scuba jamie
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I have to give a presentation on BCDs in a few days and was wondering if anyone knew any weird or interesting facts about the BCD.
Interesting BCD facts?
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drrich2
Contributor
What sort of audience are you presenting to?
Are you after a historically 'from the horse collar to the modern BCD' angle with your question (such as what did Jacques Cousteau dive?)?
Or more a type question; jacket style vs. rear inflate? What are the trade-offs of a 'travel' BCD for tropical trips vs. a 'non-travel' rig? Weight-integrated vs. weight belt is a given, but do you want to mention Zeagle's ripcord system of integrated weight release?
Will you cover BP/W?
People buying BCD's may be confronted with the option to get an Air-2; that alone can be a controversial topic.
Richard.
Are you after a historically 'from the horse collar to the modern BCD' angle with your question (such as what did Jacques Cousteau dive?)?
Or more a type question; jacket style vs. rear inflate? What are the trade-offs of a 'travel' BCD for tropical trips vs. a 'non-travel' rig? Weight-integrated vs. weight belt is a given, but do you want to mention Zeagle's ripcord system of integrated weight release?
Will you cover BP/W?
People buying BCD's may be confronted with the option to get an Air-2; that alone can be a controversial topic.
Richard.
Don't forget to mention the British diver that died from lung infection after breathing off one during a dive a few years ago.
Emergency Breathing from Your BCD: Undercurrent 06/2011
A Rare Case of Lung Infection
In fact, a British diver developed a deadly fungal infection in his lungs in 2009 that was caused by a contaminated BCD. "The culprit," according to the British magazine DIVER, "was Aspergillus fumigatus, a micro-organism that exists within all our bodies and in the air, but usually safely contained by our immune systems."
Michael Firth, an active 58-year-old technical diver, became seriously ill after taking two deep breaths from his wing BCD's manual inflator to be sure it was working. He had noted a moldy taste at the time, and tests after he fell ill established that the fungus had taken hold in the wing bladder. His condition steadily deteriorated, and he passed away in December 2009 while awaiting a lung transplant.
Emergency Breathing from Your BCD: Undercurrent 06/2011
A Rare Case of Lung Infection
In fact, a British diver developed a deadly fungal infection in his lungs in 2009 that was caused by a contaminated BCD. "The culprit," according to the British magazine DIVER, "was Aspergillus fumigatus, a micro-organism that exists within all our bodies and in the air, but usually safely contained by our immune systems."
Michael Firth, an active 58-year-old technical diver, became seriously ill after taking two deep breaths from his wing BCD's manual inflator to be sure it was working. He had noted a moldy taste at the time, and tests after he fell ill established that the fungus had taken hold in the wing bladder. His condition steadily deteriorated, and he passed away in December 2009 while awaiting a lung transplant.
-hh
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I can recall reading about a life saved by BC rebreathing ... it was on a commercial dive, someplace tropical and shallow (Bahamas?); the diver was working solo and got pinned somehow under some big heavy stuff (pipe?) and rebreathed for over an hour - - in/out of his BC for awhile, then dumping & refilling, etc - - before his coworkers realized that he had disappeared and started a search, finding & rescuing him.
What audience is a great question.
Probably what most audiences of basic divers would be surprised at is just how crude ... and simple ... BCs were ~30 years ago. And yet we survived and had fun.
And in a similar vein of the question of 'travel' BCDs, at lot of the modern stuff has gotten overly complex and .. call it "overbuilt": what would be a good illustration for an audience "Hands On" would be to get an old BC and a brand new one and show how thin the old stuff was ... and yet it still lasted for years. Unfortunately, the old lightweight stuff isn't around much anymore: all BCs are typically 1000 denier nylon to make them big, bulky, heavy and not particularly inexpensive -or- travel-friendly...and instead of offering a not-overbuilt BC, the market is trying to sell us a second BC just for tropical travel, rather than to, heaven forbid! use lighter weight material that's only going to last for a mere 20 years/1000 dives.
-hh
What audience is a great question.
Probably what most audiences of basic divers would be surprised at is just how crude ... and simple ... BCs were ~30 years ago. And yet we survived and had fun.
And in a similar vein of the question of 'travel' BCDs, at lot of the modern stuff has gotten overly complex and .. call it "overbuilt": what would be a good illustration for an audience "Hands On" would be to get an old BC and a brand new one and show how thin the old stuff was ... and yet it still lasted for years. Unfortunately, the old lightweight stuff isn't around much anymore: all BCs are typically 1000 denier nylon to make them big, bulky, heavy and not particularly inexpensive -or- travel-friendly...and instead of offering a not-overbuilt BC, the market is trying to sell us a second BC just for tropical travel, rather than to, heaven forbid! use lighter weight material that's only going to last for a mere 20 years/1000 dives.
-hh
OP
scuba jamie
New
Thanks for all the replies. I'm do my divemaster course at the moment and just have to do a presentation on the background, history, maintenance, features and fun facts of the BCD to my class mates, so was looking for some interesting facts to include so it doesn't feel like a high school history lesson. Thanks supergaijin I'll defiantly include that story.
james croft
Contributor
You might want to mention that the BCD is a fairly recent invention and many divers used to dive safely without one and many still do.
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I made my first one from an airline life jacket tied off to a USD plastic backpack. I also made ditchable weights fashioned from PVC pipe and birdshot- it had a quick release bottom so you could rocket skyward.
Originally, BCs had two different sized CO2 cylinders for emergency inflation- neither was particularly effective at depth.
The first functional BCD was a horsecollar, the most famous of which was a Fenzi brand. Auto-inflate with LP connex was introduced very quickly.
I still have a functional USD Horsecollar that I wear with a hockey helmet on the foredeck while engaged in something we locally call "combat sailing".
After 50 years of diving I have now owned 6 devices that run from simple air bladders to costly BPW set ups. They all operate on the same theory.
Chicks dig BPW guys, 'specially if they have home-made titanium back plates.
Originally, BCs had two different sized CO2 cylinders for emergency inflation- neither was particularly effective at depth.
The first functional BCD was a horsecollar, the most famous of which was a Fenzi brand. Auto-inflate with LP connex was introduced very quickly.
I still have a functional USD Horsecollar that I wear with a hockey helmet on the foredeck while engaged in something we locally call "combat sailing".
After 50 years of diving I have now owned 6 devices that run from simple air bladders to costly BPW set ups. They all operate on the same theory.
Chicks dig BPW guys, 'specially if they have home-made titanium back plates.
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