Incident Report (long)

[pufferfish]

Thanks Biscuit for posting your incident for discussion. Glad to hear no one was hurt and we can all learn from your post. I have been reading a lot of these threads on freeflows as I figure given Murphy's law at some point it will happen to me. In fact last year on the Arabia in Tobermory at 105 feet just after getting to the bottom I started to notice those first few bubbles trickling out between breaths and thinking ok now what. The water temp was about 38 F and I had been breathing a little heavy on the way down as this was my first time on the wreck. Also I had tried to add air gradually to my BC on the way down but do remember giving a good blast near the ninety foot mark and shortly after the reg started misbehaving likely due to the greater air flow out of the first stage. In anycase I signaled to my buddy a problem and waited a minute or so and everything settled.

Sine then I have thought about what I might do had a full free flow started. Probably the ideal solution on these cold deep dives is a redundant air supply like a pony but don't have one yet. Last weekend just for curiosity sake I decided to see how long it takes to drain a 1000 psi with the purge fully open on land. Two attemps with the same result,....30 seconds. That means a full tank at 3000 psi might last only a minute and a half with a free flow. Let me see, with a nice controlled 30 ft/min ascent from a hundred feet I will be out of air by the time I hit the surface without a safety stop.

After reading this thread I don't like the idea of having my air shut off by someone else for the reasons cited. Instead with a free flow I would signal my buddy to ascend while continuing to breath off the freeflowing reg and controlling my buoyancy. I would monitor my air and when down to 500 psi indicate to my buddy that I wanted to switch to his alternate. Only then would I have to grab on to him and have to complicate the situation as happened to you. As indicated above one might be lucky and the freeflow might stop in the warmer surface waters in which case one might still have enough air to do a safety stop from their own tank. I feel comfortable ascending on a freeflow as I have practiced this since last summer and think this presents fewer problems than grabbing a buddies alternate at one hundred feet and trying to control buoyancy to the surface.

The key is to develop a plan with your buddy that you are both comfortable with and stick to that plan. Practice ascending in warm water with a free flowing reg and controlling your buoyancy.
When the s*&% does hit the fan, implement the plan.

 

[wreckchick]

The most important thing I learned from this was to abort the dive AT THE FIRST SIGN OF TROUBLE!!!!!!

By descending off the platform after I'd seen the bubble trickle, I wasn't making my situation likely to get any better. The added depth and colder temps could ONLY serve to increase the likelihood of a freeflow and since I already knew that my reg was acting a little funny that was a mistake.

The other big lesson is that I didn't fully comprehend all my options. I did think of a couple, but not all of them. Situational awareness is a funny thing. That's probably the hardest thing to "train" for, but is undoubtedly the most important thing you can have in a non-standard situation. I think from now on I'll be a little more aware of the bigger picture while I'm diving.

I am diving this weekend and there will be many drills involved and I think one of them is going to be taking up my buddy while I control buoyancy for both of us and vice versa. Not while sharing air, but just to try it so if it happens I have a little bit of experience.

That rescue class is sounding like a better idea all the time!

Rachel

 

[richhagelin]

This situation is one of the reasons that I prefer the traditional octopus set-up rather than the mini regulator on the BC dump valve.

Also, another thought. In the "old days" before octopus rigs, we did just fine. Everyone knew how to "buddy breath" from a single regulator during an ascent. Maybe it is a skill that has not been emphasized enough by those who never had to do it.

Rich

 

[richhagelin]

I hope that those on this board that are all anxious to get their DM or Instrutor ratings after 20 or 30 dives are reading this. There is no substitute for experience (the more the better). and you get experience ONE DIVE AT A TIME.

Good Judgment comes from making mistakes and surviving them. You have just had an invaluable experience. Thanks for sharing with us.

Rich

 

[Braunbehrens]

This scenario could have easily resulted in a fatality! I'm glad you guys are all ok.

I know this sounds corny, but remember your training. Stop. Think. Act.

Unfortunately it sounds like you did what you could in that regard, but others may have acted with a bit more haste.

An ascent at this point is always very difficult, when the OOA diver is breathing from the donating diver on a short hose. There just isn't much room to move around. The only way to do it succesfully in an emergency is to practice it until it's second nature.

I would say that practicing S drills is something that should at least be done every few dives.

The other thing that is never practiced, but should be practiced often, is what to do when you lose your mask. Losing the mask can happen pretty easily, like the diver in front of you kicking it off your head.

