Boarding an RIB

[badger70]

It sounds like the standard procedure is to remove your weight belt and then BC and clip them off or hand them up.. However, I have a DUI weight and trim weight harness. Its worn under my BC. Therefore to take it off I need to remove my BC. This would mean clipping the BC off then removing the harness while holding onto it the inflated BC so I don't sink. (The other option is to pull the release handles but rethreading them is a pain.) Any suggestions?

 

[Thalassamania]

Put a ring on the harness. Clip off your BC. Clip off your harness. Remove your BC. Remove your harness. Enter the boat.

 

[Chuck Tribolet]

It sounds like the standard procedure is to remove your weight belt and then BC and clip them off or hand them up.. However, I have a DUI weight and trim weight harness. Its worn under my BC. Therefore to take it off I need to remove my BC. This would mean clipping the BC off then removing the harness while holding onto it the inflated BC so I don't sink. (The other option is to pull the release handles but rethreading them is a pain.) Any suggestions?

If your BC is negative when empty at the end of the dive (and IMHO it should be),
you can take off your BC first and still be positive with your weight belt on. Why should
your BC be negative empty at the end of the dive? So you can take it off first and
be positive.

BTW, I don't clip off the BC before taking it off -- one more entanglement hazard. I
take it off, then clip it off to a tag line. My boat has a ladder so I don't need to take my
weight belt off before I get in.

 

[Thalassamania]

If your BC is negative when empty at the end of the dive (and IMHO it should be),
you can take off your BC first and still be positive with your weight belt on. Why should
your BC be negative empty at the end of the dive? So you can take it off first and
be positive.

BTW, I don't clip off the BC before taking it off -- one more entanglement hazard. I
take it off, then clip it off to a tag line. My boat has a ladder so I don't need to take my
weight belt off before I get in.

Your boat also is not a RIB.

 

[Cacia]

1) Facing the hull, two hands on the lines, kick hard and push yourself up, flop into the boat head-first with kind of a half roll.

I leave fins on and it boosts my kick.

Most adults can hoist their weight up as though you are getting out of the deep end of the pool. I seriously have a problem with people that cannot do that...

There are always people that just look at you like "get the crane" or like it is your fault they cannot get out.

It is 90% technique, not brute strength...I am just saying that if you go out on a boat like that...please act like you at least WANT to help yourself.

Guess you might say it's a pet peeve.

The other thing I am crabby about is people who want me to lift their integrated 5o pound bcd's up. I wear a weight belt cause I cannot handle my own gear with the weight....So having integrated on gear you take off in the water just kills my back.

 

[TSandM]

Catherine, watch your language, please. My RIB reboarding technique is to hand up weight belt, doff gear, and then attempt the kick up method, which leaves me lying on my chest on the pontoon, where somebody who has already boarded the boat can grab me by the back or butt and drag me the rest of the way in. It may be a technique problem for sure, but I have never been able to get back in the boat without assistance.

I'm intrigued with Thal's second method, though -- Have to try it!

 

[Nemrod]

"Catherine, watch your language, please." (TSandM)

Concerning what?

A giant scissor kick combined with a quick pull from the arms, kind of like a pushup, will usually get most people in the boat. If they are wearing doubles, heavy weight integrated systems or other such things then they will probably need a helpful boost. That, or I guess they get to swim to shore--lol. Actually, taking the gear off and clipping to the down line or tag line really works well unless the seas are bad. N

 

[miketsp]

..snip..
then throw your weights in the boat.
..snip..

You have to be joking. :no
My weights (I dive a 7mm semi dry) would do an awful lot of damage if they landed on anything, always assuming I could actually throw them and not just struggle to lift them and slide them over the tube.

 

[Cacia]

Catherine, watch your language, please. My RIB reboarding technique is to hand up weight belt, doff gear, and then attempt the kick up method, which leaves me lying on my chest on the pontoon, where somebody who has already boarded the boat can grab me by the back or butt and drag me the rest of the way in. It may be a technique problem for sure, but I have never been able to get back in the boat without assistance.

I'm intrigued with Thal's second method, though -- Have to try it!

I am sure you try and will have it dialed in soon. My first attempt at getting on our boat was what JB called "a goat roap"...long hose, cluster-mess. And then I started bellowing to Rock Jock "HELP ME". He has nice kayak technique and showed me how to organize myself.

Those kayak divers have my respect.

We don't have a clip off line set up yet we inflate the bc and let some lucky bystander pull it up.

 

[Thalassamania]

I'm intrigued with Thal's second method, though -- Have to try it!

If you're refering to the sort of back-flip thing I posted a while back, do try it. It is easier, for most folks (but I guess that upperbody strenght and center of gravity has something to do with it) than it sounds and if you can do it ... you really look like a pro.<G> Acutally my favorite way to get back in the boat was "Nick." Nick was a workstudy student who ditched a football scholarship to join the dive program. He was my workstudy student for a couple of years and I took him on several cruises. We called him, "The Crane."<G>