I have just returned from a liveaboard in the Red Sea and had my first underwater "emergency". It involved my ScubaPro Air2 hose connector;
Before going on the trip, I had my reg set serviced and did 2 dives on a daily boat as a means to be sure that all was working fine.
After the 3rd day on the liveaboard, during the "emergency" dive at about 20m/60ft, I became aware of a moderate stream of bubbles escaping from connector on my LP hose leading to the reg and inflator buttons. I asked my buddy to watch me whilst I disconnected and reconnected it. This did nothing to abate the flow of air, so my buddy came over to take a look. As he disconnected it, the front end of the connector came off in his hand, resulting in a freeflow from the hose. As you can imagine there was a significant exposion of air and the hose whipping around all over the show. (Witnesses in a zodiac the surface reported an explosion of air on the surface that was 2m/6' above the surface)
He donated me his primary, went to his secondary and then closed my tank. His 7' hose allowed me to hang from a d-ring at waist heght on his BCD and out of the way to his side whilst he took us to the safety stop and launced an SMB.
We went back to the boat, realised the the whole connecter had "become unscrewed" and was probably 1/8th screwed on when I entered the water. We connected and tightened the connector, filled the tanks and did some testing at 10m, we then proceeded to complete the dive without further incident.
I have subsequently phoned the techie at place where the Regs were serviced and he confirmed that that aspect/part of the reg did/does fall within the scope of the service. To be honest, he was shocked and has asked me to return the reg so he can inspect and re-do the service on it as part of his own investigation. The whole experience was very valuable to me especially considering the outcome and I have no interest in pointing fngers, but rather to find the source of the failure and prevent it from happening again.
The experience has gotten me thinking though, and here are some points of consideration and perhaps discussion I'd like to raise here;
1. Because of the relative uniqness (read: not commonplace) of Air2, there is a risk that any breakage or significant failure of the reg set and/or bcd, could leave one in a situation of no available spares and thus no diving. This is more pertainent on a liveaboard or in remote locations. - I am now considering the possibility of retro-fitting a regular regulater as an octo and placing it on a long hose.
2. Becasue there are more parts associated with an Air2 there is a greater risk of failure and in such a situation it places the inflator hose, the regulator and the air supply at risk. - As with #1 above, considering the retro-fit to a regular inflator hose and connector for the bcd.
3. The comfort of the 7' hose I was breathing from during the ascent allowed me to effectively get out of the face of my buddy so that he could focus on getting us out of the water safely. - No question that my (new) octo will be on a long hose when I get it.
4. I was under the (false) impression that HP and LP hoses that rupture would give a huge amount (20 minutes +) of freeflow before depleting the (full) tank. It appears that this may be true for HP freeflow, but it is certainly not the case with a LP freeflow. Initial findings (my own google searches) seem to show that this is more like 2 minutes at less than 5m/15' for a LP freeflow.
As I said earlier, this has been a good experience for me and the calm management of the situation by my buddy was key to the outcome. It has made me think more of these types of situations and I hope that further discussion here on the scubaboard will be beneficial to other novice divers such as myself.
Best Regards
Richard.
Before going on the trip, I had my reg set serviced and did 2 dives on a daily boat as a means to be sure that all was working fine.
After the 3rd day on the liveaboard, during the "emergency" dive at about 20m/60ft, I became aware of a moderate stream of bubbles escaping from connector on my LP hose leading to the reg and inflator buttons. I asked my buddy to watch me whilst I disconnected and reconnected it. This did nothing to abate the flow of air, so my buddy came over to take a look. As he disconnected it, the front end of the connector came off in his hand, resulting in a freeflow from the hose. As you can imagine there was a significant exposion of air and the hose whipping around all over the show. (Witnesses in a zodiac the surface reported an explosion of air on the surface that was 2m/6' above the surface)
He donated me his primary, went to his secondary and then closed my tank. His 7' hose allowed me to hang from a d-ring at waist heght on his BCD and out of the way to his side whilst he took us to the safety stop and launced an SMB.
We went back to the boat, realised the the whole connecter had "become unscrewed" and was probably 1/8th screwed on when I entered the water. We connected and tightened the connector, filled the tanks and did some testing at 10m, we then proceeded to complete the dive without further incident.
I have subsequently phoned the techie at place where the Regs were serviced and he confirmed that that aspect/part of the reg did/does fall within the scope of the service. To be honest, he was shocked and has asked me to return the reg so he can inspect and re-do the service on it as part of his own investigation. The whole experience was very valuable to me especially considering the outcome and I have no interest in pointing fngers, but rather to find the source of the failure and prevent it from happening again.
The experience has gotten me thinking though, and here are some points of consideration and perhaps discussion I'd like to raise here;
1. Because of the relative uniqness (read: not commonplace) of Air2, there is a risk that any breakage or significant failure of the reg set and/or bcd, could leave one in a situation of no available spares and thus no diving. This is more pertainent on a liveaboard or in remote locations. - I am now considering the possibility of retro-fitting a regular regulater as an octo and placing it on a long hose.
2. Becasue there are more parts associated with an Air2 there is a greater risk of failure and in such a situation it places the inflator hose, the regulator and the air supply at risk. - As with #1 above, considering the retro-fit to a regular inflator hose and connector for the bcd.
3. The comfort of the 7' hose I was breathing from during the ascent allowed me to effectively get out of the face of my buddy so that he could focus on getting us out of the water safely. - No question that my (new) octo will be on a long hose when I get it.
4. I was under the (false) impression that HP and LP hoses that rupture would give a huge amount (20 minutes +) of freeflow before depleting the (full) tank. It appears that this may be true for HP freeflow, but it is certainly not the case with a LP freeflow. Initial findings (my own google searches) seem to show that this is more like 2 minutes at less than 5m/15' for a LP freeflow.
As I said earlier, this has been a good experience for me and the calm management of the situation by my buddy was key to the outcome. It has made me think more of these types of situations and I hope that further discussion here on the scubaboard will be beneficial to other novice divers such as myself.
Best Regards
Richard.
