My weight belt drop to the ocean bed

[blues_diver]

I was at 10 metre towards the end of my dive, when my weight belt buckle give way and the belt drop into the ocean. As I am about 3 metre above the nearest rock/coral, I cannot grab hold of anything and I started to ascend. I try to deflate my BCD but is of no use and my tank left with about 60 Bar.

Hence I hit the surface from 10 metre in less than a minute. I must admit that I did panic a bit as I was trying hard to maintain my depth. Luckily I did remember to continue breathing or else I may have cause damage to my lungs.

My question is what is the best course of action I should have taken. Should I fin downwards to avoid ascending too fast? At that time I was too pre-occupied to maintain my depth that I did not thought of anything else except deflating my BCD.

Thanks for any comment

Cheers

 

[miketsp]

Well there are a few considerations here. First I think it really comes down to how buoyant you are. If I was in a full 7mm and had just lost 28lbs, finning downwards is not going to slow me down much so I would lose the advantage of being able to look up and check for obstacles. If you're going to surface at speed the last thing you want to be doing is coming up under the boat or worse yet under a sharp prop.
Also in my particular case I have trouble clearing when in a vertical head down position so if I couldn't control the ascent I'd rather be looking up, saying "Aaaaaah" and flaring to create some resistance.

If I was in a 3mm shorty then with a bit of effort I would be able to head down, dumping my BC at the rear bottom dump and try to grab a rock or something at the bottom to hold on to while my buddy found my weight belt.

 

[The Chairman]

First... How much weight did you have on?

Regardless of that though, anything over six pounds (IF you are weighted right) should be on your BC. Keep only five to ten pounds on your weight belt, so that you won't become so positive if/when you lose the belt. BTW, many BCs have stow away pockets for weights, and/or you can opt for a neutrally or negatively bouyant tank as well.

Finally, it would be my guess that IF the buckle let the belt slip, that it was a metal buckle. The plastic ones either work right or not at all, while the metal ones can get bent and not show it. Of course, if an inadvertant hand or snag caught the buckle, it really doesn't matter WHAT material it was made of.

As a caveat, I hardly ever need weights, so I can't compare. I use 4 pounds with an AL80 in ocean water. Other than that, this fat old diver just deals with his position in the water by the way I breathe.

 

[The Chairman]

One more thing...

Panic, or near panic will cause you to fully inflate your lungs as you hyperventilate. Force your breathing to stay relaxed and try to keep from over filling your lungs.

 

[mossym]

yeah, like netdoc said, try and distribute your weights, so that losing weights from one location will make you neutrally bouyant, but not so bouyant that you can't at least slow your ascent..

 

[mrobinson]

Dear Blues diver - you did what we'd all do - float! Just take it as a bad dive. I'm glad to hear you're ok. Could you have done anything more... only in theory - you did just fine under that circumstance. What you described happened too fast to do anything else... (sorry to the other posts.)

 

[String]

10m really isnt that deep and "less than a minute" isnt that rapid a rate. I assume it wasnt a particulary heavy weight belt and/or thin exposure suit.

It maybe worth doing what some do and on reaching the bottom on a dive tightening the belt so it doesnt become loose with suit compression.

Im not a fan of having weights in the BC - it causes complications if you need to dekit underwater for any reason as you lose grip on the BC you become a rocket.

 

[ClevelandDiver]

I was at 10 metre towards the end of my dive, when my weight belt buckle give way and the belt drop into the ocean. As I am about 3 metre above the nearest rock/coral, I cannot grab hold of anything and I started to ascend. I try to deflate my BCD but is of no use and my tank left with about 60 Bar.

Hence I hit the surface from 10 metre in less than a minute. I must admit that I did panic a bit as I was trying hard to maintain my depth. Luckily I did remember to continue breathing or else I may have cause damage to my lungs.

My question is what is the best course of action I should have taken. Should I fin downwards to avoid ascending too fast? At that time I was too pre-occupied to maintain my depth that I did not thought of anything else except deflating my BCD.

Thanks for any comment

Cheers

Sounds like you did everything you could under the circumstance.
I am a big fan of steel tanks, integrated weight systems and making sure a portion of your weight is non-ditchable.

I have never seen anyone have to take off their BC under water (except controlled training sessions), but I have seen multiple weight belts on the bottom. Including 2 at 125 feet. One of which was 30lbs. I hope they lost it close to the surface like you did and that no one was underneath them when they did!

 

[String]

A lot seems to depend how much weight you use.

Ive yet to see a single WI jacket that looks capable of supporting 25-30lb of lead securely that divers need here. On sites i tend to find a lot of pouches on the bottom (some belts but fewer). Hot tropical destinations with only 6-8lbs or so maybe ok.

I have seen people dekit to remove entanglement or to get out of a hole of some sort or in some cases just to sort out messed up hose routing or a sliding tank. Its rare but can happen. The last thing you want with no kit underwater is to have to hold on hard to something whilst floating above it and trying to cut or reconnect something. Its far easier to have a belt.

Best compromise ive found are weight harnesses. Far more secure than a belt but not part of the BC.

Oh and anyone that does manage to cram 25lb of weight and a 15l steel tank onto a BC is going to have to lift it onto the boat themselves. Im buggered im im screwing my back up lifting that over the side in one go!

 

[mossym]

with an al80 i needed 28lbs to be properly weighted, it all fit in my black diamond, with room for more weights. However, your points are right on

1) it weighed a ton to lift when fully assemble..not for the casual diver
2) if i had to take it off on the bottom, it was difficult, needed a lot of practise, and often involved hanging onto it while my wetsuit tried to take me to the surface

however, i just switched to drysuit, and my backplate arrived last night, so guess what i'm looking for? a weightbelt...