Bad scuba advice you've received

[Robert H. Diver]

On shallow to shallow-ish dives, I rarely use my BCD for bouncy as my Drysuit provides enough just from me inflating enough to prevent squeeze.

 

[boulderjohn]

I know this is not supposed to be a debate about drysuit buoyancy, but the book DUI published on drysuit diving says the same thing. It says that new drysuit divers should start that way and adjust as their needs change. If a single tank diver really needs to use the BCD, odds are that overweighting is the reason. If you really think it through, you will see that has to be true.

The PADI drysuit course says the use of drysuit/BCD for buoyancy depends upon several factors, and it goes into those in detail. If the instructor gave blanket advice to use only the drysuit, that advice contradicts course materials.

 

[boulderjohn]

To start your ascent to the surface, hit the BCD inflation button.

This is inadvertently taught in many classes. I say "inadvertently" because the instructor believes he or she is teaching it properly but is in fact teaching the opposite.

In many class pool sessions, the training in the deep end of the pool consists of performing skills while kneeling on the floor overweighted and with an empty BCD. They then finish each such portion of the class by doing an ascent. In order to do that, they must first inflate their BCDs.

Anyone who understands the nature of instruction in such activities knows that students remember what they physically do in their practice more than they are told to do in classroom instruction. If you tell students not to inflate their BCDs for ascent in the classroom and then have them inflate the BCDs before every ascent, which do you think they are more likely to remember?

 

[gerald werner]

A buddy of mine did his drysuit cert through PADI, and was told through the class to use suit only for buoyancy. He has not used it in that fashion since he finished the class.

DW

Si-Tech in their valve manual also states that the BCD should only be used as backup and that there should be no gas in the BCD during the dive.

 

[wetb4igetinthewater]

Does "the leaking valve isn't a problem" count during an AOW deep dive? Almost ran out of gas. Was at 1000 psi at 100 feet. Had a ways to go horizontally to get back to shore. Wound up with 300 psi when I made it back.

God my early training sucked.

 

[FF / EMT]

I’m still trying to determine whether or not Right is rich for deco bottles or if it gets in the way of my long hose…


I’m also wondering if I should limit practicing valve shutdown procedures because it gets water in my reg…

 

[Dark Wolf]

Si-Tech in their valve manual also states that the BCD should only be used as backup and that there should be no gas in the BCD during the dive.

Well, to each their own is the way I see it. Personally, the only time I will use the suit for buoyancy is in response to a total wing failure.

DW

 

[FF / EMT]

Si-Tech in their valve manual also states that the BCD should only be used as backup and that there should be no gas in the BCD during the dive.

Probably what “they” mean when they say balanced rig…

 

[Akimbo]

To be fair, drysuits were used for buoyancy control when they were first introduced. The Poseidon Unisuit predated the BCD by years and opened a lot of divers eyes how useful a BC could be. Here is a guy screwing around with an overinflated Unisuit.

Even Alert Diver Magazine includes an indisputable error on occasion:
The Mark V Turns 100

The durable rubberized canvas suit worn with the Mark V helmet offered divers protection from cold, contaminated water and other environmental hazards. Wrist cuffs and a rubber neck seal kept out water, and divers stayed warm using wool undergarments layered beneath the suit.

Heavy gear drysuits just attach to the breast plate that the helmet attaches to. No neck dam of any kind.

​

Of course modern lightweight hats have a neck dam.

 

[boulderjohn]

Early in my tech diving instruction, while diving at 4,600 feet, I was told there was no reason to adjust a decompression profile for altitude. When I asked why, the person who told me said he dived at Lake Tahoe (over 6,000 feet) without adjustment, and he was fine.