Posted by JRM on February 05, 2001 at 11:07:37:
OK, it was bound to happen sooner or later. I had my first underwater "excitement" when my primary reg decided to go south on me in a big bubbling froth.
I was in about 50 fsw off Lover's Cove in Monterey. My buddy and I were trying to find this pinacle. He decided to ascend and get his bearings, and then come back down. Of course, with Mr. Murphy around, the second he bailed I noticed my primary starting to bubble during inhalation. It's a Poseiden second on an Oceanic First. It was also a bit wet, so I figured the diaphragm was maybe a bit off. So I tapped it a bit. Wrong move. It decided to free-flow, lanching it right out of my mouth (surprise! OK, maybe launch is the wrong term, but I suddenly found myself quite reg-less).
Somehow I managed not to panic, and since I keep the octo on my right shoulder strap where I can (usually) get it into my mouth without unclipping, I was able to quickly grab a breath (although a pretty lame one since most of my air was heading out the now snaking primary). I'll be heading into the hardware store tomorrow to rig myself one of those DIR necklaces. Man, it would have been handy. Well, after I managed to catch my primary, I flipped the "sensitivity" switch (or whatever the heck you call it), and managed to get the free-flow down to a low roar. I figure I had about 1700 pounds in the tank at the start of the whole affair. When I made it to the surface and shut off the air in my tank, I had less than 300.
I didn't drop the weights, although I was getting ready to. I figured if I couldn't get the primary to stop those dudes were gonna be sitting on the bottom. In retrospect I'm glad I didn't, because I was able to make at least a somewhat controlled ascent.
I pretty much surfaced right next to my buddy, who although less than a few feet away from the torrent of bubbles, was looking the other way and missed them. I think I'll pretty much nix the practice of "stay here while I go and look" too. I figure the whole thing took less than 20 seconds between failure and begining of ascent. I tried to ascend as slow as possible, but I'm not sure it took less than a minute or not. It seemed like forever.
The important part is I lived, and managed to get out unscathed. I got some real valuable experience in managing underwater problems, and didn't panic. My instructor taught us to practice at least one "skill" per dive. Guess those reg switching ones were really worth it!
Anyway, I know that it was a rather minor incident, but being the first I thought I'd share it with everyone here. It had a rather large impact on me. And actually I'm glad it happened. Fear of the unknown and all. We brought the boat back in (my buddy's inflatable), and I took the Poseiden off and left it in the car. It was weird diving with no "octo", but my buddy and I stuck much more closely together for the remaining dives.
So, as for the DIR necklace, does anyone want to give me some pointers on how to attach it, size it, etc?
JRM