Diverb72
Registered
So I had an interesting dive yesterday on the Sport. I have a class coming up at the end of the month, and three of my cylinders are close to their hydro and VIP dates. I figured I would go for a quick dive to blow off some gas, get use to my dry suit again(I haven't dove my dry suit since Dec 2015) and take my cylinders in for their hydro & VIP and then I'm good for the year.
I replaced my wrist seals last year, but did not replace my neck seal. I should have inspected my neck seal closely prior to the start of my dive. That's my fault and it wont happen again, so good lesson learned there. I was diving steel 100's and an alumn 40, again just so I could blow off the excess gas and work on some skills prior to my class.
I entered the water, all was good, hooked my deco bottle on my rig, and started my descent using the anchor line as a reference. During my descent I noticed my back was getting wet, then I could feel my right arm are getting wet. By this time I was passing thru 25-30' on my way to the bottom. About the time where I started to add air to my wing to slow my decent, the small hole in my neck seal went to full blown blow out and my suit flooded with water. Needless to say it was cold and I was thinking Holly S**T this is cold, abort the dive!
I felt my self drifting away from the wreck, so I immediately ditched my deco bottle and shot a bag to the surface, filled my wing (darn near to max air capacity) and was able to make a controlled assent back to the surface and then I had I had a small surface swim back to the my boat. I may look at getting a larger wing, as the wing I have right now is a 40lb and I felt it was a struggle to keep me afloat at the surface with a flooded dry suit.
I went back today with a fresh neck seal and a single tank to retrieve my deco bottle. Took damn 15mins to locate it, but I'm glad to have found it.
Moral of the story is to inspect your seals and gear before diving, especially when solo diving!
I replaced my wrist seals last year, but did not replace my neck seal. I should have inspected my neck seal closely prior to the start of my dive. That's my fault and it wont happen again, so good lesson learned there. I was diving steel 100's and an alumn 40, again just so I could blow off the excess gas and work on some skills prior to my class.
I entered the water, all was good, hooked my deco bottle on my rig, and started my descent using the anchor line as a reference. During my descent I noticed my back was getting wet, then I could feel my right arm are getting wet. By this time I was passing thru 25-30' on my way to the bottom. About the time where I started to add air to my wing to slow my decent, the small hole in my neck seal went to full blown blow out and my suit flooded with water. Needless to say it was cold and I was thinking Holly S**T this is cold, abort the dive!
I felt my self drifting away from the wreck, so I immediately ditched my deco bottle and shot a bag to the surface, filled my wing (darn near to max air capacity) and was able to make a controlled assent back to the surface and then I had I had a small surface swim back to the my boat. I may look at getting a larger wing, as the wing I have right now is a 40lb and I felt it was a struggle to keep me afloat at the surface with a flooded dry suit.
I went back today with a fresh neck seal and a single tank to retrieve my deco bottle. Took damn 15mins to locate it, but I'm glad to have found it.
Moral of the story is to inspect your seals and gear before diving, especially when solo diving!
