robbcayman
Contributor
I had a terrible thought, what would happen if your bc failed to inflate? It would not inflate with air via your tank or by your mouth. Let's say your down 100 feet on a deco dive, now what do you do???
Your BC fails now what??
- Thread starter robbcayman
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CAPT HOOK
Contributor
Why should you need to inflate your BC?
Just swim slowly to the surface doing your stops along the way. Might be a bit of a problem at the surface if you have to wait for a pick up but, you could drop weights and tread or float til the boat came.
Just swim slowly to the surface doing your stops along the way. Might be a bit of a problem at the surface if you have to wait for a pick up but, you could drop weights and tread or float til the boat came.
You begin to wish you'd bought a drysuit for redudant bouyancy.
In reality, I'd drop my smallest weight and see if it made me any more positive. It could be tiring, but you could swim to the surface. As you go up, you will become more positive.
Not to mention, dive with a buddy: he's got a BC too!
Only reason that you would be unable to inflate at all would be a hole inthe BC, or you ripped out your inflator hose. Both of those could be remedied somewhat with a buddy: he could work to reattach somewhat your hose, depending on how it came off, it might not be possible though, if it was a welded connection that you ripped. If it's just a hole, your buddy could work to hold a finger overit. You could try to stuff something into the hole also, a piece of your wetsuit, just rip off a very small piece.....?
If you are too worried, carry a SMB or lift bag with you. And duct tape and aqua seal.
Worst case scenario, try putting some air into your suit. If you have booties, you could trap some air in them. You'll float up feet first, but it would get you there. Only problem then is you'll be bent like a paper clip.
In reality, I'd drop my smallest weight and see if it made me any more positive. It could be tiring, but you could swim to the surface. As you go up, you will become more positive.
Not to mention, dive with a buddy: he's got a BC too!
Only reason that you would be unable to inflate at all would be a hole inthe BC, or you ripped out your inflator hose. Both of those could be remedied somewhat with a buddy: he could work to reattach somewhat your hose, depending on how it came off, it might not be possible though, if it was a welded connection that you ripped. If it's just a hole, your buddy could work to hold a finger overit. You could try to stuff something into the hole also, a piece of your wetsuit, just rip off a very small piece.....?
If you are too worried, carry a SMB or lift bag with you. And duct tape and aqua seal.
Worst case scenario, try putting some air into your suit. If you have booties, you could trap some air in them. You'll float up feet first, but it would get you there. Only problem then is you'll be bent like a paper clip.
Adobo
Contributor
In a wetsuit, you should be diving aluminum tanks. If so, at the beginning of the dive, at 100 feet, you might have difficulty swimming your rig up. So you'll likely have to remove weigt from you waist. At the end of the dive, you are more bouyant due to your tanks having less weight.
In a drysuit, you compensate for suit compression by adding gas to your suit. So you should be not so far overweighted during the dive that you could swim up to your stops.
Either way, hopefully you have done a good job at properly weighting yourself before you got this far into your dive career (deco diving).
In a drysuit, you compensate for suit compression by adding gas to your suit. So you should be not so far overweighted during the dive that you could swim up to your stops.
Either way, hopefully you have done a good job at properly weighting yourself before you got this far into your dive career (deco diving).
The Horn
Contributor
Buddy, Dry suit, or use SMB/Lift bag. All system fails would be a drop of the belt and swim. If you can swim with the weights on this may help slow ascent towards the surface. Could also tie weights off to reel line or reel line to wreck and swim up, pay out enough to keep you at required deco depth. Take chances with the DCS
JeffG
Contributor
Why would it fail to inflate?
KMD
Contributor
Use my drysuit for buoyancy control.
Deploy lift bag.
swim up rig.
Hang onto anchor line.
Use buddy assistance.
Ditch weights.
Pick one that suits you and your situation.
Deploy lift bag.
swim up rig.
Hang onto anchor line.
Use buddy assistance.
Ditch weights.
Pick one that suits you and your situation.
BCDs should never be inflated on the ascent. If you mean that you needed it to stay neutral at a deco stop, then you could either use a line (in the case of a vertical ascent) or the bottom (in the case of a sloping bottom ascent). You should really be weighted such that you can deal with this sort of problem.
CentralTxDiver
Registered
I would abort the dive once I know there was a problem with my equipment...signal to your dive buddy about the problem and together do an assisted ascent to the safety stop. After doing the required safety/deco stop and if necessary ditch the weights and do an emergency ascent with your buddy to the surface. Divers have been diving without BC's since Cousteau invented the Aqualung so its not impossible to dive safely without one even down to 100'...BC's were more for surface bouancy back in the early days for divers who needed it, many just dived with a backpack, tank, and weightbelt. Just ask the Vintage Divers on this board.
Jim
Jim
daniel f aleman
Contributor
Drop your ditchable weights, slowly. I always carry 1/4 of my needed weights off my belt so I can ditch them (and not the belt) when needing to be positive.
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