Donning Fins After Boat Exit

[LeadTurn_SD]

For good reason.

If, for whatever reason, you stepped off the boat without your fins on and were unable to inflate your BC, and your air was OFF, could you keep you chin above water long enough to drop weights and possibly your rig so that you would not immediately sink and drown?

As unlikely as this scenario sounds, divers, including tech divers, have died this way.

Just food for thought.

Best wishes.

I've been taught to put air in my bcd before jumping in the water, its something we always do as part of our buddy check

That is the norm, and is (with the exception of negative drops on high current sites where you intentionally jump in with an empty BC) what most folks do.

My point: Without your fins on it is difficult to swim with full scuba gear on (try it). You should only be as negative as the weight of your air at the start of a dive as a single tank rec diver, so you should be able to keep your head above water for awhile by kicking and sculling.... but with your fins off this is going to be much harder for most people. Now, take the average grossly over-weighted newly minted diver, often with marginal swimming skill, let them jump in the water and have a BC failure and not have fins on. A recipe for a panic and a surface drowning.

Like Dr. Lecter said, if you have half a clue, you'll never have a problem. I enter the water almost every dive with my Jet fins in hand, and my wing nearly empty... but I shore dive. I've gone off boats fins off and fins on (but prefer fins on).

I also come from the pre-BC generation of divers, and still have myself weighted so that I can complete an entire dive sans BC if needed. But there is a very good reason for recreational dive boats to require that their customers exit the boat wearing fins:

Safety for the lowest common denominator, for that occasional diver that really may NOT have half a clue.
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Best wishes.

 

[Michael Guerrero]

I slap my fins on right before splashing (thanks inventor of spring straps). I don't walk across a boat deck with them on.

 

[DivemasterDennis]

In this order: fins on, enter water. I often enter with fins and mask on, and then do my scuba unit in the water. (ditch and don) But always, I have fins on in the water, until the moment I am going to climb the ladder. The I take them off and hop on board.
DivematerDennis

 

[Hatul]

I'm not sure why you would want to jump off a boat without your fins except to prove it can be done. It's also looking for trouble as now the first thing you have to do before you have propulsion is put the fins on in the water.

 

[Peter_C]

On commercial boats I put my fins on before entering the water, and sometimes while still seated if that is what they ask. I have no problem shuffling along with my fins on *shrugs* Ducks do it, so can I!

I have found off my Zodiac the easiest thing to do is to put one fin on, then back roll off and put the second one on in the water. If there is anything more than a mild current we aren't going diving anyway.

 

[rivers]

Standard protocol on every dive boat I've been on in the UK is: fins on, those closest to the diver lift off first, and if there is crew on board, they help you shuffle to the lift, if not, you slide along the bench until you reach the end, hold on to the rails and shuffle over. It's not the easiest of things to do in a pitching boat wearing a twinset and a stage, but it's doable. I certainly wouldn't want to be attempting to reach the shot line without any fins on.

 

[James R]

I've been taught to put air in my bcd before jumping in the water, its something we always do as part of our buddy check

Yet I have seen people splash with no air in bcd and air off more than a few times. People run stop signs too, even though we are trained to stop at them. People are people, after all.

 

[AdivingBel]

I have thought about donning fins in the water myself. I guess I could drown if I hit the water without fins, my air off, and no air in my BC, but I could also break my neck doing the "penguin" to the back of the boat while my captain is yelling " dive, dive, dive" on a drift. If my life depended on it, I could swim my warm water rig to the surface long enough to catch my breath and doff the rig. It's like burning to death in a trailer house. I'm, 6ft., 190 lbs., if I couldn't get to a door, I could make one.

 

[AfterDark]

All depends where one is diving. Here in the NE some days it would be like asking someone to cross the street blindfold. Bobbing around w/o fins uncontrolled in rough water in well rough. In NC the op I use requires fins on getting in and also getting out of the water.

I don't understand where it's easier or safer for anyone to don fins in deep water but that's probably just me.

 

[jadairiii]

Anyone have experience on boats where donning fins after you exit is allowed? I understand the reasoning for new divers, but as a DM and tech diver I can't stand the fin shuffle on board. IMO I feel much more stable walking across a crowed deck that is rolling in my boots with my hand through my fin straps. Most boats that I have been on make you take them off anyway upon reentering the boat.

The stupidity of entering the water off a boat without fins on is beyond measure. Things happen quick once in the water and you better be able to react. Even on calm days a boat wave comes by and washes you under the platform just as you enter, good luck swimming out from under without fins. The list is long of what could go wrong.

So rather than jumping in the water without all of your necessary gear on, think through the problem and solve it. How about waiting to go last then just sit at the stern of the boat and put on your fins? Have the DM balance you on the back of the boat while you put your fins on?

Great thing about Scubaboard is that there are plenty of examples of How Not To Dive. This is just one of many. Fins on before you enter.