Forgot to hook up inflator - near miss

[MAKO Spearguns]

Our Diving Association refunds ditched weights, no question asked, for any member of an affiliated club. All you have to provide is a short incident report and a receipt for new weights.

Because people have died from waiting too long before ditching.

I think that is a great policy. We do the same for our customers.

https://www.makospearguns.com/Two-Pound-Weight-p/mw2.htm

MAKO FREE REPLACEMENT/SAFETY POLICY

To our valued customers: MAKO Spearguns recognizes that diving (both freediving and SCUBA) are potentially dangerous activities. We have all heard of tragic accidents where a diver is found on the bottom while still wearing a weight belt. We hope and pray that should any of our customers find themselves in a situation where ditching a belt may be necessary, that there is no delay and the belt is dropped immediately.

In many situations a belt is recoverable, however if your MAKO belt and lead weights are ditched (and lost) in a true emergency…. MAKO will replace them at our cost.

The last thing we want is our customers considering the cost of a lost belt in an emergency. The only thing we ask is that the individual shares with us (and our friends and customers) some sort of write-up about how the situation developed and how it was resolved. That way, we can all learn and be reminded to keep safety in the forefront of our minds.

Dive safe,
Dano

 

[Storker]

I think that is a great policy. We do the same for our customers.

Fantastic.

If I might, though, I'd like to ask you to reconsider the wording "in a true emergency". Over here, there's no second guessing the decision to ditch. You felt that you needed to ditch, so you ditched. Cool, here's your refund. Your wording may make someone worried that their decision - which felt like the right one there and then - might be Monday morning quarterbacked.

 

[Graeme Fraser]

This “no ditching”, Perfect trim should never have to ditch lead argument is poo. Ditchable weight is a form of redundant buoyancy. You start every dive over weighted. If you are diving wet, suit compression is going to make you over weighted at depth.

At the end of every dive you should go home. I know divers, with way more experience than me who have dropped lead. It so freakin’ easy to say never, he should.... never panic.... never run out of gas.... pre-dive check.... it is so easy to give free advise, which is worth just what was paid. I decided to drop weight on a dive because the collar on my drysuit was too tight on my neck during a long surface swim. How about giving me advice on that moment? The objective on every dive needs to be to get out of the water alive, not to provide opportunities for someone to critique the incidence on the Internet.

I have been on the surface of the ocean in a lot of cold water gear with the sensation created by CO2 build up in the brain. Panic and tunnel vision are the physiological symptoms, they are not a personal failing of the diver. One of the things I tried before dumping my weights was to pull my collar open to get more O2 to my brain. How stupid is that in a Drysuit in April? That is what happens. You can die in this sport and the open ocean does not give a sh*t about pre-dive checks, perfect trim or whether you should or shouldn’t panic.

I panicked, but I had the experience and the training to do the right thing so I got to go home. Sometimes you get your ass kicked. That doesn’t make you dangerous, that makes you experienced.

You make a very good point.

In the event of primary failure, there's either technically positively buoyant through minimal weighting (able to float on the surface) and properly positively buoyant through redundancy / ditchable weights (comfortably floating with head out of water).

I know which I'd prefer in high seas or a delayed pick-up.

 

[MAKO Spearguns]

Fantastic.

If I might, though, I'd like to ask you to reconsider the wording "in a true emergency". Over here, there's no second guessing the decision to ditch. You felt that you needed to ditch, so you ditched. Cool, here's your refund. Your wording may make someone worried that their decision - which felt like the right one there and then - might be Monday morning quarterbacked.

Thanks for the suggestion. We wanted to make sure that the policy does not cover lost, or stolen or misplaced weight belts. The whole idea for our policy is to promote safety and encourage people NOT to second guess the decision - or at least to remove any financial consideration in the decision to ditch.

A considerable percentage of our customers are freedivers and the decision to drop lead, on the bottom, on the way up or on the surface is entirely situational dependent, completely subjective and is dictated only by how the diver "feels". We want our freedive customers who are even thinking of dropping to DO IT.

Obviously, the decision to ditch a belt on the bottom when scuba diving has unique safety consideration which differ from a freediver, however we're not going to be second guessing that decision for any of our customers, freedive or scuba.

Thanks!

Dano

 

[Storker]

We wanted to make sure that the policy does not cover lost, or stolen or misplaced weight belts.

Very understandable.

Just as another suggestion, I think just cutting the word "true" and perhaps replace it with "diving" might be an improvement. But you probably should run that past your business attorney. I'm not familiar with how people twist wordings to find loopholes to exploit.

 

[MAKO Spearguns]

I like it! I really appreciate the suggestion. I will be sending an Email to our guys to make the language change that you've suggested. It should be updated in the next day or two.

Dive Safe

Dano

 

[Hatul]

Mistake 3. Forgetting that you can manually inflate a BCD.

Also when I'm setting up my gear I partially inflate my BC with the oral inflator, so when I enter water there is always some air in the wing.

I read one accident where the diver using doubles forgot to turn his air on and jumped in with an empty BC and drowned.

 

[Bob DBF]

...and it keeps sending alerts to the OP and everyone who had been involved with the thread.

It only notifies you if you select the feature.
Go to alert preferences and uncheck the first two boxes, which are shown as dots below.

Messages in Threads
Receive an alert when someone...

• • Replies to a watched thread
    Someone replies to a thread you are watching
  Attaches a file to a watched thread
  Someone replies and attaches a file to a thread you are watching

I just have alerts for likes, quotes, or when an mentioned in a message.

Also, in preferences, where you turned off emails, also turn off the Watch function, if the above doesn’t do it as part of its function.


I never follow threads, I go back when I want or when when someone directly addresses me in the thread.



Bob