Ferry Crew Pulls Two Divers from water at Brackett's Landing

[ianr33]

She had a little too much air in her drysuit and started to float up,

Which is an excellent reason NOT to use a drysuit for buoyancy.

 

[TSandM]

Having gone to the surface feet first in a drysuit before, I can empathize with her situation. The best solution, which is to fully inflate the BC, isn't immediately intuitive, but it is extremely effective.

The one part of the story that makes no sense to me at all is how she got "tangled in kelp" at Edmonds in the winter. There is never much kelp at Edmonds, even in midsummer, and in the winter, there are isolated single stalks.

At any rate, one of the takeaways I get from reading this is that people really ought to practice ditching their weights, and make sure it is easily done in a variety of positions. It is also a cautionary tale on the value of staying calm and rationally assessing the problem. It is not an issue if you are on the surface, hanging from your feet, if you have gas. If you have gas, you have time to think through the problem, at which time inflating the BC becomes the obvious solution.

 

[Ayisha]

Does anyone know if she had any instruction in using the drysuit and troubleshooting as well as practice using the drysuit prior to that dive?

 

[Web Monkey]

A belt also slows air transfer within the suit which makes it more manageable. I think.

Being properly weighted means that the suit won't contain enough air to make movement a problem.

People tend to blow them off as unnecessary, but I'm a big proponent of a good drysuit class for new drysuit owners. A little tuning and some information goes a really long way.

I also really like weight harnesses. They tend to retain large amounts of weight much better than any BC I've seen.

Terry

 

[Ayisha]

For those people concerned about a back-inflated BC pitching a diver face-forward, that sometimes happens because the diver's weights are improperly balanced. A diver who is tipping forward at the surface needs to re-adjust their weights and move some of the weight to their back and/or sides.

 

[Pubcrawler]

With the exception of ten days in Coz a couple years ago, I have been a north Pacific dry suiter for 25 years. I dove a bag suit for years and ended up floating feet up once and fighting against it a few times, once dangerously on a wreck dive. Then I upgraded the dry suit and no troubles since. Most of the folks I dive with are mega-experienced and they never use a vest BC with their dry suits, they restrict air movement in the torso too much. Some have entirely abandoned the BC, the others use a backpack, but stay light on the integrated weights, relying on finely tuned tank weights and ankle weights instead. They are so in tune with their planned dive profile, temperature and ambient salinity that they use air for bouyancy control only minimally. Just my experience, but I think the only safeguard is a bunch of experience. I had all kinds of bouyancy issues in the Carribean, but have no problems in cold salt. She'll learn from this and have zero issues after more water time.

 

[gcbryan]

Being properly weighted means that the suit won't contain enough air to make movement a problem.

People tend to blow them off as unnecessary, but I'm a big proponent of a good drysuit class for new drysuit owners. A little tuning and some information goes a really long way.

I also really like weight harnesses. They tend to retain large amounts of weight much better than any BC I've seen.

Terry

I agree regarding the class. The obvious solution if you've had the class is to bring your knees in and roll forward since it's something you practice in class in the pool and then in OW after you've put yourself in the inverted position and hit your DS inflator button.

I'd have to disagree with Lynne on this one. If you're inverted at 100 fsw the last thing you want to do it hit your BC inflator. You're unside down but not positively buoyant unless you add to the problem and now hit your BC inflator button.

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

I called up a friend to see if he and his wife wanted to dive. He asked if had heard what happened recently at Edmonds Underwater Park. His wife was the one who was pulled from the water.

She was wearing an Aqualung Pearl I3 BC and a drysuit. From what I understand, they were looking at a sunken boat and they lost sight of each other. She had a little too much air in her drysuit and started to float up, feet first. She got tangled in kelp on the way up, and ended up on the surface with her feet in the air. There was some current that carried her toward the Ferry. She tried to dump her weights from an inverted position, but was unable to release the weights. She then decided to ditch the BC, and tried to remove it. She was able to get the BC off, but forgot to disconnect the drysuit hose. The BC went down around her head and arms, and stopped there, when it reached the point where the drysuit hose wouldn't let it go any further. Eventually she passed out from exhaustion from trying to free herself. I don't know if her reg was pulled out of her mouth when she tried to ditch the BC.

The crew on the ferry saw a diver in distress and launched a small boat to assist. When they pulled her from the water, she was not breathing and had no pulse. They performed CPR and she was revived. She was taken to the hospital and observed (I don't know for how long, but it was at least overnight).

The husband noticed she was gone, looked for her, couldn't find her, and surfaced to see if she had surfaced. The current was fairly strong, and he had to hold on to a buoy to avoid being carried into the ferry lane. The ferry crew picked him up as well.

They EMTs cut her drysuit off while they were trying to revive her.

This incident has a happy ending. Wife is fine now, and wants to continue diving. They've ordered her another drysuit. They are having a crotch strap installed on her BC. DAN is paying for the drysuit.

After listening to all that happened, I'll probably be using a weight belt or harness to take some of the weight out of my BC. I never liked the fact that me and my drysuit were very positively buoyant while my BC and tank were very negatively buoyant.

I'm curious to see how she'll be on their next dive. I'm amazed that she is still wanting to dive. I'm not sure how I would react if it happened to me.

Ron

... yet one of example of why weight-integrated BCDs aren't the panacea for cold-water diving that so many folks on ScubaBoard seem to think they are.

This ain't the first time something like this has happened around here ... having all your weights in your BCD and all your flotation on your body is never a good idea ... especially not when you're wearing in excess of 30 lbs of weight in the darn thing ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

Which is an excellent reason NOT to use a drysuit for buoyancy.

... not for a chronically-overweighted new diver. For the properly weighted, reasonably skilled diver, it's pretty much a wash ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

I agree regarding the class. The obvious solution if you've had the class is to bring your knees in and roll forward since it's something you practice in class in the pool and then in OW after you've put yourself in the inverted position and hit your DS inflator button.

I'd have to disagree with Lynne on this one. If you're inverted at 100 fsw the last thing you want to do it hit your BC inflator. You're unside down but not positively buoyant unless you add to the problem and now hit your BC inflator button.

I think Lynne meant doing that to get your head outta the water once you're on the surface ... which would work ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)