Posted by Jim Hoffmann on September 11, 2000 at 19:53:17:
With all of the unhappy endings that has been posted in the last 2 weeks, I thought I would post some stories (True story's, I have witnessed)with happy endings.
Joe and Joan (not their real names) were diving in the Cayman's. They were on their second dive of the day (in about 50' water vis 100+, water temp.82). Joe and Joan had been diving for about a year, had their owe equipment, and had about 25 logged dives.
As I was finning by (with my buddy) I heard a loud trud sound, looking in Joe and Joan direction, I saw the 2 stage of Joe's regulator blow out of his mouth in an uncontrollable free-flow. My buddy and I start to swim to there aid , but Joan calmly took out her octo and gave it to Joe. We watched as they hooked-up and swim slowly to the surface.
At dinner that night I looked over a Joan's wrist and saw a new bracelet(lots of gold and diamonds in it)Joe had taken Joan shopping, for saving the family jewels.
What Happened: Joe and Joan had octo breathed just like they had been trained to do in there basic class. What happened to the regulator was that , US Divers had sent out a batch of bad High Pressure seats to their dealers. The seating surface of these seats were completely delaminating causing a catastrophe failure of the 1st stage. US Divers had to recall almost every Conself type regulator that they ever made.
Dianne and Mike (not their real names) were diving in about 90' off Harbor Reef at Catalina Island. They had been down about 10 min. when Dianne 1 st stage stops. She is getting no air at all! Dianne swims to her buddy and gives the out of air sign . Mike pulls out his octo and gives it to Dianne. They stop to catch their breath and go slowly to the surface.
I can't for sure say if Dianne gave Mike any thing for saving her.
What Happened:Mike and Dianne octo breathed like they had been trained. Dianne had a Scubapro Mark 5,G250. The Mark 5 1st stage had locked up. The H|P seat had sucked into the piston. Scubapro had sent the dealers some under sized HP seats, sum of the dealer seeing the problem glued the seats in the retaining cap and some didn't. Scubapro had a small recall on this seat.
Jim and Tom (their real names) were finning along the Valiant in about 70-80'. This was their first day of their week long dive vacation. They both had over 200 dives, mostly off the beach in Southern Calif.
They had been dive buddy's for over 2 years and were a very tight buddy team.
They were both happy guys Jim had found a brass lockbox and some tiles, and Tom had found a bottle that was melted just a little bit.
They had just turned the dive when Jim looked at his pressure gage and saw that he had only about 500psi (Jim know that if he had 500 then Tom only had 200psi and they were 70 ft. underwater). Jim signaled to Tom and they both headed to the anchor line. Jim hit the line and looked at his SPG and saw he had 300psi(he know that Tom must be out)Jim putted out his octo and Tom grabbed it. They pulled the anchor free and went hand over hand up the anchor line has fast as they could. They hit the surface with their BC dumps go off and the tanks drained.
Jim and Tom got back on their boat and pulled there anchor and headed for the isthmus, thinking that if they had any bends symptoms they would be closer to the chamber.
Tom gave Jim a Diet Coke for saving his life.
What Happened: Jim and Tom screwed-up, they hadn't watched their air supply, and got a lesson about air consumption. They had mostly been diving off the beach in 20 to 30 ft. of water and their air was lasting 45 to 50 min. At 70 to 100 ft. their air was only lasting 20 min.!
Jim, Tom, Mike, Dianne, Joe, and Joan all think that the only way to dive is with a buddy.
Jim Hoffmann
NAUI 5888
PADI 6301
Scuba Toys