Diving "Etiquette" and the lack thereof

[Ayisha]

Lee, I had my inflator hose unscrew before at the surface as a new diver, about to start a dive. It was right after the BC came back from a maintenance. Unfortunately, the o-ring fell out from under the cap and I didn't have another one, so I didn't do the dive. The shop told me after to always make sure all the caps are screwed tight on the BC, so it became my habit to check ever since. Of course, it would have been nice if they made sure the cap was screwed on properly after the maintenance! I did find the cap loose at least once after that, but caught it before the dive.

It doesn't take much to be overweighted with a larger steel tank and a wetsuit. If you could control your ascent with presumably 12 lbs, then that is probably a little closer to the weight you need, rather than 24 lbs. You need to be able to swim up your rig, as you found out. You should find your correct weighting and possibly spread your weight out more, particularly with a larger steel tank, not just for trim, but also for ditching smaller weights in case of emergency.

There have been excellent posts about buddy contact and situational awareness, so we don't need to get into that any further.

I'm not sure what to make of the preparing for landing comment. Is that because you could not slow your descent or do you normally land on the bottom? You should be adding air all the way down to control your descent, not just adding air at the bottom. Also of course, you should be making the descent WITH your buddy, not before your buddy and be aware of any issues she is having.

Well, this experience will hopefully make both of you better buddies and be more aware of your equipment and surroundings.

 

[Ayisha]

Duplicate post, sorry. It wasn't showing up for a while...

 

[Cave Diver]

Duplicate post, sorry. It wasn't showing up for a while...

Yeah, your post didnt show up for me either. When I tried to view it, it kept kicking me out. I thought you had me on ignore for a moment.

 

[ScubaSteve]

You cannot see what Cave Diver has typed because you have deemed him unworthy of taking off your ignore list

Yeah Right

 

[Cave Diver]

Yeah Right

 

[Ayisha]

No, not at all, Cave Diver. Your posts seem to always be well thought out and very helpful. I must have had myself on ignore too.

One more thing I'd like to mention, having done lots of drift diving down south and here in Ontario. I've never dove that area, though. It is even more important in a drift dive for buddies to enter the water close together and descend right away and together, in order to stay together. Otherwise, the current typically runs faster at the surface, which carries the person near the surface much further away than the person at depth. The current at depth and near structures is usually slower. If you're not around the same depth at the same time, you will be carried off at different speeds, making it difficult to meet up. This is why it's even more important to stay together and be aware of each other in a drift dive, depending on how fast the current is running.

 

[Cave Diver]

No, not at all, Cave Diver. Your posts seem to always be well thought out and very helpful. I must have had myself on ignore too.

Thanks!

(Quickly running to delete all the "other" posts she hasnt seen.)

 

[DandyDon]

My gear was a 5mm jumpsuit, 5mm high boots, 2mm hood, HP steel tank .. 100 cu in .. 34% EAN, 2 weight bags .. 12 lbs each, back inflation BC.

Weighting can vary between divers so much, depending on height, weight, adipose ratio, bone density, etc - so based on that info alone, I wouldn't save you were over weighted. Altho negative buoyancy of various models varies greatly from this chart comparing Aluminum 80s vs Steel 100s, I have on occasion used the same lead for a 100 on the first dive as I would with an 80 on a second dive - altho I shouldn't really.

Steel tanks

Joy and I were both about 3 feet under the surface. I had my inflator in my left hand and was holding it above my head. I was pressing the discharge button and slightly tugging upwards on the mechanism. While I was discharging air, my corregated inflator hose seperated from the bc as if it had unscrewed. The bc filled with water.

Actually I think it just collapsed releasing air it had in it. Water would not enter in significant quantity, and besides - it would not change your buoyancy anyway.

I knew I had a problem but was not aware of precisely what had happened. My decent was at an appropriate rate so I prepared for landing.

What concerned some of us is that you and Joy separated and she lost track of you. She said she likes to think of herself as an independent (solo) diver even tho she is new to the sport.

When on the bottom, a diver showed me the end of the detached inflator mechanism. He signaled me that he did not know what to do. He then swam off to catch up with the others.

This was what the original post was about, and we wondered if you signaled OK, or Help, or What? I am speculating that he felt he did his deed in letting you know, did not see any reason to stay, and he had a responsibility to his own buddy even tho yours wasn't there. BCs are implicated as #2 risk of problem with gear failure in diving accidents so it was not a good situation, but then - as long as the diver responds well as you did, this would not need to be serious. BC related accidents generally happen when the diver panics and sinks with weights attached.

My thought process was that my dive was over. My plan was to go to the surface in a controlled manner.

I started swimming the rig to the surface. At twenty feet off the bottom (83 fsw) I noticed that I would soon be over-breathing my reg and blacking out was a possibility.

NOW I think you were overweighted significantly.

I jettisoned my weights. My bouyancy became neutral to slightly positive. I made my assent slowly, conserving my energy.

Both?! All 24#? That's a hell of a big unload, but then you were only slightly positive at depth? I've never done it so I don't know. I did screw up (long story omitted) once long ago and end up on a wreck at 100 ft with no weight in a 3 mil and was slightly buoyant at depth so I took the down line back up slowly. You might have been grossly overweighted? Did your ascent rate increase as you approach 30ft? I don't guess you could do a safety stop?

Addendum: The root cause of the gear failure is under investigation and is currently inconclusive.[/COLOR]

You couldn't tell? It unscrewed, cable tie broke, or popped lose?

BTW, if you have DAN's top coverage, your dive insurance might pay for the pouches and lead.

 

[bowlofpetunias]

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

I enjoyed your postings, so I will respond for Joy. I am the "Lee" in Joy's post.

My gear was a 5mm jumpsuit, 5mm high boots, 2mm hood, HP steel tank .. 100 cu in .. 34% EAN, 2 weight bags .. 12 lbs each, back inflation BC.

Joy and I were both about 3 feet under the surface. I had my inflator in my left hand and was holding it above my head. I was pressing the discharge button and slightly tugging upwards on the mechanism. While I was discharging air, my corregated inflator hose seperated from the bc as if it had unscrewed. The bc filled with water.

I knew I had a problem but was not aware of precisely what had happened. My decent was at an appropriate rate so I prepared for landing. When on the bottom, a diver showed me the end of the detached inflator mechanism. He signaled me that he did not know what to do. He then swam off to catch up with the others.

My thought process was that my dive was over. My plan was to go to the surface in a controlled manner.

I started swimming the rig to the surface. At twenty feet off the bottom (83 fsw) I noticed that I would soon be over-breathing my reg and blacking out was a possibility.

I jettisoned my weights. My bouyancy became neutral to slightly positive. I made my assent slowly, conserving my energy.

Addendum: The root cause of the gear failure is under investigation and is currently inconclusive.

Lee Thanks a lot for the further information :blinking: thanks for giving us a chance to learn from your incident. I couldn't find a thanks button at your post

Interesting comments already... my learning continues

 

[bowlofpetunias]

No, not at all, Cave Diver. Your posts seem to always be well thought out and very helpful. I must have had myself on ignore too.

One more thing I'd like to mention, having done lots of drift diving down south and here in Ontario. I've never dove that area, though. It is even more important in a drift dive for buddies to enter the water close together and descend right away and together, in order to stay together. Otherwise, the current typically runs faster at the surface, which carries the person near the surface much further away than the person at depth. The current at depth and near structures is usually slower. If you're not around the same depth at the same time, you will be carried off at different speeds, making it difficult to meet up. This is why it's even more important to stay together and be aware of each other in a drift dive, depending on how fast the current is running.

temporary hijack

See CD "The voice of Reason"