Freeze- Up & Free Flows

[tstormdiver]

Yesterday while at the quarry, a group of us (4) decided to do a deep dive. The quarry reaches depths of 115 ft with temperatures in the low 40's below 60 ft. We decided that 1 buddy pair go one way & the other would go another. I was diving double 108's & my buddy was diving a single steel 104. We descended without much problem. The other team leveled off at about 70 ft & started on their way. I am not sure what size/ type tanks they were diving only that they were singles with no redundancy- which IMO is crazy in that environment; I also thought this same thing with my buddy; but we're all divers & should know what we're getting into. My buddy & I dropped down a little further & leveled off at about 90 ft. After giving each other the OK signal, I started to lead the dive as planned.

Not even a minute later (we were about 5 min into the dive) my buddy signaled me with his rattle & pointed to his regulator. It took me a couple of seconds to realize what he was communicating. The bubbles weren't too bad at this point, I immediately deployed my long hose primary to him, but he wouldn't take it, he just stared at me,.... I'm guessing some narcosis going on there. Then the regulator went into a full free flow & all hell broke loose. If I could have given him my primary, I was going to turn his air off, let the 1st stage thaw for a few seconds the turn it back on & give his regulator back to him & do a slow, controlled ascent, but that never happened. He started for the surface, not really in a panic, but quickly, as I grabbed him. I'm not sure, but I don't think he dumped ANY air from his BC on the way up, & I couldn't reach his inflator hose to dump any. This very quickly turned into an uncontrolled ascent, so I dumped all the air out of my wings & tried to use the weight of my 108's to slow the ascent, it worked marginally. It slowed us a little, but not as much as I would have liked. At 20 ft I decided to let him go to hopefully avoid/ reduce the risk of injury to myself. My computer (a Suunto) put me into 3 min. deco with a 10 ft ceiling because of the ascent. I stayed down & did my deco then came up to check on my buddy. Thankfully, he was fine, the only worrying thing is he didn't seem very bothered by the event OR the rapid ascent, He seemed rather nonchalant at our luck. We got very lucky with it. The reason I knew what to do with the free flow, in my situation, was that I had a free flow in the same quarry almost 2 yrs earlier when I took my Adv. Nitrox/ Decompression course 2 yrs earlier. I just used the knowledge I gained from that experience to try to handle the situation. I asked him why he did not take my primary, he said he never saw it, even though I had it right in his face. Probably stress & narcosis causing that.

About the the same time we had our problems, one of the guys on the other team had a free flow. The guy who had the free flow is still a newer diver & I'm not sure if he is deep certified or not. The diver was startled by the violence of the free flow & bolted for the surface. His buddy (I have dove with him before) doesn't always have the greatest team/ situational awareness. He never realized there was even a problem until his buddy was near the surface. The free flow diver was badly shook up, but uninjured. Everyone involved in these events was fine & we all took an extended surface interval before doing another shallow dive.

 

[Divedaily]

Good post, and I think your right, close call there. Next time you might wonna go for the dumpvalves on his BCD, if you can think of it (and find them) in a situation like that. They are (also) on the bottomhalf of the jacket so might be a bit easier to reach when underneath the panicking diver.
Over here (Germany) its not allowed to dive deeper quarries with a single first stage, all divers are requiered to have two, and thats being checked very often. For very good reasons, as your story shows....

 

[Jim-SAR]

Glad no-one was injured :cool2:

This scenario should probably become one of your pre-dive briefing topics from now on when diving this quarry. We were diving some deeper wrecks in Lake Michigan last weekend, and had one person with a fre-flow. Briefing ahead of time sets the stage for personnel responding correctly. It ultimately led to an ascent, but it was all in a controlled manner.

