Preamble:
I hadnt dived for 5 ½ months due to a back injury so this was to be my first time in the water. Although I learnt to dive in 2007 Id only been on one vacation and my AoW course up to Jan last year (22 dives total) from Jan to Aug I clocked up a further 76 dives.
My equipment had all been serviced prior to the dive including having my Apex wing inspected and the O rings in the inflator changed.
Prior to the dive trip I went in the pool with all the gear for an hour to test both regs the inflator and to generally acquaint myself with my kit and do some basic skill refresher. On exit from the pool I went to inflate my wing so I could then blow any water out and the button had resistance I pressed a couple of times and it worked, tested a few more times and all was fine.
On the dive itself I was wearing my new 7mm, Id checked my logbook from my weighting the year before where I was in a 5/7 and a 4mm shorty and decided that 6lbs would be about right.
Incident:
On jumping in everything was fine although I was floaty at the surface and had to fin down. Even at 6m I had no air in the wing with a full tank (15l thin steel @ 230bar HP100?) but would deal with it.
As we descended further I had problems with my buoyancy I wondered if it was my suit compressing (having heard that a 7mm can give a big buoyancy swing) and added air as usual. I was still heavy and was working hard to remain at depth. Thus far I was not having a great dive I wasnt settling into it and was working hard to stay at depth despite adding air.
At 15mins my buddy stopped me and wanted to check all was good and whether I wanted to go up of course I said no. As we swam a bit further I realised that I wasnt adding any air to my wing (approx. 12m) which my buddy saw I stopped finning and started to sink so started to swim the rig up. I was obviously trying to add air when I heard a freeflow and started to head for the surface putting my rear upwards I was venting. My first reaction was to stop myself hurtling up the second was to grab onto the coral wall. It was then I figured it out, realised that my inflator had stuck so managed to disconnect my LP inflator hose.
From there we had a slow ascent to the surface doing a stop with me holding my buddy before surfacing and reconnecting my inflator.
Back on the boat the inflator button was still stuck down however we had a spare valve in the boat spares, changed it and dived the rest of the two days although I changed to my old 5/7mm as wasnt confident in the buoyancy of my new suit and wanted a couple of dives to get myself sorted again.
Post Dive analysis:
The BCD and valve went back to the LDS as soon as we got back the head of the Shop who I respect entirely took the old valve apart immediately in front of me. All components including the O rig were fine with no wear what so ever and no damage to the O ring. The metal inflator button had no signs of scoring from dirt for foreign objects. Even careful magnifying inspection showed up nothing. The valve was kept to return to Apex but thus is a No fault found (at the end of the dive Id returned the replacement valve to the kit of spares) and so a new valve was fitted and tested.
Post dive in the pool I did a complete weight check on my 7mm and found that the 6lbs was good my old suit was closer fitting so its likely my being light was a combination of trapped air in the wetsuit and it being the first dive for a while so not being as chilled as normal (thus greater lung volume = more buoyancy)
The BCD was probably inflating a little but not as much as I imagined (muscle memory when pressing the button) Normally inflation is by automatic reflex, and although it should be obvious by hearing the noise of air when operating the LPI perhaps its something I thought I heard rather than did.
Clearly I wrongly identified a buoyancy issue in that I diagnosed the problem to be under-weighting and buoyancy shifts in my wet-suit perhaps better to suggest I talked myself into deciding what the issue was rather than assessing properly.
Certainly when things went a bit wrong I didn't calmly react and my SAC rate went up as memory serves I was dumping air like crazy to stop myself heading to the surface although from 20m. There are lots of discussions about practice and staying calm (and neutral) remaining neutral wasn't an option I cant say I was calm but I certainly wasn't in a panic.
If this hadn't been my first dive for 5 months then I would have had my buoyancy dialed in so would have found the problem earlier.
The rest of the 5 dives were great and happened without incident by dives 4 & 5 I was back to hovering taking photos without thought and enjoying the diving even if it was a bit chilly in the water!
