Running out of air at 120 bar.

[Freeflow]

We all check air on the kitting up to make sure the tank is full, but since the following happened I have added an extra check.

After teaching a rescue course at Guildy, I was due in the pool soon after. I rushed home swapped my kit over and went to the pool. I had left my regs at home, so I jumped in with a school set and school tank that the OW class had been using earlier and joined the other instructor.

After a couple of minutes the regs felt stiff, but there was 120 bar showing on the gauge. Things got worse, and the inflator was also not working properly so I surfaced and jumped ou to check the kit out. turning off the regs and purging them I was met with a fly's fart of air rather than the usual rush. The gauge still showed 120 bar. Someone had dropped a tank on the console and crushed the gauge workings without damaging the gauge itself.

Lessons learned:

1] turn the gauge on to check the tank is full, then off to empty the regs adn check the needle drops back to close to zero

2] if your gauge pressure does not drop, it's knackered, or if you are on a twinset that side or the isolator may not be turned on

[although I wouldn't have used enough gas in the pool at 2m and 5 min to see the needle move on the gauge].