Inflator Hose Blew

[tddfleming]

Out at quarry yesterday, standing on dock watching different classes while on SI. Quarry was pretty busy with more kids than I have seen out there being cert. to date. Many of the kids looked to be 10-11 yr old. All of a sudden there was a loud popping noise coming from one of the kids that was in the water. Air started shooting from what looked like his 1st or tank valve at the time. Kid started sinking, no reg in his mouth, as they just finished the giant stride and he and his inst was floating and talking on the surface. Of course this created some movement of people trying to figure out what was wrong. Another inst came over and started to oral inflate BC, did not work. As they thought an O ring had burst. They towed the kid to shore. This group was across from where I was sitting and in our group we had an inst, DM and an equip. tech. I told the equip tech what I just witnessed at the water and what I heard them say they thought it was, so we watched to see what they were changing. However, it was not an O ring bursting but his shoulder inflator hose connction blew. Once it blew the kid started to sink like a rock. I have to give it to the kid after this he got set back up and went back in to finish his OW cert. Kind of amazing just how fast it happened and things could have gone real bad had no body reacted. 50# of gear and straight to the bottom he would have went.

 

[Jax]

Wow! A dry-rotted corrugated hose, maybe?

 

[oly5050user]

You have to wonder how much lead the kid had on if he could not easily stay on the surface without any air in the bcd.

 

[tddfleming]

Wow! A dry-rotted corrugated hose, maybe?

The tech guy, said from what he could see and hear, it popped where it screws into your BC at the shoulder.

 

[Jax]

The tech guy, said from what he could see and hear, it popped where it screws into your BC at the shoulder.

Really?!?!? It must have been cracked / damaged somehow -- all of ours is some pretty tough, thick material.

 

[TSandM]

That story doesn't make a lot of sense. If you tore a corrugated hose, it would make very little noise; the air in the BC is under very little pressure. And if you blew an LP inflator hose, it would not empty the BC, but simply make it impossible to use the power inflator to fill it -- oral inflate should have worked just fine.

And the other thing that comes to mind is that, even if your corrugated hose blows and your BC begins to empty itself (and note that it WILL take a little time to empty), if you are not grossly overweighted, you should be able to tread water and stay at the surface until you can drop your weights. Although I'll admit a kid that age might not even think of that.

 

[tddfleming]

You have to wonder how much lead the kid had on if he could not easily stay on the surface without any air in the bcd.

This I have no idea to, but I was standing up on the dock and watched the whole thing happen, as I just saw them take their giant strip and kid get in trouble for not waiting until inst did the OK and singled for him to come in. But sinking he was, as soon as it popped he started to sink.

 

[Jax]

Just speculating, if the elbow joint had sustained abuse (as most rental gear does) over time, tanks sitting on them in car trunks, etc., I could see the sudden increase of pressure from sudden immersion (giant stride in) putting the pressure up enough to finally crack it . . . and it obviously didn't come off, or the instructor wouldn't have tried to manually inflate.

I could see a tank bouncing on an inflator elbow causing it to be close to failure.

 

[tddfleming]

That story doesn't make a lot of sense. If you tore a corrugated hose, it would make very little noise; the air in the BC is under very little pressure. And if you blew an LP inflator hose, it would not empty the BC, but simply make it impossible to use the power inflator to fill it -- oral inflate should have worked just fine.

And the other thing that comes to mind is that, even if your corrugated hose blows and your BC begins to empty itself (and note that it WILL take a little time to empty), if you are not grossly overweighted, you should be able to tread water and stay at the surface until you can drop your weights. Although I'll admit a kid that age might not even think of that.

I don't have all the answers, just was a witness to it. Have been trying to make more since of it myself. When it popped, it was fairly loud, the force of the air escaping created air being forced into the was-bubbles, much like a free flow UW. Then kid started to sink. Inst tried to do an oral inflation, but that failed. At first they changed the reg set up. Then was doing something else. I heard them say, right when this was going on, that it was an O ring on the tank. I am trying to put this together to best that I can to figure out what happened, how to prevent it and what to do if it did happen.

 

[Jax]

I don't have all the answers, just was a witness to it. Have been trying to make more since of it myself. When it popped, it was fairly loud, the force of the air escaping created air being forced into the was-bubbles, much like a free flow UW. Then kid started to sink. Inst tried to do an oral inflation, but that failed. At first they changed the reg set up. Then was doing something else. I heard them say, right when this was going on, that it was an O ring on the tank. I am trying to put this together to best that I can to figure out what happened, how to prevent it and what to do if it did happen.

Ummm . . . :huh: Translation, please?