BC Remove and Replace Skill

[tursiops]

I found that just asking students at random times for their gas to be rather ineffective. Few would remember to do so. Instead, I told them to tell me and their dive buddy whenever they hit certain pressure milestones. Giving them a task/responsibility resulted in students tracking their cylinder pressure much more consistently.

Very nice, I like it.

One of the "games" I have to get students to focus on smooth finning is a race where they carry a golf ball on a spoon. If they drop it, they have to go back to the starring line

Try it with a ping-pong ball and and an upside down spoon....

 

[johndiver999]

Likes:
1. The floaty shark. I want one.
2. He kept calm
Didn't like:
1. There was no fixing the issue, best to put it back on to free up his hands, share air with someone else, close his valve to stop the bubbles.

The guy did awesome! I liked how he made sure his customers remained calm and then he took the necklace off. I assume this was in order to facilitate a complete ditching of the scuba unit and swiming free to the surface - should that be needed. Who wants a dead tank hanging from their neck. Smart move I think.

Once he negated the danger of that potential problem, he did everything perfect - except maybe he could have shut the air down a little earlier - but who cares about that.

 

[wetb4igetinthewater]

They guy did awesome! I liked how he made sure his customers remained calm and then he took the necklace off. I assume this was in order to facilitate a complete ditching of the scuba unit and swiming free to the surface - should that be needed. Who wants a dead tank hanging from their neck. Smart move I think.

Once he negated the danger of that potential problem, he did everything perfect - except maybe he could have shut the air down a little earlier - but who cares about that.

The tank is likely positive, no? So that will be a plus at the surface, agreed?

I don't see in this scenario any reason to ditch $1000 scuba kit. Unless the tank fills with water and then becomes dead weight.

 

[sea_ledford]

I don't understand this aversion to gear removal and replacement. It just isn't that hard. If I'm not demoing it, I can get my gear off and back on in well under a minute, probably under 30 seconds. I've done it with no weight, a heavy weight belt, light weight integrated and heavy weight integrated. I've done it in no wet suit, a 3mm, a 1/4" farmer john and jacket with hood and gloves in near zero vis in surgy conditions, and in a drysuit. I've done it on descent on the Vandenberg when the I noticed that the single tank adapter on my rented backplate was loose and wobbling back and forth (try getting your buddy to fix that!). It's a very useful skill, both from a functional and teaching/task loading standpoint.

If you are of the mind that it is something you'll never use, you should ask yourself why you have to do a mask removal and replacement too. I have never lost a mask off my face underwater. I have about 4,000 dives and I've taken 10's of thousands of divers in the water. I have been kicked in the face more times than I can count. I still have never had a mask dislodged from my head underwater, or seen it happen to anyone else. And I keep my mask strap so loose that if I look down while on land, I can breathe through my nose. Mask R&R is probably the skill that gives students the most concern, it's clearly not very functionally useful, so I guess we shouldn't have that be a requirement either.

 

[Adobo]

Likes:
1. The floaty shark. I want one.
2. He kept calm

The floaty shark kicks much ass.

Didn't like:
1. There was no fixing the issue, best to put it back on to free up his hands, share air with someone else, close his valve to stop the bubbles.

To be fair, there was no way for him to know the issue wasn't fixable unless either he looked at it or someone else looked at it.

In his shoes, I would have thought to myself, "eff it. I don't know which of these divers I am leading on this dive will know whether or not my issue is fixable." At that point, I would have decided to thumb the dive, grab one of the divers and use that person as my buddy during the ascent. If one of my regs was breathable, I would have stayed on my own reg. If not, that is the only time I am going on my buddy's octopus.

In this scenario, I don't see any purpose in taking the gear off since it is recreational dive. But whatever, he took it off. Why he kept the BCD off, instead of putting it back on for his ascent, I have no idea.

Kudos to him for not losing his cool though.

 

[Adobo]

They guy did awesome! I liked how he made sure his customers remained calm and then he took the necklace off. I assume this was in order to facilitate a complete ditching of the scuba unit and swiming free to the surface - should that be needed. Who wants a dead tank hanging from their neck. Smart move I think.

Once he negated the danger of that potential problem, he did everything perfect - except maybe he could have shut the air down a little earlier - but who cares about that.

Actually, I think he flubbed that part of taking his gear off. There is a moment there after he takes off his BC where he takes off the necklace. Now he has one hand occupied holding his BC and he has to juggle taking the reg he is breathing out of his mouth, removing the necklace then putting the reg back in his mouth, all with one hand. You can see that the necklace and his primary reg becomes one jumbled mess. Meantime, he has no reg in his mouth. The buddy even realizes that this thing is basically a **** show and offers her octopus.

I don't mean to "monday morning quarterback" the guy. He kept his cool and got everyone to the surface, especially himself, safely. If anything, my only opinion on his reaction to the emergency is that there was nothing to be accomplished by taking of his BC in the first place. Call the dive, grab a buddy and go.

