My tank nearly slid off my BCD yesterday. What would you do?

[drbill]

I've had it happen twice in 50 years of diving. Of courese for the first 28 years I never used a BCD, only a backpack (not backplate). First, prior to your dive make sure the tank bands are cinched down properly... prevention is worth a pound of cure (or however that saying goes). One of my incidents was due to a cam band cinch that had trapped the end of the tank belt underneath it and came loose. If I had caught it topside it wouldn't have become an issue.

Two, your buddy should be close enough to render assistance. Since they have far greater visual access to the situation, they can resolve it quickly (I dive solo so that is rarely an option for me, hence my focus on prevention).

Three, If there is no one to assist you, and depending on depth and water conditions, you should be able to remove the BCD and tank while breathing off the reg and remount the tank to the BCD, then don it again. This was a skill taught in my open water course many decades ago but I don't know if it is still being taught these days. I think it should be.

The other time it happened to me I was solo on a deep dive. I was easily able to slowly swim the rig up to where another diver could assist me.

 

[triplecove]

I guess there is an argument here to stay away from integrated weight systems. They would really complicate dealing with this issue at depth.

 

[Steve_C]

Or the diver may be narced at 30 ft and not notice:

Had an instabuddy in the Keys. Part way through the dive I looked over and his tank was completely out of the strap. It was a partially empty buoyant AL80 and was sticking straight up like a can buoy. He was slowing swimming along unaware. I went over to help put it back in. Took me a couple minutes of communication with him before he understood what the problem was and then I reattached. His only comment afterwards back on the boat was "It felt a little funny."

---------- Post added August 14th, 2013 at 09:20 AM ----------

I dive integrated weights. Liked the weight in the wetsuit idea but I can see how fishing them out if they sink a ways could be a hassle. I have recently started wearing a pair of neoprene shorts over my wetsuits (whichever one I am wearing that day) since I like the pockets better both for removal and putting in of stuff. Motivated by this thread, I just checked and my weight pockets fit in my short pockets. Problem solved for me. Everything in pockets is on a line so takes all of 10 seconds to dump the pockets and put the weight pockets in. Same for reassemble.

 

[Becky Goodwin]

I had to demonstrate removal and replacement of scuba equipment whilst underwater for my IE.
My heart dropped when I found this out, but I ended up scoring pretty high with my demo in the end!

 

[flots am]

I guess there is an argument here to stay away from integrated weight systems. They would really complicate dealing with this issue at depth.

It works fine either way. You just need to practice.

 

[eelnoraa]

Similar happened to me before. I noticed the top camband wasn't tight at all when I was changing tank for the 2nd dive. Luckily, I used two cambands, so the tank was still quite secured. To minimize dry camband issue, I always do this now. The night before the diving, I assemble the rig at home, test it, then move the entire rig into my car. I soak the camband in the kitchen sink before mount the tank. So I know the first dive, the camband will be tight.

I agree with TSandM, if a camband comes loose during a dive, I will have my teammate to fix it for me. If I work both my camband loose while losing all my teammates, that is a very bad day for me. I guess if that happen, I will have no choice but take the rig off and fix the tank.

 

[Tortuga68]

... prevention is worth a pound of cure (or however that saying goes)

An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure

Or in metric, 0.0283495 kilograms of prevention is worth 0.453592 kilograms of cure

 

[scubadiver888]

A few problems with your question. First, don't get in the water without making sure the tank straps are tight enough. When the straps get wet they will stretch. Wet the straps and use the cam lock to ratchet the strap tight, taking out some of the stretch in the strap. You'll need to slack off the cam lock but only just enough to lock it.

Assuming you didn't properly tighten the strap, your buddy not being around is a huge problem. I have seen some students fail to properly tighten their strap. Their buddy helps then put the tank back in and tighten the strap. Once the buddy gets the tank in place, they will hold it with their knees and tighten the strap.

Another option is to take the BCD off and put the tank back in yourself. If you cannot take your BCD off, fix your gear and put it back on because all your weight is in the BCD then you need to practice taking off your BCD and putting it back on.

If I dive warm water and steel tanks I have zero weights (my tank and BP are my weights). If I need to take my gear off I keep one arm hooked on the equipment so I don't head for the surface. When I first learned to dive I had a BCD with integrated weights. Have the same issue when I first tried to take my gear off. I learned to take my gear off without shooting to the surface. I had to wear some of my weights on a belt back then.

If you are doing it now, start to practice your 20 skills. Since the day I learned to dive I take the time to do a regulator recovery, mask recovery, take all my gear off and put it back on, etc. I think you dive log should have a list of the 20 skills. If not, maybe they are in your student manual. Worst case, ask someone here to post them. You should be comfortable with all your skills. If you are (a) you probably won't end up in this situation again or (b) you'll feel comfortable doing any of these options.

 

[Tigerman]

Seen it happen lots of times, never happened to myself though (knock on wood). Ive seen both the suggested fixing it yourself by donning the BC and buddy fixing it. Both where more distractions than issues.

 

[gcarter]

Similar happened to me before. I noticed the top camband wasn't tight at all when I was changing tank for the 2nd dive. Luckily, I used two cambands, so the tank was still quite secured. To minimize dry camband issue, I always do this now. The night before the diving, I assemble the rig at home, test it, then move the entire rig into my car. I soak the camband in the kitchen sink before mount the tank. So I know the first dive, the camband will be tight.

I agree with TSandM, if a camband comes loose during a dive, I will have my teammate to fix it for me. If I work both my camband loose while losing all my teammates, that is a very bad day for me. I guess if that happen, I will have no choice but take the rig off and fix the tank.

I don't understand this. If, while tightening the bands you noticed one was not tight, why did you not re-tighten it? Was it broken?

Proper technique should well secure the tank, even with a dry strap, although wet can make it a bit more of a sure thing. Wet or dry, though, I exert the same effort.