Not enough buoyancy

[haha49]

Well if you increase the thickness of the wetsuit you need more weight. For me it's 15lbs since I use a 7mm suit. Dump the weight you shoot up like a cork. You could always dump it in shallow water and see what happens when I have all the air out I don't float or sink. I use my breathing to go up and down once you get used to it you don't even need the bdc. I find I only use it on the surface that's it. under water I don't add air I just dump it all out and go.

 

[dumpsterDiver]

I too have done hundreds of DM / safety diver dives and have only seen one BC failure. A new DR out of the box and it leaked in Cow. We got out OK without complications. I have well over 800 dives without a single failure.

300 feet on air...I will not even address that one.

I bet your boat did not cater to Divers Supply, did it? They used to show up with the crappiest (Diver Supply Brand) BC's and regulators.. Failures were not rare at all. Their AOW students were also VERY prone to "having problems".

 

[KevinNM]

I bet your boat did not cater to Divers Supply, did it? They used to show up with the crappiest (Diver Supply Brand) BC's and regulators.. Failures were not rare at all. Their AOW students were also VERY prone to "having problems".

This is the company that killed 3 divers in a single incident due to a BC failure in the 90s?

 

[Doppler]

Steve, we have been producing our own elbows for years, along with the rest of the wing fitting. I hated the brittle ABS elbows and fittings the industry uses.

We mold all of the rigid fitting parts from Acetal (Think Delrin, Delrin is the Trade name for Dupont's Acetal resin) We happen to use Celanese, not Dupont, but that is a minor point.


Good grief man if you need a better elbow ping me.

Tobin

Will do mate... you at BTS this weekend?

---------- Post added March 26th, 2015 at 07:06 AM ----------

Learning to flare out and flip over is an important skill in my book.

Not disputing it at all, mate. But you and I know full well that there are many skills not taught, poorly taught, or forgotten because of lackluster emphasis during instruction. But we digress. I will say though in fairness and full disclosure... my buddies and I steer away from the bargain bin when buying life-support kit.

 

[cool_hardware52]

Will do mate... you at BTS this weekend?

Not this year.

Tobin

 

[Hatul]

I agree that Wing/BC failures should be relatively easy to avoid with good pre-dive checks, but running out of air should be entirely avoidable too, yet people still run out of air and get in trouble. I think it is safer/better to dive in a manner that will allow you to survive if you run out of air OR have a total BC failure. In a perfect worls, neither would occur, but my world isn't perfect.

I used to work as a DM/Guide and I saw many BC failures with recreational divers and recreational students.

Once I was helping with some people doing an openwater dive to 300 ft (on air) and as I checked the world record holder's BC (out of habit) she somewhat objected to me messing with her gear before a big dive-- until I showed her that her OP relief valve cap was half unscrewed. When a BC will experience total failure due to something as simple as a cap that loosens up "by itself".. I think it is important to check the gear AND devise a good plan B. If the dump valve is at the top of the BC... you will have a problem if you want to add air to it.

As for ditching lead.. as far as I know none of the training agencies would condone an instructor directing a student to ditch lead and then practice a buoyant ascent. Too much liability to allow that. However that doesn't prevent me from doing it with my kids... I want them to know what will happen if they drop (or accidentally lose) a small weight belt at depth. The answer is: NOT MUCH..

This video, at t = 2 minutes shows my daughter dropping her belt and ascending with my help on her third time ever using scuba gear. Learning to flare out and flip over is an important skill in my book.


[video]https://youtu.be/NmeQmWZ_tzY?list=PLjC5PqdqiSg6JnRCYiwj8AIwwCxmy9mj w[/video]

In your video you're wearing very little if any neoprene and the ascent is through a short depth column. It's very different for someone dropping weights at say 90 feet and wearing a thick neoprene suit. It would be very hard to control such an ascent.

 

[dumpsterDiver]

In your video you're wearing very little if any neoprene and the ascent is through a short depth column. It's very different for someone dropping weights at say 90 feet and wearing a thick neoprene suit. It would be very hard to control such an ascent.

Why would it be harder? It depends on how much lead they are dropping. my daughter dropped 5-6 lbs... a larger person dropping 10 lbs would not be much different. The ascent from a shallow depth is where the expansion of any air in the BC is fastest. The expansion during the deeper portions of the ascent will be EASIER.. Not harder?


Of course, if they were neutral at 90 ft and they dropped 10 lbs to start the ascent- they would have to dump some air from the BC on ascent, but that is facilitated by the flared out, back down position.. all they have to do it relax, spread out, operate the BC dump valve and look where they are going..

I have video of controlling an ascent when 50 lbs buoyant... still not impossible with the correct position- although the ascent rate will exceed 60 feet per minute.

 

[ams511]

300 feet on air...I will not even address that one.

Not to thread jack but back in the day (up till mid-90s) there was such a thing as "deep air". In fact there was a shop in Orlando, Hal Watts Scuba, that used to teach it up at 40 fathom grotto. It is funny because when reading Hal Watts or PSA bio, that is never mentioned.

 

[TONY CHANEY]

I bet your boat did not cater to Divers Supply, did it? They used to show up with the crappiest (Diver Supply Brand) BC's and regulators.. Failures were not rare at all. Their AOW students were also VERY prone to "having problems".

I did not say anything about a boat but yes there were boat dives as well. I have no idea as to where you call gear sold by DS crappy but if you consider Hollis, OMS, Scuba Pro, Dive Rite, Oceanic, Sherwood, etc. crap then I guess so. I enjoyed the video and the SP BC as well as the contant leaking from the backup reg. Was that an Air 2? OBTW, there is no DS in Okinawa. What do you want, a big blue H? Those were sold at Torii Station. But heck they even had problems with their inflators. So glad to hear that you judge their AOW divers with having problems...I guess that you never had any. "He
who is without sin among you, let him be the first to throw a stone..."

 

[dumpsterDiver]

I did not say anything about a boat but yes there were boat dives as well. I have no idea as to where you call gear sold by DS crappy but if you consider Hollis, OMS, Scuba Pro, Dive Rite, Oceanic, Sherwood, etc. crap then I guess so. I enjoyed the video and the SP BC as well as the contant leaking from the backup reg. Was that an Air 2? OBTW, there is no DS in Okinawa. What do you want, a big blue H? Those were sold at Torii Station. But heck they even had problems with their inflators. So glad to hear that you judge their AOW divers with having problems...I guess that you never had any. "He
who is without sin among you, let him be the first to throw a stone..."

DS used to sell their own "brand" of Bc's and regulators. I forget the name, but someone knows it - that was the gear I was referring to. IIRC, that was the brand their students used exclusively.

As for my leaking gear...LOL.. it is 15 ft deep, I think I was testing a vintage reg I had.

As for their AOW students... this was years ago, but I was able to discern a distinct pattern in that their AOW students were less prepared than their OW students and noticeably worse than people coming from all the other shops..