IRAP Administrator
02-19-2008, 01:10 PM
Divers A, B, and C are doing a scooter dive to the Hinkle. Diver B is the author of this IRAP. Diver C just got himself a used scooter and he has been scootering before but this is his first time out on his scooter which he bought used. C is leading on a shortbody gavin, A is in the middle with a Mako, and B is in the rear with a longbody gavin.
The original plan was for everyone to bring two stage bottles and drop one stage at stage bottle rock, drop the second right before the Hinkle, and then do a little dive through the Hinkle on 1-200 psi of backgas.
C is having trouble with one of his stage bottles so he ditches it at the mainline at the start. No problem, we still have plenty of gas for the dive. We scooter along towards stage bottle rock and do the first stage drop, everyone dropping their stages with >2000psi in them. A and B switch to our second stage bottles and C switches to his backgas. At about 2900' and B goes to adjust his tow cord. When B looks up A and C are about to round a corner.
B guns the scooter to catch up to them, and hits the ceiling. PSHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH. B quickly signals A and A takes a look at it and confirms that my burst disk is venting a lot of gas. B thumbs the dive and isolates. B still breathing his stage reg at this point. At about 2700' B realizes that he should switch to the regulator that is attached to the leaking tank instead of draining his stage, so B switches to the backup regulator. B neglects to take the time to properly stow the stage reg and leaves it hanging over his right shoulder.
At about 2600' the loose stage reg comes over B's head and right into the prop. The clutch starts slipping and B sees the hose going right into the prop. B pulls the stage reg out and the mouthpiece is sheared off. B takes the time now to stow it properly and continue out.
About 100' short of Stage Bottle Rock A signals that something is wrong with the Mako. B tells him to keep going to stage bottle rock and we will get everything sorted out there where we have room to work. We get all our stages back on, and B asks A if the Mako is toast, he says it is. So A gets in the towing position and we boogie out, with C following behind. We get to about the Mapleleaf and right about there C's scooter dies. There is no way to effectively tow two people so B stows his gavin and gets ready to swim it out. A is laughing so hard one of his contacts comes out and is somewhere inside his mask so now he cant see.
So picture this, One guy is swimming out towing a long body Gavin behind him while gas is blowing out of his burst disk. The next guy is doing a line drill while towing out a Mako. The last guy is towing out a short body Gavin.
We get to the Gallery where our Oxygen is and get that and head out the eye and start our deco. We finish our deco and head to the surface. B unclips his Gavin from the tow position, put the pitch up, take out the pin, and gun the trigger...and nothing. so now this is really hilarious 3 scooters failed in the course of one dive. We get out at Little Devil's and A finds his contact in the bottom of his mask. 89 Minute total dive time with 10 minutes of Deco.
Gas inventory after the dive:
A has 600 psi in one stage and 700 psi in the other. 3200 psi on his back.
B has 2100 psi in his first stage bottle, 2200 psi in the second stage bottle (with the mouthpiece that was cut off), 900 psi in the left backgas tank, and 3400 psi in the right backgas tank.
C had 200 psi in his one stage and 2500 psi in his doubles.
So thats 3 Scooter Failures, A Burst Disk Failure, a Stage Reg failure, and a lost contact lens all in the course of one dive. The whole time I was not scared at all, it was funny more than anything. I knew I was diving with two guys I knew were rock solid in the water and had the necessary skills and experience. I knew where my gas reserve was, I knew where my buddies were, and I knew where I was in the cave so it never really felt like a life threatening situation, just a humorous one. The whole way out I was thinking "I cant wait to tell this one".
So my analysis of all the failures and how to prevent/deal with them are:
* Burst Disk - Never gun the scooter without looking where you are going (duh). I wish these weren't on valves, its an unnecessary failure point. I wish I had one of the manifolds that have the burst disk recessed a little, on mine it just sticks straight out and vulnerable. Isolators are nice to have.
* Stage Reg - Always take the time to stow it. If the mouthpiece gets chopped off you can still breathe it, or you can take the mouthpiece off another reg if you have to. I put a couple zip ties in my wet notes in case I have to do a mouthpiece swap underwater.
* A's Scooter - His charger failed to go off high rate, it charged the batteries at high rate overnight and caused them to be damaged and not hold a complete charger.
* C's Scooter - The batteries he got with the scooter were shot, even though the guy he bought the scooter from told him they were fine. You should always burn test your batteries before doing a dive on them.
* A's Contact - Nothing can be done about that really.
* My Scooter - There are a pair of small banana clips that go into the motor. If they get loose they will just fall out, which probably happened while I was towing it through the Eye. I spread the connections open with a blade so now they are securely attached.
Some of the things that I had been doing that got reinforced by this experience were:
* Isolate if you have a leak and breathe the bottle that is leaking
* Never do a serious dive with "unproven" buddies
* Never scooter farther than you can swim out.
