DevonDiver
N/A
Of course. You would have to remove your BCD, whilst still breathing from the regulator...in order to access the tank and camband. That can be achieved, even in mid-water.
There's lots of options to achieve this. As long as you are in contact with the (weighted) BCD, then you can maintain neutral buoyancy.
Kit remove & replace (both on the surface and underwater) are a required part of the PADI OW programme. This is also true of SSI and BSAC...and most other agencies that I am aware of.
Are you sure that you were not taught this on your OW course? PADI? If so, then your instructor was certainly violating standards.
Can you remember what you were taught on your OW course? It'd be worth comparing this against the standard program (search threads here to identify those standard skills).
Seriously... you might want to double check what you were taught at OW class.
It is highly unlikely that the tank would have come away from the regulator. As long as the regulator links the tank to your mouth, you are alive. If you couldn't use the tank to inflate your BCD, you could still orally inflate (please tell me you wer taught to do that?) to achieve buoyancy. On an ascent, you'd only need to dump air, so the inflation is unnecessary until you reach the surface... once there, you could either remove the BCD (you had no weight belt on) or orally inflate, to ensure adequate floatation.
The standard pre-dive safety check should cover all of these points... so that both you, and your buddy, are aware of all the clips, fastenings, weights etc etc.
The learning point is that new equipment needs to be understood, tested and practised with. You need to adapt all of your existing skills for the new equipment... before you have to rely on it.
1. You can always orally inflate the BCD. This should have been taught on the OW course. However, the tank slipping from the cam band, does not normally result in a loss of air supply... the regulator will usually stay attached.
2. If you need to ditch weights, then you must practice and be slick at performing that skill. It is taught on the OW course, but you must continue practicing and ensure you adapt the drill to any variation of equipment you use.
It isn't a question of fault. You are a novice diver and your development in scuba diving is a learning process. Sometimes we learn on courses, sometimes we learn from mentors, or from observing other divers, sometimes we can learn from internet forums (
The entire reason why novice divers are limited in terms of depth, decompression, overhead environments etc etc .... is because they are likely to make mistakes. Keeping your diving conservative...and building experience progressively means that your mistakes are not likely to hurt you.
Your decision not to attempt the swim-through was a good one. As was your decision to opt for a shallow, benign dive-site. Take some pride in getting those core decisions right.
Can you imagine if you had attempted the swim-through...and then your tank had slipped....and you had gotten tangled in the swim-through? That would have been a much more serious incident. CONGRATULATIONS for making a wise safety decision at that initial stage in the incident.
Can you imagine if these problems had occured on a much deeper dive? At 130ft? In bad viz?
Don't beat yourself up about what was, in fact, a minor incident. You made just as many great decisions as you did mistakes. You are at a stage in your scuba progression where you are likely to make a few mistakes. It's great that you take the incident seriously...and have sought feedback on it. You'll learn some good lessons...and be a better diver in the long-run for it.
Having a tool....and being able to use a tool are different things.
The OW skills you learnt in class are the tools. Being able to use them effectively in real life is a step beyond the simple 'demonstration' that you give on your OW training.
