Question about DCS

[kkrusell]

So I went diving on Friday afternoon with a couple of friends. The whole dive lasted about 30 minutes and our max depth was 60 feet. We dove the same spot the next day (Saturday) and this time we had four guys so we split up into two buddy teams. About 20 minutes into the dive we were at 70 feet and my entire 20 pound weight belt fell off. So I immediately dumped the air out of my BC and started swimming down to slow down my ascent. I surfaced in about a minute or maybe a little more. The local dive shop told me not to take any hot showers and not to party, but to take it easy. I called DAN too and the guy told me that as of recently it was reasonable to ascend 60 feet per minute and that since at that point (about 5 hours after the dive) I hadn't felt any symptoms to wait out the 24 hours and call back if I felt any localized pain. So right now (Sunday late morning) I have a little soreness in my trapezius muscles, but I think it might be because I slept on the floor last night. I'll wait a couple hours to call DAN back to see if the soreness goes away but I am a bit worried. I am open to other opinions because DAN and my LDS both sort of told me that I would probably be fine. Any thoughts?

 

[knotical]

Sounds like you reacted excellently to a potentially risky situation.

One major agency still says 60 fpm ascent rate, and will probably continue to do so because it was one of the parameters they used when developing their dive tables. That table says you can do a 70 foot, square profile, first dive for 33 minutes without a mandatory safety stop. No one can know if you have DCS without definitive diagnosis (perhaps by going for a chamber ride). But it sounds extremely unlikely.

Not to make light of your concern, but did anyone recover your weight belt?

 

[kkrusell]

Thanks for your input. And no, no one recovered the weight belt. We were actually diving a wall in Lake Champlain and it drops down to about 290 feet. There was however a ledge below us at about 90 feet, so hopefully we can recover it. It was a rented weight belt with a plastic buckle and I'm not diving again until I buy a metal buckle. And I'll definitely look into a weight integrated BC.

 

[caver]

So I went diving on Friday afternoon with a couple of friends. The whole dive lasted about 30 minutes and our max depth was 60 feet. We dove the same spot the next day (Saturday) and this time we had four guys so we split up into two buddy teams. About 20 minutes into the dive we were at 70 feet and my entire 20 pound weight belt fell off. So I immediately dumped the air out of my BC and started swimming down to slow down my ascent. I surfaced in about a minute or maybe a little more. The local dive shop told me not to take any hot showers and not to party, but to take it easy. I called DAN too and the guy told me that as of recently it was reasonable to ascend 60 feet per minute and that since at that point (about 5 hours after the dive) I hadn't felt any symptoms to wait out the 24 hours and call back if I felt any localized pain. So right now (Sunday late morning) I have a little soreness in my trapezius muscles, but I think it might be because I slept on the floor last night. I'll wait a couple hours to call DAN back to see if the soreness goes away but I am a bit worried. I am open to other opinions because DAN and my LDS both sort of told me that I would probably be fine. Any thoughts?

A good reason NOT to wear a weight belt. If you are going to use ditchable weights try a weight harness or a weight intragrated BC. At least then, it is very doubtful you will loose ALL your weight at once. OR dive a SS backplate and a heavy steel tank or tanks and eliminate ALL your ditchable weight.

 

[Dr Deco]

This does not sound as if it was a big gas loading situation. I would not worry much about it.

 

[TSandM]

The only time I've ever lost a weight belt, it was with a plastic buckle. I've replaced all the buckles on all of my gear with metal, and (fingers crossed) no problems since.

 

[Papa_Bear]

When I took my BOW in 1972, 60ft per minute was standard and we didn't do "Safety stops" of course we didn't have BCD's either! The metal buckles are the only way to go! We spend, for good reason, a lot of time scaring new divers, but the safety margin is pretty big, but you learned something on your dive and you didn't panic! A plus for you!