Can't find BCD inflator

[DevonDiver]

Matt, if you get your weighting spot-on, it shouldn't be critical or immediate to grab the LPI. Proper weighting will reduce the amount of air needed in your BCD. That means you'll have less problems with that air expanding or compressing with depth variations. Any small expansion or compression can be off-set with breathing control in the first instance. Adjustment of BCD volume via the LPI and/or dump can be done less often and becomes less critical.

If you're struggling to locate the LPI, then start the 'tactile' search first where you know it will be - i.e. secured under the velcro on your left shoulder. Locate the hose there and then trace it down with your hand until you grab the LPI itself.

If it persists in causing you a headache, then get a shorter corrugated hose. Most are only attached with a zip-tie or two - no great dramas to swap over. If you're unsure about doing the job DIY, then your local dive shop will do it for you.

Practice does make perfect though. That's straightforward with most of your kit, but your LPI hose does move position depending on your orientation. Over time you'll become more adept at predicting where it'll be. Either that, or you'll secure it more robustly and keep it in one easily-predictable place

 

[Splitlip]

If a diver opted to use an AIR2, then they could fit a longer hose. Why fit a over-sized hose with a regular LPI?

Also, if the diver was using an AIR2, then having a pull-dump on the corrogated hose wouldn't make great sense either. So why ever have a long hose and and pull-dump together.

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Very good point Andy. Many believe the pull dump can be activated by pulling on the corrugated hose. Not the case. The wire that is connected to the pull dump runs to the inflator/air ll, so the octo inflator would need to be removed in any case. Pulling on the corrugated hose with air ll in the mouth only stresses connections at the elbo.

 

[Splitlip]

Something else to add about octo inflators; I've had nothing but donut wings since moved into bpw's. Except for the very beginning and the end of a dive all my dumping is done from the opv at the lower left of my wing.
When I set up my first bpw, I installed a long ass corrugated hose, like nineteen inches, with an Atomics ss1. At the time, I also had my gauges in a console that went from left and clipped off to my right chest d ring. The SS 1 was tucked behind the hp console hose.

*floater* posted some pics a while back with his octo inflator on a bungled necklace.

 

[FPDocMatt]

Matt, if you get your weighting spot-on, it shouldn't be critical or immediate to grab the LPI. Proper weighting will reduce the amount of air needed in your BCD. That means you'll have less problems with that air expanding or compressing with depth variations. Any small expansion or compression can be off-set with breathing control in the first instance. Adjustment of BCD volume via the LPI and/or dump can be done less often and becomes less critical.

Yes, I had a lot of trouble with buoyancy control when I was in 57-degree water in Spain wearing 3 layers of wetsuit, using a steel cylinder, with over 20# of weights. But on Grand Cayman with aluminum tanks, a 3-mm wetsuit, and less weight, I had no trouble. But you know, when you have buoyancy troubles, you really need to find that low-pressure inflator fast.

So I'll just work on reaching over to my left shoulder with my hand, finding the hose, and following it down.

If you're struggling to locate the LPI, then start the 'tactile' search first where you know it will be - i.e. secured under the velcro on your left shoulder. Locate the hose there and then trace it down with your hand until you grab the LPI itself.

I haven't said this in this thread, but I don't own my own BCD. I've been renting. At some point I'll buy one. But I don't think this is the problem, because all the BCD's I've used have had the LPI in the same place.

 

[Dirty-Dog]

I haven't said this in this thread, but I don't own my own BCD. I've been renting. At some point I'll buy one. But I don't think this is the problem, because all the BCD's I've used have had the LPI in the same place.

But do they have the velcro strap holding it down, and is it actually working?

It really does come down to repetition. Do it a few hundred times and it becomes automatic.

 

[RonFrank]

Heee, yeah diving cold is a horse of a different color. Doing it Dry adds more enjoyment. There is a reason dry suit divers have such an easy time in tropical water.....

 

[fisheater]

Heee, yeah diving cold is a horse of a different color. Doing it Dry adds more enjoyment. There is a reason dry suit divers have such an easy time in tropical water.....

That is, once we stop pressing on our chests to try to inflate our wetsuits during descents.


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[DevonDiver]

But you know, when you have buoyancy troubles, you really need to find that low-pressure inflator fast.

Whilst not untrue, that really is concentrating on the symptom, not the cause.

The cause being over-weighting.

I use 4lbs (inc ali bp) diving in a 3mm full suit. Only 2lbs (bp only) diving in shorts/rash-guard. I barely put any air in the BCD during the dive - nothing to expand on ascent. I virtually never have to touch the LPI, except to inflate at the surface when the dive ends

All of a sudden, buoyancy becomes very easy!

 

[FPDocMatt]

Whilst not untrue, that really is concentrating on the symptom, not the cause.

The cause being over-weighting.

I use 4lbs (inc ali bp) diving in a 3mm full suit. Only 2lbs (bp only) diving in shorts/rash-guard. I barely put any air in the BCD during the dive - nothing to expand on ascent. I virtually never have to touch the LPI, except to inflate at the surface when the dive ends

All of a sudden, buoyancy becomes very easy!

In Grand Cayman in 81-deg water with a 3-mm full wetsuit and aluminum tanks I had to use 8 lbs to be able to descend from the surface, and was diving without any air in the BCD the whole time.

In Torremolinos in 57-deg water with a 5-mm full wetsuit, a 5-mm shorty over it, and a steel tank, I had to use 10 kgs to be able to descend from the surface, and had to inflate and deflate my BCD frequently.

I realize that my lack of experience is part of the problem, but when you're diving with a thick wetsuit with lots of air pockets don't you have to compensate for the volume differential as you dive, more so than one can do with one's lungs alone? And doesn't that mean using the BCD as you descend/ascend? And isn't that process made more difficult by not being able to find the LPI? That's all I'm saying.

 

[TSandM]

Matt, you are spot-on. Although it is possible to dive cold water without a BC, it is not easy. This is what a BC really is FOR, is to compensate for the buoyancy lost by thick exposure protection as you descend. Buoyancy in cold water is more complicated, and gets even more so when you have to manage two air spaces (BC and dry suit). At the end of a cold water dive, you will ALWAYS have some air in the BC to vent. The key is to anticipate changes -- if you know you are ascending, you know you are going to have to vent, so do it a little at a time and almost before you think you need to.

I agree that, in cold water and with thick gloves, it's easy to mistake the snorkel for the LP corrugated hose. Both are corrugated (at least in some of their length) and both are flexible. And unfortunately, often, both are hanging in very similar places. Your options are to solve the problem altogether by getting rid of the snorkel, or to try to arrange the snorkel and inflator so that they are not lying over one another (which can be nearly impossible, as the snorkel really has to be in one place to be useful). Or you can go to a roll-up snorkel that you can put in a pocket, so that it's available to use when you want it, but it isn't in your way when you don't.

Having your own equipment makes a difference, because you can train your proprioception to look for what you need in the same place every time. But experience or not, the snorkel is always going to be to some degree in the way.