BCD failure at 100 feet

[maderadiver]

I think dropping weights is a scary proposal for a bigger guy i am new to the sport a big guy diving a farmer jon 7/8 mm so dropping a belt of 40 pounds plus wetsuit expansion plus breath down as well ill take up yoga now so ill be flexible enough to kiss my azz goodbye hell if i aim it right my body might breach the water and land on the deck

 

[Hatul]

It is a long and detailed account and I may have missed something but why did you not drop your lead?

I had a similar incident while diving from a liveaboard in Dry Tortugas. I was hanging to the line doing a safety stop when it happened. I was trying to put air in my wing and realized that the corrugated inflator hose came apart! It was in my hand. I was ready to drop my weight belt but then I asked my dive buddy if he had enough lift to bring it up. He nodded yes. I then gave him my belt and just swam up. In case of a BCD failure, dropping the lead should get you close to neutral. If the failure happens towards the start of the dive with a full tank, then you may be heavy but as you breath through the air supply you should come to neutral. SB ... am I wrong here?

If you drop your weights at depth you could swim up, but at some point you'd reach neutral buoyancy and then increasing positive buoyancy as the neoprene expanded. You'd have a hard time controlling your ascent from then. That's why the better option is to inflate your SMB if you have one, if not, dropping the minimum amount of weight to allow you to swim up. Dropping all your weight would be a last resort.

 

[flots am]

I think dropping weights is a scary proposal for a bigger guy i am new to the sport a big guy diving a farmer jon 7/8 mm so dropping a belt of 40 pounds plus wetsuit expansion plus breath down as well ill take up yoga now so ill be flexible enough to kiss my azz goodbye hell if i aim it right my body might breach the water and land on the deck

If you don't feel that an Emergency Buyoant Ascent would be safe, you need to either modify your equipment configuration and training to make sure it's never necesasary. Open Water safety procedures are built on the assumption that you can immediatley surface at any time.

This might mean rearranging your weight system so you can drop only as much as needed, or switching to a drysuit so you can eliminate the buouancy change on ascent, or switching to redundant gas so you don't have to ascent in an emergency.

 

[dumpsterDiver]

It is a long and detailed account and I may have missed something but why did you not drop your lead?

I had a similar incident while diving from a liveaboard in Dry Tortugas. I was hanging to the line doing a safety stop when it happened. I was trying to put air in my wing and realized that the corrugated inflator hose came apart! It was in my hand. I was ready to drop my weight belt but then I asked my dive buddy if he had enough lift to bring it up. He nodded yes. I then gave him my belt and just swam up. In case of a BCD failure, dropping the lead should get you close to neutral. If the failure happens towards the start of the dive with a full tank, then you may be heavy but as you breath through the air supply you should come to neutral. SB ... am I wrong here?

yes you are wrong. Ditching a lot of lead at depth is smart only as a last resort due to the dangers of an accelerated ascent. A BC failure at 20 feet in warm water at the end of the dive is a lot different and you SHOULD have been able to just swim up, if you were weighted correctly..

 

[tracydr]

I was diving once with a Lycra skin and steel tank. I only had a few pounds weight. I was out at the lake in a class and wanted to cool off in the 110 degree weather before we did our next dive. While my buddy and husband weren't looking, I went to take a quick dip in wading depth water. I stepped in a hole deeper than my head and found out that my air wasn't on. I learned real quick how hard my tank was to swim out without some buoyancy from a wetsuit. I also learned how very little air is in the lungs if you don't get a chance to take a deep breath before going out of air.
That was probably my scariest moment ever diving. Probably 6 feet of water and I almost drowned! I didn't have enough air in my lungs to orally inflate,either.
I've had problems with the cap that holds the inflator hose to my BC a few times but I always caught it on the surface. My old BC was a little tricky to get that o'ring and cap back on tightly.
I do check my BC before every dive and I also wear a drysuit for redundancy+warmth. Not that it would have done me any good without my tank being on.
I'm pretty sure I would have had a hard time getting my tank turned on before passing out. I was out of breath in such a small amount of time. Not what I ever expected, from being able to swim underwater okay!

 

[dumpsterDiver]

I was diving once with a Lycra skin and steel tank. I only had a few pounds weight. I was out at the lake in a class and wanted to cool off in the 110 degree weather before we did our next dive. While my buddy and husband weren't looking, I went to take a quick dip in wading depth water. I stepped in a hole deeper than my head and found out that my air wasn't on. I learned real quick how hard my tank was to swim out without some buoyancy from a wetsuit. I also learned how very little air is in the lungs if you don't get a chance to take a deep breath before going out of air.
That was probably my scariest moment ever diving. Probably 6 feet of water and I almost drowned! I didn't have enough air in my lungs to orally inflate,either.
I've had problems with the cap that holds the inflator hose to my BC a few times but I always caught it on the surface. My old BC was a little tricky to get that o'ring and cap back on tightly.
I do check my BC before every dive and I also wear a drysuit for redundancy+warmth. Not that it would have done me any good without my tank being on.
I'm pretty sure I would have had a hard time getting my tank turned on before passing out. I was out of breath in such a small amount of time. Not what I ever expected, from being able to swim underwater okay!

You should have also (immediately) contemplated ditching the tank if you could not get the reg in your mouth and the air turned on. Of course orally inflating a BC from one breath is just shifting buoyancy, it will not cause any net change..

 

[Splitlip]

Just my two cents on equipment choices. Forget the pull dump on your inflator hose. Get rid of it and get a simple elbow. Then the only other dump needed to be comfortable is a simple OEM at the butt; just one is needed particularly with a donut wing/bladder.
And don't think of a bc as an elevator like those stupid ads for the I3. Folks are all over the place here about what a "balanced rig" should be. But I say work and work more to get dialed in as well as you can to avoid being grossly overweighted. Then do it some more.

 

[Locus]

Just my two cents on equipment choices. Forget the pull dump on your inflator hose. Get rid of it and get a simple elbow.

Why do you bring this up regarding these cases? I may have missed something but I didn't notice either the OP or tracydr mention having one, just that their respective faults came from the connections between their bcs and inflator hoses. True, a pull dump is an added failure point, but how bad are they really if properly used?

 

[Splitlip]

Why do you bring this up regarding these cases? I may have missed something but I didn't notice either the OP or tracydr mention having one, just that their respective faults came from the connections between their bcs and inflator hoses. True, a pull dump is an added failure point, but how bad are they really if properly used?

Post #22. "It was a simple 3/4 inch screw on cap with a vent"

 

[Locus]

Post #22. "It was a simple 3/4 inch screw on cap with a vent"

My mistake.