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Scuba Forum > lerpy
 
#1600
 The Importance of your Buddy
lerpy - 7/15/2012 6:27 AM
Category: Health & Safety
Replies: 8
Just thought I would fire out an experience I had to re-iterate the importance of buddies (not that we all don’t know but I figure we can learn from others). So diving the other day 25 minutes into my dive and I go to take a breath and......nothing......Keeping my composure I quickly grab my octo and take a breath..........nothing.........That’s when the oh shit this is really happening moment hit. Thankfully my buddy was only a fin kick or two away, grab his octo and took one of the best breaths I ever have, and we made our way to the surface. I had last looked at my guage and had 2000LBS, only minutes before this happened, I checked at surface and 0. My tank was off and one of my hoses was wrapped around the valve. The only explanation I have is that as I was moving around the hose was slowly closing the valve down. I’m still running this through in my head how that happened.

Any thoughts or input out there, anyone have this happen to them?
#20448
LatitudeAdjustment - 7/15/2012 9:14 AM
I would ask this girl :)
#3789
oceanbound - 7/15/2012 6:08 PM
I have never heard that happening before but I guess it can happen. It just goes to show that one should always have a dive buddy that you can count on and trust. Glad it turned out alright
#20448
LatitudeAdjustment - 7/16/2012 5:27 AM
I’ve heard about deck crews turning off one tank of divers using independent doubles, one tank is backwards but just before you step off the boat they turn the valve the same way as the last but it’s the wrong way on the backwards tank :(

Having a buddy who knows your setup is important, my pony feeds my 2nd and my wing (BC). On decent I go to add air to my wing and my air is off (see above) I signal my daughter to turn on my air and I run my hand up the hose to the valve (I’m old and can’t reach it anymore) We all know our children never pay attention and she turns off my main tank!

Matt, did you do any penetration, I’ve seen divers roll the valve knob on the overhead.
#2086
zielit - 7/16/2012 10:01 AM
Hey Matt,


Glad to hear you’re OK. Your post just reassured that I made good decision investing in SpareAir kit. With the "instant-buddys" down south one might not be as lucky as you were.
#1639
SeaGoat - 7/16/2012 12:36 PM
This made me think of an article I read in DAN’s magazine a year ago. Long story short - this guy was on a dive boat, they saw dolphins and everyone quickly geared up and jumped off the boat. In his excitement, the man failed to fully turn on his air. He ended up running out of air but with plenty of pressure in the tank like you did...and he had to do a CESA from about 50ft.

The article went on to explain that this can happen if you fail to open your tank valve all the way. You can go to DAN’s website or give them a call to find the original article or get more information about what mechanism in the tank valve allows this to happen. If anyone has any insight on the latter - feel free to chime in.
#1600
Subscribed
lerpy - 7/16/2012 6:23 PM
I appreciate the input, I might be obsessing a little bit, but that is my personality.

DivegirlFWB, thanks for the article and I did and do recall reading that. I am guessing this must be the case in combination with the hose wrapping around. I was shoring diving so there was no issue with boat staff or someone else attending my gear. I am thinking that I turned the tank on but did not turn it fully, I had my buddy check my valve before going in as I could feel that a hose was wrapped up on something, and they indicated they cleared the tangle and everything was fine. I am wondering if a combination of, tank not on all the way, pulling on my hoses before going in to get them organized, and some of the motion while swimming was enough to restrict the flow.

I just did a little test with my regs hooked to my tank and the hose for my primary reg is pushed up against the valve handle, if I moved the hose back and forth it would move the valve handle, not a lot, but it moved it. I have since re-configured my first stage and the line to ensure no hoses are rubbing. The other night while diving I also took a 40cu pony bottle to start seeing what that is like, might be a nice thing to carry along, especialy on deeper dives.


Latitude adjustment, I have never seen such mermaids in my diving, here everyone is heavily clad in neoprene, pretty much leaving everything to the imagination.

Ken, funny I was not looking at her feet at all, but I just went back and chuckled. When we hit the surface the guy I was breathing with said it took 4 turns to full open the tank, it was not closed, but not open all the way that is for sure. One of my other tanks has one of those indicators that show if open or closed and you can tell if open all the way or only partialy. It was on the tank when I bought and never really payed that much attention but it is a nice visual reference.