BCD Failure

[Centrals]

It was your question, and you said that you could not:

Did I not say I needed weight?

 

[rx7diver]

I was with a diver deeper than 30m when his BCD failed. I used my DSMB to bring him to the surface. You can dual purpose a lot of gear.

Single tank rec dive in temperate water? Then, with the "correct" gear choice and configuration, the diver should have been able to bring himself/herself up, no problem, even given a failed BCD at depth. Shouldn't need to resort to using a DSMB for this, generally. People used to dive without a BCD. (@BLACKCRUSADER, I know you know this.)

rx7diver

 

[BlueTrin]

This happened to someone during a class I was attending. On the second day, his corrugated hose was unconnected in water.

Somehow I didn’t see any bubbles coming from it during the bubble check so I was very confused when I had realised why he couldn’t establish buoyancy.

 

[Blackcrusader]

Single tank rec dive in temperate water? Then, with the "correct" gear choice and configuration, the diver should have been able to bring himself/herself up, no problem, even given a failed BCD at depth. Shouldn't need to resort to using a DSMB for this, generally. People used to dive without a BCD. (@BLACKCRUSADER, I know you know this.)

rx7diver

I just made it easy and the ascent was gentle and that diver appreciated the help given. That diver did not have a DSMB with him. He learnt a lesson and went and got one for his dives rather than depending on other divers to bring one.

 

[SlugLife]

Single tank rec dive in temperate water? Then, with the "correct" gear choice and configuration, the diver should have been able to bring himself/herself up, no problem, even given a failed BCD at depth. Shouldn't need to resort to using a DSMB for this, generally. People used to dive without a BCD. (@BLACKCRUSADER, I know you know this.)

rx7diver

When appropriately weighted, people should be able to ascend from depth without a BCD or dropping weight. However, a lot of divers are over-weighted.

Having a DSMB, for the purpose of being a backup or redundant bouyancy-device is fairly common in some dive-circles. I first heard about the idea from cave-divers. I do need to as some point practice dumping air from my DSMB while ascending. My favorite use for a DSMB is using it like a pool-noodle or life-jacket on the surface, by placing one end under each arm. You can also clip the top & bottom together to make it more like an inner-tube.

The multi-use nature of a DSMB is why I went from "it's nice to have" to ensuring it's always on me.

 

[jejton]

this. I'm surprised how few people carry an SMB.

We both were. Not sure where you read we weren't. This whole episode occurred in less than one minute, on a drift dive with moderate current, very strong chop and colder than expected water. I think he handled it pretty well in my humble opinion. He was losing buoyancy essentially instantaneously. In the time it would have taken him to inflate an SMB, he would have been on the bottom, drifting further away. Dumping his weights, maybe not ideal, but enabled him to establish positive buoyancy, safely, at the surface. Remember, it was only after he was on the boat that he realized what the malfunction was.

 

[Centrals]

We both were. Not sure where you read we weren't.

Welcome to SB.
You should had already realized that a lot of remarks were based on "assumption" only.

 

[johndiver999]

We both were. Not sure where you read we weren't. This whole episode occurred in less than one minute, on a drift dive with moderate current, very strong chop and colder than expected water. I think he handled it pretty well in my humble opinion. He was losing buoyancy essentially instantaneously. In the time it would have taken him to inflate an SMB, he would have been on the bottom, drifting further away. Dumping his weights, maybe not ideal, but enabled him to establish positive buoyancy, safely, at the surface. Remember, it was only after he was on the boat that he realized what the malfunction was.

There is really no need to defend the decision. People who talk about orally inflating an smb at the surface etc. are CLEARLY uninformed about how quickly things spiral out of control. It was hammered into me from training: as soon as you are on the surface: ESTABLISH POSITIVE BUOYANCY. That is super important.

If your gear seems like it is not working properly (and you are stressed) and you have lead that can be dropped, then do it! Don't delay, don't think about it, just release it.

The priority in an emergency on the surface is to establish positive buoyancy, not call for help, not signal a buddy .. just make it so you are safe on the surface.

This is really not complicated.

 

[John C. Ratliff]

On our recent trip to Roatan, I had a somewhat similar situation occur. It was on the first dive of the trip. As we were getting ready to splash, as I always do, I orally inflated my BCD. However, I did not discover until I actually got into the water that the shoulder dump was stuck in the open position and all the air I had put into my BC had simply gone straight out. I couldn't hear it escaping on the boat and since I use a back-inflate BCD, I couldn't "feel" the air going in. When I did get into the water, I was somewhat surprised that I did not have enough air in my BC and tried inflating it some more. It was then that I could hear the air bubbling out of my inflate/dump valve. My wife and the DM both tried to tap on it to get it unstuck, but to no avail. I was slightly over weighted because it was the first time I had dived in salt water wearing only a skin so didn't know exactly how much weight to use and had put in a couple pounds too much. Despite this, I was able to continue the dive for a duration of 52 minutes, and held my safety stop at the end, then surface without incident by gently finning up.

I took my BC to the dive shop (we were at Anthony's Key) and they got it fixed on a couple of minutes. I also removed a couple of pounds of lead for the rest of the week. Fortunately, I was not severely over-weighted on that first dive.

I had just had all my gear serviced just before the trip. I take my BC in because I use an Oceanic Air 2, and since I had never had this issue before, it never occurred to me to check that the dump valve was stuck open. But lesson learned, I will check it from now on.

So just from my own experience, I would have to agree that the buddy in the OP was rather over-weighted. I know @jejton has said that his buddy has quite a bit of experience, and I'm glad he was able to survive the incident without panicking. But like others, I think he needs to re-evaluate his weighting.

You do know that you don’t really need any BCD when diving only skin (no suit, only your own skin or a covering for sun protection but without any buoyancy)?

SeaRat

 

[Catito]

It appears your buddy is carrying too much lead for single tank recreational diving. Here is some great advice on how to correct that from @Eric Sedletzky in post #79

Messed up and ascended like a missile

Link is broken…