BC Failure

[Ayisha]

...I was on a commercial spearfishing trip trying to make money, that was my "mission".

A commercial dive with no safety diver(s); no surface comms; and no strict protocols regarding failures?
Where are you doing this sort of commercial diving?

This seems like a case where a pause at 10 fsw to adjust buoyancy and check for leaks would have been really helpful. It would have been a chance to know there was a problem before there was a significant loss of buoyancy due to wetsuit compression.

He would have known there was a problem near the beginning of his descent, but I have a feeling he would have completed the dive anyway! Right DD?

You seem like a nice guy, but kinda lost??? I was not over weighted!!!!! I was carrying the exact amount I needed to perform a safety stop at 15 feet, without floating up and being able to breath normally, with an empty tank.

And would your BC have been empty at the safety stop? If you require air in your BC at the safety stop, then you are overweighted. It certainly sounds from your description, that you were overweighted.

As for "balanced rig" I think you may not understand that idea as well.. To me, a balanced rig is a rig that a diver can swim up without too much difficulty AFTER ditching all or a portion of their lead (if necessary).

I don't think a balanced rig is a rig that a diver can swim up after ditching their weight belt or weight pockets, which is what you imply. Then all rigs would be balanced. The ditchable weight refers to ballast that a diver can discard if necessary, such as a can light or, yikes, an even more expensive camera.

Everyone should be neutrally buoyant at the surface and should be able to swim up their rig, and if not, then have redundant lift.

 

[dumpsterDiver]

I'm not going to argue with you about this. Your comments are silly and ignorant and I have no interest in defending myself.

I had a problem that I determined to be minor, continued my dive and made a safe and controlled ascent.

BTW I'm a fat bastard and you have absolutely no way of determining if 16 lbs of lead was too much for that rig, my body and my suits.

 

[vladimir]

Another factor in favor of aborting this dive immediately is the minimal nitrogen load, which would mitigate whatever enhanced DCS risk there might be due to the exercise of a swimming ascent, or due to a possible rapid ascent if ballast had to be dropped.

 

[Crush]

Everyone should be neutrally buoyant at the surface and should be able to swim up their rig, and if not, then have redundant lift.

Ayisha, you have the zeal of a new DIR diver.

He did have redundant lift - his DSMB.

 

[Crush]

And would your BC have been empty at the safety stop? If you require air in your BC at the safety stop, then you are overweighted.

Is this a subtle attempt a humour?

Ayisha, based on your location, I assume that you dive cold water. If you dive a wetsuit, you know that neoprene rebounds slowly, especially if it is cold. It is not unreasonable to have air in your BC at your safety stop to be neutral, especially if you went deep and N2 loading is the limiting factor, not air consumption.

 

[Splitlip]

I'm glad you knew what to do and handled it well, many people would have not fared so well.

There was a diver in San Diego, CA that drowned less than 50 feet from shore in less than 15 feet of water because of a failure similar to what you had happen. He was coming back in from a beach dive and the elbow of the inflator hose either broke off or came loose and all the air in his BC escaped. The man was overweighted and went straight to the bottom and drowned. They figured couldn't find a reg to breath out of in time which led to panic then death.
His buddy was already on the beach thinking he was right behind him. When he turned around to talk to him after getting out his buddy was nowhere to be found.

we had a similar one a few years ago in Boynton. Took the life of the diver with the failed BC as well as the life of his buddy when they got entangled in the float line I believe.

Scubakevdm from underwater explorers wrote of it here. He recovered the bodies.

 

[Ayisha]

Ayisha, you have the zeal of a new DIR diver.

He did have redundant lift - his DSMB.

Nope, not DIR. Relatively new at 9+ years.

Yes, DD did have a DSMB, and he could also swim up his rig. That was a general comment for newer divers.

 

[Crush]

Nope, not DIR. Relatively new at 9+ years.

Yes, DD did have a DSMB, and he could also swim up his rig. That was a general comment for newer divers.

Oh, sorry - I took it as (in my opinion) misplaced criticism.

 

[Ayisha]

I was carrying the exact amount I needed to perform a safety stop at 15 feet, without floating up and being able to breath normally, with an empty tank.

bold added

Ayisha, based on your location, I assume that you dive cold water. If you dive a wetsuit, you know that neoprene rebounds slowly, especially if it is cold. It is not unreasonable to have air in your BC at your safety stop to be neutral, especially if you went deep and N2 loading is the limiting factor, not air consumption.

bold added - assumption is air in the tank

He said "with an empty tank". If there is air in the tank, then it is reasonable to have a little air in the BC.

Neoprene also rebounds less with use and we have no idea how old or new his wetsuit is. Around here in extremely cold water, large steel doubles and wetsuits are not a recommended combination, and the redundancy of the SMB is a good call.

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

I think everybody should learn to dive with no BC as part of standard dive training, then they can begin letting students use a BC once they fully understand weighting.

I know I'll take heat for my view, but that's OK I don't really care.