Losing regulator

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This to me raises another observation. That being swiming up on the back of the diver in front of you. It kind of reminds me of the lessons learned when riding a horse. Simply, you get to close and your gonna get kicked.
 
Sorry to hijack, but could you all explain the best way to bungee the reg? How long the cord, what kind of cord, where do you get the cord, how to connect?

Thanks
 
You can do it a couple of ways.

You can buy a necklace made of soft rubber tubing -- they're made by Manta. I don't recommend that, because the orifice doesn't fit all mouthpieces and the necklace is rather long.

You can use 1/4" bungie, tie a knot in each end of it, and zip-tie the bungie to your mouthpiece. The knots won't let the bungie slip out from under the zip-tie. I don't like this technique, because if the reg gets pulled on, the bungie won't let go.

Or you can use lighter bungie (3/32 or something, I can't remember exactly what it is) and tie a double fisherman's knot to make a loop. HERE is a thread about that, with a video.
 
What do *you* do when you can't find yours by sweeping (it somehow got stuck behind you) and now you're frantic for gas as you continue searching?

Well first of all, I don't get frantic. I make a decent attempt at finding my primary. It has to be back there somewhere. If that doesn't seem to be happening then I switch to my Octo-Inflator which is right where it has to be.

-Charles
 
OP, Ideally your cylinder will be positioned so that you can reach back over your right shoulder with your right hand and reach your valve (to be able to turn it on/off) as you're finning along. You might need to push up on the bottom of your tank with your left hand to help you reach your valve. Now, if you can reach your valve, then you can reach your 1st stage.

Okay. To recover your primary, simply reach back with your right hand to your 1st stage and locate the hose to your primary. (This hose should be exiting off the right side of your 1st stage.) Encircle this hose with your fingers (by making an "OK" with your fingers). Gently extend your arm, and you will find your primary 2nd stage at the end of this LP hose.

This was the "preferred" method of recovering a 2nd stage that was stressed in my open water class. (The "arm sweep" method was preached against as being incredibly unreliable; it might fail to locate your primary if your primary is hung up somewhere behind you.)

Practice this preferred method each time you go diving, and it will become second nature.

Hope this helps.
 
To the OP...
How did your buddy react to your loss of your primary reg?
If your buddy wasn't aware of the incident (when it happened), why not?

Definitely practice those self-rescue skills, though. Thanks for sharing your story.
 
It doesn't happen too many times before one backs away from fins, knowing what is getting ready to happen.

We have some excellent divers out there but occasionally you will run into one that appears to be intentionally bad. One day I had a "bad" one come out of nowhere, cut in front of me, and kick me in the face. I noticed after the dive she was the one rudely pushing people out of her way on the boat.

Sadly, we have some problem children.
 
I had my reg kicked out of my mouth when i was so very new to diving. ( around 30ish dives ) around 17 years back. i had a very long break from diving a year or two after that. then i got back into diving about 6 years ago. i remember doing the sweep and the reach, but could'nt find my primary back behind me. i was exhaling small amounts of bubbles at that point, and felt i was not going to have anything left to exhale very soon. so i panicked and took a divers primary reg, and we ascended on the one reg. i did'nt think to locate and use my octopus. on the surface i realised this, and let the poor diver know, (with apologies.) we ascended back down immediately after retrieving my primary regulator caught behind my tank, and continued the dive. lesson definitely learnt!
 
I make it a point to use both my secondaries on EVERY dive, I switch between them all the time just for fun.....

This does a bunch of stuff.....keeps me in practice of taking the reg out of my mouth without holding my breath, I stay familiar with where all my gear is including re-stowing it, double checking that all the gear works properly.....

That works for me...:)

M
 
Thank you for your post, SEL. You handled it well and learned from the experiennce. Thank you for helping to educate the rest of us on SB.

Keep diving.
 

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