First Free Flow

[bj139]

I want some opinions on my experiance this past weekend. I was diving with a buddy at a quarry who I picked up on my local single diver wants to dive this weekend forum. When we met we introduced ourselves, explained our diving skills, checked out each others gear, ect. Now this was my 9th dive and his 13th so by far both of us still brandy new divers and we were aware of this. We said we would do a surface swim out to a marker and decend down the line, swim around and check out some sunken items and stay at or above 60 feet. Seemed like a good game plan. We geared up, did our buddy check and off to the water we went. We surface swam out to save air as I suck down and AL80 in about 25 minutes (yes,yes, crazy I know, I am working on it) and we try to decend and he is not properly weighted. We swim back in and he goes to get more weight. When he comes back we decide time for a new game plan because I am not surface swimming out there again. We decide to drop down the wall and then swin xxx degrees out to the item we would look at. We do this and then as we are swimming out about 5 minutes into the dive I can hear my reg starting to free flow ever so lightly. I tried to slow my breathing and get my buddies attention. Just as I get his attention and thumb the dive my reg goes full free flow. I tried to switch to my octo and that free flows as well. I grabbed my buddies octo and with bubbles all over the place started breathing as we acend to the surface. Sounds great except that neither of us managed our BC as we accended and we were at the surface in no time. Total dive time 6 minutes with computers going berzerk for accent speed.

Now here are a few things I noticed after thinking about this issue ALL night long.
1 - It seems as we both had some panic set in and that was a huge factor in shooting to the surface.
2 - I am thinking we should have gone over a game plan for a free flow / OOA situation
3 - We should have stayed closer and been more aware of each other.

I would like you to pick apart my story and tell me what you think can help make me a better diver. If you must, call me an idiot if you think it will help.

I had my first free flow on Saturday. Temp was 52F. About 5 minutes into dive at 50 ft, my octo starts a slight free flow. I switch to octo to try to stop it. My primary starts a rapid free flow. My buddy and I try banging on reg to no avail. I felt no panic. I looked at my gauge and I still had 3000psi and it was dropping but not fast. I knew I had at least 3 minutes and if I could not get to the surface from 50 ft in three minutes with air I should not be diving. Everyone diving has done a CESA from 20-30 ft and knows what a non event it was so 50 ft would be doable. The ascent was less than 60 ft/min breathing normally from my octo. I asked my buddy to turn off my air since it was still free flowing on the surface swim back.

I borrowed my buddies spare reg for the next 2 dives with no problem. I even tried my pony bottle for the first time and breathed it at 62 ft. Oops, better round that down to 60 ft since I am only OW certified. For the next dive I used a spare Conshelf reg with Apeks secondaries I bought used. It had good IP and cracking pressure in the sink at home. There was no problem on the dive.

My free flowing reg I bought new last fall since I was starting my OW training course and I wanted something reliable. It had previously been on 41F and 43F dives with no freeflow. On the 43F dive, the octo had a slight freeflow before the dive but it stopped on turning the reg down in the water. This was probably the beginning of IP creep. Could this be caused by a lack of lubrication? I think I've read on SB about a problem with new regulators caused by no lubrication on the piston o-ring. My regulator is a diaphragm. I guess I should bring it back to my LDS for service since I do not trust it now. I have rebuilt regulators so I could disassemble and lubricate. I will not dive it until I service it or get it serviced. I am learning to service regulators so I will not be relying on someone else for my safety.

I realized several month ago that as long as I was breathing, other problems were minor and were no cause for panic. If necessary, I could sit on the bottom and decide on the best course of action. In this case, I had air and time, so no real emergency, just a problem which had to be solved within minutes.

 

[fjpatrum]

Now here are a few things I noticed after thinking about this issue ALL night long.
1 - It seems as we both had some panic set in and that was a huge factor in shooting to the surface.
2 - I am thinking we should have gone over a game plan for a free flow / OOA situation
3 - We should have stayed closer and been more aware of each other.

I would like you to pick apart my story and tell me what you think can help make me a better diver. If you must, call me an idiot if you think it will help.

I'm a newb so take my comments as such:

First, I think you did a fine job handling the situation. Panic can be a killer and even if you did have some panic, you handled the situation properly and made it out alive. You're still alive and so is your buddy and neither of you had a chamber ride. Good dive. (Think like a pilot-any landing you walk away from is a good one.) Now you know what your panic threshold is/can be and you know what to look for in the future (if you didn't already.)