This has been posted for information and of course constructive comments to help me or others are welcome
I hadnt dived for 5 ½ months due to a back injury so this was to be my first time in the water. Although I learnt to dive in 2007 Id only been on one vacation and my AoW course up to Jan last year (22 dives total) from Jan to Aug I clocked up a further 76 dives.
My equipment had all been serviced prior to the dive including having my Apex wing inspected and the O rings in the inflator changed.
Prior to the dive trip I went in the pool with all the gear for an hour to test both regs the inflator and to generally acquaint myself with my kit and do some basic skill refresher. On exit from the pool I went to inflate my wing so I could then blow any water out and the button had resistance I pressed a couple of times and it worked, tested a few more times and all was fine.
On the dive itself I was wearing my new 7mm, Id checked my logbook from my weighting the year before where I was in a 5/7 and a 4mm shorty and decided that 6lbs would be about right.
Incident:
On jumping in everything was fine although I was floaty at the surface and had to fin down. Even at 6m I had no air in the wing with a full tank (15l thin steel @ 230bar HP100?) but would deal with it.
As we descended further I had problems with my buoyancy I wondered if it was my suit compressing (having heard that a 7mm can give a big buoyancy swing) and added air as usual. I was still heavy and was working hard to remain at depth. Thus far I was not having a great dive I wasnt settling into it and was working hard to stay at depth despite adding air.
At 15mins my buddy stopped me and wanted to check all was good and whether I wanted to go up of course I said no. As we swam a bit further I realised that I wasnt adding any air to my wing (approx. 12m) which my buddy saw I stopped finning and started to sink so started to swim the rig up. I was obviously trying to add air when I heard a freeflow and started to head for the surface putting my rear upwards I was venting. My first reaction was to stop myself hurtling up the second was to grab onto the coral wall. It was then I figured it out, realised that my inflator had stuck so managed to disconnect my LP inflator hose.
From there we had a slow ascent to the surface doing a stop with me holding my buddy before surfacing and reconnecting my inflator.
Back on the boat the inflator button was still stuck down however we had a spare valve in the boat spares, changed it and dived the rest of the two days although I changed to my old 5/7mm as wasnt confident in the buoyancy of my new suit and wanted a couple of dives to get myself sorted again.
Post Dive analysis:
The BCD and valve went back to the LDS as soon as we got back the head of the Shop who I respect entirely took the old valve apart immediately in front of me. All components including the O rig were fine with no wear what so ever and no damage to the O ring. The metal inflator button had no signs of scoring from dirt for foreign objects. Even careful magnifying inspection showed up nothing. The valve was kept to return to Apex but thus is a No fault found (at the end of the dive Id returned the replacement valve to the kit of spares) and so a new valve was fitted and tested.
Post dive in the pool I did a complete weight check on my 7mm and found that the 6lbs was good my old suit was closer fitting so its likely my being light was a combination of trapped air in the wetsuit and it being the first dive for a while so not being as chilled as normal (thus greater lung volume = more buoyancy)
The BCD was probably inflating a little but not as much as I imagined (muscle memory when pressing the button) Normally inflation is by automatic reflex, and although it should be obvious by hearing the noise of air when operating the LPI perhaps its something I thought I heard rather than did.
Clearly I wrongly identified a buoyancy issue in that I diagnosed the problem to be under-weighting and buoyancy shifts in my wet-suit perhaps better to suggest I talked myself into deciding what the issue was rather than assessing properly.
Certainly when things went a bit wrong I didn't calmly react and my SAC rate went up as memory serves I was dumping air like crazy to stop myself heading to the surface although from 20m. There are lots of discussions about practice and staying calm (and neutral) remaining neutral wasn't an option I cant say I was calm but I certainly wasn't in a panic.
If this hadn't been my first dive for 5 months then I would have had my buoyancy dialed in so would have found the problem earlier.
The rest of the 5 dives were great and happened without incident by dives 4 & 5 I was back to hovering taking photos without thought and enjoying the diving even if it was a bit chilly in the water!
This has been posted for information and of course constructive comments to help me or others are welcome
If your inflator was leaking mildly for a while, it doesn't surprise me at all that you didn't immediately figure it out.
