11 replies to this topic

[chinacat46]

Had a friend who had a very scary experience. Makes you think about getting a pony tank. Another interesting thing is to think about what he might have done differently(or his buddy) being a rescue diver I can thing of a few things.

From: david leberknight
To:
Subject: Mindoro Island - Scuba Diving Accident !
Date: Tue, 15 Jun 2004 03:30:47 -0700 (PDT)

Hello All!

I spent a few relaxing days on White Beach and then decided to check out the spectacular scuba diving at nearby Sabang Beach. I am an experienced, PADI certified diver. I almost drowned.

Well, I'm obviously OK... Here's what happened...

I was diving at a depth of about 31 meters, in a very beautiful canyon, full of colorful corals and fish. Everything was perfect. But then, with no warning, my regulator mysteriously malfunctioned, and my next breath was sea water! This was very very bad! Some water got into my lungs and I started coughing it up, and to make matters worse, my regulator was still broken. I couldn't breath! I started to panic, but fortunately, my diving buddy Laurent was nearby. I quickly gave him the hand signal that I was in trouble, and then grabbed his regulator right from his mouth to get a breath of air. If Laurent wasn't RIGHT THERE, I would have drowned! I was still in trouble; I had sea water in my lungs which I was coughing up,
preventing me from getting anything like a normal breath of air (it was very shallow, fast, panicked breathing, interrupted with coughing, 31 meters down)!

What a nightmare! Laurant shifted to his own backup breathing aparatus, and we started to ascend. At that point I knew I would be OK, but I was very uncomfortable with my distressed breathing, and I could not manage to calm myself down. We went up a little to fast, which put us both at risk of getting decompression sickness ("the bends"), but I don't
think I was ever happier to see blue sky. Well, after a few minutes on the boat, I stopped coughing up sea water, and finally was able to relax. I spent the next 3 days in the hospital, back on the island of Luzon, only two hours from Manila. My health is perfectly fine, but I'm still mentally shaken up a bit.

I decided to catch a cheap filght from Manila to the island of Palawan, which they say is the island with the most wild and natural, remote places in the country. I'm in Puerto Princesa now, about to leave in search of the perfect beach to chill out for a while - a quiet fisherman's beach where I can swim (on the surface!) and put up my hammock between two palm
trees - a beach near jungle hiking - a beach with no dive shops!

Life is good!!!

Love David



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David Leberknight
HTTP://www.leberknight.com/worldtour

--- Chuck Dreyfus wrote:

---------------------------------

Dave,

Did you ever find out what was wrong with your reg? What about your backup reg? Your lucky you didn't get DCS as well. Thats one of the reasons I don't like rental
gear.

---------------------------------

Hey Chuck!
No its still a mystery. My aunt, who taught diving in Tonga for 7 years, has a theory that the valve wasn't open to the requisite all-the-way-minus-one-half-turn, and at a certain pressure, crapped out. She says that can happen. She also never uses rental gear. As for my backup regulator, well it happened so fast, I was desperate for air and saw that regulator in Laurent's mouth, so I grabbed it! I never tried mine. I'm sure that if he werent' around, I would have gone for my octopus, but I didn't have time to think. You sill going on that diving vacation soon?

David

[Laura]

China,

Thank God your friend survived. How scary.

Something in your post really caught my eye..."the valve wasn't
open to the requisite all-the-way-minus-one-half-turn,
and at a certain pressure, crapped out. "

I would strongly advise against that practice of turning the valve back 1/2 turn. They used to teach that a long time ago - my OW training said turn back 1/4 turn, and that was back in 1986. However, I've read a lot of articles saying you should not turn back the valve at all, or if you do, just a tiny little bit. The reason- when you turn the valve back, you might cut off the air flow, but still have enough residual air left in the hose to make your pressure guage appear full. Later on you could lose air flow. So now, I turn my valve on all the way - don't crank it hard past the "all the way open point", just to the point where you feel resistance.

Another good practice I advise - breathe off your primary reg and octupus as part of your pre-dive check, but WATCH YOUR PRESSURE GUAGE while you are doing this. The needle on the pressure guage should NOT MOVE as you inhale. If it moves while you inhale, or if the pressure reading drops, your air flow is restricted and/or your valve is not all the way on. DO NOT DIVE until you have corrected the problem.

Anyone else care to comment on this? (Walter/Yoda perhaps)?

Take care
Laura

[canuckdiver]

China,

Thank God your friend survived. How scary.

Something in your post really caught my eye..."the valve wasn't
open to the requisite all-the-way-minus-one-half-turn,
and at a certain pressure, crapped out. "

I would strongly advise against that practice of turning the valve back 1/2 turn. They used to teach that a long time ago - my OW training said turn back 1/4 turn, and that was back in 1986. However, I've read a lot of articles saying you should not turn back the valve at all, or if you do, just a tiny little bit. The reason- when you turn the valve back, you might cut off the air flow, but still have enough residual air left in the hose to make your pressure guage appear full. Later on you could lose air flow. So now, I turn my valve on all the way - don't crank it hard past the "all the way open point", just to the point where you feel resistance.

