What went wrong on your dive today/recently? And what did you learn?

[Wibble]

Would be interesting to hear of people's incidents and what you learned from it.

 

[Wibble]

I've got a new drysuit! Yay, it's been a long saga but seems to have been resolved.
The Customer Service Mantra: the problem's long forgotten whilst the resolution is remembered.

It was its maiden dive along with the custom heated undersuit. Have lots of dives booked from next weekend onwards as the season starts.

Had the usual faffing around with the suit, getting the drygloves sorted out and installing the Thermovalve for the heating battery wire. Quite a lot of distraction.

Finally got the suit on in a diving lake. Lovely. Fins on, sidemount kit donned (can't dive a rebreather solo there). Finally face down, dump the wing, dump the suit, descended down the ramp to 2m/6ft and... felt a load of water on my chest and stomach. Less than 30 seconds and it's leaking :-(

Quickly swam back and realised I'd forgotten the drysuit inflator hose. Maybe it was that thinks he.

Again, as soon as I was underwater the suit began to flood again.

Out. Damn it. Must be the ThermoValve...

Undersuit was soaked. Right down to my underpants; so a full change required.

Hung the suit up for drying and noticed 10cm/4" of the SiTech QuickNeck seal was poking out where the sealing ring had popped out. You know, the one they tell you to check before diving the suit! It was behind my neck, so immediately I was immersed, the water poured into the suit.

Easily fixed that using the SiTech tool.

Now need to try this out again!


Lessons learned:

• It's a new suit; check everything!
• Fixation on the wrong thing isn't great when there's a massive hole in the neck.
• Check the neck seal before donning.

 

[steinbil]

Got very nauseous right after surfacing on a nice wreck dive in Portugal. Learned that you can get motion sickness from heavy surge underwater. Possibly compounded by overheating

 

[Cheizz]

My big learnings are from yesterday. First dive in my new drysuit (in fact, my first dive in a drysuit in 4 years). Nothing really 'went wrong', but I did learn quite a few things:

Lessons learned:

• The neck seal is tight. So tight it got really uncomfortable at one point. Not sure if the seal is to blame or a combination of all things stressful and fairly new...
• Buoyancy was all over the place. Nothing that isn't connected to getting used to dry suit diving I suppose
• Weight distribution makes a huge difference. I was top-heavy and rolled over on my back a few times. I definitely need to shift some weight away from the back and more to the front of my body. I will install some weight pockets on the waist belt of my wing (yesterday, I was diving with a separate weight belt, because I wasn't sure how much weight I would need and where to place it).
• Proper weighting would help tremendously. I used 12 kg yesterday. Next dive, I'll bring it back to 10 kg, and better positioned too.
• I did dive with negatively buoyant fins yesterday, ending up in the sea horse trim. There was the weight issue of course. But next time, I'll bring my neutral fins too. It is just another variable in the entire picture.
• My dry suit fits well and works well (keeps me completely dry, operates as it should
• My undergarments are just right for the conditions.
• I will install my dry gloves for the next dive as well.

 

[RedSeaDiver2]

I've got a new drysuit! Yay, it's been a long saga but seems to have been resolved. Customer service: the problem's long forgotten but the resolution is remembered.

It was its maiden dive along with the custom heated undersuit. Have lots of dives booked from next weekend onwards as the season starts.

Had the usual faffing around with the suit, getting the drygloves sorted out and installing the Thermovalve for the heating battery wire. Quite a lot of distraction.

Finally got the suit on in a diving lake. Lovely. Fins on, sidemount kit donned (can't dive a rebreather solo there). Finally face down, dump the wing, dump the suit, descended down the ramp to 2m/6ft and... felt a load of water on my chest and stomach. Less than 30 seconds and it's leaking :-(

Quickly swam back and realised I'd forgotten the drysuit inflator hose. Maybe it was that thinks he.

Again, as soon as I was underwater the suit began to flood again.

Out. Damn it. Must be the ThermoValve...

Undersuit was soaked. Right down to my underpants; so a full change required.

