Have you ever had/seen BC failure requiring ditched weights?

[Scraps]

If someone is diving alone, in a thick wetsuit in deep water and the suit has undergone 15-20 lbs worth of compression, then there is absolutely a need to drop some lead at depth. Unless of course you have a rope, slope or smb line to climb up. To say something is "never" applicable is rarely correct if you are dealing with some particular set of circumstances. Drowning is much worse the the bends.

If you daughter is diving with a near empty tank, with little wetsuit and she ascended without incident with you hauling her up and keeping a constant physical contact with her... neither proves your point, nor provides assurance that your daughter would have handled the situation adequately on her own. Of course, I think YOU did the exact proper thing in that situation, but again, that is not the point.

The fact that she was completely unaware of the important bc failure is somewhat disconcerting. IF she were alone, and did not notice and kept trying to inflate BC and kept trying to kick up, she could easily have over exerted herself, blown through her air (wasting it repeatedly on failed attempt to inflate) and then got herself into a bad situation. Low or no air, being heavy, no BC and out of breath and tired at depth -

Being able to drop a 6 lb weightbelt sure sounds like a good plan C or D at a time like that.

1. I don’t know anything about cold water diving so I’ll defer to you on that point.

2. Who said anything about hauling her up? I had been on her right side the whole length of the dive until we started the ascent. At that time, I saw her disconnected hose and put my hand on her as a safeguard. She managed her own ascent.

3. I found it reassuring, not disconcerting, that she didn’t notice the failure during the dive. It meant she was managing depth changes with breath control without adding and dumping air. And it meant she was properly weighted. She did say afterward she wondered why she didn’t have to bleed air during her ascent because she has added a little on her descent.

 

[rx7diver]

@Angelo Farina,

In the NAUI/YMCA open water course I took (in 1986), we learned four skindiving surface dives ...

Attached are the instructions for the pool skill ("Skin Diving Circuit") that we had to pass in the open water course I took (in 1986). This is taken from a scan of the course manual that is dated several years after I took the course.

This skill is still required. Four different surface dives, three different surface entries, weight belt doffing and donning, 75' swim (overhand recovery) no gear (except swim goggles, maybe) at the end. Timed.

When my daughter was taking the scuba course last spring, I thought briefly about training up in secret and then showing up to race her. Uh, no.

rx7diver

 

[Pressurehead]

to pass in the open water course I took (in 1986)

I had to do this for the Chief in charge of diving at the Navy diving school Sydney in 1986 [he was a civilian NAUI instructor as well, trained in the USA when posted there] as well as CPO clearance diver, a real expert, at the time I was a PADI OW instructor [1985] and a Petty Officer [E6] working at the diving school in Sydney , my job was fitness training for divers, as well as a diver, he passed me and in time I crossed over to NAUI as a civilian instructor .
The Navy paid for my PADI instructor course as part of my "resettlement training to civilian life" which never stuck, being a civilian that is.
We were trained in this stuff anyway, we joined about the same time, he was just 'pushing my buttons' being PADI and testing me.
Had to do it all again in the crossover, now that was a fun course.

As for the topic, we only used a BC for dives deeper than 18m, and that was a Fenzy, so our weights were "dialed in" or is that dialled in?

 

[Bob DBF]

As for the topic, we only used a BC for dives deeper than 18m, and that was a Fenzy, so our weights were "dialed in" or is that dialled in?

Dialed, but in Canada you might have to add a u somewhere.

 

[Trace Malinowski]

I don't understand your "story". Was the model DIR diver in doubles and (presumably a wetsuit) properly weighted on not? Did s/he have a balanced rig? If the rig was balanced and the weighting was proper and the problem occurred at the surface, then why might the diver need to ditch anything to stay at the surface? I honestly don't understand your point?

I don't recall what the student was wearing. Back in those days a can light was considered ditchable weight since they were -6 or -7 lbs. negative.

 

[happy-diver]

One of my almost drownings was when I was being surged and swelled up down and around underneath a cutback shelf only about a varying 3-5 metres deep yeah and I was below the shelf about a metre then above it half a metre but I couldn't get into a position to be swept onto the shelf as I couldn't really swim my 14kg of weights but with a double layer 10mm suit without fins on nor properly inflate my jacket bc as the seaquest inflator octopus had been smashed against the rocks, it was only sandstone this time but then if I held the busted inflator together with both hands and pressed the pointy bit of the schraeder valve where there was no longer a rubber button with my thumb sealing slowly but surely there was inflation as I'm losing stamina and approaching out of breathness unable to use my hands the jacket is squeezing me hindering my gulping of air, kicking like heck to be a few inches higher to no effect whilst being pummelled let go of the inflator my bare thumb is bleeding and pop the straps of the bc and I can breathe again and I have some buoyancy and with some sort of superhumanish effort lunge for the shelf at the lucky time and get washed and rolled and tumbled a few metres and before I get sucked back in to start back over again I somehow lift the 150kg lump of myself and gear and run

But ditch my 14-16kg utility belt no way known

Just at the tip of the point on the left

Can you see the ramp ish thing

 

[BoltSnap]

150kg lump of myself

That's a big lump. Glad you made out alright.