I've had to do this multiple times. Both for training, demonstrations, and once for real. All were done at about 35ft depth. At the time I wasnt useing an intergrated BC, and is one reason that I may never. Its very easy if youve practiced it enough and are comfertable with it. MY instructor made me repeatedly practice it at depth and I had to learn to let go of the BC before I put it back on. Not sure why on that one, oh well, made me more confident. The one time I had to ditch my BC for real was simply a freak accident. I was diving at about 40 ft trailing a group of students that my instructor was leading. I was wearing a rental BC that a student had reported problems with but wasnt very specific, so I took it out for some tests. Well I found the problem or more likely all of them at once. The BC suddenly began to fill rapidly. No big deal, just hit the dump valve and I'm fine right, wrong. The button woulnt go in, cant dump the air out. Disconnecting the LP hose wont do any good, its to late the BC is filled, and I'm rising fast. So, somewhat panicking at this point, I did the only thing I could think of, get out of that BC. Riped the BC off and let it rocket to the surface, while I swam up a little more controlled. Once I got back the the shop I tore that BC apart and turns out there was a good sized pebble and tons of sand wedged inside that caused the problem. Freak accident, I fixed it, cleaned it out and dove with it the next 2 days to test it and had no problems. Long story short(to late) taking off your BC underwater is a good thing to practice and remain proficient at.
What happens if you take your BCD off at depth.?
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scubapro50
Contributor
If you really want a rush try free diving with an old CO2 type vest. Since the air in your lungs was breathed in at the surface and not from a tank you have less to worry about when comming up fast. In the 60's we would free dive down to 30 or 40 ft (I went to 60) pull the cord and pop to the surface like a cork ...... really taught you that's not the way to come up except in an emergency (being eaten by sharks, ect.). By todays standards you would never be asked to do this because of the danger and risks involved. But hell .... back then we didn't know any better ..... doublehoses, J valves and CO2 vests .... I'm surprised any of us lived.
Uncontrolled ascent from any depth can have serious repercussions. Really serious. Been there, once: a NEVER to be repeated experience! I also trained on the J valve and CO2 vest, but our training was explicit: the CO2 piston was for surface use only. Knight1989, I have a question. How would you handle the same problem, but at much greater depth? This is not a complaint: I'm visualizing swimming up from say 100+ feet, blowing bubbles all the way, contemplating a planned and needed DC stop, and wishing that my air supply was not bobbing on the surface somewhere. Your experience with the runaway BC valve gives me reason to explore this problem more. Far better to learn from others than wait, and personally learn things the hard way. Thanks
gypsyjim:
Honestly I dont know. I'm sure that there are plenty of things that I could have done to handle that situation better in shallower water. I keep looking back at it wondering what could have been better or differant. I know now that I wont get in that situation again, since I'm more carefull about checking out gear that I dont personally own. I suppose if it really came down to it and I was at 100+ft and the same thing happened, and I was either solo or my buddy was inaccessable like in this case, I would slash the bladder on my BC with my dive knife. HOnestly though, I'm not to sure, now youve got me pondering.
Slashing seems like a pretty viable solution to me, given the alternative of possible embolism. Of course the weights then can cause another problem, but compared to uncontrolled ascent I'd rather deal with that. I've had one brush with an uncontrolled ascent, and resulting damage: as I said before, I do not EVER wish to repeat that experience. Thank you for this exersize in "what if", it's a better way to problem solve than trying it personally! Jim
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