Drowning on the surface

[FinnMom]

In Norway, the Norwegian Diving Association will refund you the cost of your weights if you're a member of a club associated with them. You only have to write a report of the incident and submit a receipt for your new weights, and the diving must have happened in one of the Nordic countries, following the safety guidelines of your club.

Ditto for the Finnish Diving Association. Write a report of an incident that made you drop or loose your weight belt and the new weight belt and weights are free.

 

[brnt999]

I started diving this past January and completed 25 dives. I dove in Thailand and Mexico. On many of my dives with differant operators I was "warned" if I lose my weights I pay for them. This seems like a strange warning to give to relatively new divers. It may make them hesitate dropping their weights.

 

[dumpsterDiver]

It can be unnerving to be on the surface in heavy chop. I don't think a snorkel makes things much better, since the water will break over the snorkel, too, if the chop is rough. If you are calm, it's not too difficult to time your breathing so that you don't inhale when you have your face in the water, but if you are frightened by the conditions, you may not be able to do this. And if you are trying to do a shore exit in rough water and get rolled, it's a VERY unpleasant experience.

In rough or challenging conditions, keeping the scuba regulator in your mouth at the surface is generally desirable. A big deal is when you are exiting the water onto a diesel exhaust boat. With a mask on to remove your ability to smell, you can easily inhale several very strong breaths of diesel contaminated exhaust and you don't know this until you taste it and by then you will be sick (and puking) within a minute or so.

Keeping it in your mouth while climbing out also, prevents it from being tangled on the ladder on exit. I have seen several instances where people come up the ladder with the reg out and they just rip the (plastic) second stage right off the hose. And of course the potential for falling back into the water on the climb is another reason to keep it in your mouth.

When I was taught to dive (40 yrs ago) my peers expected you to switch to a snorkel on the surface because only pussies need to suck on a tank at the surface, plus they had been taught with j-valves and no pressure gauges, so the tank was pretty empty on the surface anyway. Now I generally keep it in, while waiting for a pick up, because I am diving nitrox and figure it helps with the off gassing.

Another exception, when diving in very cold water and swimming in on the surface, I much prefer to breath warmer, moist atmospheric air from my snorkel than chilled, dry air from the tank. I swear I warm up faster when using a snorkel.

However, all that being said.... A snorkel at the surface in rough sea conditions is a tremendous advantage (if you are out of air or very low on air and want to save it for maybe ducking down to 60 feet if a ship tries to run you over). I feel that if a person finds using a snorkel more difficult than breathing from the mouth in rough water.. they simply do NOT know how to use a snorkel properly and how to control their airway effectively.

We sometimes freedive in rough conditions, with whitecaps crashing over our heads. It is actually surprising how easy it is to use a snorkel in these conditions, IF you know how to do it. I honestly believe that for a scuba diver to be safe, they should be able to survive with an inflated BC and breathing through a snorkel for a long, long time, in most any reasonable sea state.

 

[divingpyrate]

As a new diver I can tell you I was not prepared for a BCD failure at the surface
My nut that secures the inflator tube to the bladder at the shoulder came loose
I could not inflate it using air or the manual method. I removed my reg to try the manual method and that is when I had trouble.
Since then the reg does not come out until I am back in the boat. If I must talk with someone it stays in my hand.
Been actually practicing waiting on the boat just slightly under the surface to get comfortable with it when the boat is a ways off

Sent from my A500 using Tapatalk 2

 

[Hatul]

The other thing I wanted to throw out there, and this was an actual incident in San Diego California where a buddy team was doing a beach dive. The surf came up while they were doing their dive so getting back in was tricky.
They got separated in the surf zone because of the turbid water. One buddy made it to the beach unscathed and the other buddy disappeared less than 50 feet from shore in 10 feet of water.
When they found the diver they had discovered that his LP inflator had broken off at the BC letting all the air out. It was also determined that he was wearing a rediculous amount of weight so when the hose broke off he dropped like a rock.
Combined with the surf and turmoil he panicked, couldn't find his weights to dump, couldn't find a reg to breath off, and drowned.

It's a good idea to keep one reg on a bungee necklace so you're never in a situation where you're not close to your air supply. Those who use a long hose already do that, but those that don't, it's easy to keep the primary reg on a necklace.

Another thing, if the surf is heavy you can always crawl out on your fours, mask and reg in place. I like to keep the BC deflated to get max grip on the bottom. It does not look good and can be disorienting with no viz, but works. Those who come out with BC fully inflated can get lifted up like a cork and pummeled by the wave energy at the surface.

 

[flots am]

Keeping it in your mouth while climbing out also, prevents it from being tangled on the ladder on exit.

It also prevents having all your front teeth knocked out by a ladder rung, or ending up disoriented, unable to breathe, with your head underwater if a wave knocks the boat in an unexpected direction.

I leave my reg in until I'm on the boat, well away from the ladder.

flots.

 

[bowlofpetunias]

I have to confess I don't use a snorkel. I make sure I have enough gas that I can keep my reg in until I am fully out of the water. Shore diving that means fins off and clear of the water with no chance of slipping or getting accidentally submerged. The reg comes out long enough to orally inflate on the surface unless things have blown up then I use the power inflate. Boat dives I come up the ladder with reg in my mouth. I can talk later.. I can't breathe underwater so I just don't take any chances