When things could have been much different

[jimny14]

Well a little while ago I was diving with a couple of buddies at a little puddle near chepstow. We had a couple of mishaps in the same dive. Luckily everything was fine and nobody was hurt but this could have been far worse than it was. We were diving as a 3 and all got down on to pontoon and kitted up, buddy checked and entered the water. Everything was fine, plan was to descend straight off from the pontoon then swim across to the explosives cabinet to give me a bit of practice navigating underwater. So all got together after entering the water, ok's all round and signals to descend. So down we go, one of my buddies shot off like the proverbial stone and my other buddy was a little above me. About half way to bottom I looked up and noticed that the guy above me appeared to be buggering off in what most of us would consider exactly the wrong direction for a standard descent. Was in a bit of a quandry now, should I go back to surface to find out how he is or go down to tell my other buddy what is going on.

So decide to go down as buddy on the surface should be ok up top on a busy saturday I thought. Got down to bottom at about 24m I think, and found my other buddy. Tried to explain what had happened and was decided to wait for a couple of minutes where we were, see if number three turns up, if not we would can the dive and see what happened.

So after about a minute and a half of litterally hanging around both of us generally pottering about and watching the fishies swimming past us, we were maybe 5 metres apart and my buddy suddenly explodes in to a mass of ruddy bubbles. Bugger me a free flow, i quickly get over to him, and watch him grab his octo which has also decided to join in the fun and is now having a competition to see which reg can spit out more air, at this point i'm just out of arms reach my octo at the ready to give him, and he has had enough and with reg half in mouth heads for the surface. I follow, making a very brief stop (only been in water about 4 mins though). Getting to the surface I turn off the offending tank which is all but empty and chill out on the surface for a couple of minutes. Promptly we can the dive and get out on to the pontoon. All ok, just a bit irritated and needing to go back n get a cylinder filled and have a bacon butty. Turns out buddy number one who buggered off at start of dive had lost half his lead when a pouch on his harness let go.

As I said we were all fine, and on the second and 3rd dive of the day everything was fine no problems (apart from me making a rather neat circle instead of a straight line in part of my nav practice). What i've come to realise now is how much worse that day could have been, what would have happened if the weight pouch had let go later during the dive, and what if the double free flow happened at the end of the dive? All in all I think we had a bit of a let off incident wise, no trips to the pot and it only cost the price of some lead and a pouch to sort out, just thought i'd share what can go wrong quickly and to more than one diver. As with some previous posts, just cos one thing went wrong doesn't mean that something potentially more serious isn't going to decide to try and ruin your day too.

[GLOC]

Thanks Jimny. The good thing is that you and your buddy with the freeflow stayed pretty calm.

As you said, things could have been much worse.

[bluefishman13]

i take it from this its better to dive as a two than a three, as if a problem does occur then you can stay with assist your buddy?, andy.

[daz]

Well we can always learn from these incidents.

Personally I'm not a big fan of the weight pouch systems (Well virtually all the ones I have seen).

Many of the harness style ones are loaded from the front, which means the pouch is in the ideal position to fall out when swimming normally. I've seen at least half a dozen lost pouch incidents and twice it's been with my buddy, even though we managed to stop a fast ascent and grab the pouch it was impossible to put back in, so it ended up shoved in his BCD pocket. (Ironically enough, this occured diving a wreck off Plymouth and that morning we had a debate about the pros and cons of weight pouch harness systems - Somehow it didn't seem the right time to say "I told you so" )

Having all weight ditchable seems to me to be trying to solve a problem that should not exist and in the process introduce more potential problems. I have no issue with having a small amount of ditchable weight to gain positive buoyancy (1kg or 2kg)

As for the regs, well it can happen. Your buddy really didn't have to go for the surface. Firstly he could have used your octopus and even if you were just a bit far away, he could have breathed a freeflowing reg until you got to him.

Once he had your octopus you could have started your ascent and at the same time tried turning his cylinder valve off briefly and back on to try to cure the freeflow. Ideally he would have been able to reach his own cylinder valve and turn it off and back on.

Anyway I suspect I know you and the buddies. I'd be somewhat concerned if they didn't learn from the incidences and do something to avoid them happening again in the future.

Anyway, if you are who I think you are, How's Yorkshire?

Daz

[daz]

Originally Posted by bluefishman13

i take it from this its better to dive as a two than a three, as if a problem does occur then you can stay with assist your buddy?, andy.

Yep another personal gripe I have... Three people teams work very well, as long as the individuals are trained or experienced in diving as a three.

Unfortunately in a lot of case what appears to be three people diving together it is really a buddy pair and third person.

Apologies, I seem to be having a bit of a rant day

Daz

[jimny14]

Alright there Daz, yeah think you remember the incident too. I've learnt lots from this incident and agree pretty much with the diving as a 3 thing now. Done it a couple more times after n i've never felt 100% about it due to the how do you look after your buddy with a 3rd person to look after, (point proven on how I just typed that I think). Can't disagree with your comments on the free flow, think it was just a big lump of panic when he saw both regs going for it that made him shoot for it. Yorkshire is good thanks mate, hows everything down with you? Everyone from the club still ok? If you're coming up north diving any time drop me a PM n I can come along if i can russle up a buddy (not a huge fan of 3's now lol).

Cheers. James

[David]

agee with most here :-)
threes can be a pain if the training is not up to scratch.

but I would worry more about the 1st stage that may have caused the free flow, was it cold , was it serviced , did you check the ip.

just a few questions that spring to mind.

And a cool post we can all learn for your misfortune and so be safer divers.

David

[jimny14]

I have a memory that it was the first dive trip since the regs had been serviced. Not sure about an ip check, not particularly cold (by uk standards at least) don't remember it feeling cold at all. Hope that answers your q's david. Cheers

[daz]

Originally Posted by jimny14

I have a memory that it was the first dive trip since the regs had been serviced. Not sure about an ip check, not particularly cold (by uk standards at least) don't remember it feeling cold at all. Hope that answers your q's david. Cheers

Think you are correct James, I do seem to remember that the person in question had just had his regs serviced

Glad to hear things are going well and if I get up to your neck of the woods I'll give you a shout. Likewise if you get down to the South west give me a shout.

Daz

[ratcliffe]

Originally Posted by daz

I've seen at least half a dozen lost pouch incidents and twice it's been with my buddy, even though we managed to stop a fast ascent and grab the pouch it was impossible to put back in, so it ended up shoved in his BCD pocket.

I had exactly the same with my buddy one one dive. He lost his pouch and it landed on my head
On that occasion he had something to hang on to whilst I retrieved the pouch and stuffed it in to the BCD pocket (I couldn't get it back into the right place either), but it would have been interesting had there been nothing to get hold of...