wb416
Contributor
Went diving with a couple of folks Friday night at Gilboa in NW Ohio. The wind was whipping and the temperature was dipping below 20°F/-7C°. There were so many goofy little things that happened that I was left just shaking my head.
First after we jumped into the water, one guy had his bcd inflator freeze up, so he had to shutdown his air and let the water thaw things back out. Then as we descended to 20 ft and were signaling with our HID lights, mine went out. Dang! This is only the second dive since I got it back from warranty ballast replacement. Of course, I'd decided not to wear my backup lights, so after one of the guys tried to help me get it restarted, we could see that there was condensation on the inside of lens. We surfaced and I was going to just get undressed. Instead, they told me there was a spare Helios 10W in one of the trucks, so I marched up and got that and would join up with them at a later point in the dive. Everything was freezing quickly, so I slowly got back in the water and did some checks before descending (thank goodness for environmentally sealed regulators).
I figured I could see their lights while they were at 120ft, but couldn't, so I decided to tool along at 40ft over to where they were going to make their ascent. Things were a bit spooky by myself considering the minor problems that had plagued us before we started diving. Finally, 15 minutes into my dive, I noticed their lights and joined up with them on the remainder of the dive, which went very well.
We surfaced at platform furthest from our entry. The plan was to hike back around to the trucks. I wasn't keen on that, so I ducked a couple of feet down and made a bee-line for an exit point closer to the vehicles. I started up the hill to the main road and found allot of ice on the ground. The other guys were still way behind me, but I marched toward the truck, still a good distance away. At some point I found an unfriendly ice patch that not-so-gently laid me down on my doubles. As I was getting up on one knee, the other guys caught up to me and assisted me to my feet. They had dropped their tanks on one of the picnic tables and were planning to drive back to pick them up. Now why didn't I think of that!
They proceeded into the shower house to change while I dropped off my tanks. Except, everything had frozen up pretty good by time I got to my vehicle, including my mustache and beard. The drysuit inflator hose was frozen to my suit, so I worked on that awhile. I gave up after a bit, and decided to remove my regulator from the tank and just carry it into the building, let it warm up and remove the inflator hose from my suit. Well, the first stage took a bit to get it off the tank, and then I went to unclip my SPG from the D-ring, but it was frozen solid. I beat on it for a bit with a crescent wrench to no avail, then got out a lighter to unthaw it. I couldn't get the lighter started, so here I am out in the cold and I can't get away from my tanks.... ugh!! It finally dawned on me that the SPG is attached to the bolt snap with cave line to allow it to be cut underwater in the event of a problem. So after I cut the line, I finally carried the backup regulator, SPG, and drysuit inflator into the building to get in some warm clothes. Even getting out of the rock boots with frozen laces was a bit of a treat.
When I got home, I opened up the light head on my HID and some water poured out. Something came out that I thought was ice, but quickly found was glass from the exploded HID bulb assembly. "Brickin' brackin' sassafrassin'......"
Lessons learned:
*Be very careful breathing or using your inflator prior to getting in the water on a sub-freezing night. Most people think about their regs freezing, but not the BCD inflators and such.
*Carry your backup lights, even if you don't antipate needing them. That's why they're called "backups".
*When you get out of the water, quickly unclip or disconnect any metal-to-metal connections that may prevent you from getting out of your equipment.
*Work smarter, not harder. If you have a long walk, drop the equipment and drive back for it, if possible.
*Reconsider my 10w HID light choice. It seems I've had nothing but trouble with this blessed thing.
Hopefully some can learn from the things that I had to learn the hard way.
wb
First after we jumped into the water, one guy had his bcd inflator freeze up, so he had to shutdown his air and let the water thaw things back out. Then as we descended to 20 ft and were signaling with our HID lights, mine went out. Dang! This is only the second dive since I got it back from warranty ballast replacement. Of course, I'd decided not to wear my backup lights, so after one of the guys tried to help me get it restarted, we could see that there was condensation on the inside of lens. We surfaced and I was going to just get undressed. Instead, they told me there was a spare Helios 10W in one of the trucks, so I marched up and got that and would join up with them at a later point in the dive. Everything was freezing quickly, so I slowly got back in the water and did some checks before descending (thank goodness for environmentally sealed regulators).
I figured I could see their lights while they were at 120ft, but couldn't, so I decided to tool along at 40ft over to where they were going to make their ascent. Things were a bit spooky by myself considering the minor problems that had plagued us before we started diving. Finally, 15 minutes into my dive, I noticed their lights and joined up with them on the remainder of the dive, which went very well.
We surfaced at platform furthest from our entry. The plan was to hike back around to the trucks. I wasn't keen on that, so I ducked a couple of feet down and made a bee-line for an exit point closer to the vehicles. I started up the hill to the main road and found allot of ice on the ground. The other guys were still way behind me, but I marched toward the truck, still a good distance away. At some point I found an unfriendly ice patch that not-so-gently laid me down on my doubles. As I was getting up on one knee, the other guys caught up to me and assisted me to my feet. They had dropped their tanks on one of the picnic tables and were planning to drive back to pick them up. Now why didn't I think of that!
They proceeded into the shower house to change while I dropped off my tanks. Except, everything had frozen up pretty good by time I got to my vehicle, including my mustache and beard. The drysuit inflator hose was frozen to my suit, so I worked on that awhile. I gave up after a bit, and decided to remove my regulator from the tank and just carry it into the building, let it warm up and remove the inflator hose from my suit. Well, the first stage took a bit to get it off the tank, and then I went to unclip my SPG from the D-ring, but it was frozen solid. I beat on it for a bit with a crescent wrench to no avail, then got out a lighter to unthaw it. I couldn't get the lighter started, so here I am out in the cold and I can't get away from my tanks.... ugh!! It finally dawned on me that the SPG is attached to the bolt snap with cave line to allow it to be cut underwater in the event of a problem. So after I cut the line, I finally carried the backup regulator, SPG, and drysuit inflator into the building to get in some warm clothes. Even getting out of the rock boots with frozen laces was a bit of a treat.
When I got home, I opened up the light head on my HID and some water poured out. Something came out that I thought was ice, but quickly found was glass from the exploded HID bulb assembly. "Brickin' brackin' sassafrassin'......"
Lessons learned:
*Be very careful breathing or using your inflator prior to getting in the water on a sub-freezing night. Most people think about their regs freezing, but not the BCD inflators and such.
*Carry your backup lights, even if you don't antipate needing them. That's why they're called "backups".
*When you get out of the water, quickly unclip or disconnect any metal-to-metal connections that may prevent you from getting out of your equipment.
*Work smarter, not harder. If you have a long walk, drop the equipment and drive back for it, if possible.
*Reconsider my 10w HID light choice. It seems I've had nothing but trouble with this blessed thing.
Hopefully some can learn from the things that I had to learn the hard way.
wb
