Have You Had an Unexpected Ascent?

[DivePartner1]

Not me, but I've caught caught several dive buddies on the way up after they've lost their weights. The culprit is usually the velcro on their integrated systems.

Of course I didn't mind holding onto any of these ladies until we got to the ascent line. Just doing my job as a good buddy!

 

[landlocked]

My 7 mil neoprene gets real difficult to manage as it approaches 10 feet. There seems to be a point right at 10 feet where it does some serious uncompressing. If I'm not paying attention the surface will grab me. It has twice. Not really serious as it only becomes an issue when I am really shallow anyway. No problem at the 15 foot safety stop. It does require a little more care to dive in 7mil than in 3mil, etc.

 

[Ber Rabbit]

The first time I dove with my (now) husband the buckle of my weight belt released and I didn't realize what was happening fast enough to catch the webbing when it fell. I have no hips and right after I felt the plastic buckle slip I thought "WHAT THE?" by then the belt was almost to my ankles. Without looking, I grabbed to my left, where my buddy was, caught one of his hoses and flared for the ride up from 20 feet or so. He grabbed my wrist and I looked to see why. The hose I had in my hand was his primary hose and he had no clue why he had gone from happily diving along to being dragged to the surface by his teeth. When I saw what hose I had I made sure to avoid flailing so I wouldn't yank it out of his mouth.

The second time we were diving in the same lake but were using dry suits. I only have a few dives with the suit and am still working out new problems that crop up. We were at 30 feet or so and I couldn't get the suit to dump. I had all the air out of my bc but was starting to ascend because of the air in the suit. Ended up doing an unwanted ascent with the sleeve of my dry suit completely full of air that wouldn't vent through the dump valve on that sleeve.

The third time we were at another site with the dry suit and were trying to figure out exactly what had gone wrong with the dive the previous day. All was fine until we started our ascent (beside a line this time) and I felt the suit start to go out of control at about 25 feet so I grabbed the car we were beside and motioned to my buddy that the problem was beginning to occur. We both double checked the bc dump, it was empty. I had 2 "puffs" of air in the dry suit from 60 feet. We could get the air to go to the sleeve with the dump valve but it dumped WAY too slow no matter how we manipulated the valve. Luckily we had the line to control the ascent this time. Haven't been out in the dry suit since then, it's warm enough to dive wet here in Ohio.

My instructor didn't believe the suit was dumping too slowly until she had the same experience with hers.

Hopefully this will be my last experience with this sort of thing.
Ber

 

[jbd]

that was a funny visual!! Maybe thats why Bruce decided to marry you--your ability to remain calm and not rip the reg out of his mouth. Glad all turned out well.

 

[FredT]

I was diving solo off the beach in Pompano Beach Fla bugging in '72. It was a beautiful flat calm day. Wonderful dive in 17 foot of water until the fool water skier picked up the flag tied to my belt. I went up about 10' in about 2 seconds before the skier dumped. I had a bit of a discussion with them concerning the meaning of the dive flag, and the wisdom of keeping an eye out for the 16' x 12' warning sign on the pilings of EVERY inlet between Government Cut and Fort Pierce inlet that explained in detail what the flag meant! The speartip 2" from the skier's nose throughout this "discussion" may have added a bit of reality to the discussion for him.

That was the last dive I used a flag on off that beach. I simply used a "virtual ceiling" of 8' and treated it like an overhead environment. AFAIK the only fine in FL for a boat hitting a diver flying the dive flag is still the cost of getting his prop straightened.

FT

 

[astrl]

Once, having trouble getting used to a back-inflation BC that did not want to vent. The dump valve at the bottom on the back didn't work either. :upset:

And another time when I was improperly weighted for a 5 mm suit. (During a refresher course) I had been out of the water for a while.

Both times, I was not very deep. I don't intend to repeat either experience again.

astrl

 

[divrnr]

Was just diving off the San Diego coast at Los Coronados Islands and I was looking for a small fishing boat wreck when all of a sudden I got real positive real fast!! I was in 90fsw and felt myself going up, checked the guage and sure enough I was shooting up. I had very little air in my drysuit and none in my bc so I kicked to the bottom and grabbed a good sized rock and checked my bc and there was my answer, lost a weight integrated pouch Well I found a rock that kept me neutral and my buddy and I aborted the dive and headed back, and there it was my pouch. A tab had broken and out it went in about 80fsw. Guess what I'm changing to? Yep a BP/Wings setup and dust off my old weight belt with that SS buckle. I've had it with my weight integrated bc. It'll be on ebay real soon...:drown: Just sent a email to FredT for a SS BP. Hasta, Joe.

 

[Rosie]

Not me, but when on a dive off Sardinia last month, my husband and a very petite (4ft10 odd) lady were both swept up to the surface by a current. This was towards the end of the dive and he tends to be higher in the water than me - I wonder whether they experienced the same problem as Landlocked described, as they were both wearing 7mm suits? I only had a 3mm on.

cheers
Rosie