Chanb77's Weblog

Saturday, July 28th, 2007 ~

Well…. It was an absolutely gorgeous day for a charter in Kingston, and Steve, Leigh, Sarah, and I had finished our surface interval, after an awesome dive on the City Of Sheboygan. Water temperature was 55, with a thermocline at about 70′, Maximum Depth of about 95′, very slight hint of a current, and a bottom time of about 37 minutes.

We were on the descent to the Davie, and I was descending pretty quickly ~ more quickly than normal. I was getting quite the squeeze from my drysuit, and was inflating it, as well as my wing. My stage reg got a bit tight to breathe from, so I looked down at the gauge, as well as checked the valve. After Thursday’s “learning” dive, I wasn’t going to make that mistake again (even though I knew I had checked it on the surface). It was on. I got a couple of good breaths again, then it got tight to breathe again. Then… nothing. There was no gas. Ok… switch to back up. I guess I had grabbed it a bit hastily, and ended up with part of the bungee in my mouth, as well as the reg. No problem, just want to get a few breaths… I was taking in water as well as air… again… So I removed the reg, replaced it again, and hoped for better this time. Nope… still getting water in, and the reg just wouldn’t sit right in my mouth. Steve donated his reg, I caught my breath, and up we went, back to the surface.

This all transpired at 88′.

Steve took the stage bottle down with him (he and Leigh went back down), and didn’t have a problem with it. Upon discussing it later on, he said that he does have a 2nd stage that does not have a pin, and if opened up, will “act funny.” Seeing as I was having trouble getting air out of it, I did open it up. I guess it did “act funny.”

Soo… the first thing I did, was go buy a new mouthpiece for my backup reg. It had one of those Apeks Comfo-bite ones on it before, and I can see now why they are garbage.

I have been diving this back up reg for over a year, and have not had a problem with it during drills and air shares. I guess when push comes to shove, and you really need your reg, the comfo bite is not the best option. Not for me anymore, anyway. That’s twice I’ve needed my reg in the span of two days, and both times, I couldn’t use it effectively (meaning, I couldn’t get it in my mouth properly).

Safe diving…