Failed BCD pressure relief valve

[Gen San Chris]

Buoyancy Check, Buoyancy Check, Buoyancy Check, thats the name of the game! All divers, even new ones should have about the correct amount of weights on and if so they should be able to stay at the surface even with a dead BCD! If not then you have too much weight!

 

[Hallmac]

I'm sure there is a level of risk in any manuver like this, With regards to removing the BCD, could/should you put it back on over your shoulders after turning it upside down?

Yes, that would give you the most control over the unit.

 

[Whatgoesdown]

I'll add my congratulations on not panicking! I think we can be 99% certain that you had too much weight on, that being the case you could have dropped some of your weight until you were able to swim up. If you are having trouble staying on the surface then ditch it all, your instructor will appreciate buoyancy checks a lot more once he/she has had to recover 30lb from the silt. I tell my students that the dive is not over until you are positively buoyant on the surface or on the boat/shore.
The instructor should also have made it clear that buddys stay together and help each other, even on training dives. If the diver who panicked was your buddy we might excuse this if not,.... I would be interested to know whether you inflated the BC before the dive until the OPV opened. Again, I tell my students, if it's your own gear you may not want to stress the bladder but if it's rental gear you don't know where it's been or how it's been cared for. Inflate the BC all the way and then also manually check all of the valves by tugging the string. I think you did the right thing and don't take any of this as a criticism of what you did, I would be asking your instuructor to clarify a few things before the next dive though.

 

[Hetland]

Taking off my BC would be a LAST resort situation for me. Too many things can go wrong, and you are terminally forked if you let go of a buoyant system at depth. In this case it's also totally unnecessary.

You can prevent this situation by carrying the proper amount of lead for your gear and your dive (different weight is needed for different wetsuits, and for salt vs. fresh water. different weight is also needed depending on shallow vs. deep dive profiles) Learn how to determine the proper weight for yourself, so that you don't have to depend on others to make that decision for you.

If you can, find a way to practice your buoyancy skills. A 15' pool is works great. Buoyancy is a skill that is seldom developed in OW training programs, but is vitally important to good diving.

You did well keeping your head and thinking through the problem.

 

[dumpsterDiver]

Taking off my BC would be a LAST resort situation for me. Too many things can go wrong, and you are terminally forked if you let go of a buoyant system at depth. In this case it's also totally unnecessary.

You can prevent this situation by carrying the proper amount of lead for your gear and your dive (different weight is needed for different wetsuits, and for salt vs. fresh water. different weight is also needed depending on shallow vs. deep dive profiles) Learn how to determine the proper weight for yourself, so that you don't have to depend on others to make that decision for you.

If you can, find a way to practice your buoyancy skills. A 15' pool is works great. Buoyancy is a skill that is seldom developed in OW training programs, but is vitally important to good diving.

You did well keeping your head and thinking through the problem.

Did you read the original post? This is not about proper weighting, it is about dealing with complete failure of the BC to hold air due to an over pressure relief valve failure.

 

[hammerhead man]

First I want to compliment you for keeping your cool, thinking about your situation, and working out a solution. That is a skill that will serve you well throughout the time you are diving. Great job!!
I also agree with those that stated you were over weighted. As a new diver, I also used way too much weight. When I dive now I put very little air in my BC and have no difficulty going down or rising to the surface without putting any air in my BC. The mentality I had as a new diver was I would rather be over weighted to ensure I got down and then adjusted my BC throughout the dive if I needed to; however, that mentality caused me to use air needlessly and I was always struggling to keep buoyant. This resulted in making my dives short (30-40 minutes). The longer I dived, it became apparent to me that buoyancy is a critical skill to ensure that I don't damage the reef, feel more relaxed during the dive, and extend my down time (I know can stay down and hour to an hour and a half). I would suggest that you work with your dive instructor to find the weight you need to achieve peak buoyancy.

Regards,

Bill

 

[TGreene]

The very first thing that came to my mind is something that has not been mentioned...

What about removing the BC and opening the valve to see if it's a simple matter of reseating the spring or pressure plate..?

If it is a broken spring, then I would imagine that a small object of some sort (rock) could be placed between the cap and the pressure plate to force it shut. Once you've regained the capability to adequately hold air, you can obviously vent in the normal manner.

-Tim

 

[Hetland]

Did you read the original post? This is not about proper weighting, it is about dealing with complete failure of the BC to hold air due to an over pressure relief valve failure.

Yes, I read the original post. The OP wanted advice on the incident. My advice was:

If he had been properly weighted*, then the failure of the valve would have been mitigated, in that he would have been able to ascend by swimming, thus offering him an additional solution that was not available because he was overweighted. It's shortsighted to ignore a critical detail of the incident (being overweighted), and focus solely on the valve failure.

* This is not meant to be critical towards the OP, who performed well, especially as a student.

 

[d_lafleur]

To the OP, I would work on my bouyancy setup first and foremost. There is no need to add tasks when you havent got one of the fundamental steps down.

After being able to breath, being able to move freely in the water is a high priority.

For the record, I learned to dive with 18lbs. and now dive with 12lbs. I havent changed anything but the weight I carry and my technique. My diving profiles are much more exciting, rewarding, longer, etc. you get the picture. I use less effort and air.

My advanced training dives, involved low vis, night, deep, and navigation, these tasks have the ability to overload your capabilities alone without the added distraction of bouyancy issues.

 

[dumpsterDiver]

Yes, I read the original post. The OP wanted advice on the incident. My advice was:

If he had been properly weighted*, then the failure of the valve would have been mitigated, in that he would have been able to ascend by swimming, thus offering him an additional solution that was not available because he was overweighted. It's shortsighted to ignore a critical detail of the incident (being overweighted), and focus solely on the valve failure.

* This is not meant to be critical towards the OP, who performed well, especially as a student.

You can not conclude that the diver was overweighted simply because he was wearing 30 lbs of lead. When I was much thinner, I used to wear 26 lbs of lead for scuba and 24 for freediving (in the same suit) for cold water. I was NOT overweighed.


A 7mm suit, fully compressed can loose a lot of bouyancy and it is quite possible that a diver can not simply swim themselves up from the bottom with a full tank and a total BC failure and without ditching lead, even when weighted prefectly.

This is an important safety issue because there are a number of ways for a BC to fail, includiing spring failure, valves comming loose and hoses falling off and also major rip in the bc hose itself.