What would you have done?...

[Rick Murchison]

art.chick once bubbled...
I understand the desire for nice trim, but is it really true that you should make that much weight non-ditchable? I keep hearing about these divers who are even putting weights in their wetsuits to reduce BC pocket weight. Most of those pockets won't accomodate enough for some divers in full 7mm wetsuits.

So what happens if I have to drop your belt to make you possitively buoyant? It is my own instinct to want all my weight (21lb) ditchable. Occasionally, I wil have 2 lb on ring weights, but I want to know that when the belt drops, I can be rescued without further surprises to my rescuer.

Here's my thinking on this subject...
I want enough ditchable to make me positively buoyant, but not so much that its inadvertant loss would result in an uncontrolled ascent to the surface. For me that's 6-10 pounds ditchable. Whether my non-ditchable weight is in the form of a steel tank or trim weights makes no difference really, does it? And as long as I can ditch enough that I'll ascend and float, that's enough.
I should note here that in over thirty years diving, I can count on one hand the times when I've been in a group with someone who actually needed to jettison weight, but I can't even begin to count how many have inadvertantly dropped weight.
Rick

 

[pt40fathoms]

All my weight is ditchable. However, below 30 feet in my 5/4/3mm, the compression on my wetsuit is such, that I no longer need the weight to stay down. With my 7mm, I need to be a little below 45 to be able to stay down.

The way you reacted to this, turned out OK and did not create any problems. The next time, if their is a next time, you will most likely see it in a different light, and react the best way you can. When things like this happen, you never end up with enough time to think, you just react, and hope you do the right thing. The only way to ensure that you act correctly to every situation, is to practice and drill for every situation. It can be fun, and it helps both you and your buddy in the long run.

 

[Genesis]

with just enough ditchable weight to become positive if I drop it all at depth. This is typically (1) enough to counter the swing of the tank, and (2) enough to counter the compression of my wetsuit.

Everything else is non-ditchable weight.

I want to know that if I ditch I will end up on the surface. I DO NOT want to do a Polaris Missile Launch if I ditch, however....

 

[Spectre]

There is a pretty good discussion on how much ditchable weight to have over in Ability to swim to surface

 

[MikeS]

Erich,

Thanks for your posts; thinking about real world situations like this will make us all better divers. Like they say, “hind sight is twenty/twenty,” . The best thing you can do is think the situation through and know what to do next time, sometimes experience is the best teacher.

I am sure that with only one ditchable pocket dropped I could easily swim down and suspect that all but the very weakest of swimmers could. So the key is not to panic, stay calm and react appropriately, sounds like your buddy did fine in this regard. While I like to think I would be able to help my buddy if they panicked in this situation the fact that they need help indicates they are not thinking straight so it could get very dicey.

Mike

 

[CuriousMe]

MikeS once bubbled...
Erich,

While I like to think I would be able to help my buddy if they panicked in this situation the fact that they need help indicates they are not thinking straight so it could get very dicey.

Mike

Hi Mike,

I'm not sure I quite understood your post....do you mean to say that if a buddy needs assistance then they're not thinking clearly?

Just trying to understand what you said.

Peace,
Cathie

 

[MikeS]

CuriousMe once bubbled...


I'm not sure I quite understood your post....do you mean to say that if a buddy needs assistance then they're not thinking clearly?

Cathie,

My comment is only applicable to the situation described where his buddy had several options for calmly addressing the problem, swimming down and/or, releasing air. If they took advantage of either of these options their buoyancy would be under control and they would not need your assistance, as was the case.

Not applying one of these solutions in a timely matter would indicate that the person was not thinking clearly or had an additional problem. The most common cause I can think of is panic. A panicked diver will tend to act unpredictable making your attempt to help them more difficult.

Mike

 

[scubasco]

medic13 once bubbled...
(...)this being said as he accends he could do a number of things one empty his bc of air also add water to same second lay flat and try to swim and slow his accent (...)

I'm not sure I understand this. Are you saying that he should add water to his BC?
I don't see how this would help...

 

[O-ring]

I'm not sure I understand this. Are you saying that he should add water to his BC?

 

[scuba_junkie]

Thanks for all your input so far. I am definitely not eating myself up over this incident, just going over my options and how I could react better if there is a next time, or similar incident. I honestly think that at least checking on my buddy first, just to make sure that he was OK and under control, then went for the weight pouch, would have been the better way to react. Even with one weight pouch missing, at 60 feet everything has been compressed so much that he would have been able to swim against the little bit of positive bouyancy.

I guess the whole point is that nothing bad happened, everything was OK, and the experience is helping me to keep my situational awareness sharp while I dive.

Keep the comments coming! It helps us all..

Thanks,
Erich