Preventing an uncontrolled ascent

[JeffG]

I was reading a thread where a diver had an uncontrolled ascent and found myself asking, why not pull the knife and cut the end off of the inflator hose and should that fail, slice open the BC?

First let me say that I’ve never had a problem with my wing or any other BC because I do check valve operation before every dive but should all the valves fail to open would I have the presence of mind to pull my knife and give the wing a careful slice. I can always buy a new wing but I would rather not get bent if I can help it.

LOL...cut your BC to control an ascent. Too funny.

Thats what you get for learning on the internet.

 

[perdidochas]

At different times both my daughter and I have had the situation arise where a bit of sand got into the inflater valve and caused our BCD's to rapidly inflate. It wass a simple procedure to disconnect the hose from the valve, purge the excess air, and then control buoyancy orally. Both our problems were at depth, so inflation was not extremely fast, and it was easy to resolve the issue. This problem might have been more difficult to control quickly if it had occurred on ascent at or near our safety stop, but even then this disconnect and dump technique seems like the quickest solution to the problem.

I've had the same experience. It's not too bad at depth.

 

[BlueC5Kitten]

Since I have over one hundred and fifty thousand dives, my advice would be...

Sarcasm is your friend!

 

[gypsyjim]

My one and only personal experience with uncontrolled ascent was purely operator error and simple stupidity(my own), not equipment failure. In 1970 I was not trained on BCD's, but in @1985, with no current recent diving experience and no upgrade in training I dived w/ a rental BCD, which my younger brother gave me a quick review of on board his boat just before we got wet. I had a simple understanding of the system but no experience at actually dumping air, so the last 15-20 ft of my ascent was VERY quick (obviously no ST on this ascent!) and I could have been hurt a lot worse than I was. That experience was an eye opener and I became a firm believer in continual retraining and practice, especially after a period away from the water.

 

[nannymouse]

Sarcasm is your friend!

Me and sarcasm are like this!

My recent uncontrolled ascent was today. I was at about 12 feet, next to a rock ledge. A wave came by and sucked me right to the surface. I was very happy to not be mashed up against a urchin studded rock!

The look of surprise in my buddy's mask was priceless.

Realistically, no time to do anything.

 

[24940]

Me and sarcasm are like this!

My recent uncontrolled ascent was today. I was at about 12 feet, next to a rock ledge. A wave came by and sucked me right to the surface. I was very happy to not be mashed up against a urchin studded rock!

The look of surprise in my buddy's mask was priceless.

Realistically, no time to do anything.

Are you implying that your uncontrolled ascent was unavoidable?