free flowing reg

[trewbs]

I was diving in my local quarry on Sat. when my reg. free flowed. It made me a bit worried under water but I remembered sitting on the bottom of a pool holding the purge button and "sipping" the stream of bubbles. So I signaled to my buddy to ascend. It all ended happily enough with quite a long surface swim back to shore. The free flow was put down to cold water.

But in reality, sipping air from a free flowing reg ( especially when you're a bit panicky) means that you end up swallowing loads of water. You also do not have a free hand to hold above you as you ascend.

I think if it happened to me again, I would immediatly switch to my octopus and ascend with that.

I just think that the training should stress that there are alternatives and that open water scenarios are not as easy as pool scenarios.

Just a thought.

Trewbs

 

[Welshman]

Trewbs

Did your first stage free flow or was it the second stage? If it was the first stage then your octo wouldn't be any improvement. Anyway you did what you had been trained to do and ascended safely so good on you.

Regards

 

[nickjb]

Sounds like you handled it OK. There are lots of ways to deal with this situation, and lots to stop it happening in the first place.

Often stated on this board but very true... Your OW qualifcation means you are now qualified to learn to dive.

 

[Drew Sailbum]

trewbs once bubbled...
I just think that the training should stress that there are alternatives and that open water scenarios are not as easy as pool scenarios.

Just a thought.

Trewbs

All's well that ends well.

Your own octo is not a preferred option. In a free flow situation you will quickly be approaching an out of air scenario. Perhaps a better option is to secure your buddy's octo and have a stable breathing source for your ascent.

Of course this all depends upon your depth and tank pressure.

 

[MikeFerrara]

I wouldn't switch to the octo. With that nuch air going to one second stage I wonder how much would be available at the second. Once you let lose of the free flowing reg some will do a real dance turning your entire area to nothing but bubbles. Besides your air will last longer if you breath from the free flowing one. There is something to be said for the redundancy of an h-valve.

 

[Big-t-2538]

You both made it back to the surface, and nothing happened other than you cut your dive short....that's the most important thing. In the future, one thing my buddy and I have practiced is actually turning the tank on and off so as to conserve our air supply. It doesn't take long to drain a tank when the second stage is free-flowing. I wouldn't suggest going to your octo, you'll be out of air pretty soon, I would suggest the use of your boddy's octo. then you are both together...you will surface together, and you will both be there IF something else goes wrong.

Mike---What's an h-valve? I've heard of and seen K's, J's, Y's and Din's, but never an h?

 

[ScubaScott]

I've had two freeflows due to cold water...... don't bother with your octo - there won't be any gas there to breathe. Secure backup from your buddy is the ideal thing to do, but doing as you did - breathing your bubbles and keeping a level head - KEEP AN EYE ON YOUR SPG....... very important. You made it out all right, now maybe look into why your reg froze and what can be done in the future to avoid it.....

SS

 

[BlueWaterDiving]

I don't know that much about cold water diving. Being from Forida but I can tell you that you did do the right thing. As a DM I dive with a lot of diffrent people and so time's there gear is not up to standards. Some time you can get your buddy's octo and have him or her trun your air off and then trun it back on agian and it sometime's this works for a safe ascent. With or buddy close by. There again a bailout would be nice.

 

[MikeFerrara]

Big-t-2538 once bubbled...

Mike---What's an h-valve? I've heard of and seen K's, J's, Y's and Din's, but never an h?

Same idea as a Y only shaped different. One of the valves is a conventional yole or din. The other comes off the side. Some are convertible so you can use them as a single, Y or manifold.

 

[Groundhog246]

trewbs once bubbled...
But in reality, sipping air from a free flowing reg ( especially when you're a bit panicky) means that you end up swallowing loads of water. You also do not have a free hand to hold above you as you ascend.

If I get this right you took the reg out of your mouth and breathed from the bubbles? Why remove it from your mouth? Excess air will exit the exhaust Tee and should keep water from entering the reg. I do remember performing this skill in the pool, don't recall swallowing water. If you were swallowing water, good job it was fresh, otherwise you'd be hurling too.
I've been lucky enough to avoid a free flow so far (yesterday water was 34F), but I had a dive buddy with a free flow last spring. He simply continued to beath normally off the reg as we ascended together (8 minutes into the dive, tanks were near full and we didn't so a safety stop due to the very short time at depth). I had my octo ready to pass if he called for it, but he still had 900PSI when we reached the surface and we got his tank shut off.

All that said, I think I'd be quick to switch to my buddy's octo, but he declined to take mine. When he tokk the regs in for service his second stage was condemmed, permanently U/S