14 replies to this topic

[Travelnsj]

On my recent trip to Palau I guess you could say I was involved in saving someone’s life. This problem that can happen to us all.

This was our third tank dive. Four of us dove the Chuyo Maru wreck, about 95’ down. I was about 10’ above and 10’ from Keith (Divemaster) he was showing Ania a leaf fish. I felt a tugging and pulling; turning around to see what was going on, Tim was in my face on my octopus. As I have the hose tucked into my BC, I immediately pulled it out made sure he was OK descended to Keith. And he was given Keith’s Octopus and we resumed our dive.

Upon getting back on the boat Tim said something to the effect “I’m a bloody professional how stupid of me to let this happen�. He said I gave him a new Birthday! Tim owns two very well known diving resorts in the Philippine Sea area. He is a Master Divemaster.

What happened is he thought his tank was changed out……it was not! AND HE DID NOT CHECK HIS AIR! Last year I was diving with probably the best-known diving operation in Kona. I changed out my tank after the first dive, checked the air had 3100 psi and turned off the tank. Then to the back of the boat for lunch. Second dive, about 40’ down check my air…..0. Get the divemasters attention, he checks to make sure my air is fully on, it was. So he starts to swim back to the mooring line. I grabbed him and did the same thing as Tim. What happened was one of the deck hands changed my tank to an empty tank (By accident) while I was having lunch.

This can happen to anyone!
ALWAYS CHECK YOUR AIR BEFORE YOU JUMP IN THAT POOL!!!!

[Walter]

Thanks for sharing!

Yes, always check your air, but also tell the crew to keep their hands off your gear.

[scubafanatic]

......same thing happened to me in July '03 in Cozumel ( Dive with Martin ) ....my first time to ever dive the ocean. Lots going on, I'm a little nervous, the groups in a hurry to get in the water, and on 2 of my 8 dives they forgot to turn my air on......once I caught it on the boat, the second time I missed it and jumped into the water with my air off....luckily I was correctly weighted ( not over weighted ) or it could have gotten ugly ! .....I managed to fin back to the boat where the DM turned the valve on and I was good to go. ( I'd special requested LP 95 steels, which are stubbly little tanks, and they were mounted too low for me to reach the valves myself. )

....... it's never happened to me before or since.......I guess it's true, what doesn't kill ya makes ya stronger!

.....I'm now pretty religious about confirming my air status......and I mount my tank high enough to reach the valve as well...........live and learn.

Karl

[Walter]

Being able to reach your valve is cruciual. I'm glad you learned that lesson, Karl.

[GentDiver]

Wow. Both are great stories.

Mine is not as dramatic. We where doing our second shore dive at Moneterey. I had changed out my tank and the pressure was good. I laid my gear down and had for some unknown reason decided to turn off my air. We geared up and headed out to the dive site. As we entered the water we inflated our BC's and kicked to where we were going to decend. I took a breath before the decent and did not have any air. I had forgotten to turn my air back on (and my buddy had forgotten to check it). My buddy was able to turn the air back on and we were able to do the dive. I to learned the "Always check your air" lesson.

Scott

:lam:

[intotheblue]

.....I'm now pretty religious about confirming my air status......and I mount my tank high enough to reach the valve as well...........live and learn.

Karl

Good posts... When I was actively teaching, I took liberty to teach something we always teach in tech/cave... being able to reach and turn on/off your air under water. Yes, tanks should be mounted so they are reachable. Be familiar with the valves on your tank set up. If you get the other half of a "doubles" valve, it could face the opposite way. This is unlikely to happen with a "commercial recreational diving operation", but I have learned to never say never. Teaching students to turn on/off their own valves in a relaxed situation makes it second nature when an emergency arises. With recreational gear, I can easily remove my tank/harness from my body, make adjustments as needed, and put it back on, while maintaining neutral buoyancy. My point is that recreational dive training has removed so much of the "so called stress inducing training" that divers haven't developed much of a solution thinking process for such situations. We want diving to be fun... but it is a good idea to spend some time thinking about the things you can do for yourself in an emergency. Sometimes, the air is on a quarter turn, which is not enough to provide air at depth, but it will register a full tank at the surface when not much air is required for a breath. This is why it is so important to turn the valve ALL THE WAY ON for the dive. THis way, it is either ON or OFF... but not partially on. You will likely notice if the air is all the way OFF when you get ready to enter the water... if you are sure to take a few deep breaths before jumping in. Watching your SPG while doing this will usually show you if your valve is barely turned on (fluctuating needle) or off (needle retreats towards zero and stays there).

Stay safe! Check early, check often!

ITB...

[Diverbrian]

I am paranoid about this. I breathe both regs on the surface and give the wing and the drysuit a hit of gas to see if they are connected (sometimes, you don't quite have that LP fitting connected and it blows off. Or maybe I forgot to connect the inflators with the other gear that I am arranging. Nobody with will ever know, LOL). This is in addition to checking the air valve just before I go in the water.

