Incident Report

1970-01-01As is common in Florida I was diving with piston (non-diaphragm) 1st stage regulators in the fairly restricted (Florida divers with their advantages would say very restricted) spring. Forcing my way through the most restricted bit a cloud of limestone grit was stirred up over a period of a minute or two some of which fouled the main low pressure O-ring on one of my first stages. (I was not being very gentle and may have actually ground a first stage reg forcefully into the dirt.) A serious freeflow resulted. At first I switched the reg. off at the tank but while returning being sidemounted I decided to try controlling the tank valve by hand. I was astonished at how easy this was it confirms my feeling that sidemounting is best for restricted dives. Eventually the freeflow stopped just as I got back to the entrance. Both regs were afterwards stripped down revealing considerable quantities of filth.Try to be gentle with equipment. Always sidemount in constricted passages. Practise controlling the tank valve by hand before an incident occurs. Consider using a diaphragm reg..... but maybe dont because several reports on the CDG incident list are of themy cyklon fell apart kind.