or drop their weights, since you said the power inflator was broke.
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When I first learned to dive in '71, we didn't have any fancy-schamancy power inflators, so I guess I don't see anything wrong diving without one. Unless you never practice without it and you are overweighted, which is what I think Mike is saying.MikeFerrara:While we should all be able to finish a dive without a power inflator there isn't any sense in starting a dive that way especially since so many divers dive overweighted.
Rick Inman:When I first learned to dive in '71, we didn't have any fancy-schamancy power inflators, so I guess I don't see anything wrong diving without one. Unless you never practice without it and you are overweighted, which is what I think Mike is saying.
I like to do a dive now and then without using the power inflator just to keep in practice, and once you get into the flow of it, it is easy. It also helps you not to overuse your inflator, but use breathing control for most adjustments. On a normal profile, once you hit max depth at the beginning of the dive, you're mostly just letting air out anyway, so it's no big deal. Then, if you're neutral at 15' during the safety stop, a couple of deep breaths and you're up at the surface floating.
Orally inflating a BC is a basic OW skill we should be able to easily do. My guess is, this gentleman had other issues.
SueMermaid:I usually inflate my BC orally, not sure why, it just makes me feel more...in touch with the force.
Or. something.
I don't see anything wrong with using a BC with a bad inflator, you should be able to do that. Just thought I'd throw in my two cents on that.