One nice thing about double tanks... the valves are far more easy to reach than a standard recreational rig. Right now my flexibility is such that I can reach them in a recreational reg in a pinch, but it isn't comfortable. A free flow may necessitate this happening in spite of all the precautions, though. (Happens in cold water)

[intotheblue]

the valves are far more easy to reach than a standard recreational rig. Right now my flexibility is such that I can reach them in a recreational reg in a pinch, but it isn't comfortable. A free flow may necessitate this happening in spite of all the precautions, though. (Happens in cold water)

Good points. Another thing to keep in mind, is that when your reg starts free flowing (massively) as when it hits the water surface diaphram first... if the water isn't too cold you can usually stop it best by either holding your other hand in front of the mouthpiece hole... close enough to build back pressure into the mouthpiece and offset the imbalance of pressure that started the freeflow to begin with. I usually stick my thumb right into the hole itself and that will stop that type of free flow, unless it is in cold water. When in cold water, especially when the reg is then held up out of the water, the fast flowing air will "freeze" the moisture in the 2nd and cause it to stick open. Sometimes this can be corrected by simply doing the above procedure IN the water which may "warm" things up a bit. If not, you may have to shut the valve off to allow the time for the 2nd to warm sufficiently to unstick the "valve" in the second stage. This type of freeflow happens usually at the surface when the second stage is dropped into the water diaphram side down, or when removing the reg from your mouth (diaphram down position) under water and not turning the mouth piece to face down (to "balance the pressure"). When you are performing a safety drill (cave diving S-drill and your buddy starts your regulator freeflowing, you don't want him/her screwing around with slow procedures like turning valves off or adjusting spring tensions when a simple procedure with your thumb or butt of your hand will stop the problem. If you are diving shallow, you may not mind losing a hundred psi or so, but if you are deep or cave diving, you want to conserve every trickle of gas you can. I know this tip helped one of my former cave diving buddies... (and myself, as he was wasting MY gas).

I hope this information benefits someone...

ITB

[peterbj7]

As well as having your air/gas on, remember to have your regulator in your mouth. A friend diving the "Brummer" in Scapa forgot this tip, and only realised when he went to take a deep breath a few metres down that he still had his snorkel in his mouth.

On one of the deep Scapa dives I hadn't attached my drysuit feed to my suit properly. Just the two of us diving down to about 45 metres, visibility less than 3 metres, buddy leading, and at 10 metres my hose popped off and went clear over the back of my gear. There was a honking current so I didn't dare let go of the shotline, so I had no option but to continue to the bottom behind my buddy and then ask him to find my hose for me. Anyone who's ever experienced suit squeeze will know what I was going through.

[Travelnsj]

I have done that with the Snorkel too! how embarrassing

But all this discussion about Drysuits....... I have done only one dive trip in the last 5 years that the water was cooler than 78 degrees and that was in the Galapagos. I'm still get chilled thinking ABOUT IT! :dltears:

[idive2]

This was our third tank dive. Four of us dove the Chuyo Maru wreck, about 95’ down. I was about 10’ above and 10’ from Keith (Divemaster) he was showing Ania a leaf fish. I felt a

I don't like my gear being changed out by anyone but that would make me even more apt to check the air. There's only one boat i dive on that offers this as
a service but i've noticed most divers tell the ambitious mate not to bother.
I've let him do it to mine but end up double checking everything anyway,
straps, reg snug, air on...etc. Everyone has their own sense of pre-dive priorities
but i've always tended to lean VERY heavily toward that air supply ! I always
check my air after I'm buckled up that way any switch to an empty tank would be revealed !

Kevin

[Divegirl412]

I hope this information benefits someone... 

ITB   

Thanks. Believe me every piece of good safety information benefits us. I can certainly say so for myself!!!

I feel a bit paranoid breathing both my octo and reg before each dive but I would rather be paranoid and alive.......

[CaptSaaz]

I've also noticed that crews tend to mount the tank very low. I was taught to mount it so the valve is in reach and so I tend to mount it much higher. Also, I do not want the crew touching my gear when I am not there. In Cozy, they helped you back on the boat, followed you to your seat and immediately swapped you to a new tank. I was fine with that but once done, my gear is off limits. Once I don my gear for the next dive, I go through a short check which includes both my regs, SPG and my BCD. Right then I'll know if my tank is off or on.

[Diverbrian]

I still do my own tank changes. The crew isn't the one diving that gear. I am. If that tank slips out of the BC, that makes for an awful inconvienent situation.

I just don't feel as confident when checking someone else's work as I do checking my own. One advantage to diving nitrox is that I checked and signed for the tanks before the boat left. So MY tanks for the day stay in my custody and it is more difficult to grab an empty instead of a full tank. Even so, a pressure check with the valve wide open tells the story .

[intotheblue]

I feel a bit paranoid breathing both my octo and reg before each dive but I would rather be paranoid and alive.......

Good words to LIVE by!!! Yes, checking both/all regs by breathing and watching the SPG before entry, as well as a brief push of any inflator buttons should serve us all well. It is also good to check your second stages during the dive to insure all is working as it should if there is an emergency. Of course this is really important to the diver diving "hogarthian" as I typically do, as I will be the one breathing the "unused" reg on short notice, not my buddy... who will receive the mouthpiece I have been breathing and am sure works. After all... my buddy may have been without a breath for some time before reaching me, and I don't want to pass off a non-functioning reg to them. Theoretically, I should be better able to make any adjustments if the extra second does not breathe correctly when I switch. Checking the extra reg from time to time insures even I will have air when my buddy runs out...! (of course this is routine to check for cave and tech divers when one tank post might "roll off" while inadvertently brushing something overhead). I have learned to adapt good tech/cave procedures for all of my diving as it builds good, safe practices that I won't forget when switching back to tech dives from rec dives.

O.A.N.... I find my regulator and equipment maintenance requirements increase in frequency when I let other people change my gear out, so I try to do it myself. Even though I prefer to do this all myself, unless I stand there by my gear with my "z-knife" in my teeth to protect it, my gear will invariably get touched and checked by some well meaning "divemaster"... and I will have to turn my air on all the way again before I get in the water... and then keep the boat hands away until I return from my dive... They just can't seem to break that "quarter to a half turn back" mentality on the tank valve, no matter how much you s'plain it to 'em.

Very good posts and observations...

ITB