Why would you want to dump weight?

[H2Andy]

yes, rescue is a great class. i learned a great deal.

the way we did it, though, was to inflate the victim's BC slowly, get them positive,
and ride them to the surface.

 

[Code Monkey]

The only one that comes to mind is if you're lame enough to jump off the boat without turning your air on and inflating your bc ..... but then you couldn't have done your predive checks or buddy check either , could you !

I think the "being able to easily dump weights" thing is just hype to make newbies feel somehow safer. The truth is that you're a lot safer when they are sufficiently hard to ditch that accidental loss is almost impossible. If you have your gear set up correctly, you can reach your valves.

Darlene

I was diving off Catalina when I noticed that I was sinking. I added air to my BC but a vigorous bubbling sound told me that it had a leak (it turns out that I didn't secure the inflator hose well enough after cleaning it the previous time). I swam to the surface but, being in cold water, I was pretty heavily weighted. I had to do a long surface swim, the whole time trying to stay afloat. I didn't end up ditching my weights but I was about to do this several times and, had I needed to do so, I would have been happy that I could.

 

[Diver294]

I was diving off Catalina when I noticed that I was sinking. I added air to my BC but a vigorous bubbling sound told me that it had a leak (it turns out that I didn't secure the inflator hose well enough after cleaning it the previous time). I swam to the surface but, being in cold water, I was pretty heavily weighted. I had to do a long surface swim, the whole time trying to stay afloat. I didn't end up ditching my weights but I was about to do this several times and, had I needed to do so, I would have been happy that I could.

That sounds too close to me.... I probably would have dumped early and given myself a safer margin. Glad you made it!

 

[cdiver2]

My lesson was learned over 20 years ago. Ten divers in pairs working a wreck at 150'. One pair started to ascend, a couple of feet before the first deco stop diver B suddenly went limp and dropped his reg from his mouth he was unconscious diver A dropped Bs weight belt and inflated his horse collar type BC and rode him to the surface (emergency accent ) mouth to mouth was given in the water and CPR once on the boat, he was dead. Coroners verdict death by drowning.
Diver A was bent and taken to a chamber, made a full recovery and went back to diving.
When things go wrong it can go wrong very fast.

 

[MikeFerrara]

My lesson was learned over 20 years ago. Ten divers in pairs working a wreck at 150'. One pair started to ascend, a couple of feet before the first deco stop diver B suddenly went limp and dropped his reg from his mouth he was unconscious diver A dropped Bs weight belt and inflated his horse collar type BC and rode him to the surface (emergency accent ) mouth to mouth was given in the water and CPR once on the boat, he was dead. Coroners verdict death by drowning.
Diver A was bent and taken to a chamber, made a full recovery and went back to diving.
When things go wrong it can go wrong very fast.

I wouldn't have dumped his weights at depth unless that was the only way that I could get him up.

 

[Scuba_Vixen]

I was diving off Catalina when I noticed that I was sinking. I added air to my BC but a vigorous bubbling sound told me that it had a leak (it turns out that I didn't secure the inflator hose well enough after cleaning it the previous time). I swam to the surface but, being in cold water, I was pretty heavily weighted. I had to do a long surface swim, the whole time trying to stay afloat. I didn't end up ditching my weights but I was about to do this several times and, had I needed to do so, I would have been happy that I could.

ALL of which would never had occured if you had done the basic pre dive checks and/or the post maintainance checks. Your incident points out, once again, the need to dive a balanced rig and that any ditching, should be, a consideration once on the surface to facilitate staying there.

Glad you're alright. Sometimes we learn the most from Sudden High Intensity Training happening.

Darlene

 

[Code Monkey]

While I fully support a throrough pre-dive checkout, I don't think it would have saved me in this, specific, instance. It turns out that the fitting on my BC was working its way loose. It didn't leak at the surface, only at depth and only after about 20 minutes of diving (in fact, I think this may have been the second dive of the day -- it's been a while). We tightened the fitting at that point and, since we knew that was a potential problem, checked it several more times that day. It worked its way loose one other time (after which we disassembled the mechanism and fixed the problem).

 

[cdiver2]

I wouldn't have dumped his weights at depth unless that was the only way that I could get him up.

What did it matter weights dumped bc inflated your not going to go up any quicker than that, then at the surface straight on to mouth to mouth and he still drowned. Where would leaving the weight belt on have helped ?

 

[cdiver2]

DARLENE its easier to check a weight belt buckle than it is a valve, I would bet there are more valves malfunction during a dive that were working at the pre dive check then there are weight belts that come undone by them selfs.

 

[Scuba_Vixen]

DARLENE its easier to check a weight belt buckle than it is a valve, I would bet there are more valves malfunction during a dive that were working at the pre dive check then there are weight belts that come undone by them selfs.

If you look at it as "accidental" weight loss against valve malfunctions, I'd bet it's lost weights that occur more often.