FM1520
Contributor
dive site: Lazy Daze wreck, 80 feet, Marrisa Dive Boat, San Diego, CA
gear: 7mm wet suit, hood, steel 120 LP tank (air), temp: 61F
buddies: three buddies (me included), we have dove together before - part of the same dive group
pre-dive buddy check: familiarized ourselves with each others alternate air source and type of ditch-able weight and reviewed hand signals.
At the end of the dive I noticed I was a little negatively buoyant and burped the power inflater button - nothing happened and it sounded different. I tried it again and held it down a litter longer - nothing (I probably did this more than I needed). Pushed the inflator button again this time while looking up holding my breath - bubbles, lots of bubbles.
I got my one of my buddy's attention and pointed to my inflater and pushed the button at the same time. He messed around with it and I tried it again but what ever he did it didn’t work.
I'm at ~70 feet, ok on air but lower than I would like, and we start our assent to the safety stop. I use a large kelp “tree” to maintain my buoyancy and easily get the safety stop. At the safety stop I’m pretty low on air so I use my buddy’s pony during the stop to avoid an actual OOA. At the surface I hand a weight pocket to each buddy and float over to the boat.
I have an AirSouse III and hose in my dive bag, so I swapped it out and made a second uneventful dive on the Ruby E.
As per the picture, looks like the zip tie that holds the hose in place came off, should be an easy fix.
Couple points: I was already at the bottom so I wasn't going any deeper, I had two experienced buddies and kelp that could/did assist with assent and buoyancy. If I was diving, say the oil rigs, that have no bottom (or kelp) or a weak buddy I could have dropped a weight pocket - its nice to have options.