Accidental Loss of Weights

[mccabejc]

Being a concientous new diver, I find myself going over scenarios of various things that might occur during a dive, and figuring out how I would handle it.

Last night I was trying to figure out how to handle a situation in which my buddy accidentally drops his weight belt at depth. Thankfully I have an integrated BC so I don't have to worry about that...

Anyway, this is a tough one. I probably won't be close enough to grab him when it happens, and even if I was the chances of me noticing and reacting quickly enough before he starts shooting to the surface seem pretty small. And if I did grab him, I'd probably be sorry. The only way I can see to slow down his ascent is for him or both of us to nose down and start driving to the bottom as hard as we can to try and counteract the buoyancy while watching our computers for ascent speed, also making sure we empty our BC's completely.

Anyone have any better ideas? Or is this so rare that it's not worth worrying about?

 

[GrierHPharmD]

In the event of a runaway ascent, you can also flare your body, while activating your dump valves. That will slow you quite a bit.

A few brief comments:

1. I used to use an integrated system, but find that the belt gives me better trim in the water. As a newbie diver, I lost weight pouches on three occasions because I had put too much weight in there. Yes, I became positively bouyant, but not enough to rocket to the surface. Swimming in a head-down posture was enough to allow me to establish control and do a controlled emergency swimming ascent. On two of these occasions, I was able to swim down and recover my weights. (I finally read my BD manual and noted the limits on the amount of weight to put in the pockets!)

I've had one occasion during DM training where a student tried to bolt for the surface, actively swimming. I grabbed her ankle, brought myself face-to-face with her, signalled for her to breathe regularly and slowly, and helped her calm down. I might suggest this sort of approach if you're ever in the runaway buddy situation.

Good luck,
Grier

 

[ScubaScott]

Being a concientous new diver, I find myself going over scenarios of various things that might occur during a dive, and figuring out how I would handle it.

Last night I was trying to figure out how to handle a situation in which my buddy accidentally drops his weight belt at depth. Thankfully I have an integrated BC so I don't have to worry about that...QUOTE]

Being in a weight integrated BC you will have to worry about it as much as anyone else who wears a weight belt. Pockets fall out all the time, so don't think it won't happen to you. Or, better yet, you'll forget to put one in....

Let your buddy get control of his own bouyancy. No one should have their BC so full, that upon dropping the weight they shoot to the surface like a missle. If they do, they are overweighted from the start and are making up for it by filling the wing. And yes, this is a common problem.

SS

 

[rje634]

Grier makes a good point, just because you have a weight integrated BCD doesn't mean that you don't have to worry about losing your weights. In fact I have the Seaquest sure-lock system and have had my weight come out on two separate ocassions. Don't think that because your weight integrated you don't ever have to worry about losing a weight pouch..
Additionally something to remember is that almost all BCD's have multiple dumps so you can get the air out of your BC no matter what your position is. Practice uses the alternate dump valves. When I lost a pouch and was in a head down position kicking down to retrieve my weight the dump valve at the bottom rear of my BCD was a savior!

 

[pasley]

…
Last night I was trying to figure out how to handle a situation in which my buddy accidentally drops his weight belt at depth. Thankfully I have an integrated BC so I don't have to worry about that...

Au contraire mon amie, you do have to worry about it too! I also dive a weight integrated BC and have “accidentally” lost ½ my weights more than once. Of course this was when I had a BC that only used Velcro to hold the weights in. I now dive a BC using both Velcro and a bayonet clip to secure the weights. But, still, it could happen that I could lose my weights or at least part of them.

But the bottom line is, yes it does happen that divers lose all or part of their weights. In fact it happened to one to the Wrinkles divers Sunday. Now mind you he had a rather unconventional configuration where his weights were belted onto the tank and he did not have a boot on the tank, so the weights slid off the tank. But he still lost them.

If you lost your weights at depth, of say 100 feet where your wet suit is fully compressed, you would just need to do an emergency dump of your air. On that topic, the inflator hose is not as efficient as the pull dumps at doing this. In an emergency I would use both my inflator hose and my shoulder pull dump to get rid of air in a hurry. Now, you should be effectively neutral in the water as you only need the weights to get down deep enough for your suit to fully compress. Then you would want to recover your weights and assend.

If you were unable to recover your weights, then I would dump all air and prepare to assend. I would try to stay horizontal to maximize my drag and even maybe a little head down so I could fin down if necessary to control my assent speed. Your buddy could also lend a hand and dump all his air and try to hang on to you to slow you down. But be prepared if you are dragging them up too quickly for them to do the "better one than two injured divers" and leave you. The hardest part will be the last 15 feet.

Thats all I got. But I am sure you will have several replies with good advice and we will both learn something. It is a good question, and I will be interested to see the other ideas.

 

[Jason B]

As for the integrated weight BC, a lose of weight here shouldn't be as bad as if all the weight was on a weight belt. If all weight is on a weight belt then you lose all you weight. My integrated weight BC holds 1/3 of the total weight split between two rear pockets and then 1/3 weight in each front pocket. The chances of losing the weights out of all 4 pockets is going to be pretty slim I would think (kinda like getting four flat tires).

 

[MikeFerrara]

Even with a weight belt there isn't any reason to have all you weight on the belt (ditchable) especially if wearing heavy exposure protection and lots of weight.


Don't keep too much weight where it can be lost.

 

[Don Burke]

It is not a big deal if you do not make more of your weight ditchable than you need to.

If you are one of those folks with forty pounds of weight on a belt, it is interesting to lose a weightbelt. A change of tank or BC or both can solve much of that problem.

I have found too many weight pouches on the bottom to believe they all stay put.

 

[Scubaguy62]

Diving with a WB is encouraged in DM training, however, I prefer my integrated BC. Although not exempt from the worries of losing weights with the integrated BC, Mike mentions a very good tip; don't put all your weight were it can be ditched. I dive with 14 lbs (I'm about 210), and I distribute my weight as follows: 4 lbs on each weight pocket, and 3 lbs on each trim pocket. This way even if I lost 4 lbs, I'd still have 11 lbs to slow my ascent.

What Grier mentions about flaring your body is actually very effective. I experienced it for myself when I was a newbie diver and can tell you it works.

One thing to always remember, and if you haven't done the rescue diver course yet, it will be the first thing you learn, the ability for a diver to exercise self rescue is very important. If you believe that trying to assist your buddy is going to endanger you, better to let him deal with the runaway ascent, and keep yourself in a controlled ascent. Better one diver with DCS than two any day.

 

[JimC]

The top 3 things I find whiel diving that other divers lost, in order:

- Crappy Lights, usualy complete with broken lanyard.
- Weight integrated weight pouches, ususaly complete with 10-15# of nice lead shot bags.
- Knives, with narry a sheath to be found.

Your better belive that you could lose that weight pocket. I would sugest you're more likely to loose a pocket than a belt. If the belt buckle opens, you still have to pull it around your body to loose it. If a weight pocket undoes it free and clear to drop away.