Anybody in for sharing their gear?

[Gary D.]

Here is one to show your brass if they think teams can share gear and there is no need to issue gear to each member and have them be responsible for it.

I snuck out and went to dive training today. At least the first half which was a dive. The rest is classroom and I was burning out so I went home after a good traditional Mexican dinner.

At the dive we had the pleasure of a Sheriff Department PSD from a county to the north join us. I was surprised to see the mix of gear he had. Dry suit with wet suit gloves (mittens). He had no idea that dry gloves could be installed on it but does now. Old single strap jacket BC, Weight belt (good) and an AGA.

I was impressed that he got suited right up without any mistakes. It shows he has been diving and not just talking. They have a Sheriff’s Department in-house 6 diver team.

The one problem is that they only have 3 AGA’s and they share them. One of the rules they have is not to play Tim The Tool-man Taylor and take things apart.

So the deputy gets suited up and tests the reg briefly as its cold with ice on the water surface. He gets in and the steam whistle goes off indicating a free flow on the down stream reg. Wow, that’s unusual from those regs so something must be FUBARed.

Lane B checks it out and can’t get it to stop so he heads up to his rig to get another AGA for our visitor to use. In the mean time I open it up and I can’t post what I said here. But it was something on the order of who took this thing apart? He says nobody should have touched it. Well it had been taken apart and put together wrong which mis-shaped the exhaust diaphragm.

So I removed the diaphragm and warmed it up. To my amazement it returned to its original shape and on the second try started operating properly. He made a successful line search dive without incident with it.

He was just a bit upset and said he knows who did it. He went on to say when he gets back to his county his 6 man team was going to be down to 4. He was not a happy camper as far as his team goes. He did have a good time with us and plans on attending as many trainings as they can with his team.

This is the main reason why we don’t have community gear. It is just plain dangerous.

Man it felt good being with the guys today. A couple of them did some very minor stupid things for which I will beat the crap out of them after I heal. The’re sure happy with the USIA suits their in now.

Gary D.

 

[bridgediver]

This is the main reason why we don’t have community gear. It is just plain dangerous.

I think what is dangerous is not having a routine gear check and maintenance schedule.
There are many teams that have community gear - especially SSA teams. Our team used to have individual gear but because of cost it was gear that is less than desireable for PSD - ie neoprene drysuits, no redundant air (pony), no FFM, no comms etc. We share now and have better procedures and equipment to make our ops safer.
If you have a small team its probably not as much of an issue as theres less to buy if you only have a few divers

Of course our perspectives may be different. As a LEO you have the benefit of having the same vehicle wherever you go and the space to contain your gear. FF don't have that luxury but on the other hand we aren't subjected to a pager or long/delayed response times; we have enough guys on shift all the time to perform an op within the rescue window - after it moves to recovery mode we may re-evaluate

 

[Fotoz4FX]

Everyone on our team was schooled in basic maintenance, disassembly and assembly of the AGA's we used and it was required after each training (and yes, we actually did train weekly - IADRS was awed at that). The Mask and tank was the only 'community' equipment we shared and, other than size differences, we all had the same style BCD for uniformity and stressed that all accessories be made alike so that we could provide buddy aid in the event of entanglement or other recovery incident.

Be thankful you were able to catch this equipment FUBAR situation before any actual emergency where it could have resulted in delays that might have been significant to the Rescue/Recovery mode.

 

[ffdiver]

My team has a mix of personal gear and shared gear. Since it is an all vonlenteer team there are super active members and not so active members. The Super Active members all have there own personal gear and do not go anywhere near eachothers or the community gear. And the no so active divers know not to use or touch the personal gear. At least in theory.

 

[james croft]

My team issues individual gear to each officer, including agas with com, drysuits, tanks etc.

 

[ReefGuy]

We're fortunate here. The only personal items that we use is our fins. Everything else is department issued. After some issues with gear maintenance, our gear is inspected each training day. Our policy is that we can feel free to use our gear for personal dives, but if it's damaged on a personal dive, we pay for repair/replacement. On the other hand, if we use any personal gear for SO dives and it's damaged, destroyed, or contaminated, the SO pays for repair/replacement.

 

[4bdiver]

Our team is also a mix of personal and department gear. We are in the process of purchasing coms and due to the expense these will be shared for now. I think as long as everyone in trained on what maintenance they can and should do and how to do it correctly there will not be many issues. We also try and train enough that we can work through the issues as they come. In a perfect world everyone would be issued new top of the line gear every year for the job we have to do. Unfortunately we have to do the best we can with what we have and I appreciate the time, money and commitment my team members have put into making our team an excellent team with the limited funds we have.

 

[Dan Diver]

The divers on our team own and maintain our own gear. Most of us dive with the same BC's, regs and full face with coms. As with most volunteer teams we have our divers that make every meeting, every callout and all training. These are the guys we want in the water when we are requested. If we damage gear during a rescue or recovery the SO or lead agency that called us out take care of us.
a budget of pancake feeds and car washes. Thank good for our dive shop and our EMS people.
We have a great relationship with our local dive shop and we are able to keep our gear inspected and ready to go.Ya know ya just cain't buy a lot of "team" gear with a budget of pancake feeds and car washes. Thank good for our dive shop and our EMS people.

 

[Gary D.]

Our team is also a mix of personal and department gear. We are in the process of purchasing coms and due to the expense these will be shared for now. I think as long as everyone in trained on what maintenance they can and should do and how to do it correctly there will not be many issues. We also try and train enough that we can work through the issues as they come. In a perfect world everyone would be issued new top of the line gear every year for the job we have to do. Unfortunately we have to do the best we can with what we have and I appreciate the time, money and commitment my team members have put into making our team an excellent team with the limited funds we have.

Hello my little Idaho buddy.

We are going to have an Air Force family, moving from the Right Coast to Mountain Home in the near future. I know it’s still quite a drive from you but he’ll need help with sites, shops etc. I don’t know if he wants to go public yet so e me for his info.

Back on track. Having shared gear in a lot of cases is governed by the budget and a necessity. But it’s not the safest way to go. A team can have all the gear maintenance training in the world but if they don’t do exactly what they are supposed to do things can get dangerous. People tend to get rushed or distracted at times especially if it’s not their gear. They seem to pay more attention if what they are doing is for their own benefit.

This is the case with my OP. They were instructed on what to do yet went beyond that point and did some experimenting on their own. The result created a dangerous situation that thankfully was caught early.

Sharing non-life support equipment is fine. There is no way to have all gear issued but I think teams should concentrate on getting the life support items issued and put the other stuff on hold for a while.

Our team went that route and it has worked very well. We didn’t put com systems, DPV’s, cameras or other stuff in front of life support. Now we are working on the money for com systems which will come in the near future.

I know there are teams out there that think a com system is life support and won’t dive without one. But it hasn’t been all that many years that com systems have been reliable enough for PSD use. Even the Navy systems which were the top of the line 40 years ago were called Man Killers because they were. The systems have improved greatly but let’s not lose track of our old reliable line pulls.

Gary D.

 

[ffdiver]

Line pulls absolutely have their place in our work, but nothing beats being able to say what you need to say when its a little more complicated then 4 tugs. I have been trying to push my team to use coms but i think they are hesitant because underwater is the only place they don't have to listen to me.