Regulator free flow at 110 feet taught me a lesson about cold water

Hit a 38 degree thermocline off Aberdeen last month, my backup reg started dumping air like a firehose. Swore by that brand for 8 years, never had issues in warm Gulf dives. Anyone else see their gear act up in ice water and switch setups after?

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knight.diana28d agoMost Upvoted

...the weird part is I had the exact opposite thing happen in Cozumel last year. My primary reg started breathing like it had a cold, all raspy and wet, while my backup was fine. Swapped out the whole set two days later. But here's the thing that gets me, people keep chasing the latest gear and forgetting that the environment changes everything. I did a bunch of tech courses in a quarry in Ohio back in March and watched two guys with top of the line stuff have their octos freeze up at 60 feet. Meanwhile my old beat up rental reg worked fine the whole dive. It's like the ocean just picks favorites some days. I stopped trusting any single brand after that, now I just test everything in cold water before I trust it deep.