Second, I think a specific "freeflow plan" is generally overkill but in cold water scenarios may be a good thing to add to the checklist. I wouldn't have one but I'd expect to handle the situation per my training. I haven't dived with the same buddy any two days of diving but the one person I have been consistently trying to buddy with lately I would expect to handle the situation well. Given the "new buddy" situation, you did well.

Third, communication is a difficult thing under water. Staying close is always a good thing. If you dig through any of my threads you'll find one where I thought things were great and my buddy thought I was swimming really fast and had no way to tell me. There's always room for improvement. If you were close enough and aware enough of each other to share air, I'd suggest you were being reasonably good buddies, especially as newbs.

 

[ianr33]

The water was about 42 and the reg was a rental and it also wasnt sealed (if I am saying that right??) So, I will be buying my own reg before the next dive.

Very wise on buying your own reg.

Sounds like the reg you were using was totally unsuited to the conditions.

 

[Insta-Gator]

Sorry, but I didn't read everyone's response. Your account was sufficient for me to believe you are taking a great learning experience away from this and will be better prepared in the future. Training is one thing, experience is another and lasts longer. I'd say 'good job' on dealing with the situation. As you said, next time you'll monitor the ascent rate better.

 

[bj139]

I left a post on a 2 year old thread thinking that my experience was like the OP. There are 3 responses immediately to the OP who has not had any SB activity in 7 months. I hope somebody reads my post since I would like to know if inadequate lubrication in a reg first stage could lead to free flow. The owners manual for this reg states that it is suitable for diving in any temperature. I am leaning toward the lubrication aspect because it was fine for 2 dives at 10F colder temperatures.

 

[Cave Diver]

I left a post on a 2 year old thread thinking that my experience was like the OP. There are 3 responses immediately to the OP who has not had any SB activity in 7 months. I hope somebody reads my post since I would like to know if inadequate lubrication in a reg first stage could lead to free flow.

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[bj139]

I hope I did not offend anyone with my last post. If I did, it was not intended and I ask forgiveness.

I found an exploded diagram for my free flowing reg so figured I would open up the front end and have a look. I saw through a magnifying glass what looked like darkened metal particles on the HP seat shaft and a light sheen of lube. I removed the HP seat, wiped all the parts clean, lubed them with O2 grease and reassembled. I adjusted the IP to 135 from its original 145 thinking this would make it less resistant to free flow. It breathed OK and cracking pressure was about 1 inch.

I went to Dutch Springs on Friday expecting to find a dive buddy. I met a group of NAUI instructors who were going to 100'. I wasn't sure about going to 100' since I am a new diver but they gave me confidence and made sure I had enough air (my HP 117 showed why it is good to have a larger tank). We did a 48 minute multilevel dive to 95 ft, did a slow inclined swim up to desaturate and did our 15' safety stop. On the SI, they asked about AOW training. The dive I had just done qualified for my deep dive. We did another dive with underwater navigation and I shot an SMB. Since I was 1/3 finished for my AOW dives I went back over the next 2 days and completed the AOW dives. Great sales job by the instructors and I am happy. They gave me training before I had paid for it.

I used the reg which had previously free flowed on these 6 dives and had no problems, so I guess it is fixed.

 

[Gil Middlebrooks]

The same thing happened to me with a new (3-month-old) regulator in January. We were doing a night dive in a quarry. The problem started at about 75 to 80 feet pretty much at the start of the dive. Water temp was about 42F. Cold and spooky -- even with lights. I probably messed with it for about 30 seconds and then thumbed the dive. My octo never free-flowed. We did a safety stop and came to the surface. My reg free flowed the whole time. Once I was on top with my BCD inflated and I could stand, we shut the tank off. There was no obvious problem. After a few minutes of a speculative "wtf happened" conversation, we decided to drop down to about 20 feet to see what would happen. We did that and had no further problem, but of course, most of my air was gone.

The dive shop said the valves needed some adjustment. I have not had a chance to check out the "repair" yet, but will do so shortly.

Here's what I think I learned as a newbie: I should have switched to my properly functioning octo once the free flow started in earnest so that I could mess with the regulator to see if I could stop the free flow. (it has a flow resistance knob.) I should have given my buddy (who is much more experienced) a better chance to see what he could have done to deal with this. I thumbed the dive a bit early. I knew I had plenty of air because I was checking my guage constantly once this started. Nevertheless, I hope I err on the side of being overly cautious that far down.