* When scootering, too much gas is almost enough.
* "The difference between adventure and ordeal is attitude"
The original plan was for everyone to bring two stage bottles and drop one stage at stage bottle rock, drop the second right before the Hinkle, and then do a little dive through the Hinkle on 1-200 psi of backgas.
C is having trouble with one of his stage bottles so he ditches it at the mainline at the start. No problem, we still have plenty of gas for the dive. We scooter along towards stage bottle rock and do the first stage drop, everyone dropping their stages with >2000psi in them. A and B switch to our second stage bottles and C switches to his backgas. At about 2900' and B goes to adjust his tow cord. When B looks up A and C are about to round a corner.
B guns the scooter to catch up to them, and hits the ceiling. PSHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH. B quickly signals A and A takes a look at it and confirms that my burst disk is venting a lot of gas. B thumbs the dive and isolates. B still breathing his stage reg at this point. At about 2700' B realizes that he should switch to the regulator that is attached to the leaking tank instead of draining his stage, so B switches to the backup regulator. B neglects to take the time to properly stow the stage reg and leaves it hanging over his right shoulder.
At about 2600' the loose stage reg comes over B's head and right into the prop. The clutch starts slipping and B sees the hose going right into the prop. B pulls the stage reg out and the mouthpiece is sheared off. B takes the time now to stow it properly and continue out.
About 100' short of Stage Bottle Rock A signals that something is wrong with the Mako. B tells him to keep going to stage bottle rock and we will get everything sorted out there where we have room to work. We get all our stages back on, and B asks A if the Mako is toast, he says it is. So A gets in the towing position and we boogie out, with C following behind. We get to about the Mapleleaf and right about there C's scooter dies. There is no way to effectively tow two people so B stows his gavin and gets ready to swim it out. A is laughing so hard one of his contacts comes out and is somewhere inside his mask so now he cant see.
So picture this, One guy is swimming out towing a long body Gavin behind him while gas is blowing out of his burst disk. The next guy is doing a line drill while towing out a Mako. The last guy is towing out a short body Gavin.
We get to the Gallery where our Oxygen is and get that and head out the eye and start our deco. We finish our deco and head to the surface. B unclips his Gavin from the tow position, put the pitch up, take out the pin, and gun the trigger...and nothing. so now this is really hilarious 3 scooters failed in the course of one dive. We get out at Little Devil's and A finds his contact in the bottom of his mask. 89 Minute total dive time with 10 minutes of Deco.
Gas inventory after the dive:
A has 600 psi in one stage and 700 psi in the other. 3200 psi on his back.
B has 2100 psi in his first stage bottle, 2200 psi in the second stage bottle (with the mouthpiece that was cut off), 900 psi in the left backgas tank, and 3400 psi in the right backgas tank.
C had 200 psi in his one stage and 2500 psi in his doubles.
So thats 3 Scooter Failures, A Burst Disk Failure, a Stage Reg failure, and a lost contact lens all in the course of one dive. The whole time I was not scared at all, it was funny more than anything. I knew I was diving with two guys I knew were rock solid in the water and had the necessary skills and experience. I knew where my gas reserve was, I knew where my buddies were, and I knew where I was in the cave so it never really felt like a life threatening situation, just a humorous one. The whole way out I was thinking "I cant wait to tell this one".
So my analysis of all the failures and how to prevent/deal with them are:
* Burst Disk - Never gun the scooter without looking where you are going (duh). I wish these weren't on valves, its an unnecessary failure point. I wish I had one of the manifolds that have the burst disk recessed a little, on mine it just sticks straight out and vulnerable. Isolators are nice to have.
* Stage Reg - Always take the time to stow it. If the mouthpiece gets chopped off you can still breathe it, or you can take the mouthpiece off another reg if you have to. I put a couple zip ties in my wet notes in case I have to do a mouthpiece swap underwater.
* A's Scooter - His charger failed to go off high rate, it charged the batteries at high rate overnight and caused them to be damaged and not hold a complete charger.
* C's Scooter - The batteries he got with the scooter were shot, even though the guy he bought the scooter from told him they were fine. You should always burn test your batteries before doing a dive on them.
* A's Contact - Nothing can be done about that really.
* My Scooter - There are a pair of small banana clips that go into the motor. If they get loose they will just fall out, which probably happened while I was towing it through the Eye. I spread the connections open with a blade so now they are securely attached.
Some of the things that I had been doing that got reinforced by this experience were:
* Isolate if you have a leak and breathe the bottle that is leaking
* Never do a serious dive with "unproven" buddies
* Never scooter farther than you can swim out.
* When scootering, too much gas is almost enough.
* "The difference between adventure and ordeal is attitude"