Someone mentioned having one person use their BC to control buoyancy for both divers. This is extremely dangerous. What is likely to happen is that the diver with air will inflate his bc while the diver without air has none in his. Should the link between the two divers somehow be broken, a likely outcome is two fatalities, because the diver with air will shoot up like a bat out of hell, and the diver with no air will sink to the bottom and drown.

It is much better to make a very slow, very controlled ascent, making sure you use your legs for lift, and making sure you are BOTH slightly negative all the way up. The OOA diver should not have to add air to his BC, since he was near neutral at the start of the problem. Just kick up, vent the BC's as you start having to kick only a little (or none at all), and make some stops every 20 ft or so to make sure that the ascent is nice and slow and controlled.

When you go for your dive in a couple of days, please be aware of this danger....if this is indeed what you meant by "control buoyancy for both of us".

I'd just like to say that there is training out there that will prepare you to deal with situations like this. I personally feel that the ONLY way you will be able to handle this kind of situation is if you've trained for it. Unfortunately, none of the agencies save one will train you for any kind of real failure, at least in my experience.

 

[MikeFerrara]

Braunbehrens once bubbled...
I'd just like to say that there is training out there that will prepare you to deal with situations like this. I personally feel that the ONLY way you will be able to handle this kind of situation is if you've trained for it. Unfortunately, none of the agencies save one will train you for any kind of real failure, at least in my experience.

This, IMO, is a quality control issue. Even a PADI OW class includes skills such as breathing from a free flowing reg OOA drills, mask removal and replacement, no-mask breathing and swimming and managing a stuck inflator. If you look at the standards for a class like the IANTD Advanced Nitrox class there are lots of skills added to that.

I think the problem is that instructors have students perform the skill once while kneeling on the bottom rather than practicing the use of the skills in a more realistic situation like controling depth and position while managing one or more problems. Standards recomment all skills be practiced beyond their initial introduction but few instructors include that in the class.

I have seen a few stuck inflators but rarely have I seen a diver respond correctly. The same is rue for a free flow.

Aside from the fact that we have many generations of instructors who were trained this way and don't know any different there are many aspects of the industry that reward the wrong behaviors. The entire industry is designed this way not just the agencies.

 

[Rick Inman]

Last night while I was diving at a local lake , I thought about this post. I had 2 very minor leaks - one at the bc/inflator hose coupler and one at the K valve. Both O ring issues I think. The valve leek didn't develop until sometime during the dive and I didn't discover it until the dive was over. But I DID know about the inflator hose leak and decided to dive anyway.

Biscuit7 said,
"The most important thing I learned from this was to abort the dive AT THE FIRST SIGN OF TROUBLE!!!!!!
By descending off the platform after I'd seen the bubble trickle, I wasn't making my situation likely to get any better. The added depth and colder temps could ONLY serve to increase the likelihood of a freeflow and since I already knew that my reg was acting a little funny that was a mistake."

My issue wasn't the reg, and I could always unhook the coupler and orally inflate, but as I was cruising around last night seeing the trail of bubbles I wondered, should I abort a dive over something as small as this low pressure leak? I didn' t and it was all good, but...

(BTW, the bad O-rings were on LDS rental gear, NOT mine.)

 

[KEOD95]

Glad to hear everyone was ok. I agree with the other post on closing down the air ASAP. I have had the same thing happen to me on a couple of occassions. One time I was able to stop the ff by giving my regulator a couple of good raps and one time a hose broke so I buddy breathed to the surface. In niether case was I below 60 fsw so it was no biggey.

During Navy EOD dive school we trained extensively for these kind of scenarios during what was called "pool harassment week". If someone was going to wash out of Navy Dive school, this is generally where it happend. During the week instructors would remove our gear, secure air, etc. It really built our confidence and prepared us for real world environments(case in point).

In my opinion this is the one aspect that is missing from all civilian dive programs. However, you and your buddy could easily do this sort of thing on your own is a pool.

 

[Braunbehrens]

If you are trained to manipulate your own valve, you can shut it down, and in the event that you somehow need air from that tank you can turn it back on for a minute.

However, you have to be trained to manipulate your valve. Practice it often. No need to shut the valve, just turn it slightly towards closed, then back to open. The FIRST thing of course when you put your hand on the valve is to make sure that it is all the way open.