Some things that I haven't learned yet

[Soakedlontra]

In colder water, these are both harder than in warm water. As to #2, I would focus on getting both the right amount of weight and in the right places (trim). I suspect #3 will come when #2 is all the way solved.

With regard to #3, I would also focus on slow steady breathing.

Guess what? I am finally beginning not to care so much about my air consumption anymore. It's almost like a self-fulfilling prophecy that has taken me nowhere. My air consumption is going down, maybe not as fast as I hoped for originally, but at least it is going down. Beside I don't dive 3 times a day like some folks do.

My trim and buoyancy got a bit mixed up when I began to use the dry suit but after seeing how other divers at my same level handle it I would say I should stop complaing about it!

 

[protohuman]

I have been diving forty plus years. I still mentally review my gear after I pack it. I start with the feet (booties and socks) then work my way up to the hood, thinkng of each piece of gear as I move up. On a quarry dive last week I still managed to forget my lycra dive skin but had everything else and had two greaqt dives. Perhaps if I used a checklist I would have remembered the skin. Anxiety goes away with experience, to a safe point. A little controlled anxiety keeps you alert and safe. Bouyancy control improves with experience as well.

 

[Soakedlontra]

I was going to say the same thing... probably in a less articulate way, but you came first! Good job!

I would add that unfortunately this issue about where to keep the weight belt is still a controversial one. I got certified with SSI and my instructor had to teach me to ditch the weights because the agency said so in the manual but also during my training I wore a jacket style BC instead of a BP/W with a crotch strap.

Another somewhat disconcerting thing is that there are a lot of articles in scubadiving magazines where the emphasis is on ditching the weights. I don't understand why there is not a kind of agreement on this between the technical diving schools and the recreational one and why this endless bickering among them about the weights is kept eternally alive, so it seems.

HOLLY MOLLY MAMMA MIA ALL SAINTS IN HEAVEN AND HOLY COW AMEN!

Yesterday I did experience the weight-belt-up-or-under-the crotch strap bickering myself!

When, just before heading to the pool, I told my instructor that I wear my belt under the crotch strap he turned into the 'incredible Hulk'!...No kidding I have never seen him so mad! He absolutely super-strongly disagreed with me because he thought it was an extremely dangerous thing to do. He challenged me and asked me to explain to him why I thought it was a good idea.

I could think of one good reason: you are less likely to lose the belt and become positive buoyant and therefore you reduce the risk to do an uncontrolled fast ascent. He agreed but he was not satisfied with my answer so he kept going: "What if you have an emergency and there is no other way out than to ditch your weight belt"? "Well I will release the buckles of my harness and the belt!" I replied. "If you make the decision to use the harness-crotch strap configuration you should get so familiar and comfortable with it that opening two buckles should not be such a big deal and would not take a hell of an extra time to do it!"...He was not convinced...It seemed to me that he thought that because I would have had to waste precious time during an emergency in releasing two buckles instead of one that I was playing with life and death...

I understand that he was genuinly concerned for my safety and maybe my argument sounded a bit weak...(It was the first time that I had to justify myself and my decisions making in such a strong way with an instructor!). I kept emphasising that above all the most important thing is, as Bob mentioned earlier, prevention . You do everything you can to prevent from putting yourself in a situation that degenerates and becomes an emergency that forces you to ditch the weight belt. With that in mind I think I am better off swimming up to the surface keeping my weight belt under the crotch strap rather then above it, ditching it and doing an uncontrolled buoyant ascent.

Now a diver died several months ago because she run out of air and did an emergency ascent but at the surface she could not either ditch her weights or orally inflate her BC/Wing because she could not think straight out of panic. She went back down and drowned (to my understanding).

In this case to me the major issue is not not being able to ditching the weights at the surface but running out of air at depth in the first place! However being able to plan your air safely, handle your own gear as a second nature and panic 'management' are all interconnected to each other. I cannot assume that planning my air right will solve any other problems that may occur during a dive!

