TIL a cracked demand valve hose can sink your whole dive in 40 feet of murk

Last Tuesday off Port Fourchon we had a simple pipeline inspection job, nothing deep, 40 feet max. My buddy Mike gets in first, I'm gearing up. He drops down and within 2 minutes he's hammering the comms line saying his regulator is free flowing and he's getting water in his mask. We pull him up fast. Turns out the hose on his demand valve had a hairline crack right where it bends at the swivel. Nobody caught it because it looked fine during the pre-dive check, no bubbles until it hit pressure at depth. We lost 3 hours waiting on a spare from the shop, whole crew sat on deck. That crack cost us the afternoon shift and almost cost Mike a panic situation. Has anyone else had a hose fail like that on a routine shallow dive, or do you replace those swivel hoses on a strict schedule no matter how they look?

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the_eric26d ago

Yeah, that hairline crack thing gets me every time. Same deal on a wreck dive off Pensacola a few years back, buddy of mine had the swivel hose look perfect on the surface, then it started squealing air at 60 feet. We were lucky it was just a slow leak and not a full free flow, but he had to abort and share my reg for the ascent. I replace those swivel hoses every two years now regardless of what they look like, the rubber just gets brittle where it bends and you can't see it until it's under pressure. That pre-dive check is a joke when it comes to flex points like that, you honestly need to bend the hose hard and look for any tiny surface cracks, not just eyeball it hanging there.