DIR- GUE Importance of doffing/donning bp&w in water?

[SaltyWombat]

Yesterday I tried doffing and then donning my backplate & wing while on the surface of the water. I failed. Hoses and shoulder straps were all tangled up. I found it very difficult to get my right shoulder through its strap. I always start with the left shoulder and immediately connect my drysuit inflator hose, and I mostly got that to work. I tried a few times with the right shoulder, always struggling. Once I succeeded in getting the shoulder straps on, but somehow I trapped my long hose between my back and the backplate. It was all a mess. I got to shore and started from scratch on my table again.

I have no trouble doing this with a traditional jacket BC and short hoses though.

I suspect my shoulder straps are too tight. Also with a primary light, backup light, and primary 2nd stage hanging off the right D-ring, the shoulder strap was just weighed down. I also learned my 40 pound wing is too small for my double 85s, steel backplate, and 14 pounds of lead. Luckily I did this in chest-deep water so I wouldn't lose my rig if dropped.

How important is this skill with a bp&w? I suspect very important. I'm not cave diving anytime soon, but I understand that gear often needs to be removed to get through restrictions.

I'm in the GUE world, if that matters.

All tips welcomed...

 

[Lorenzoid]

I'm in the GUE world, if that matters.

As far as I'm aware, doffing and donning one's rig in the water is not a skill GUE cares about. I can't think of under what circumstances one might need to do that.

 

[Robert H. Diver]

Yesterday I tried doffing and then donning my backplate & wing while on the surface of the water. I failed. Hoses and shoulder straps were all tangled up. I found it very difficult to get my right shoulder through its strap. I always start with the left shoulder and immediately connect my drysuit inflator hose, and I mostly got that to work. I tried a few times with the right shoulder, always struggling. Once I succeeded in getting the shoulder straps on, but somehow I trapped my long hose between my back and the backplate. It was all a mess. I got to shore and started from scratch on my table again.

I have no trouble doing this with a traditional jacket BC and short hoses though.

I suspect my shoulder straps are too tight. Also with a primary light, backup light, and primary 2nd stage hanging off the right D-ring, the shoulder strap was just weighed down. I also learned my 40 pound wing is too small for my double 85s, steel backplate, and 14 pounds of lead. Luckily I did this in chest-deep water so I wouldn't lose my rig if dropped.

How important is this skill with a bp&w? I suspect very important. I'm not cave diving anytime soon, but I understand that gear often needs to be removed to get through restrictions.

I'm in the GUE world, if that matters.

All tips welcomed...

I would never don/doff a BPW in water if I didn’t have to or didn’t have the ability to stand up.

 

[Gareth J]

As far as I'm aware, doffing and donning one's rig in the water is not a skill GUE cares about. I can't think of under what circumstances one might need to do that.

Only needed to do it once for real, to extract through a small gap. Put the stages through the hole first, then followed the set through, breathing on the long hose.

I thought a lot of the GUE stuff was to allow you to extract through tight spaces. Like the way clips are tied to hoses etc, to allow them to be cut free if trapped or snagged.

 

[OrcasC205]

Doffing a BP/W in the water is an important skill if you are diving from a RIB or other small boat, but I can't think of a reason to need to don a BP/W in the water in real world circumstances.

 

[Pearlman]

Since you mentioned doubles - Listing possible reasons from stuff I gathered from watching YouTube videos:

1. The boat ladder is too flimsy to handle the weight of your gear+you so you need to doff…
2. Partial doff and pull over head to reach tank valves after unlocking waist strap?
3. Tight spaces and restrictions?

I have a new BP/W I’ve only tested in the pool waiting for it’s first open water dip so interesting in the feedback from the hands-on experts and black-belts ( well … most waist straps and weight belts are black at least…)

Thanks

 

[PfcAJ]

It’s good to be able to get out of your rig.

RIB is a common and practical one. Perhaps you twisted your ankle or somethin and need to slip out of your harness to get out. Idk. It’s certainly something you should be able to do.

Not being able to do things is generally less than ideal.

 

[Lostdiver71]

Donning and doffing your rig in the water is very important in case of entanglement!

 

[elgoog]

I've only ever had to doff the rig in the water to be able to get back into a boat. Here's the order I did it in (as far as I remember)
- Stow your primary light
- Inflate the wing fully
- Backup necklace off your head
- Disconnect drysuit inflator
- Fully deploy longhose and breath from it
- Go face down on the surface and let the wing do its job
- Undo waist strap
- My shoulder straps are loose enough that I can easily shimmy out of them once the waist strap is undone
- Once the rig is fully off me, I coil up the longhose and clip it off

Having the room the longhose gives you helps a lot. I don't have any weight on me so I'm not worried about staying afloat once the rig is off me. If you have a weight belt, you'd probably have to take that into account.

Partial doff and pull over head to reach tank valves after unlocking waist strap?

Don't do this - being able to reach your valves with the rig on and without too much of a struggle is an important part of your setup

 

[inquis]

For in-water doff on the surface (e.g., getting in a zodiac): I just run my hands next to my ribs and through the straps. (Straps are loose enough to allow this.) Then undo the waist belt.

In the past, though, I would pull the rig over my head. For donning, I reverse that and arms/straps haven't been a problem for me.

The biggest issue with doffing is trying to do this at depth when you and rig have dissimilar buoyancies. Having all the weight on the rig will lead to a bad day when you lose your grip on it. A weight belt or harness can reduce that gap.