Hi All,
This is a true story and the lesson learned for you is why you need to have a balanced Rig that you can Swim up to the surface.
This week My regular dive buddy and I did 5 dives over 2 days of Cape Hatteras NC on the Under Pressure with Capt. JT. I mention this because, its an awesome dive boat and operation and he has a diver lift which means no ladder to climb!
We were doing a Class on Friday but Thursday was normal fun dives, and JT had us do the tie in for both dives.
Our First dive went fine with some minor learning items for both of us. The Second dive was on the Dixie Arrow at 90 fsw. We planned a dive that was 25 minutes and minimal time out on the line up. JT set the hook, and we splashed right after to secure the hook to the wreck. Normal procedure is to drop in fast and get the boat secured, which we did. I typically do a giant stride over board, do an initial vent from my inflator and grab the lead line and then fully vent the wing from my butt dump. We raced to the bottom and did the tie in, while were wrapping the chain and doing the secondary tie in I started to have trouble getting neutral. Im thinking WTF as Im pounding gas into my wing and nothing is happening. I look at my inflator and its fine, no leaks there, gas is going into the wing. Finally I reach back to check my butt dump . And Its GONE, totally gone, just a hole where the dump valve use to live. I signal Joe, and let him know my wing is broken and thats why I look like an OW student at the moment (we do this with hand signals pretty quick). The rest of the divers (not teams) are coming down the line.
Ok so my options are pretty limited at this point, Busted wing, no (actually low) buoyancy control. Time to head to the surface.....
Its at this point Im thanking myself for choosing my LP85 doubles to go with my 5mm wetsuit (its usually 80 this time of year in NC top to bottom, and my drysuit gets hot after about 20 minutes with the xeotherms so I decided to dive wet). I specifically chose my LP85s for this dive because I KNOW I can swim them up, Ive tied it and done it with them in a controlled environment and I KNOW I can hold a stop with them.
I headed up the line, a bit stressed, but nowhere near what it could have been wearing my LP112s, Hit the boat, stripped the valve from my lift bag (important note here is that all Halcyon dump valves are the same and interchangeable, something I did not think of till I was ½ way to the surface, I could have stripped a valve out of one of my 2 SMBs at depth and carried on with the dive at that point, getting joe to screw it back on). Coming up the line was no problem and since I weight my rig to be only slightly negative with my exposure suit on (1/2 lb range when diving wet) staying afloat on the surface with only a kick or 2 was easy.
So people .
Mind your gear (my dumb valve must have worked loose or something on dive one, since I did check it at the start of the day as per normal, or I'm He-man and pulled it off, which is possible) & make sure you can positively, 100% of the time, SWIM up your RIG with no buoyancy. If you cant, dont dive it. Dont let a $10 piece of plastic come between you and tomorrow.
Safe Diving ..not every dive goes as planned just make sure you can deal with it safely.
This is a true story and the lesson learned for you is why you need to have a balanced Rig that you can Swim up to the surface.
This week My regular dive buddy and I did 5 dives over 2 days of Cape Hatteras NC on the Under Pressure with Capt. JT. I mention this because, its an awesome dive boat and operation and he has a diver lift which means no ladder to climb!
We were doing a Class on Friday but Thursday was normal fun dives, and JT had us do the tie in for both dives.
Our First dive went fine with some minor learning items for both of us. The Second dive was on the Dixie Arrow at 90 fsw. We planned a dive that was 25 minutes and minimal time out on the line up. JT set the hook, and we splashed right after to secure the hook to the wreck. Normal procedure is to drop in fast and get the boat secured, which we did. I typically do a giant stride over board, do an initial vent from my inflator and grab the lead line and then fully vent the wing from my butt dump. We raced to the bottom and did the tie in, while were wrapping the chain and doing the secondary tie in I started to have trouble getting neutral. Im thinking WTF as Im pounding gas into my wing and nothing is happening. I look at my inflator and its fine, no leaks there, gas is going into the wing. Finally I reach back to check my butt dump . And Its GONE, totally gone, just a hole where the dump valve use to live. I signal Joe, and let him know my wing is broken and thats why I look like an OW student at the moment (we do this with hand signals pretty quick). The rest of the divers (not teams) are coming down the line.
Ok so my options are pretty limited at this point, Busted wing, no (actually low) buoyancy control. Time to head to the surface.....
Its at this point Im thanking myself for choosing my LP85 doubles to go with my 5mm wetsuit (its usually 80 this time of year in NC top to bottom, and my drysuit gets hot after about 20 minutes with the xeotherms so I decided to dive wet). I specifically chose my LP85s for this dive because I KNOW I can swim them up, Ive tied it and done it with them in a controlled environment and I KNOW I can hold a stop with them.
I headed up the line, a bit stressed, but nowhere near what it could have been wearing my LP112s, Hit the boat, stripped the valve from my lift bag (important note here is that all Halcyon dump valves are the same and interchangeable, something I did not think of till I was ½ way to the surface, I could have stripped a valve out of one of my 2 SMBs at depth and carried on with the dive at that point, getting joe to screw it back on). Coming up the line was no problem and since I weight my rig to be only slightly negative with my exposure suit on (1/2 lb range when diving wet) staying afloat on the surface with only a kick or 2 was easy.
So people .
Mind your gear (my dumb valve must have worked loose or something on dive one, since I did check it at the start of the day as per normal, or I'm He-man and pulled it off, which is possible) & make sure you can positively, 100% of the time, SWIM up your RIG with no buoyancy. If you cant, dont dive it. Dont let a $10 piece of plastic come between you and tomorrow.
Safe Diving ..not every dive goes as planned just make sure you can deal with it safely.
