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Wrolf - I've read the variety of replies you've received and your account of the mishap on your web page - it was a pretty horrific situation. Being stuck in an uncontrolled, feet first ascent and not being able to turn around is one of my fears too. The upside is that you now know you've "sinned" <g>, have lived to tell the tale, and are not going to make the same dumb mistakes in the future, right? So, I'm not here to shake my finger and restate the obvious -- but I do have a few practical suggestions from reading your account of the accident. 1. First, the triggering event was your regulator switch. That started the free flow that led to the accident. Overweighted or not, if you hadn't been struggling to find that missing reg, you might not have lost your appropriate swim attitude and turned turtle. Solution: Stop diving independents! Genesis isolation manifolds cost about $165.00, so there's no economic reason not to get one. It's already O2 clean -- slap it on your 80s. The only other costs are the DIN kits for your regs. ($40-60 ea) 2. The second event in the sequence was the regulator recovery. It sounds like you started fixating on the recovery (perceptual narrowing) and didn't think to turn off the tank valve on the free flowing reg so you could protect your gas supply and recover it easier. That should be second nature. Solution: Go to a swimming pool and practice turning off your valves until you can do it without thinking. You had a functioning reg in your mouth, so all you had to do is reach over your shoulder and shut down the one that was freeflowing. Then recover it by grabbing the hose over your shoulder and following it down. If you can't reach your valves or if the drysuit was too inflated to enable you to do so, dive a backplate and wings and adjust the webbing so you can reach them. Buy an ABS plate and run your own webbing if you don't want to invest in aluminum or stainless plate right now. You can probably buy a used one on the list of $30.00. Total cost, including wings less than $250 +/- depending on what you buy used. Take a look at Todd Leonard's hogarthian rigging web page for how to put one together. 3. Use a BC -- wings or not -- enough said. And consider some IANTD technical training with an appropriate instructor (like tech nitrox, nitrox penetration or intermediate trimix) to refresh your skills. 4. Most of the stuff in the middle I know you've figured out, but the most important event in the sequence -- and probably the one that stood the greatest chance of costing your life -- was the fact that you weren't diving with a buddy. You had no one with you to help recover your reg, help you right yourself on the surface, or if your lime green fins hadn't been seen, alert the boat and bring help. If the crew of the Wahoo hadn't been as good as they are, you might be a DAN statistic. Now, I've been on the Wahoo and I know that a great many people solo dive from it, especially on wrecks as shallow as the San Diego -- but your mishap provides a great example of why this is unwise no matter how experienced the diver. Remember, the most important component of the hogarthian system is not the equipment, it's the teamwork! Lastly - thanks for posting your "cautionary tale" to the list. Not everyone is willing to say, "Hey, look at the really dumb thing I just did" so other divers can learn from it. That takes guts. Now, work on the brains! <g> -- Send mail for the `techdiver' mailing list to `techdiver@aquanaut.com'. Send subscribe/unsubscribe requests to `techdiver-request@aquanaut.com'.
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