 

[Adobo]

The tank is likely positive, no? So that will be a plus at the surface, agreed?

Hard to say. Likely it is an al80 which will tend to be negative at the beginning of the dive. Plus, I didn't pay close attention but it is possible he had all his lead attached to his BC.

Regardless, even if the BC (with lead) plus the tank was all negative, why is removing the BC a useful act? If the wing fails, you would inflate it anyway.

I don't see in this scenario any reason to ditch $1000 scuba kit. Unless the tank fills with water and then becomes dead weight.

I am equally perplexed. I don't believe the intention was ever to ditch the gear. I think the guy took off his BC, realized he couldn't fix the problem and somehow came to the conclusion that putting the BC back on was pointless.

 

[wetb4igetinthewater]

I don't understand this aversion to gear removal and replacement. It just isn't that hard. If I'm not demoing it, I can get my gear off and back on in well under a minute, probably under 30 seconds. I've done it with no weight, a heavy weight belt, light weight integrated and heavy weight integrated. I've done it in no wet suit, a 3mm, a 1/4" farmer john and jacket with hood and gloves in near zero vis in surgy conditions, and in a drysuit. I've done it on descent on the Vandenberg when the I noticed that the single tank adapter on my rented backplate was loose and wobbling back and forth (try getting your buddy to fix that!). It's a very useful skill, both from a functional and teaching/task loading standpoint.

If you are of the mind that it is something you'll never use, you should ask yourself why you have to do a mask removal and replacement too. I have never lost a mask off my face underwater. I have about 4,000 dives and I've taken 10's of thousands of divers in the water. I have been kicked in the face more times than I can count. I still have never had a mask dislodged from my head underwater, or seen it happen to anyone else. And I keep my mask strap so loose that if I look down while on land, I can breathe through my nose. Mask R&R is probably the skill that gives students the most concern, it's clearly not very functionally useful, so I guess we shouldn't have that be a requirement either.

How much lead did you have when in your dry suit? And how was it distributed?

To be fair, there was no way for him to know the issue wasn't fixable unless either he looked at it or someone else looked at it.

Oh, he did the right thing to see the source of the problem, but if his O-ring failed, nothing he's going to do about it underwater. I meant he should have put it back on to free up his hands. He certainly handles stress well.

 

[Adobo]

I don't understand this aversion to gear removal and replacement. It just isn't that hard. If I'm not demoing it, I can get my gear off and back on in well under a minute, probably under 30 seconds. I've done it with no weight, a heavy weight belt, light weight integrated and heavy weight integrated. I've done it in no wet suit, a 3mm, a 1/4" farmer john and jacket with hood and gloves in near zero vis in surgy conditions, and in a drysuit. I've done it on descent on the Vandenberg when the I noticed that the single tank adapter on my rented backplate was loose and wobbling back and forth (try getting your buddy to fix that!). It's a very useful skill, both from a functional and teaching/task loading standpoint.

If you are of the mind that it is something you'll never use, you should ask yourself why you have to do a mask removal and replacement too. I have never lost a mask off my face underwater. I have about 4,000 dives and I've taken 10's of thousands of divers in the water. I have been kicked in the face more times than I can count. I still have never had a mask dislodged from my head underwater, or seen it happen to anyone else. And I keep my mask strap so loose that if I look down while on land, I can breathe through my nose. Mask R&R is probably the skill that gives students the most concern, it's clearly not very functionally useful, so I guess we shouldn't have that be a requirement either.

That's interesting about the mask. I had it happen to me on one dive. Mask strap broke. I can't remember exactly how since I always replace rubber / silicon straps with some slap strap. I was also on a separate dive when a dive buddy looked strange somehow. I took a closer look and realized he was holding his mask on his face as his strap had broken. He was simultaneously reaching in his pocket for his backup mask so he had it under control.

I guess that was just a case of lightning striking twice. Who knows.

I did have one other situation where a buddy switched out a mask. For some reason, the mask she was using was fogging like crazy. She effed with it for a while but then gave up. She stopped the dive, changed out her mask and then we went on our merry way.

 

[Adobo]

How much lead did you have when in your dry suit? And how was it distributed?

Oh, he did the right thing to see the source of the problem, but if his O-ring failed, nothing he's going to do about it underwater. I meant he should have put it back on to free up his hands. He certainly handles stress well.

What are the failures where bubbles are billowing out of your tank wherein you would have felt comfortable to fix the issue and continue on this dive as the dive master? As I am not a dive pro, I wouldn't know but if it were me, I pretty much assume that I am solo diving if I am the dive master since I don't know which of these tourists are helpful in a real emergency.

If this was a loose hose, sure you could tighten it but at that point, I wouldn't trust that the problem would not recur later in the dive when I have less gas in my tank. That's about the only "fixable" issue I can think of personally.