No air at 40' at night

[billt4sf]

I don't know if I would say the zip ties are unreliable.

In my case the zip tie had broken. When we came up there was a broken zip tie remnant left.

- Bill

---------- Post Merged at 11:49 AM ---------- Previous Post was at 11:46 AM ----------

Bill:

Come out diving with us. We welcome newbies (because they will be assimilated).

www.northcoastdivers.org

Fish-man, We look forward to trying new dives sites and to meeting new dive friends. At this point we are focused on getting used to Monterey diving, first at the Breakwater, and we're about to take a dry suit class. Once we get more comfortable with everything, we'll be looking for new dives sites and to go more on our own.

Thanks for the invite!

- Bill & Emily

---------- Post Merged at 11:52 AM ---------- Previous Post was at 11:46 AM ----------

Personally, I believe that if a diver doesn't know 5 ways of dealing with this problem then they shouldn't be diving.

I would imagine that would cover about 90% of new divers.

- Bill

---------- Post Merged at 12:47 PM ---------- Previous Post was at 11:46 AM ----------

I agree about that. If you are not in control enough to find your octo, what makes you think you going to be competent to do a CESA? I consider dumping weights a last ditch move to survive. Remember you may rise right into the pitching hull of your dive boat. and if the embolish and drowning don't kill you, that will make short work of what ever is left of you... If you hit an anchor line or a some other obstruction, you will be too boyant to do anything useful, except admire how sh*tty your day turned out. Once on the surface, you are still going to be in do-do because now you may or may not be able to right yourself because you are floating in like a cork bass-ackward. If you were panicking before doing this you will probably not being doing much better on the surface... CESA and boyuant accents are lovely important to know and keep as last resorts, but I still think I would rather reach down and grab(in order of preference) my octo or pony, my buddies octo, the instructructors/DM octo and finally CESA and last and absolutely least my weight buckle. dumping weight once you are the surface is fine if you are trying to get control of a disaster, like a distressed diver or overwelming surface condition, because it is helping to keep you there, I think the OP made some okay choices in his case. he walked away a wiser man and didn't panic, which was the single most important factor. I think most people would have labeled dumping his weights as a panic move that would have put him away from the rest of party on the surf and possibly with an embolism, and I would not bet he would be in a condition to use a signal whistle to alert the boat of his distress.... hope for the best plan for the worst.

This was helpful, CT. Thanks.

- Bill

 

[John_B]

It's pretty clear to me that flots am was talking about DCS not DCI. Drowning by water and drowning by blood both suck. I assume by "newish" you mean certfied and not comletely new. What would happen is they could be dead and Scubaboard would have enough material for months to pick it apart. Personally, I believe that if a diver doesn't know 5 ways of dealing with this problem then they shouldn't be diving.

You don't think DCI is far more likely than DCS for a newer diver on a 40' dive? Esp. after going OOA?

 

[TSandM]

Humorously, two days after this post I got in the water and my reg was breathing wet. I had specifically checked the zip tie because of this thread before getting in the water. The zip tie remained rock solid but the mouth piece just about it had ripped 1/2 around. I think this thread jinxed me... or I just had a crap old mouth piece... one or the other.

When I did my Full Cave class, the first day involved doing an air-sharing drill with my instructor. After we surfaced, he commented to me that my mouthpiece was barely holding together. I inspected it, and he was right. I think I chewed through the thing during my previous attempt at Cave 2 I was totally unaware that there was anything untoward with it.