Diver death - So Cal?

[hermosadive]

If you feel you are going to go "ballistic" trying to disconnect your LP inflator hose, it's obviously a situation that needs practice so you're more comfortable with it. If you chose not to disconnect the hose, what would you do if your deflator didn't dump fast enough? Are you still going to have time to then try and disconnect without going "ballistic"? :11:

Personally, if I'm in the 30'+ range I'm going to try and stop the BC from continuing to inflate, this way I can still do a safety stop and the situation is no longer life threating. Anything less than that I would probably go for the deflator. Good luck and try not to go ballisctic.

Roland

 

[mccabejc]

I think the problem is this: if the inflator button gets stuck open, your BC fills FULL in a couple seconds. WHAM !!! A few seconds later you start ascending. FAST. So from my perspective the FIRST thing you need to do is stop your ascent. You do that by yanking on any dump valve that dumps faster than the inflator inflates. If you don't, you are going ballistic. No choice. All in a matter of seconds. Unless I'm missing something. I spent an hour in the pool the other day, trying all kinds of combinations, and if I dumped with a valve which didn't dump as fast as the inflator inflated, the BC stayed full and I went up very quickly.

Once you have your ascent halted, then you can start working on disconnecting the hose. If you don't disconnect your hose at this point, you will be filling and dumping at the same time and your air supply will drop quickly.

But from my perspective, when the inflator valve sticks, priority #1 is to stop your ascent. Disconnecting your inflator hose is not going to do that, because by the time you realize what's happened, the BC is fully inflated and you're going up (assuming worst case that if fails fully open). Even if you disconnect your inflator hose right away, the BC is still full. You have to dump it anyway, so why not dump first, then work on disconnecting the hose.

Anyway, I've got it down to where I can halt my ascent to less than 5 feet AND disconnect the hose in less than 10 seconds. And I'm going to keep working on that skill in the pool regularly with all the other skills. It's a good thing.

 

[MikeFerrara]

I think the problem is this: if the inflator button gets stuck open, your BC fills FULL in a couple seconds. WHAM !!! A few seconds later you start ascending. FAST. So from my perspective the FIRST thing you need to do is stop your ascent. You do that by yanking on any dump valve that dumps faster than the inflator inflates. If you don't, you are going ballistic. No choice. All in a matter of seconds. Unless I'm missing something. I spent an hour in the pool the other day, trying all kinds of combinations, and if I dumped with a valve which didn't dump as fast as the inflator inflated, the BC stayed full and I went up very quickly.

In my experience, it usually doesn't happen that way. Most often a leaky inflator is just that and it usually isn't full open and blasting air into the air cell. I won't say it never happens but it's not what I've seen most often.

Once you have your ascent halted, then you can start working on disconnecting the hose. If you don't disconnect your hose at this point, you will be filling and dumping at the same time and your air supply will drop quickly.

But from my perspective, when the inflator valve sticks, priority #1 is to stop your ascent. Disconnecting your inflator hose is not going to do that, because by the time you realize what's happened, the BC is fully inflated and you're going up (assuming worst case that if fails fully open). Even if you disconnect your inflator hose right away, the BC is still full. You have to dump it anyway, so why not dump first, then work on disconnecting the hose.

Anyway, I've got it down to where I can halt my ascent to less than 5 feet AND disconnect the hose in less than 10 seconds. And I'm going to keep working on that skill in the pool regularly with all the other skills. It's a good thing.

Plain and simple...if you dump and disconnect at the same time the hose shopuld be disconnected in about 2 seconds. Certainly WAY less than 10.

Dump and disconnect AT THE SAME TIME. It's all one motion...hit the inflator and pop the hose.

There isn't any reason to be inventing things here or doing convoluted things like messing with right side shoulder dumps. That just gives you more things to do and you only have 2 hands. If it's taking to long to pop the hose then practice it. I don't know why instructors aren't teaching it.

 

[mccabejc]

Mike, I hear ya, it's just that when I was experimenting in the pool I found that when you hit the "deflator" (oral inflator) valve the BC doesn't deflate because the air coming in is more than the air going out. The net is that you keep ascending, quickly. And if you, for some reason, fumble at disconnecting the hose (which I did on occasion), you can ascend quite a distance before you get the deed done.

Hitting the right shoulder dump stops you right away, so you can gather your thoughts and aren't rushed to do the disconnection. At least in my case. Maybe I'll hop in the pool again today and see if I can get both methods down. Thanks.

 

[scubacalifornia]

Kevin,
We did it in the pool only. As was pointed out, its not required in the ocean. I did a quick scan of the threads so it may have already been mentioned...you can also invert, and kick down hard to slow an ascent (or flare) while you are disconnecting and assuming you have dump valves on the bottom, dumping air. Perhaps that something we should practice in an upcoming dive?

Well, I stand corrected. In fact it is in my PADI book on page 117, just not in the index. And now that instructor Otter has triggered my fading memory (by the way Craig, I didn't realize you were the infamous Otter), it's come back to me. I was already thinking about taking a dive to practice safety skills, since I haven't used them since OW certification. Let me know if you might be interested in putting a practice session together and I'll round up a couple of others to join us (like Marshall for starters).
Kevin

 

[Otter]

Well, I stand corrected. In fact it is in my PADI book on page 117, just not in the index. And now that instructor Otter has triggered my fading memory (by the way Craig, I didn't realize you were the infamous Otter), it's come back to me. I was already thinking about taking a dive to practice safety skills, since I haven't used them since OW certification. Let me know if you might be interested in putting a practice session together and I'll round up a couple of others to join us (like Marshall for starters).
Kevin

Sounds like a good idea. I'll connect with you offline.

 

[drbill]

Fortunately they hadn't invented true BCD's when I started diving. When I first used one 28 years later, I thought they were useless. As I've posted elsewhere, the d*mned thing kept autoinflating. My dive buddy had no answer as to what to do. I said I'd just disconnect it and dive w/out the BCD. She said "You can do that?" For years!

Mine is deflated most of the time I'm diving (since I'm usually mucking around on the bottom videotaping). Only inflate it when I'm doing midwater stuff.

Doc

 

[costasd]

I just got certified in June and did not, I repeat did not, do this drill in my open water PADI course.

I just read the most recent Diver Training magazine this weekend and it mentioned this as a skill to practice, and I had no clue what they were talking about. Now I hear someone died because of a rapid ascent...The scary thing to me is that I was sold a BCD by a local dive shop (the same one where I got certified) that had a recalled inflator hose on it (Sherwood AVID, the hose had a grey button - which was recalled because it got stuck - see link below). I only discovered something was wrong with it when my instructor told me to get it checked out because air was leaking from the inflator button.

With the combination of being sold a recalled BCD and not being trained on what seems like a very important skill, I think I dodged a potentially fatal bullet.

http://www.sherwoodscuba.com/bc_safety_recall.html.

 

[SoCalAJ]

Practicing disconnecting your BCD inflator hose is part of your confined water session for Padi. It is not praciticed in the ocean but is is a required in the pool, in session number two. Here the thing,,,most stuck bcd inflators hose can be found in the predive safety check. I find that most divers develop a bad habit of not doing that check....Do it everytime and and the chance of equipment related problems drops.. Also most stuck inflator hose are caused by not taking proper care of equipment,, it does not happend for no apparent reason...