Lessons Learned...

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DwayneJ

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Jill Heinerth (RebreatherPro) had a nasty incident this week with a buddy in a cave. Jill has been posting lessons learned and she made the following statement which is worth noting -

http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/ac...ths-worst-cave-dive-incident.html#post5694665

...So, here is my particular beef... Recently, some people have chosen to route the inflator on their side mount wing from the bottom up. They reason that it is more streamlined. If the diver needs to dump gas they can use a shoulder pull dump or the inflator dump that comes up from the bottom. Now, here is the rub. Literally. My buddy was stuck in a restriction with too much gas in the wing, supporting her negative bottles. In her body position the shoulder dump would not release the gas. The inflator dump did not either. That left me behind her, seeing a full wing lodged in the ceiling with no way to assist. There was no outlet at the bottom of the wing. No pull dump. In the slightly butt up position there was no getting gas out of that thing. I was preparing to cut it when I managed to squeeze my hand on top and force the air forward, leaving me with a few cuts on the back of my hand where it had been pressed against the rocky ceiling. Not fun. How did that routing benefit her?
 
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I don't think we need another thread, Dwayne.
 
Can someone merge the 10 threads about this?
 
The inflator placement wasn't the issue. The diver stated she had the inflator placed like that for streamlining. That's the first I've ever heard anyone modifying inflator location for that reason. What it comes down to is you don't go into a tight passage with air in the wing. It's a lesson any sidemount diver that dives small passage learns fairly quickly. This appears to have been this diver's time to learn that lesson.
 
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