Incident avoided thanks to responsive buddy divers

Håkan K

Didn't think I was going to write this post before yesterday. However here goes...

I was together with some other divers on the Swedish west coast for some diving over the Easter Holiday. I was the only one diving CCR - all others was diving OC. The trip from the East coast of Sweden didnt strt out very well since I forgot my tool kit and some of my spare parts. This became a critical issue since I had had my KISS Sub Sea kidney to work for replacement on one of the wire contacts (it was broken and no clue as how this had happened). The screws was placed in my tool box as not to forget them... A bit on the way I was supposed to pick up one of my fellow divers, and it was then and there it struck me .... my tool box with the specially threaded screws. Were do I get hold of these at 4 PM the weekday before a national holiday. None around, except another KISS diver in the vicinity who kindly let me lend his set of screws (thank you Sven).

After an ordeal with this I arrived at the west coast in the middle of the night, after wich I had to assemble the unit. The Sub Sea display showed 0,98 0,04 0,98 (after some time a thought probobaly due to a too old cell). This led me to swap to my old original KISS display handsets. Remember I had forgotten my toolbox with new cells at home....

After diving on Friday until Sunday without to much problems (one cell showing high readings despite the fact that I calibrated and dried the handset a couple of times and my Paragon BOV started leaking probably due to shrinkage of plastic and rubber when exposed to temperatures below 0 degrees Celsius). While in ater the leakage stopped since watertemperature was approximately 5 degrees Celsius.

On the first dive on Monday (Yestaerday) I turned on the oxygen and the dilutent. The dilutent started leaking out from the Paragon second stage. Therefore I shut the dilutent of. I forgot before jumping in the water to turn my suit inflation bottle on. Normally I have a separate bottle attached to my drysuit. The dilutent is attached to my BC. The problem occurred when I was descending no dilutent into the loop and no boyancy. It was quit tougt there for some time. Had a time of really short of breath.

Of course I had a Bailout bottle, but neglected using this, can't explai why. Not sure I would be able to sit here writing this if I hadn't had two competent buddy divers coming to my assistance offering some helping hands as well as a second stage to breath through (thanks Magnus and Mårten). Maybe I would have remembered to use the Bailout but I was trying to turn my dilutent on I think while trying to swim to the surface.

So what have I learnt after this ordeal?
- It is really hard work swimming for the surface without bouancy help in BC and/ or drysuit.
- It is not pleasant (to say the least) having shortage of breath.
- Try stay cool, I didn't, when it gets tough.
- It takes quite some time to recooperate after working hard without feeling you get the necessary gas into your lungs.
- Always, Always turn on the suit inflation bottle.
- Adjust the second stage Paragon so that it is adjustable when temperature does it necessary.
- I wasn't as good diver as I thought I was....

__________________
Håkan
Beginning to learn

Ben Field

Very honest of you... green sent.

I bet you don't make that mistake again, nothing like a shock to sharpen the mind!

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Beware Fridge Suck

Skipbreather

This is the type of occurrence that many on this board can truly say "There but for the grace of God" etc. Thank you for sharing. Maybe it will move some folks to do a better double check before splashing. Have some green.

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"Entropy RULES! Enjoy the interim."

diverreb

Glad everything worked out....

One more reason to use a checklist.

Richie

Marvintpa

Glad to hear you are still around to write this, and thanks for being so honest.

PhilSiswick

Good on you for sharing - I agree that this is one of those 'there but for the grace of God go I' things. That incident pit (faulty kit, forgotten parts/tools, late night, stress) is an all too common feature of UK diving too.

I was taught on OC to make sure everything worked while in the gate before jumping in. I still do that on CCR - I make sure all my inflates and regs work and check that the unit is adding O2 before I jump in.

Fingers crossed - in 10 years, I've never found that anything wasn't working or dived in without gas switched on and I hope never to. I did have a wing inflator stick wide open before a dive on the James Barrie a few years ago. I'm glad I caught that before I got in, as it was running like a steam train throughout the dive and I wouldn't have liked it to happen underwater.

Green sent - excellent post.

Cheers,

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Phil

No comment on open circuit... it's an evolutionary dead end not really worth discussing here. Dave Sutton, 2007

I have always felt that the dive I am on is not nearly important as the dives I plan to be on the rest of my life. Tom Rose, 2007

www.hugsac.org.uk

caveseeker7

That's probably the single most valuable lesson anyone can learn.
Thanks for the post, Håkan.

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Cheers
Stefan



"It is still a good day if you are on the green side of the grass!

Su amigo Roberto!"

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Ben Field

What about diving the M2 with your twinset isolator shut and being so proud about how you still had 210bar left (according to the SPG on the shut and unused side) and the look on your face when it was opened and equalised to 105bar...... opps! (Admittedly that wasn't your fault as the then safety officer "opened" it for you prior to the dive

Sorry, couldn't help mention it....

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Beware Fridge Suck

PhilSiswick

Ah the wonders of the HUGSAC corporate memory - never let anyone forget anything Anyway, it was about 170 bar.....

True - a good example of things that can't be checked by my method. I've solved that one by getting rid of the twinset, diving mix (I must have been narked not to work that one out) and not letting the individual concerned helpfully adjust anything on my kit, ever ;-) He knows who he is.....

Of course, you had the grace not to mention that I offered one of my buddies who was low on air the opportunity to share the air on the isolated side of the twinset at 35 odd meters. That could have been an rude surprise for him.

Cheers,

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Phil

No comment on open circuit... it's an evolutionary dead end not really worth discussing here. Dave Sutton, 2007

I have always felt that the dive I am on is not nearly important as the dives I plan to be on the rest of my life. Tom Rose, 2007

www.hugsac.org.uk

Mark Chase

Good honest post.

Most of us have screwed up big time in the past and been lucky enough to learn from it rather than pay the full price. Only a few would admit it.

This sort of incident, if survived, is a valuable lesson.

This is one reason I prefer BOVs plumbed to off board gas. If you lose the dill then at least you can still bailout to the BOV.

I don't do rushed stressed gear prep. Back in the day when I did this is the sort of mistake id make. On one OC dive where I jumped in wearing a very negative set of 15s and two steel 10s for deco, I couldn't find my wing inflate the only thing that slowed my decent was hitting the sea bed Wing inflate was behind my head.



ATB

Mark

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