No Good Deed Goes Unpunished

[BadGoat]

I thought I'd share a near miss that happened to my wife a couple of weeks ago.

We live on the island of St Croix and frequently dive with one of the local dive shops off their boat. I'm Rescue Diver certified with over 100 dives and my wife has a basic OW cert and also around 100 dives. On this particular day a couple of friends that are relatively new to diving joined us for the trip. They have 20-30 dives and are very comfortable in the water. My wife had gotten a new BCD last fall and had been having trouble with the inflation valve sticking. She and I talked it through and she was comfortable inflating the wing orally, so we disconnected the low pressure hose and went on with the dive. We had the same issue a couple of months prior, and she did the same thing at that time. The boat crew and DM were notified of the problem and ok with us proceeding as planned.

The dive was going well up to about 1/2 way through when our friend noticed the disconnected LP hose at around 50' depth. He moved over to my wife and proceeded to reconnect the LP hose to the malfunctioning inflator. Immediately, the wing inflated to full and the overpressure valves opened up. My wife began to quickly rise to the surface with a large stream of bubbles. Our friend tried to hold her down and did manage to slow the ascent until he lost his grip at about 25' depth. I noticed the activity and ascended as quickly as I could safely. My wife was in a state of mild panic when I got up to her and I managed to calm her down and verify that she was ok. She didn't realize that our friend had reconnected the hose, only that she was suddenly shooting up and there were bubbles everywhere. Once I had her calmed down and the LP hose disconnected, we called the remainder of the dive and went back to the boat. She suffered no ill effects and we have since had the inflation valve replaced.

There are a few lessons in this one that are obvious to me, you may find others as well.
1. Our friends were mortified that they had almost injured another diver. We talked it through and while we always want our co-divers to keep an eye on each other, it is best to not make changes to another persons gear without clear communication before hand.
2. My wife remembered her training and exhaled for the entirety of the ride to the surface.
3. If a diver is going into the water with a non-standard configuration, there is value in talking it through with the rest of the boat. It's that diver's choice, but shared knowledge and expectations are worth a little effort.

Mike

 

[Diver below 83]

So the inflator was basically stuck in the open position?

 

[CuzzA]

We had the same issue a couple of months prior

I agree no one should touch someone else's gear during or even before or after a dive unless it is communicated or life threatening. Nevertheless, I can't overlook the fact you didn't simply replace a $20 piece of gear when you first discovered the problem months prior.

So to add point number 4. Fix broken gear.

 

[BadGoat]

So the inflator was basically stuck in the open position?

Yes, it was stuck open.

 

[BadGoat]

I agree no one should touch someone else's gear during or even before or after a dive unless it is communicated or life threatening. Nevertheless, I can't overlook the fact you didn't simply replace a $20 piece of gear when you first discovered the problem months prior.

So to add point number 4. Fix broken gear.

I agree that fix broken gear could be a lesson learned. What I didn't include was that the Dive Shop had supposedly fixed it from the first incident and brought it back to us at the dive boat for this dive outing.

A better lesson learned might be to put a replacement inflator valve in the save-a-dive box. Her and I both use Zeagle BCDs so we would only need 1.

Mike

 

[kelemvor]

I agree that fix broken gear could be a lesson learned. What I didn't include was that the Dive Shop had supposedly fixed it from the first incident and brought it back to us at the dive boat for this dive outing.

A better lesson learned might be to put a replacement inflator valve in the save-a-dive box. Her and I both use Zeagle BCDs so we would only need 1.

Mike

I've had two infiltrators get stuck open like that in 5 years of diving. Both of those were dive-rite. I switched to these two years ago and so far so good: 45-degree Oral Power Inflator Also, they're super cheap so I bring a couple spares in my save-a-dive kit. Dive gear express does ship to t&c but you have to pay a 30% duty. so $23.50 instead of $18 plus actual shipping.

@BadGoat I think I can see both sides of this really. I mean most of the time if someone's power inflator is loose, you should help out. However, a little underwater communication would have avoided the problem. How did he manage to do it without her noticing? Normally the power inflator is clipped to the diver's chest. I think if I grabbed for a woman's chest unannounced, I'd expect incoming injury.

So I take 3 lessons. 1. Communicate (for the friends) 2. Service your gear (for you) 3. Work on situational awareness (for wife).

 

[Ana]

Well I have to say, it was difficult for me to read this post. Not that I have troubles reading in general but the post produced quite a bit of rage.
What in the world justifies a person to approach another and just handle stuff? If they see someone with the pants zipper down, do they just zipper it up? what if they see the hanging ones not quite symmetrical, would they also grab them a "fix" them?

Granted the next thought was... how is it that a diver gets their gear handled and they don't notice.

Sure you should fix things that are malfunction, but unless you are the parent of the diver in question you're not allowed to just approach someone and just do things to their gear.

I'm still a bit upset about this, because if someone approaches me trying to grab anything I will notice, oh I sooooo would notice, and right after they would realize I noticed. Then I would be called violent or anti-social but dam.

 

[almostDIR]

in-line shutoff valve to the inflator hose if this is regular problem?

 

[Fastmarc]

How did he manage to do it without her noticing? Normally the power inflator is clipped to the diver's chest. I think if I grabbed for a woman's chest unannounced, I'd expect incoming injury.

I'm a bit stuck on this as well. I can't imagine it being possible for someone to touch my inflator while I'm diving and not be aware of it.

 

[Diving Dubai]

Yes I would agree. Re attaching the disconnected inflator is not something you can do by stealth

So my thoughts:

The buddy was out of line by connecting the hose. What he shoudl have done is signal to your wife, ask if its broken and then assist if needed.

Your wife, should know how to disconnect an inflator if you have a runaway - it's taught in the OW course and should be instinctive. I had a runaway inflator when I had only 30 ish dives and I didnt' have to think about disconnecting and dumping air at the same time

The skills you learn during training degrade rapidly if not practised its up to you to take the time to practice skills regularly.

Yes your wife needs more situational awareness

I can't beat you up over the gear not being fixed, since you'd given it to the shop before hand. Inflators wear - I've dived with mine leaking badly despite having a new one on the boat having "not got around to changing it"

Personally I'd never fix an inflator life's too short when they're only $20 change for new, likewise if the hose is stiff to remove and a good clean doesn't' fix it, I change that too. It's times like this that you'll appreciate it being removed easily