 

[TSandM]

I vividly remember my first freeflow experience, and I can sure see how someone with little experience could be completely befuddled by the incredible noise and reduced vision associated with it. I was lucky; I was sitting in front of my regular dive buddy AND my Fundies instructor; both people had regs out to give me before I had given up on my own efforts to get the flow to stop. But even executing an attempted controlled ascent in that bubble cloud was challenging. (One of the things I didn't ask afterwards, but have wondered about, was why the instructor waved off my buddy's attempt to turn off my tank.)

Kudos to you for thinking through the things you could do to slow the ascent (I would imagine your teaching activities helped with that!) I have found the butt dump is my friend with students, but it only works if they are TRYING not to work; if they're trying to get to the surface, they're generally head up.

 

[captndale]

Even without bubbles to obstruct vision, it has been my experience that divers in an out-of-gas situation often loose all perception of the outside world. They are focused intently and solely on their breathing, or lack thereof. I believe there is only way to approach a diver who is in an out-of-gas crisis who you do not absolutely know is in complete control. You need to assume control by getting a good grip on their shoulder strap or other strong point and place your regulator directly in their mouth. As a side note, I think the current popularity of long hoses can and does lead to a lax attitude about establishing control over the out-of-gas diver. The donor should always stay close and in strong physical control until he or she has established that the out-of-gas diver is relaxed and back in control.

 

[TSandM]

captndale, I don't think this diver was out of gas when he refused a reg and began a rapid ascent. Although freeflows empty a tank quickly, it still takes a minute or two (in my case, I think it was about two minutes) to empty, depending, of course, on how much gas was in the tank when the freeflow occurs.

And long hose or not, hanging onto someone who wants to head for the surface (or even just someone who doesn't know how to stop going there) and trying to brake them AND get to their inflator or dump is a challenge. I've had a number of "interesting" situations just with OW students who fail to remember to vent when we turn upslope

 

[captndale]

captndale, I don't think this diver was out of gas when he refused a reg and began a rapid ascent. Although freeflows empty a tank quickly, it still takes a minute or two (in my case, I think it was about two minutes) to empty, depending, of course, on how much gas was in the tank when the freeflow occurs.

And long hose or not, hanging onto someone who wants to head for the surface (or even just someone who doesn't know how to stop going there) and trying to brake them AND get to their inflator or dump is a challenge. I've had a number of "interesting" situations just with OW students who fail to remember to vent when we turn upslope

I have had dozens of freeflows and witnessed hundreds more. The key to the successfully handling a free flow when one has only one gas supply is to be constantly aware of the operation of one's regulator. the time from when a regulator just starts to slowly bubble during the exhalation phase and when it is in full freeflow is usually about three or four minutes. That is plenty of time to make a normal ascent if you recognize the symptoms. Even if the diver waits until he has a full free flow it can still be handled in a calm manner.

The problem is that if the diver does not react appropriately; if he reacts with panic or near panic the result is no different than an out-of-air situation. Shoving the proffered regulator into his mouth is more likely to be successful than waving it in what you may perceive to be his visual zone because he may no longer be monitoring his visual zone. Having a good grasp of the victim may keep you from loosing him. I have witnessed more than one accidents in which the victim started to share gas but then pushed away and was lost to the depths. If the victim becomes excessively positive on the way up and you can't dump his BC you can always just let go.

 

[Thalassamania]

I think this points up the need to drill air sharing regularly. I try to do so at the start of EVERY dive, even when I'm diving with a "regular" buddy. It's not always possible, but a dive were we do not do so is the exception rather than the other way round.

What I don't understand is why your buddy was not actively looking for your auxiliary and shutting down his rig.

 

[TSandM]

captndale, thanks for the information about the early bubbling. In my case, there was no warning, but it's good to know that minor bubbling may be an indication of imminent major gas loss.

And you're right, a stunned person may not be looking for a donated reg, as sharing gas is not a drilled response to a freeflow in basic classes.

 

[Thalassamania]

Might I suggest that someone who is "stunned" into inactivity by a free-flow may want to reconsider their readiness to be on their way to 115 feet?