Hung the suit up for drying and noticed 10cm/4" of the SiTech QuickNeck seal was poking out where the sealing ring had popped out. You know, the one they tell you to check before diving the suit! It was behind my neck, so immediately I was immersed, the water poured into the suit.

Easily fixed that using the SiTech tool.

Now need to try this out again!


Lessons learned:

• It's a new suit; check everything!
• Fixation on the wrong thing isn't great when there's a massive hole in the neck.
• Check the neck seal before donning.

Haven't been in the water lately so can't add to this thread, but what brand drysuit and custom heated undersuit?

 

[Marie13]

My big learnings are from yesterday. First dive in my new drysuit (in fact, my first dive in a drysuit in 4 years). Nothing really 'went wrong', but I did learn quite a few things:

Lessons learned:

• The neck seal is tight. So tight it got really uncomfortable at one point. Not sure if the seal is to blame or a combination of all things stressful and fairly new...
• Buoyancy was all over the place. Nothing that isn't connected to getting used to dry suit diving I suppose
• Weight distribution makes a huge difference. I was top-heavy and rolled over on my back a few times. I definitely need to shift some weight away from the back and more to the front of my body. I will install some weight pockets on the waist belt of my wing (yesterday, I was diving with a separate weight belt, because I wasn't sure how much weight I would need and where to place it).
• Proper weighting would help tremendously. I used 12 kg yesterday. Next dive, I'll bring it back to 10 kg, and better positioned too.
• I did dive with negatively buoyant fins yesterday, ending up in the sea horse trim. There was the weight issue of course. But next time, I'll bring my neutral fins too. It is just another variable in the entire picture.
• My dry suit fits well and works well (keeps me completely dry, operates as it should
• My undergarments are just right for the conditions.
• I will install my dry gloves for the next dive as well.

Neck seal can be so tight it can press on an artery in your neck and cause big issues. You need to trim it some more.

 

[Johnoly]

When cleaning / soaking my regs after last week's dive, I noticed a few bubbles coming from near the 1st stage. I started jiggling parts and the high pressure hose let out a stream where the rubber meets the steel crimp. DGX shipped the replacement same day and was replaced the following day.

Lesson learned > Always clean your regs pressurized and soaking or your NEXT dive will be Fubar'd.

 

[Belzelbub]

Not today, but fairly recently. Serves as a reminder to not be overweighted. I was not, so it was manageable.

Noticed during pool session for a class that my Octo Z was bubbling from the release/manual inflate button. Dive shop noticed that the button was stripped, so they replaced it. Worked fine for most of the next day for the actual dives. However, toward the end, it started leaking again. Noticed it this time when I removed my gear in water for a rescue tow. I inflated, but gear started to sink. Luckily my instructor grabbed it before it sank to the bottom 100+ feet below. Doing the rest of the class with no way to establish positive buoyancy other than dumping weights, wasn't exactly fun. Hardest part was doing surface tows as I had to fin down a bit to stay up.

 

[Cheizz]

Not today, but fairly recently. Serves as a reminder to not be overweighted. I was not, so it was manageable.

Noticed during pool session for a class that my Octo Z was bubbling from the release/manual inflate button. Dive shop noticed that the button was stripped, so they replaced it. Worked fine for most of the next day for the actual dives. However, toward the end, it started leaking again. Noticed it this time when I removed my gear in water for a rescue tow. I inflated, but gear started to sink. Luckily my instructor grabbed it before it sank to the bottom 100+ feet below. Doing the rest of the class with no way to establish positive buoyancy other than dumping weights, wasn't exactly fun. Hardest part was doing surface tows as I had to fin down a bit to stay up.

I had to look that one up... an 'octo' that leaks and causes 'inflation' problems... Didn't know there was such a thing where a secondary second stage and inflator were combined.

Lessons learned:

• There actually is such a thing

 

[Lorenzoid]

Yesterday I learned not to laugh when my wife somehow managed to hit herself in the face with a second stage on a long hose while gearing up.