West Palm Beach Fatality 59 yo male diver

[Okie Mike]

My open water instructor made us do practice dives in the pool with out inflators disconnected. It is good practice to have to remove your regulator and manually inflate your bc. These skills make you more comfortable in the water. That said, diving a multi-level profile with no power inflator would not be very enjoyable and could create safety issues since you repeatedly have to remove your air supply from your mouth.

 

[Splitlip]

Actually, my message was intended as a kind one. I guess I'm not good at that if it seemed otherwise...

I withdraw my comment. To be frank, I was sitting in a steak house with my daughter last night and when she went to the ladies room I popped out my I-phone and checked in. Clearly I did not take in your entire post; having just re-read it.

 

[DandyDon]

I withdraw my comment. To be frank, I was sitting in a steak house with my daughter last night and when she went to the ladies room I popped out my I-phone and checked in. Clearly I did not take in your entire post; having just re-read it.

Thanks. I do want to be supportive of those personally affected by accidents, the victims friends & family as well as those on the boat trip. It can get disruptive to the goal of this forum at times tho, and sometimes you have to ask a Mod to move a lot to a Passings forum. I remember important threads that were simply deleted here over such disruptions. Anyway, I was trying to be courteous while supporting the need for discussion as well, and I really am not good at that sometimes.

 

[darushin]

My open water instructor made us do practice dives in the pool with out inflators disconnected. It is good practice to have to remove your regulator and manually inflate your bc. These skills make you more comfortable in the water. That said, diving a multi-level profile with no power inflator would not be very enjoyable and could create safety issues since you repeatedly have to remove your air supply from your mouth.

It's Actually not hard, My first sidemount dive was done in a cave with no inflator (borrowed buddies and the hose had a leak). The hardest part is actually the initial descent, after that you get buoyant and add a little air before descending to keep from descending too fast. Ascents are pretty much normal providing you don't dump too much air.

Daru

 

[Splitlip]

I think some people carry an extra inflator hose for that sorta thing too

I'm one who does. I have a dive alert attached to the hose. I removed the guts from the DA's quick disconnect so there is no need to slide the collar back. I can inflate my halcyon with one hand by gripping the DA in my palm and positioning my index and middle fingers around the nipple's flange.
It gets clipped off to the lower right hand corner of my plate when not in use. No clutter. If you you look at my profile pic you'll see it clipped near my only real "clutter/dangle". That being my reel.

 

[clownfishsydney]

Bowlofpuntias, no, a malfunctioning inflator would not cause me to abort a dive, even at 50 m. I used to have a BCD that needed the inflator to be cleaned every 20 dives or so or else it stuck on. If I forgot or it happened early, then I had to pop the hose. No problem, even at 50 m. All you need to do is blow some air in.

Different thing if the dump valve is leaking, yes, you do need to abort as you cannot keep air in the BCD. As my many experiments for the Gabe Watson trial showed, when negatively bouyant, you really do chew up the air.

 

[bowlofpetunias]

Oh I would have to agree CFS I wouldn't abort either unless there were some other factors. Just orally inflate.. no worries about the inflater attached or not!

 

[ramblinwreckdiver]

He was family of mine. :crying2:

---------- Post Merged at 04:00 PM ---------- Previous Post was at 03:53 PM ----------

He wasn't diving solo. His son was in the water with him along with others. Also, please don't comment smart alleck things when you don't know all of the facts right off. His family, like myself, may be and are reading this!!

OkieGirl- I agree. I searched this because I know his other son who lives in my town. I was looking for information about the incident- what I found was a lot of conjecture. While the topics may be worth debating, a new thread unrelated to the accident woudl be more appropriate.

 

[MG11]

No, as stated until and as facts come out the "conjecture" is exactly what THIS forum is for. A Condolences forum is the place for messages of sympathy which we all have because we are fellow divers and understand the risks involved in a sport we love.

If through "conjecture" someone learns something that may save their life someday then the purpose of this forum is served.

It has been stated that those personally involved may not find comforting what they read on THIS forum and should understand that.

Mike

 

[Splitlip]

OkieGirl- I agree. I searched this because I know his other son who lives in my town. I was looking for information about the incident- what I found was a lot of conjecture. While the topics may be worth debating, a new thread unrelated to the accident woudl be more appropriate.

Georgia Tech. I got nothing to say but I'm a Boiler Maker.