tkmcdon
Registered
I am relatively new to diving and had a question for the experts. What would I do if my bc fails (gets a hole in it) at 100 feet and my tank is full of air? Thanks! 
Dive Question
- Thread starter tkmcdon
- Start date
Please register or login
Welcome to ScubaBoard, the world's largest scuba diving community. Registration is not required to read the forums, but we encourage you to join. Joining has its benefits and enables you to participate in the discussions.
Benefits of registering include
- Ability to post and comment on topics and discussions.
- A Free photo gallery to share your dive photos with the world.
- You can make this box go away
captain
Contributor
Depends on your equipment configuration and weighting. If you are not using a thick wet suit and are properly weighted with a AL80 tank you should have no problem swimming up. I dive to 100 feet with no BC and a 3 mil wet suit with no problem.
There are a few options as I see them and I assuming your diving wet. First if your properly weighted it shouldn't be much of a problem.
How big is the hole? A small hole and you can still add air. It may leak out slowly but you can get yourself to the surface safely.
Do you dive with a life bag or safety sausage. You can use it for lift. Now you need to be careful because venting air from one is not as easy as a BC and you can get an out of control accent easy. Here's a tip I learned in my deco class. Fill the lift bag until you neutrally buoyant. Then punch a hole in it where the air ends. This way it will vent automatically.
Are you caring weights you can dump. Again be very careful don't just dump them all.
Is there an anchor line. Use it. No anchor line. Have a reel. Shoot a bag and tie off to something on the bottom. Beach dive just work your way up the beach.
There's no one answer. You need to look at your dive gear, the dive site, conditions many things can play a role.
How big is the hole? A small hole and you can still add air. It may leak out slowly but you can get yourself to the surface safely.
Do you dive with a life bag or safety sausage. You can use it for lift. Now you need to be careful because venting air from one is not as easy as a BC and you can get an out of control accent easy. Here's a tip I learned in my deco class. Fill the lift bag until you neutrally buoyant. Then punch a hole in it where the air ends. This way it will vent automatically.
Are you caring weights you can dump. Again be very careful don't just dump them all.
Is there an anchor line. Use it. No anchor line. Have a reel. Shoot a bag and tie off to something on the bottom. Beach dive just work your way up the beach.
There's no one answer. You need to look at your dive gear, the dive site, conditions many things can play a role.
- Messages
- 1,938
- Reaction score
- 168
- # of dives
- 500 - 999
First, the likelihood of this happening in an open water environment with well maintained equipment that is examined for problems prior to diving is insignificantly small (if you're doing penetration dives in places like wrecks where a sharp edge might snag your gear, that is a different story).
Second, if you stay calm, breath, and think through your problem, it's not that big of a deal.
Configure your weights so that you can drop some, but not all, of you ballast, so that you can have a controlled ascent. If you did a proper buoyancy check, your BC is just off-setting suit compression plus the buoyancy of your tank when nearly empty (around 5 pounds or so). So, just drop about 5 pounds of weight.
Having done that, swim up and drop the remainder of your weight at the surface.
Second, if you stay calm, breath, and think through your problem, it's not that big of a deal.
Configure your weights so that you can drop some, but not all, of you ballast, so that you can have a controlled ascent. If you did a proper buoyancy check, your BC is just off-setting suit compression plus the buoyancy of your tank when nearly empty (around 5 pounds or so). So, just drop about 5 pounds of weight.
Having done that, swim up and drop the remainder of your weight at the surface.
This is one of the things to think about when you put your gear together.
If you are diving in warm water, with a thin exposure suit, and are properly weighted, you are at most 10 lbs negative at the beginning of the dive (weight of gas in an HP130). Most people can swim up 10 lbs, and you drop your weights AT THE SURFACE to remain buoyant.
If you are diving in colder water with thick exposure protection, you can add the loss of quite a bit of buoyancy from your neoprene to that 10 lbs. People I know looked at the loss of buoyancy from a 7 mil wetsuit and determined it to be about 20 lbs at 100 feet -- so now you're 30 pounds negative, and not many of us can swim that up. But, if you drop weights at that point, you absolutely will not be able to control your ascent once your suit begins to reexpand. So it's a good idea to carry some kind of redundant buoyancy -- or even better, not to dive deep in cold water in a wetsuit!
It is important to remember that, if your BC has a hole in it that's big enough to cause problems, there is still probably some orientation you can get in that makes that hole the lowest point of the BC, and the rest will hold air. (If the hole's in the left side, dive right side high, for example.) Worse than a hole is something like having the corrugated hose fail at the elbow, which is one of the reasons I don't like pull dumps.
