Failed BCD pressure relief valve

[TGreene]

There are much safer, easier alternatives to that McGyver move, as have already been mentioned. Why take the riskiest move when safer alternatives are available?

Yep, like swimming over to SpongeBob's place and borrowing a spare BC...

-Tim

 

[jeckyll]

Yep, like swimming over to SpongeBob's place and borrowing a spare BC...

-Tim

Tim: You really think that's a valuable contribution to this thread or in anyway helpful to either the original poster, or other people?

 

[AZFinDiver]

OK, I'm a little confused. Here are a few Q's that your answers would really help us be less confused:

1. What agency was this OW class?

2. How much weight did you use in the pool (confined water), on the first dive and were you using all the same equipment in the pool?

3. Was the student who "freaked out" in your confined water training sessions, and if so did this student seem comfortable with all the skills in said confined water training? Same Q with regards to the first OW dive?

4. Were you assigned to buddy teams, and if so did your buddy ever look back after the instructor signaled to ascend?

5. How much air did you have in your tank at the time of the BC failure and how much did you have at the surface?

6. What type of tanks were you using for your confined and both training dives?

7. What are your vital stats; height, weight, age, state of fitness?

8. When you say "they" do you mean it was an instructor team or an instructor and an assistant?

9. When you say you had weight in 6 different pockets, were all these pockets designed to be weight pockets, or were the "front pockets" the non weight designed pockets?

10. Did you have weight in all 6 pockets for confined training and the first OW dive?

1. I am not going to go there.

2. In the pool I had 26lbs on and doing the fin pivots reasonably well, maybe a little heavy. I was also wearing a 3mm wetsuit, no hood and no gloves in the pool. At the lake I had 30lbs, 7mm wetsuit, hood and gloves. The added weight I was told was to compensate for the wetsuit and hood.

3. No they were not so I don't know. The first dive they had issues clearing and seemed uncomfortable.

4. As stated previously, the buddy system wasn't implemented.

5. Looking at my dive log I started with about 3000psi, the failure happened with about 1800psi and I ended with about 600psi.

6. A pink one. Sorry, I couldn't resist. I don't know.

7. 6'3", 225lbs, 36 years old, mesomorphic body type

8. They means an Instructor

9. The BCD was Sherwood (don't know the model). Two quick release pockets in front, two pocket designed for weights in the back and two storage pockets in front all had weight in them.

10. No, only had 26lbs in the pool. Yes, had the same weight on the first OW dive. See 2 and 9.

Now I'm confused.

 

[AZFinDiver]

A little update... I got my Advanced Open Water certification this weekend. I had a different instructor (not by choice, that's how it worked out), they were awesome. I also did the Peak Performance Buoyancy specialty which I learned a lot from.

I had the same equipment as last time and started with 22lbs, let out all the air in my BCD but was still floating pretty good breathing normally, I let out all the air in my lungs and only dropped about a foot under the surface I couldn't go any lower.

I went to 26lbs which seems to be the magic number, I did a total of 6 dives at that weight and had pretty good control throughout all of them. Still can't get over being able to ascend and descend by controlling my breathing...way cool. I saved a lot more air doing that alone...

Again, thanks for all of the advice.

 

[TGreene]

Tim: You really think that's a valuable contribution to this thread or in anyway helpful to either the original poster, or other people?

You must have missed the part...

-Tim

 

[Hetland]

A little update... I got my Advanced Open Water certification this weekend. I had a different instructor (not by choice, that's how it worked out), they were awesome. I also did the Peak Performance Buoyancy specialty which I learned a lot from.

I had the same equipment as last time and started with 22lbs, let out all the air in my BCD but was still floating pretty good breathing normally, I let out all the air in my lungs and only dropped about a foot under the surface I couldn't go any lower.

I went to 26lbs which seems to be the magic number, I did a total of 6 dives at that weight and had pretty good control throughout all of them. Still can't get over being able to ascend and descend by controlling my breathing...way cool. I saved a lot more air doing that alone...

Again, thanks for all of the advice.

That's Great! Very happy to hear that you took the buoyancy specialty and got your weighting sorted out.

 

[rx7diver]

A little update... I got my Advanced Open Water certification this weekend. I had a different instructor (not by choice, that's how it worked out), they were awesome. I also did the Peak Performance Buoyancy specialty which I learned a lot from.

I had the same equipment as last time and started with 22lbs, let out all the air in my BCD but was still floating pretty good breathing normally, I let out all the air in my lungs and only dropped about a foot under the surface I couldn't go any lower.

I went to 26lbs which seems to be the magic number, I did a total of 6 dives at that weight and had pretty good control throughout all of them. Still can't get over being able to ascend and descend by controlling my breathing...way cool. I saved a lot more air doing that alone...

Again, thanks for all of the advice.

Congrats, OP. Couple of points:

1. You'll be surprised how much buoyancy you lose even at the shallow depth of 10 fsw (due to wet suit compression), even wearing a wet suit made of good quality neoprene. This means, even if you are neutrally buoyant at a foot under the surface, you very probably will be negatively buoyant at ten feet below the surface. So sometimes doing a good surface dive to initially get down is a better option than adding more lead.

2. Make sure you're wearing enough weight so that when your tank is nearly empty at the end of a dive, you can comfortably remain at your 10 foot safety stop.

3. As you do more and more diving, and you get more and more comfortable, you'll probably drop a couple more of the 26 lbs you settled on.

(I don't know what's taught in a Peak Performance Buoyancy specialty course. Maybe these points are included.)

Safe Diving.

 

[hammerhead man]

I agree with rx7diver, as you get more comfortable in your diving skills you will begin to drop weight and that you need to provide a little extra weight to account for an empty cylinder at the end of the dive. I have seen a lot of people struggle to stay at their safety depth at the end of the dive because of their empty cylinder and may need an extra pound. However, to be honest some of these people probably still had air in their BC that had not been dumped. I remember as a new diver that I had this problem and I was told that I had air in my BC, I couldn't believe it since I thought I had emptied all of the air. However, I realized that I was not getting vertical when I emptied the air from my BC and therefore, air remained trapped in my BC and that was causing extra buoyancy. As you discovered, I now use by breathing to control my buoyancy and I put very little air in my BC.

Regards,

Bill

 

[mark00020]

Tim,
All your internet bragging about climbing experience only accomplishes two things:
1. Proves you are a tool.
2. Proves you have no idea what you are talking about. Your claimed climbing experience means ******* all when you are in the water, it matters as much as all the combined knitting experience you may have.
I bet you've annoyed 99% of the people reading this with your arrogance, and its divers like you that think they are Cousteau before they have 10 dives are the ones that end up screwing up and endangering everyone else in the water, or just plain killing yourself.
You would be well served to shut your yap and listen to the people around you that are actually experienced.

 

[TGreene]

Tim,
All your internet bragging about climbing experience only accomplishes two things:
1. Proves you are a tool.
2. Proves you have no idea what you are talking about. Your claimed climbing experience means ******* all when you are in the water, it matters as much as all the combined knitting experience you may have.
I bet you've annoyed 99% of the people reading this with your arrogance, and its divers like you that think they are Cousteau before they have 10 dives are the ones that end up screwing up and endangering everyone else in the water, or just plain killing yourself.
You would be well served to shut your yap and listen to the people around you that are actually experienced.

From YOUR perspective maybe, but the reality is having the ability to safely resolve problems without wasting precious time thinking about it...

But hey if it makes you feel better to call someone names, then by all means carry on! :bored2:

-Tim