Diver death - So Cal?
- Thread starter melfox26
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ryanarcher
Guest
That is unfortunate. It seems strange that he inflated his BC. Condolences to his family, friends and scuba buddies.
ShakaZulu
Contributor
ryanarcher:
Think this story was covered before, but my condolences again.
Not that strange, DIR dewds do it all the time during ascend. Exactly the same way as you add air to slow down your decend, you just vent air to slow down your ascend......
mccabejc
Contributor
Unless it was a failed inflator valve. Not sure how you'd recover from that. You can't really disconnect the hose while it's pressurized. Hmm....need to give that one some thought.
mccabejc:
Jim,
Are you saying that you don't know how to recover from a stuck bc inflator?
It's the most common bc failure and one of the most common equipment failures that I've seen.
Not only is it possible to disconnect the hose when pressurized but disconnecting the inflator hose and dumping in order to correct for a stuck inflator is a required skill in a PADI OW class and has been for years.
This is an extremely important skill.
mccabejc
Contributor
Uh oh...I don't recall ever simulating a stuck inflator. Disconnecting the pressurized hose underwater with gloves on? Man, I don't recall ever doing that. I would probably have remembered the hose dumping air right by my ear. And I was a VERY good student 
Let's see...the inflator sticks open, your BC fills up full almost instantly, you start ascending. If you can figure what happened, you press the dump valve on the inflator and hope it works. If not, you find the hose connector on the inflator real quick, and, wearing gloves, try to disconnect the pressurized hose. The hose would be dumping air from the tank pretty quick. Then you pull the dump valve on the BC to deflate it and stop your ascent. Hopefully you can get to the surface before the free running hose dumps all of your air.
Man, I've got to hop in the pool and work on this one.
Let's see...the inflator sticks open, your BC fills up full almost instantly, you start ascending. If you can figure what happened, you press the dump valve on the inflator and hope it works. If not, you find the hose connector on the inflator real quick, and, wearing gloves, try to disconnect the pressurized hose. The hose would be dumping air from the tank pretty quick. Then you pull the dump valve on the BC to deflate it and stop your ascent. Hopefully you can get to the surface before the free running hose dumps all of your air.
Man, I've got to hop in the pool and work on this one.
jonahfab
Contributor
mccabejc:Uh oh...I don't recall ever simulating a stuck inflator. Disconnecting the pressurized hose underwater with gloves on? Man, I don't recall ever doing that. I would probably have remembered the hose dumping air right by my ear. And I was a VERY good student
Let's see...the inflator sticks open, your BC fills up full almost instantly, you start ascending. If you can figure what happened, you press the dump valve on the inflator and hope it works. If not, you find the hose connector on the inflator real quick, and, wearing gloves, try to disconnect the pressurized hose. The hose would be dumping air from the tank pretty quick. Then you pull the dump valve on the BC to deflate it and stop your ascent. Hopefully you can get to the surface before the free running hose dumps all of your air.
Man, I've got to hop in the pool and work on this one.
I would difinitely get a instructor to go over that skill with you, because it is extremely important.
scubacalifornia
Contributor
MikeFerrara:
I agree that being proficient at disconnecting your pressurized inflator hose underwater, while perhaps task loaded or emotionally overloaded, is an important skill to master. It could save your life under certain conditions. But I don't remember that being a required PADI OW skill. I'm not sure if that was part of my OW certification either (June last year). So I pulled out the PADI OW book, just to satisfy my curiosity. I'm not finding that skill in the list of skills you must demonstrate in any of the 4 OW dives, and I'm not finding any references in the index. I've been thinking about spending one of my upcoming dives practicing the basics, and that seems like a great one to add to the list. Mike, where is this in the PADI protocol? Thanks.
Kevin
mccabejc
Contributor
scubacalifornia:
I did the same thing, looked thru my manual right after seeing Mike's post, and there's nothing in there about recovering from a failed BC inflator valve. And nothing in the BC manual (Seaquest Pro QD+) about how to repair or replace one. Guess I need to make another trip to my LDS and talk to my instructor.
Dryglove
Contributor
Even though the low pressure hose to the inflator/deflator is pressurized it should not leak or drain your tank when disconnected as it is designed not to let air out once it is disconnected.If you look inside of the quick disconnect you will see the schrader valve that prevents air from escaping when disconnected.mccabejc:
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