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Back in the day when I was teaching OW1 at UF I had a similar
experience. I was in the pool with my class demonstrating the doff-n-don
and heard a bang, then the regulator I was breathing from gave nothing
but water. Lots of air too.
At the surface I found out that the problem was the LP hose the reg I
was breathing on gave, literally.
The regulator was an old US Divers calypso (it's what they used to use
at UF, I have no idea what they use now). I believe the calypso is
downstream, but not being intimately familiar I could be wrong. If it
was just a seat problem in the first stage then the regulator should
have free flowed rather than the hose exploding like that.
The consensus of the equipment guy was that the LP hose was old and
suffered from "dry rot" and that's why it failed, I was just the lucky
one with that regulator.
On a side note, two weeks later in the keys the same thing happened to
another regulator from the inventory. Luckily, for the student diving
the rig, it happened on the boat before hoping in the water. A complete
overhaul of all regulator hoses was performed after the second incident.
Ken
Christian Gerzner wrote:
>
> Folks,
>
> What I consider to be an extraordinary experience happened to a close
> colleague last Sunday.
>
> The specifics:
>
> Open ocean, twin independent tanks, Poseidon Jetstream 1st and 2nd stages, 50m
> (164ft) dive, no penetration, weather excellent, viz 20+m top to bottom, sea
> calm, no wind, water temp about 19C (no idea what this is in F, warmish
> though), sunny blue skies in (winter) Oz around Sydney (gotta get a plug in
somewhere).
>
> On deco Roger hears a BANG, hissssss, takes another suck of the 2nd stage to
> get zero air. Fine, drops reg, changes to the other and continues, no
> problem. In the meantime Craig who is three metres below him notices this 2nd
> stage, complete with hose, floating towards him and snaffles it. Craig then
> turns off the offending 1st stage.
>
> Back on board it is discovered that the hose of this Jetstream has cleanly, no
> splits, no furriness, no apparent wear, come away from the metal bits designed
> to clasp it to the 1st stage. This is even more extraordinary when one
> remembers that Jetstreams use an overpressure relief valve immediately before
> the 2nd stage. The Offending 1st stage works well with the 2nd stage of the
> other reg set. Both sets of regs have received regular and excellent service.
>
> I have _never_ heard of this (precisely this) happening before with a low
> pressure hose, ANY low pressure hose. Sure, hoses can "break" but this was
> not a break. As well, because of that overpressure relief valve, why should
> this happen to a Poseidon in particular?
>
> Comments? Speculation?
>
> Christian
> --
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is first-rate."
-- Doris Lessing
(British writer)
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