It seems to me that Scubadiving is a huge GRAY ocean where a lot of times there is not a definite Right or Wrong!

 

[Soakedlontra]

After about 15 dives with my second hand Mobby's dry suit things have began to go wrong. Last weekend water leaked without any shame through the left neoprene sock into my left foot and beyond! At the end of my fourth dive I have both my left and right foot soaking wet!


My husband-buddy helped me to figure out where this leak came from by inflating the suit, after closing tightly the neck and wrist seals, and spray super-soapy water on the seams.

I thought that this one was going to be my chance to learn how to fix a leak in a dry suit but guess what? I am going to send it back to a professional repair guy instead!

 

[sibermike7]

Kind of like the "mother of all leaks"! Looks like you blew a seam! That would make me wonder if the adhesive is deteriorating all around.

 

[sibermike7]

In this case to me the major issue is not not being able to ditching the weights at the surface but running out of air at depth in the first place! However being able to plan your air safely, handle your own gear as a second nature and panic 'management' are all interconnected to each other.

Did your instructor get this point?

 

[DevonDiver]

There are more issues than just 'running our of air' that can lead you into requiring immediate and easy surface bouyancy.

Medical issues (heart attack) kill more divers that OOA accidents.... and ditching a weightbelt whilst otherwise incapacitated by a medical problem can be a life saver. Of course, in those instances, inflating the BCD is also an option... but dropping the weightbelt is the quicker, more sure method....

Most instructors will know (and consider) nothing outside of the basic system they teach. That means they teach that weight belts should not be impaired from a 'one-motion' release and dump.

However, for deep or overhead environment divers, the loss of negative buoyancy can easily be argued to be a greater risk. These are more advanced activities...and require more advanced thinking.

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

There are more issues than just 'running our of air' that can lead you into requiring immediate and easy surface bouyancy.

Medical issues (heart attack) kill more divers that OOA accidents.... and ditching a weightbelt whilst otherwise incapacitated by a medical problem can be a life saver. Of course, in those instances, inflating the BCD is also an option... but dropping the weightbelt is the quicker, more sure method....

Most instructors will know (and consider) nothing outside of the basic system they teach. That means they teach that weight belts should not be impaired from a 'one-motion' release and dump.

However, for deep or overhead environment divers, the loss of negative buoyancy can easily be argued to be a greater risk. These are more advanced activities...and require more advanced thinking.

One must also consider environment. Weights are used to offset the inherent buoyancy of your exposure equipment. Most agencies tailor their protocols to suit the needs of their largest audience ... namely the tropical diver. A basic 3 mil wetsuit only requires a few pounds of lead to offset its buoyancy.

By contrast, when diving in cold water, a 7 mil farmer-john wetsuit ... or a drysuit with a 400 gram undergarment can require 25-30 pounds of lead to achieve the same neutral buoyancy.

There's a MASSIVE difference between dropping an 8 lb weightbelt and dropping a 28 lb weightbelt. The latter will send you up dangerously fast ... especially if you've got other issues (like a heart attack) that might impair your ability to keep breathing. It would only take a second or two to lethally expand your lungs.

As with just about everything else connected with diving, there is no pat answer that applies in all circumstances ... you MUST consider the application. For the cold-water diver, there are very rare circumstances where a buoyant ascent would be considered safer or more preferable to a swimming ascent. And I cannot think of ANY circumstance where managing your air and buddy skills properly would not achieve a better outcome.

As instructors, we need to consider emphasizing the right things ... and for the right reasons. In the list of priority safety skills, buoyant ascents are very near the bottom, as the potential risks will almost always outweigh the benefits.

In cold water diving ... under almost any circumstance ... about the only benefit to a buoyant ascent would be to make it easier to recover the body.

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[Soakedlontra]

Did your instructor get this point?

I think he did...We dropped the subject because we had to go to the pool and we haven't talked about it since then.

 

[diver 85]

after almost 25 years of diving, I still have my(lists) going.......don't feel bad, keep making them....