Have you ever used scuba equipment you absolutely hated!

Please register or login

Welcome to ScubaBoard, the world's largest scuba diving community. Registration is not required to read the forums, but we encourage you to join. Joining has its benefits and enables you to participate in the discussions.

Benefits of registering include

  • Ability to post and comment on topics and discussions.
  • A Free photo gallery to share your dive photos with the world.
  • You can make this box go away

Joining is quick and easy. Log in or Register now!

Yes.

My only serious diving incident was with a BSAC Sports Leader buddy I had done many dives with. We were mid dive when his tie came off his mouth piece he exhaled and the regulator came out and he and he sucked in water. He tried for his octopus and when could not locate it tried sweeping for his octopus but still couldn't find it. We were at 30m depth and he was in a panic and climbed onto my back and took my secondary. Even though his tank had air he was OOA. He also managed to tip us into an inverted position where we went even deeper. So from OOA to panic to hyperventilating to being inverted to being in a fast drift dive sinking into the depths into deco for a few minutes.

Quite an adventure really.


You are LUCKY!!

In my experience including one incident where my insta-buddy lost his primary SS and couldn't reach to retrieve it, he grabbed my primary out of my mouth. He told me later that he got very narrow vision and can only see my face with my primary in my mouth, nothing else at all. Same thing happened to others I know. I made the decision way back then to put my primary on a longer hose with swivel and my "secondary" on a shorter hose attached to my neck with a bungee. I use same second stage for alternate as primary since I'll be the one using it.
 
You are LUCKY!!

My belief is that as we were both BSAC trained we had training that allowed us to recover from a dangerous situation. I do believe that if we had not both been in BSAC clubs where this sort of training is given the outcome may have been different. I was also diving with someone I knew. How to stop someone hyperventilating when diving? You have to get them to take their regulator out of their mouth to help them build up CO2 levels. I held my dive buddies hand to my regulator, then I started breathing fast to simulate hyperventilation, then I put my hand over his and removed my regulator. Then I signaled I would do the same to him. He signaled he understood and he could push the regulator back in at anytime. By that time there was no panic but we had to resolve his issue with hyperventilating. Had we both not been trained about hyperventilation and how to deal with that the situation could have been very tragic indeed. Our ability to communicate what needed to be done to each other was key. I had also inflated my BCD and his to bring us up from being very deep to a safe depth where we could do this. Controlling an emergency ascent using BCD's is also taught in BSAC. Less stress than trying to swim up when two divers are so close to each other.

After the dive we had a sit down and went through what had happened, discussed how the tie may have been damaged or aged and had come off, and his quick thinking to get to me after he could not locate his secondary. He was concerned with getting air not concerned with how I would do with that initially. We also had to calculate dive time and depth and do a deco stop before the safety stop. He said one thing that surprised him was how calm I seemed through all this which helped him relax. I certainly wasn't calm when we were inverted sinking into the depths lol. I'm like where is my BCD inflator lol.

All that time being in a BSAC club with regular training especially on rescue techniques and being self reliant really paid off.
Far far away from any chamber in PG Philippines in the 1990's.

The most important thing was my dive buddy trusted me in this situation. Certification levels meant nothing right then.
 
i really hate the fusion dry suit, didnt work at all for me

I really loved my fusion... my mistake was getting the sitech removal neck seal. I hated it. Sold it for that alone. Never had any issues with air bubbles or anything that Im dealing with now with my new Santi. I do love my Santi though.
 
the way the op valve moved it was a nightmare from front mounted counter lungs on a rebreather . every time i touched it it dumped half a lung of gas out of the breather ...dove twice then sold it, i wont take a student on a tech course wearing one , either
 
Ha ha ha ha . I'm probably late to the game but I just make what ever I'm using at the time work for me . Guess I'm just old fashion . Adjust , Adapt , and Overcome .
 
My belief is that as we were both BSAC trained we had training that allowed us to recover from a dangerous situation. I do believe that if we had not both been in BSAC clubs where this sort of training is given the outcome may have been different. I was also diving with someone I knew. How to stop someone hyperventilating when diving? You have to get them to take their regulator out of their mouth to help them build up CO2 levels. I held my dive buddies hand to my regulator, then I started breathing fast to simulate hyperventilation, then I put my hand over his and removed my regulator. Then I signaled I would do the same to him. He signaled he understood and he could push the regulator back in at anytime. By that time there was no panic but we had to resolve his issue with hyperventilating. Had we both not been trained about hyperventilation and how to deal with that the situation could have been very tragic indeed. Our ability to communicate what needed to be done to each other was key. I had also inflated my BCD and his to bring us up from being very deep to a safe depth where we could do this. Controlling an emergency ascent using BCD's is also taught in BSAC. Less stress than trying to swim up when two divers are so close to each other.

