Lost Gear

[lakeshorelady]

Thanks for all the comments everyone and your suggestions. I was actually underweighted and had to kick myself down after we swam far enough to drop. ( didn't take that five pounds of winter weight gain into consideration and wore what I had on for my last dive of the season last Oct.) It was a very rocky and turbulent first entry, got bowled over the first time and sand got into the reg, and octo, causing free flow on both that I had to fix before proceeding. There was sand in my bc controls also and the button to release air was also sticking. Got out of the water and spent time fixing things. Got it to where bc held air, and no leak heard before getting in with a new tank. Into the dive, small leak starting again, we made it a short dive and stayed shallower than we might have otherwise. Kept an eye on my guage. There was a lot of surge during the dive and tide was going out on the way in from the dive. We had to try to anchor fingers in the sand and kick like hell to not lose any forward progress on the way in. We decided to surface when we hit about 14 feet and the button on the valve stuck again, keeping my bc from holding air.
Hindsights great, and I should have tried to grab the reg and swim in, a little underwater. I had some buoyancy, just not enough to keep my head above water. But exhustion had it's place in my reaction too. I wasn't panicked, but I wasn't making headway either, and it just started to feel like I wasn't going to be able to get both me and my gear to shore at that point, feeling that spent. I chose me.
We had been over sand for awhile, the weights were still in the bc in a cove so gear was probably not going to move, and the tank was yellow and visible. It seemed a good chance that I could return with a buddy, and rested, with functioning equipment to find and retrieve my gear this weekend. I notified the local dive shop, this site, and the police of the ditched gear so if it was found sooner, they had my info, but also so they knew there was no "body" they should be looking for to go with the gear.
Bottom line, it was our start of the season shakedown dive, the first coldwater dive since Oct, and a chance to check out our gear, and ourselves individually and as buddies, and get reacclimated before heading out to deeper water. I'm the best at self flaggelation and the shoulda's and coulda's and and believe me, I know I could have done things differently, but at that moment, it seemed the only decision to make. My buddy's comment at the time was 'they are only THINGS and can be replaced. PEOPLE cannot.
I am grateful for all the help and to the divers who retrieved the gear for me. My thanks to this diving community. Linda

 

[ScubaSarus]

Was there any chance of manual BC inflation ?

 

[lakeshorelady]

No, Button partly stuck down again, probably from sand I'd thought I'd gotten out, so all air going in came back out. Thinking now though, had plenty of air when I surfaced and stayed afloat for part of the swim in by continuing to add air, may have depleted tank doing that. and started not being able to keep head above water.
Not worth asking an equally exhausted buddy to swim back to help with "things". The dive was a struggle. Gear can be replaced. A friend can't.
Big lesson learned, check with the locals for best place to dive for wind direction and surf and tide conditions. Especially for first dive of the season when getting sea (dive) legs back.

 

[reefseal]

As read through this thread.. thought we really got to love this sport for what we subject ourselves to. It's tough explaining to non-divers it's still worth it. I'll have 3 or 4 so so or crappy dives for every cool awsome dive. When you do have that totally cool mind blowing experience dive, it's worth it.

You kept a cool head and didn't panic in your situation. Took stock of situation and did what you thought was best under the circumstances.

 

[ScubaSarus]

I dove wit someone about 5 yrs ago who I believe dragged the BC thru the sand a bit and didn't press the inflator until we where at the bottom at 20 ft after the decent. One touch of the button, and he shot up like a bottle rocket. Me referring to him as the Michelin Man on the surface didn't help the matter. But he's very lucky not to embolize when that happened.