PADI OW and BPW

[wetb4igetinthewater]

If somebody is solo diving and prone to needing to do EA’s from depth and worried about ending up unconscious on the surface face down and drowning they probably shouldn’t be solo diving in the first place. Solo diving is one of those “know your limits and your vulnerabilities” type of activities.

Agreed.

Solo diving isn't for everyone. Heck, recreational diving isn't for everyone either.

 

[happy-diver]

At the moment in my The world of magical things workshop, I'm working on the
Inflate-a-Ball Cocoon, that upon surfacing, with minimal conscious brain activity

deploys from your ring


This device is only available for solo divers and those with overimaginative minds
Will not deploy for those entering the water with minimal conscious brain activity


Until then there's the Full Face Mask.

 

[boulderjohn]

I taught almost all of my rescue diving courses to students in jacket BCDs and while wearing a jacket BCD. The surfacing victims always went face down. Its the way an inert body tends to go. A jacket BCD will not push you forward onto your face as fast as an overfilled back inflate model, but it is not going to put you on your back.

Try it yourself. While ascending in an open area where you aren't going to scare the locals, let you body go limp for the last 10-15 feet and see what happens.

 

[scubaozy]

I taught almost all of my rescue diving courses to students in jacket BCDs and while wearing a jacket BCD. The surfacing victims always went face down. Its the way an inert body tends to go. A jacket BCD will not push you forward onto your face as fast as an overfilled back inflate model, but it is not going to put you on your back.
.

This is correct, actually most of the stab jacket manuals state that it a face up position cannot be guaranteed, probably legal disclaimer. But then again, I used the term ablj, which is more on the face up side.

 

[wetb4igetinthewater]

But then again, I used the term ablj, which is more on the face up side.

When’s the last time you saw someone use one of them? My guess is that Bob hasn’t in quite a while, but he certainly did back in the day.

 

[shurite7]

A group of us played around with various styles of BCDs to see if they push one forward or not. ALL of them did, none kept the diver’s face out of the water. This is one of the reasons the US Coast Guard will not approve any type of BCD as a personal flotation device (PFD).

 

[scubaozy]

A group of us played around with various styles of BCDs to see if they push one forward or not. ALL of them did, none kept the diver’s face out of the water. This is one of the reasons the US Coast Guard will not approve any type of BCD as a personal flotation device (PFD).

Proper test do not only give true/false results but more data as well about how they performed it. Thus you can sort them based on most likely to least likely. For instance ABLJ most likely to keep you alive in the surface in an emergency and BPW least likely, other types in between based on how they performed.
It doesn't matter how much I like my BPW, if I need to be extended time at the surface, I wish I had my jacket style BCD.

 

[tursiops]

I also remember when PADI was 100% against nitrox and refused to endorse its use, let alone offer a course.

Let's see....PADI announced its Enriched Air course in Jan 1996.....so a quarter-century ago.

 

[boulderjohn]

Only thing I said is, that forcing a face up position automatically with a buoyancy device on the surface is inherently a good thing for safety, if ofcourse it is possible.

Forcing a face up position on the surface is possible with a life jacket design approved by the Coast Guard. You have seen them. Just about all the flotation is on the chest, and since the flotation wants to go up, that puts the user on the back. There will also be some flotation behind the head, otherwise the user's head will go under water. Of course, no scuba BCD looks like that, because that would be a horror to use while diving.

I have had to wait 10-15 minutes on the ocean surface awaiting a boat pickup. No problem. I just have an appropriate amount of air in the wing and put my body in the appropriate leaning back position. If I had to wait a seriously long time, as in "I wonder if they are even looking for me," then my choice of BCD would be irrelevant. I would get out of it completely, fill it as full as possible, possibly shed weights if I think it is really serious, and sit on top of it all.

 

[scubaozy]

The point is, jacket style BCDs as checked in the real world by @boulderjohn, show that your claim is false.

Rubbish. This is what I wrote:
“If you ascend unconscious from an EA, most likely an ABLJ least likely a back inflate or BP/W will support your head out of the water, thus, keeping you from drowning”
And this is what @boulderjohn wrote:
“A jacket BCD will not push you forward onto your face as fast as an overfilled back inflate model, but it is not going to put you on your back.”

A bcd is not a pbd, it is natural it will not perform that role as good as pbd. Buoyancy devices have their own standards such as en1809.