This is a good question to ask and think about -- good on you for asking it.
If you are diving in warm water, with a thin exposure suit, and are properly weighted, you are at most 10 lbs negative at the beginning of the dive (weight of gas in an HP130). Most people can swim up 10 lbs, and you drop your weights AT THE SURFACE to remain buoyant.
If you are diving in colder water with thick exposure protection, you can add the loss of quite a bit of buoyancy from your neoprene to that 10 lbs. People I know looked at the loss of buoyancy from a 7 mil wetsuit and determined it to be about 20 lbs at 100 feet -- so now you're 30 pounds negative, and not many of us can swim that up. But, if you drop weights at that point, you absolutely will not be able to control your ascent once your suit begins to reexpand. So it's a good idea to carry some kind of redundant buoyancy -- or even better, not to dive deep in cold water in a wetsuit!
It is important to remember that, if your BC has a hole in it that's big enough to cause problems, there is still probably some orientation you can get in that makes that hole the lowest point of the BC, and the rest will hold air. (If the hole's in the left side, dive right side high, for example.) Worse than a hole is something like having the corrugated hose fail at the elbow, which is one of the reasons I don't like pull dumps.
This is a good question to ask and think about -- good on you for asking it.
Your best course of action would be a controled ascent in contact with your buddy. If that isn't an option, Hopefully you wouldn't be so overweighted that you wouldn't be able too swim your rig to the surface in a controled manner. If needed, you may have to drop some of your weights, but only do so if you can not fin your way up. You want to be in control of your ascent and if you drop your weights first you may be to buoyant and find yourself in a runaway ascent. When you reach the surface, If you didn't drop your weights now would be a good time to do that! If you can't remain buoyant at the surface you may also have to ditch the BC. If your are in a wetsuit that should help with your buoancy.
Last edited:
Depends on the situation. Are you overweighted? How thick is your wetsuit? Are you wearing a dry suit? Lots of factors to consider....
In most situations, I'd ignore it and fix or replace the BC after the dive. If I was wearing a dry suit, I'd use the dry suit for buoyancy. That's not something I'd normally recommend, but if the BC isn't holding air, it's a nice back up.
In the worse possible case, you are too over weighted to swim up. I would suggest putting the hole down to maintain neutral buoyancy on your ascent. This will probably mean you're ascending in a different attitude than normal (head down for example). Stay with your buddy as you may get some assistance from him. If you need to, ditch your lead, although I'd try not to ditch my lead until I was at the surface to prevent a rapid ascent. If you're diving from a moored/anchored boat, you can climb the anchor line. The important thing to remember is you have plenty of air, take your time and think about your options. If you have plenty of air, you have time to solve your problems.
In most situations, I'd ignore it and fix or replace the BC after the dive. If I was wearing a dry suit, I'd use the dry suit for buoyancy. That's not something I'd normally recommend, but if the BC isn't holding air, it's a nice back up.
In the worse possible case, you are too over weighted to swim up. I would suggest putting the hole down to maintain neutral buoyancy on your ascent. This will probably mean you're ascending in a different attitude than normal (head down for example). Stay with your buddy as you may get some assistance from him. If you need to, ditch your lead, although I'd try not to ditch my lead until I was at the surface to prevent a rapid ascent. If you're diving from a moored/anchored boat, you can climb the anchor line. The important thing to remember is you have plenty of air, take your time and think about your options. If you have plenty of air, you have time to solve your problems.
Like others have said, it is very likely that your BC will still hold a certain level of air, most likely enough to get your ascent underway.
Diving deep, in cold water in a wetsuit is not that big a deal as long as you bring some added redundancy like a small lift bag or SMB and a spool.
Diving deep, in cold water in a wetsuit is not that big a deal as long as you bring some added redundancy like a small lift bag or SMB and a spool.
h2odragon1
Contributor
My wife's BC 'exploded' a few years ago. We had finished our dive, and to maintain + buoyancy at the surface, we inflated our BC's. Hers ended up as a bubble maker, and she started to sink. I grabbed her and took her weights off and headed a few yards to a ladder and she climbed out safely.
Not as stressful as 100fsw, but could have had disastrous results.
KEEP YOUR BUDDY NEARBY!!!
Not as stressful as 100fsw, but could have had disastrous results.
KEEP YOUR BUDDY NEARBY!!!
Similar threads
