8000 Feet, One Spool and One Total Loop Failure

[Luxrok]

Hello boys and girls,

It is time for another installment of the Hans and Patrick show. He and I were making a round trip traverse from Naharon to Mayan Blue to pickup a spool when on the return leg he suffered a total loop failure on the KISS Classic.

If you are interested in reading the account here it is: Total Loop Failure During a Cave Dive.

As always, your comments and critisism are welcome. If you want more information, leave a comment and one of us will answer.

Hans

[FW]

Hans,

I am impressed with the way you both handled that dive. It *never* hurts to over-plan bailout. I personally take enough bailout for myself to exit solo, if necessary. If all team members have that much bailout, there should never be a problem. I never trust a rebreather enough to zip tie my bailout regulators, but maybe I am excessively paranoid. I think ordinary "snoopy loops" (bits of inner tube) are much easier to remove in an emergency, and I have never had a problem with them accidentally deploying.

FWIW, I *try* to stay close to my buddy, but getting 50 or more feet apart is pretty common, so you can't depend on someone being right there is you have a failure.

There was a similar failure (hose coming off) here in the US, at Madison Blue a couple months ago. The diver had to leave his rebreather, as it was too heavy filled with water. If nothing else, Patrick got enough air back into the flooded rebreather to swim it out.

[Luxrok]

Forrest,

Thanks for the comments. I definitely changed how I attach my necklace to the regulator and I removed the necklace all together when I am on the breather. I think it just creates more of a hang up then it is worth. The real deal is that I was sharing my regulators between my side mount rig and the breather, so I didn't want to have to keep changing them around. I now believe it is critical to have the gear optimized for the dive I am doing. Especially as the stakes rise.

I think we were lucky to be diving in a team. I was able to reconnect the hose in less then a minute from the point of failure. Patrick was trimmed level so there wasn't a lot gas escaping. However, if he had been solo, there would have been little to no chance of replacing it in time and the unit would have filled, changing the game and costing more money.

We are still debating the team bailout versus individual bailout. Prior to this dive we were very near deciding on team bailout. After this dive, I think we were both pushed squarely back into the individual bailout plan. When we executed this dive we each had more then enough BO to exit. Andrew Driver, my CCR instructor, always says, "You can't have too much bailout." It is in the same spirit as never finishing a dive with too much gas. Sounds reasonable, as long as it is reasonable.

Thanks for taking the time to read and comment.

Hans

[sskasser]

Thank you for sharing the details of this dive. It was a very educational read for me.

[MengTze]

When I did my CCR course we obviously covered bailout. I quickly decided that for me the individual bailout plan was the best. Each brings their own full bailout gas. Should I come to a dive where this bailout becomes too much to carry in, I may consider a team bailout plan.

Good write up, it confirms things with me.

[Luxrok]

When I did my CCR course we obviously covered bailout. I quickly decided that for me the individual bailout plan was the best. Each brings their own full bailout gas. Should I come to a dive where this bailout becomes too much to carry in, I may consider a team bailout plan.

In response to Doppler, I wrote about some of the changes we made with regard to bailout. This includes my position on team bailout. Rebreather Bailout Strategies and Team Bailout

[FW]

FWIW, I use a pair of 104s for bailout, even on short dives. I need the weight to hold my drysuit down anyway, and I can't see using lead for that, you can't breathe lead