Taking BCD off and putting back on again

[WetDawg]

Assuming your BC fits you - I have seen 200lb men struggling with medium sized BC's - trust me it will never look smooth.

Try this helpful hint:

Try practicing in water about chest deep, inflate your BC so that it's weightless, while you are standing try taking it on and off several times.

Make sure you loosen all your straps - most common mistake I see.

 

[CBulla]

Make sure you loosen all your straps - most common mistake I see.

Right on! I see folks beating themselves up pretty good on BC's that are still adjusted to the last dive. Something that can be done to avoid this is to loosen the gear up as it's taken off (most of the time its done sitting somewhere) and after a tank change or prior to packing the gear to take home ensure all the point of adjustment are let back out almost as far as it can go. A 30 second addition to the routine can save so much struggle later.

In the water the same thing applies. If for some reason the gear is removed, adjust the gear looser as its being removed to give you the maximum amount of room to work out of the gear. When donning the gear again it makes it easier to put arms through large floating arm holes than it does little ones and its easier to get the cummerbund or waist strap and crotch strap back on when its completely unbuckled and you can roll into it.

OK.. so I don't have anything better to do on some dives except play with gear and do drills... laugh at me if you will, thats OK.

 

[asaara]

Under water it's very very hard if you are in a full 7 mil suit and integrated weights.

...however, it's still easier than with the same equipment on land with the force of gravity, nothing to rest your tank on, and your buddy already in the water! Throw it in and hop in after it!

 

[PerroneFord]

I had to do this in my Nitrox class the other week. In 10ft of water. With doubles. No weight belt, 5mm suit. Everythnig had to come off.. fins, mask, regs. What a PITA.

 

[Sideband]

When doing this skill under water, always keep the tank close to your body. If you let it swing away from you you will lose control of it and have more trouble. Think one step ahead and plan what you need to do to get to that next step.

Joe

 

[Walter]

Don't over inflate your BC.

 

[PerroneFord]

Actually, if I had thought of it, I would have inflated my BC so it would have come to me instead of me fighting to get to IT. I managed to dislodge my LPI trying to mine back on in the water and had to fix that problem too...

 

[Walter]

Inflate so it floats, but don't over inflate so you can get it lower in the water easily. There is a happy medium.

 

[PerroneFord]

Yea, I missed that inflate it so it floats part! Mine was solidly anchored on the bottom. Instructor gave us no example to work from. Wanted us to figure it out. I finally got it done by emptying my lungs, dropping to the floor, and rolling the rig onto my back to anchor me down! Getting into it was fun... Especially trying to get the crotch strap, bungee necklace and long hose.. then doing the LPI.

It was keystone cops stuff!

 

[m7scuba]

Perrone,
Did you have to surface first? I just did the pool session for Rescue and we had to take everything off at the bottom, come up, then go back down and put all the gear on. I've got a weight intigrated back inflate bc, so wearing a 3mil made this fun (hanging on to the BC almost vertical in the water with the reg in my mouth). I finally flipped into the bc to get it on my back to keep me down. After that it was cake - of course the long hose and bungee necklace added several steps and I had to switch between regs a couple of times.
Brian