Scuba diver dies at Stoney Cove

Just come across a piece of sad news.

While we were enjoying Dosthill over the weekend, staff at our next favourite inland site were dealing with a tragedy.

The Sunderland Echo reported that a rescue operation was launched at Stoney Cove after diver James Henry Askew got into difficulties and failed to resurface after a dive on Saturday.

The body of the 35-year-old, from Stockton, was found in about 35 metres of water. Stoney Cove boss Alan King was reported in the Echo as saying it was believed he had had a problem with his regulator and had possibly become separated from his buddy, although the events that led up to the tragedy will be accurately determined by the HSE and police investigation.

A stark reminder for us all, particularly in the winter months when the cold puts extra stress on our bodies and equipment, to ensure we check and double-check our gear before getting in the water.

We should also remember our training and always ensure proper buddy contact particularly in the cold when there is a risk of regulator free-flows (although, I must stress that we don't know whether that was an issue here).

Thoughts go out to Mr Askew's family and diving pals at what is an incredibly difficult time for them all.

Meanwhile, a police diver suffering with the bends had to be flown to the Wirral for hospital treatment after becoming ill while on a training exercise near Chepstow.

Regulator Free flow

What the weekend's cold water diving highlighted was the possibility of regulators going into free flow (where the second stage sticks open releasing a continuous stream of air), particularly during deep dives when the temperature of the water is at its coldest.

Thanks to Vinni at Aquasport International in Birmingham, below are a few easy steps to preventing free-flows and dealing with them should they happen.

• Ensure your regulator is well maintained and serviced properly.
• If you are using hose protectors, pull them down a little to expose the metal fittings at the first stage. These will act as a heat sink warming the air in the hose slightly before it reaches the second stage.
• Keep your regulators in the passenger compartment of your car - not in the unheated boot - on the way to the dive site.
• Ensure the inside of the regulator is kept dry, particularly between dives.
• Don’t leave the air turned on for long periods of time between dives. Once you have checked the system after assembly, purge and switch off.
• Avoid breathing into you second stage prior to buddy checks and avoid purging your regs.
• Don’t leave equipment on the ground where it could be colder and damper than a few feet higher.

During the dive:

• Set your ‘dial-a-breath’ resistance knob to it's least sensitive point where it requires most effort to crack it, and the venturi switch across the air flow.
• Enter the water with you primary second stage in your mouth and the octopus mouthpiece down.
• Try to avoid high impact entries, such as giant strides which put gear under strain.
• Also avoid long surface swims which could leave you over-exerted and with a higher than normal breathing rate.
• Keep your regulator in your mouth for the duration of the dive.
• Try not to use the purge button at any point. If you have to use gently progressive pressure rather than one sharp stab
• Avoid deep or strenuous dives which will push regulators to their limits.
• Maintain proper buddy contact to ensure you are there for each other in the event of a problem.

If the worst does happen, stay calm and remember your training. We all trained to breath from a free flowing reg in our open water training and it is straight forward to ascend while doing so. You may find it stops at shallower depths.

You can also ascend on your buddy’s alternate. While doing so and if it is safe, get them to turn off your cylinder for a few moments and open the valve again slowly to see if the free-flow has subsided.

Thankfully, I've only ever had to bring one diver up from depth (20m) after a free-flow and the training kicked in perfectly. It's not as daunting as you might think.

First Scuba Diving Trip of the Year

After a few weeks off following Christmas and a busy few weeks at work, I finally got back into the water at the weekend.........and boy was it bracing.

The weekend I joined a couple of instructors running a PADI Advanced Open Water course at Dosthill Quarry, near Tamworth, in Staffs, UK.

Despite the cold waters, I had a cracking time.

AOW is a great course to help run - particularly when divers sign up for a January course, as you know they are going to be keen and excited with the underwater world.

Okay, the 5C temperature of the water had the potential to be a bit of a dampener but we all had a good time, with six dives over Saturday (dry suit, wreck and peak performance buoyancy adventure dives) and Sunday (deep, navigation and peak performance buoyancy adventure dives).

Sadly, the deep dive at 20m proved a bit of a challenge on Sunday after the bottom-dredgers in their twin sets and ponies had stomped over it.

Sometimes I wonder if its even worth giving them fins the way they walk over the silty bottom and I do wish they'd learn some buoyancy control to avoid turning the viz into pea soup for everyone else that follows.

Maybe they should have watched our students, who quickly grasped control of their buoyancy and fine-tuned it brilliantly over the weekend. Unlike my AOW course.

It might be in the distant past but it's still fresh in the mind. On my first dive (dry suit adventure dive) I remember seeing the back shelf at eight metres, then the surface......then the back shelf......then the surface.

Graphing my dive profile on my computer, it looked like a really toothy Jaws was about to jump out of the screen - but that's entry-level dry suit diving for you. Now I wouldn't be without one.

While the DM's job can be the busiest when it comes to logistics of the weekend (issuing kit, sorting out problems, getting people ready for the dive) it's also the most rewarding, particularly by the end of Sunday when the four smiling faces collected their certificates.