After the dive we had a sit down and went through what had happened, discussed how the tie may have been damaged or aged and had come off, and his quick thinking to get to me after he could not locate his secondary. He was concerned with getting air not concerned with how I would do with that initially. We also had to calculate dive time and depth and do a deco stop before the safety stop. He said one thing that surprised him was how calm I seemed through all this which helped him relax. I certainly wasn't calm when we were inverted sinking into the depths lol. I'm like where is my BCD inflator lol.

All that time being in a BSAC club with regular training especially on rescue techniques and being self reliant really paid off.
Far far away from any chamber in PG Philippines in the 1990's.

The most important thing was my dive buddy trusted me in this situation. Certification levels meant nothing right then.
Glad it went fine for you.
And i believe you, that you calmed him down, by keeping him busy. But removing the reg, to build up co2, to stop hyperventilation (when diving) doesn't make any sense.
Co2 levels rise dangerously fast, when diving deep, because of the gas density and the inability to clear out the gasses inside the lungs. If in panic, more oxygen is needed, to keep to body "on fire", ready to fight or run. Heart rate goes up and so on ... So more co2 is produced. This results in hyperventilation, because the need to get more"oxygen*(we know this is wrong ofc) is strong.
What helps in that situation is exhaling and exchanging the "used" gas. To get rid of the co2 -> lower heartrate -> reduce panic.
Increasing co2 level is the wrong thing to do.
What helped in your situation, was probably to keep him focused on a task: take the reg out and watch you.

Its off topic, so if you want to talk about this we can open a new thread.

I hated a lot of my equipment. Especially any jacket style bcd i ever dived. Once i knew the feeling and comfort of doubles with a DIR harness, i recognized how bad jacket style bcds are in comparison.
Of course there are other opinions, but that my one. I hate jackets and i hate single tanks, where the firststage is always blocking my head movement. Of course i can dive dingles and jackets. I have to, when i teach owd in the pool, but everytime i do, i remember how much i hate it :D
 
Never used a air 2, never will a small amount of common sense tells you they are horrible in a real world situation if the other is panicked, which is likely.
Hmmm. I think I wrote of one of my "real world situations" with an AIR2 many years ago. This was an older second generation AIR2 on an old Orange Stab jacket. The AIR2 was available instantly and worked flawlessly. You see from my experience a panicked out of air or thinks their out of air diver just grabs the closest thing that might save themselves. In one personal situation and observing another similar situation the panicked person rightfully decided that the reg in the closest divers mouth was the best option and just grabbed it. When this happened to me I was good with it as I went to my AIR2 which was exactly where it always is. It worked fine...
Now the divers I observed with a similar situation did not have an AIR2 and the diver who had his reg pulled out of his mouth was frantically trying to find his other 2nd which was where he put it on his BC. He then took his reg out of the first divers mouth.... It was a mess. Fortunately, I noticed and was able to help. They were losing awareness of their depth and dropped 15-20 ft in the moment.
I still have the old AIR2, it works just as well now. I also have 6 other newer versions. I have a number of classic jacket BC'S the latest being the classic Unlimited with integrated weights; I don't use the integrated weights often. I also have a BP/W, a Hydros pro and a few others I should sell. The point is all of these items have merit including the AIR-2 which for many situations is the perfect choice.
When you travel you often have no idea who you will be with, their true experience level or time to go over what to do if... These are the situations most likely to find someone pulling a regulator out of your mouth. The Air 2 is always right there and most likely you are going to ascend and surface at that point. If not and you have deco obligation I would of hoped that the dive had been more planned but you can easily manage deco on your air2. People have so many opinions regarding gear, setup etc.... Do what works for you and who you dive with. Don't be rigid, change as the environment or situation calls. Just my opinion, experience and observations.
 
I have an air 2. When I dive with someone I have not dived with 100 times before, I always say..."If you need air, take the regulator from my mouth - I promise I will notice right away". I don't want them to get confused with the air 2, the pony bottle and the primary in my mouth. I definitely don't want them trying to rip the reg from the lanyard around my neck.
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/perdix-ai/

Back
Top Bottom