Another good practice I advise - breathe off your primary reg and octupus as part of your pre-dive check, but WATCH YOUR PRESSURE GUAGE while you are doing this. The needle on the pressure guage should NOT MOVE as you inhale. If it moves while you inhale, or if the pressure reading drops, your air flow is restricted and/or your valve is not all the way on. DO NOT DIVE until you have corrected the problem.

Anyone else care to comment on this? (Walter/Yoda perhaps)?

Take care
Laura

Your procedures are right on the money dear!!

turning the valve back a 1/4 turn was a viable practice when we were using all brass valves like the old J valves, but with the new valves, you don't have to worry about them siezing open.

[Laura]

[quote name='canuckdiver' date='Jun 16 2004, 03:10 PM'] [/QUOTE]
Your procedures are right on the money dear!!

turning the valve back a 1/4 turn was a viable practice when we were using all brass valves like the old J valves, but with the new valves, you don't have to worry about them siezing open. [/quote]
Canuck,

So if I am using a tank that is 15 years old (but still in good shape) should I be turning it back 1/4 turn???

Laura

[canuckdiver]

Canuck,

So if I am using a tank that is 15 years old (but still in good shape) should I be turning it back 1/4 turn???

Laura

probably not, what kind of valve is on it?

If it has the old style with a chrome metal "star" shaped handle, I would turn it back (BTW, these are FAR more than 15 years old!)

If it has a rubber or plastic handle, I'd leave it all open.

just MHO

[Bubble2Bubble]

Thanks Chuck for that report/e-mail
I had a bad experience like that once with rental gear they told me i was overbreathing ? needless to say when I got back from that trip I bought my own gear. daves story brought back the memories of having no air at 90 ft and finding my buddy for some help . I hope dave gets over that terrible day and continue's to dive.

B2B

[drbill]

Had a similar experience diving Chumphon Pinnacle at Koh Tao, Thailand, and the OOA situation due to clogged tank valve here on Catalina. Definitely shoved me towards a pony since I dive solo. Even with most buddies I'm not sure I could get to them in time. Good thing you could!

Doc

[TheSassyRabbit]

I once had a similar experience in Maui with rental gear - on a night dive no less. The diaphragm seal was bad - I've since learned to inhale on the primary (for primaries w/ diaphragms) before turning on the air - often if the diaphagm is weak, you will be able to get too much air on a deep inhalation (should not get any if the air is off). Then try it while watching the gauge with the air on as Laura mentioned. Although it didn't require a hospital trip, it shakes even experienced divers! Glad all is okay.

[DivingGal]

Other than in my initial training, I've never used rental gear. I just trust mine -- I know how I've taken care of it, and when it's been serviced.

China -- I've very glad your friend is ok, and sounds like he's ready to go diving again.

[Laura]

Canuck,

So if I am using a tank that is 15 years old (but still in good shape) should I be turning it back 1/4 turn???

Laura

probably not, what kind of valve is on it?

If it has the old style with a chrome metal "star" shaped handle, I would turn it back (BTW, these are FAR more than 15 years old!)

If it has a rubber or plastic handle, I'd leave it all open.

just MHO

CD,

Thanks! It's not the old star shaped thing, so I'm good to go.

I agree it's better to have your own gear than to rent, whenever possible. A lot of my stuff's custom fitted (Custom fitted wetsuit, RX lenses in my mask, Sea Cure mouthpiece that my dentist helped fit properly...) and it is just more comfortable.

Before buying my own regs, I had a bad experience with rental regs. I was going to dive a North Carolina wreck dive, and since I had not dove in a while, I asked to do a refersher course the night before. While in the pool, the rental reg kept feeling like it was about to fall out of my mouth, and I had to make a conscious effort to keep in in my mouth. We took a closer look, and one of the plastic pieces that your teeth rest on was hanging on by a thread, and the other side was gone completely! I'm lucky we found this out during the pool session, at not in open water - since I was going to use that reg the next day.

Safe diving to all,
Laura

[zendiver]

Hey chinacat46,

Hope you don't mind, but I cleaned up your post so it was easier to read.

BTW, thanks for sharing. Makes you really think twice sometimes about what would happen to yourself when a problem arises. I have run into a few problems and thank GOD thank all of my training and skills actually took over.

So glad that David is alright. I can only imagine how scared he really was.

-ZD

[chinacat46]

No worries ZD. Dave is doing great but it may be a while before he goes diving again. I think he should just dive right in. Kinda like falling off a horse.