Have any of you ever had to breathe directly from a cylinder valve? I've read reports of tech divers who, when the poo hit the fan, have had to resort to some pretty out-of-the-box problem solving, one of which was breathing from a cylinder valve when a reg has completely malfunctioned. So if you have had to do this or know someone else's account in detail, what I want to know is:
1. what was the issue that lead to this solution?
2. how did this end up as the solution?
3. how do you do it? is it just like sipping air from a free flowing regulator but you just crack the valve when you need air?
4. if you are breathing a deco gas this way, do you think you are effectively getting the gas you need to deco?
5. what happens afterward to the reg? flooded and needs to be rebuilt?
I posted this, but have another question that really warrants its own topic. And that is instead of breathing off the cylinder valve could you have considered an alternate solution of swapping out a failed first/second stage with a functioning first/second stage underwater? (yet another reason to have interchangeable regs on your various bottles).
My tech instructor has had to swap both a failed first stage and second stage before. It's why he recommended two things: 1) have interchangeable regulators; and 2) only hand tightening your second stages in case you have to twist one off underwater to swap. I was so flooded with info last Fall that I forgot to ask the little detail questions regarding this topic as I was like "Whoa! Hope that doesn't happen to me!"
Then before he went on vacation we were talking about massive failures and he reminded me, "Nicolle, it's not a matter of if, it's a matter of WHEN."
If you have swapped regs underwater before, what happens when you reconnect? Do you purge water and then breath wet - then surface and take your reg in to be rebuilt? Which solution is best and why?