Just remembered another one. It was during my first night dive during my Advanced OW class. Everything was fine until the 21st minute of the dive. I was just cruising along with light in hand, when all of a sudden I was surrounded with air bubbles, my torso was sqeezed by my bcd, and I was jerked in a direction I took to be the surface. I sang out like I was trained for a rapid ascent (albeit a four letter word as loud as I could yell). Thank god I was only at 25’ depth at the time. It was hard to tell what was going on because it was pitch black all around me. By the time I figured out that it as my power inflater stuck I could see the moon and I was only a couple feet from the surface. I signalled the class that I was okay with my light, but followed the class on the surface. I didn’t want to risk it happening again.
The next morning we had scheduled our deep dive. Needless to say I lost sleep that night and was very nervous taking this equipment down to 100’. We cleaned out the power inflator valve as thoroughly as possible thinking it must have sand in it. I practiced disconnecting my power inflator hose under pressure, stayed close to the descent line, and kept a stalk of kelp within 5’ of me the entire dive. .
The verdict; We took apart the power inflator that night and found a couple small sand particles. I rented this BCD from a shop known for holding a lot of their classes at beaches. I went right out with my credit card an purchased all my own gear. I am almost anal with how well I clean my gear after a dive now. Plus I found that some inflator hoses are much easier to disconnect under pressure and I purchased one of those. I am no longer scared if it happens. I know how to handle it. Maybe a lesson someone else can benefit from......