind that says, "Oh, this isn't a big deal, it's only a 40 foot dive . . . " and ignore issues like broken equipment, minor leaks, and missing gauges. But every dive should be regarded as a serious endeavor, and we have procedures and protocols in place to ensure our safety for a REASON, and that reason is that things can and do go wrong (luckily infrequently) and when they do, people can get hurt.

Glad it all came out well for you. Having recently done buddy breathing with my husband for the first time, I'm with you -- Doing it unpracticed and during a stressed ascent wouldn't be my first choice, either.

 

[Web Monkey]

I
Little details, but things that MUST get sorted out. prior to diving.

Yep. I guarantee this won't be happening again.

I'm glad you came out of it ok.

Me too.

Happily, it wasn't a "certain death" situation, but certainly slapped me around for being a little for being too complacent.

Terry

 

[njd3rph]

To eliminate your problem filling your lift bag under these type of conditions try filling the bag using the exhaust from your reg rather then taking the reg out of your mouth. Just tilt your head sideways (so that the exhaust is facing up) and alow the exhast to fill the bag.