So I almost killed someone last night during our training dive. here's how it happened.
We are diving off a pier in oakland, CA and we have to climb down a 20 foot ladder after suiting up and getting our gear checked off. All my gear checks out that was tested and i get down to the boat to begin our pier searching. I do a backroll off the boat and realize that my bc is not holding air. I've had this problem before and i just have someon tighten the valve and it would work normally, but not this time, so my dive gets called and i get out of the water back onto the boat. after getting de geared, i get ready to climb the 20 foot ladder with only my wetsuit, mask and weightbelt on(boots and gloves too). I get to the top of the ladder and begin to go to the side so i can get off the ladder. As soon as my weight transfers, my weightbelt gets caught and falls straight down 20 feet. We hear it hit the inflatable part of the boat(zodiac) and fall into the water. We all look down off the pier were about 6 people were within 2-3 feet of the weightbelt when it hit and thank god noone was hurt. 20 lbs of lead falls pretty quick and hits pretty hard in case you didnt know.
Anyway, a couple divers go down and try to find it but to no avail. it could've only landed in about a 3 foot circle, but there was about 5 feet of silt on the bottom so they didnt find it after about a 15 minute search.
anyway, lesson learned for the day is to not climb up ladders while wearing a weightbelt.
We are diving off a pier in oakland, CA and we have to climb down a 20 foot ladder after suiting up and getting our gear checked off. All my gear checks out that was tested and i get down to the boat to begin our pier searching. I do a backroll off the boat and realize that my bc is not holding air. I've had this problem before and i just have someon tighten the valve and it would work normally, but not this time, so my dive gets called and i get out of the water back onto the boat. after getting de geared, i get ready to climb the 20 foot ladder with only my wetsuit, mask and weightbelt on(boots and gloves too). I get to the top of the ladder and begin to go to the side so i can get off the ladder. As soon as my weight transfers, my weightbelt gets caught and falls straight down 20 feet. We hear it hit the inflatable part of the boat(zodiac) and fall into the water. We all look down off the pier were about 6 people were within 2-3 feet of the weightbelt when it hit and thank god noone was hurt. 20 lbs of lead falls pretty quick and hits pretty hard in case you didnt know.
Anyway, a couple divers go down and try to find it but to no avail. it could've only landed in about a 3 foot circle, but there was about 5 feet of silt on the bottom so they didnt find it after about a 15 minute search.
anyway, lesson learned for the day is to not climb up ladders while wearing a weightbelt.