Forgot to hook up inflator - near miss

[Sam Miller III]

Poor initial training
Creation of emergency conditions under controlled conditions
Practice, Practice and Practice...

sdm

 

[Scuba Lawyer]

He was really struggling to swim at the surface

and, if he couldn't stay on surface: dump weights?

Agree with manual inflation.
Agree with dump weights.
I would add that from the OP's description it sounds like the individual was overweighted a tad.

 

[Edward3c]

Been meaning to post this for a while, it happened back in August.
My buddy and I were diving a lake during a family function. On the first day we cut a dive short and left our gear mostly set up at the dock. My buddies tank had a leak from the LP inflator hose where it connects to the first stage. We fiddled with it a bit then left it to the next day.

Next day arrives and we fiddled with the hose a bit more trying to see if we could stop the leak. Eventually we decided it wasn't a significant enough leak to affect the dive and got in the water. We descended and after a couple minutes I shoulder checked to locate my buddy and realized he had surfaced. I rose up to meet him and found him in distress on the surface - his inflator hose never got hooked back up after we fiddled with it. He was really struggling to swim at the surface and took his reg out, head was bobbing in and out of the water. I finally got him to put his reg back in and we descended a couple feet where I was able to connect the inflator.

Needless to say that was the end of the dive. After we got back to the beach via surface swim our mistakes were pretty clear. 1) didn't reconnect the hose 2) didn't do pre-dive safety check which would have discovered mistake #1.

It was a pretty scary incident, everything they say about a panicking diver on the surface was true - he grabbed me, tried to climb on top, etc. Luckily once he got his reg back in he calmed down, but it was a pretty serious event maybe one step from being a critical event.

Anyways, just wanted to share. I know we fu*ked up on this dive and I'm grateful it wasn't a worse situation, maybe it's a good reminder for someone else!

Even after thousands of dives I still insist on a pre dive check. This year alone it revealed:
* gas not on,
* BC hose not connected,
* hoses knotted,
* missing weight belt,
* BC clips not fastened.
No matter how much experience it’s still possible to be distracted when kitting up.

When teaching I insist my students keep their reg in their mouth when in the water. The surface is a dangerous place where complacency can kill.

 

[happy-diver]

breath in, kick up,

There is no instructor that teaches this

@Dark Wolf @Sam Miller III

 

[Jcp2]

I think this refers to oral BC inflation at the surface. I remember being taught this as part of PADI OW. Kick up and inhale, inflate BC while not kicking. Repeat as needed. It wasn’t something I needed to use and I don’t, but my daughter remembered it and used it on a dive months after her class.

 

[oly5050user]

Been meaning to post this for a while, it happened back in August.
My buddy and I were diving a lake during a family function. On the first day we cut a dive short and left our gear mostly set up at the dock. My buddies tank had a leak from the LP inflator hose where it connects to the first stage. We fiddled with it a bit then left it to the next day.

Next day arrives and we fiddled with the hose a bit more trying to see if we could stop the leak. Eventually we decided it wasn't a significant enough leak to affect the dive and got in the water. We descended and after a couple minutes I shoulder checked to locate my buddy and realized he had surfaced. I rose up to meet him and found him in distress on the surface - his inflator hose never got hooked back up after we fiddled with it. He was really struggling to swim at the surface and took his reg out, head was bobbing in and out of the water. I finally got him to put his reg back in and we descended a couple feet where I was able to connect the inflator.

Needless to say that was the end of the dive. After we got back to the beach via surface swim our mistakes were pretty clear. 1) didn't reconnect the hose 2) didn't do pre-dive safety check which would have discovered mistake #1.

It was a pretty scary incident, everything they say about a panicking diver on the surface was true - he grabbed me, tried to climb on top, etc. Luckily once he got his reg back in he calmed down, but it was a pretty serious event maybe one step from being a critical event.

Anyways, just wanted to share. I know we fu*ked up on this dive and I'm grateful it wasn't a worse situation, maybe it's a good reminder for someone else!

Should be able to stay on surface easily if wearing correct amount of weight, most likely grossly over weighed. Dangerous way to dive

 

[Akimbo]

I have never been comfortable with the idea that a plastic bag with a delicate corrugated inflator hose is anything more than a convenience. Therefore a BC failure should never be more than an inconvenience, on par with a flashlight/torch failure. Dropping lead never fails if you are properly weighted and prepared.

 

[drbill]

One should realize this before jumping in by inflating the BCD prior to immersing.

 

[Storker]

Dropping lead never fails if you are properly weighted and prepared.

Quoted for posterity.

 

[FreeFlyFreak]

There is no instructor that teaches this

@Dark Wolf @Sam Miller III

You may be correct. Thinking back again, I have mixed up the oral inflation under water practice we did with gas available, and the oral inflation at the surface with no avalable gas. One was done solely under water, one was done after the CESA by taking a breath at the surface, then inflating orally, but it took 3 breaths to do it, and my head resubmerged after the first two exhale's so I had to kick up for the second and third breaths too.
The instructor made sure to point out that i had made it more difficult by not dropping my weights first, once I had reached the surface. Another valuable lesson, sometimes learning the hard way by making mistakes, is the best way to remember the lesson.

I also keep reading that no instructor teaches buddy breathing, sharing a regulator.

And yet we did that too, multiple times during pool practice. It may have been done to practice, multiple times, taking a regulator out of our mouth and replacing it. To get us comfortable with it because we were diving primary donate with Air2 backup. Which obviously we practiced later.

I am glad we did all those things.

This was not a typical PADI quick course.

It involved 4x3hr pool sessions, just me and my buddy and the instructor sometimes an assistant too, we did rescuing non responsive divers, towing divers either tired or unconscious by various methods. Towing a diver while rescue breathing.
Donning and doffing gear at the surface.
Disconnecting and reconnecting the inflator hose, dont remember if it was at the surface or submerged. I do remember it was exponentially more difficult to reconnect with gloves on!
And lots of swimming loops equidistant a foot or so from the bottom of the pool in a pool that varied from about 4ft - 15ft deep. That taught trim and most importantly fine buoyancy control.
Plus all the "usual" excersises.

It was extremely thorough, and it is the reason why I chose that particular shop/instructor for my training.

The "why should I train here instead of somewhere else" question was what put this place above the others in the area.

Anyway sorry for getting side tracked.