Well, my answer was in the other thread, mostly but here it is again. Notes right from my dive log:
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Originally Posted by me
Bad dive!! Seemed to drop and drop until I finally stablized at almost 26m in a cloud of dust. I was completely disoriented and could not see a thing - lost my buddies. I tried to stay calm and used my compass and gauge to combat vertigo and get back to the surface. I waited for some 25 minutes before I finally saw my two buddies at the surface.
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My issue was that I was over weighted, significantly so. When I let the air out of my BC, I dropped like a rock. It was fun for a while, but at some point, I realized that adding air to my BC was not helping. Keep in mind that this was also very cold water, so while I was dumping air like mad into my BC, I was also in danger of freezing up my first stage. Just before I was about to ditch some weight, I started to slow down - and eventually stopped, at 26m (which was not the bottom) - and 0 viz. Way too deep for me, esp. since I was all alone. Not a real pleasant feeling. I could have easily bought the farm right there.
So, reasons why people might ditch would be in a case like this (diver error, over weighted). Also, maybe in case of BC malfunction - unable to hold air at all, drop like a rock until you hit bottom or ditch some weight. In my case, I was in a drysuit - I could have added air to that in case the BC failed - better than nothing, but not quite the same thing.
This little 9 minute near-disaster dive was actually one of my best dives, because I learned a LOT and proved to myself I could handle a pretty rough situation on little notice. It was worth doing - but I would prefer to avoid repeating this experience.
Hope this helps!
nd