OK so what would you do?

[Jonathan]

We were going to post this as a poll but I hate them as I never seem to be able to vote!!

You're walking on to the boat and notice that your nice BC has no air in it even thought you have put some in. You blast some more in and it seems to be OK.

Now you've got you fins on and are ready to enter the water and notice it is almost flat again. No matter you are in a dry suit which you use for buoancy and it seems to stay up long enough to do your surface bits and pieces.

You get in the water all is fine and you descend. When descending your dry suit is burping the water out (another story) so you hit the bc inflate to slow the descent and get a blast of air in your ear. On investigation your find the inflate hose separated from the bc. You swim up to your new buddy - first dive but on a previous occaision or two have sunk a few pints - and show him your disconnected hose.

What happens next?

Tune in for the dive report when I get the photos uploaded and find out what me and TJO did. Also will be nice to see some of your theories before we reveal what happened....

Cheers
Jonathan

 

[mddolson]

I'd delay my dive until others on the trip return, and ask to borrow a BC.
Most divers are understanding.Upon seeing the broken BC, they lend me parts or if not repairable, the crew I dive with would lend me a BC to get throught the day.

It would mean delaying our dive till the buddy team returned. On the second dive we'd put them in first and obviously we would go last. (when they return)

Baring that I'd cancel the dive.
I would not dive with a defective BC

Mike D

 

[jbd]

Why in the world would anyone knowingly get in the water with defective equipment on????

This almost sounds like a troll but I think we know you well enough to know you wouldn't do that---would you?

I'm sure there will be others along shortly to raise issues about using the dry suit for bouyancy control

 

[Doppler]

Put me in the: "Why on earth would you get in the water with defective gear?" school.

So the answer is: "I'd stay ship-side."

DD =-)

 

[divegary]

Why wasn't the bc checked out on the ride to the dive site? Dive should not have begun with the idea that there might be a bc problem. Personally, I never use my dry suit for buoyancy, but rather put only enough air in to ease the squeeze, it's a dry suit not a bc. Find a problem with bc during a dive, no question where the turn point is. Did you REALLY get in the water knowing there MIGHT be a problem with your bc, without checking it out? REALLY?ut:

 

[scuberd]

If you put air in the BC twice before getting into the water, how come you didn't look to see why it didn't take? I would recommend better gear checks before hand.

ok, you jumped into the water with a broken BC, it happens. If you can't fix it quickly and easily at depth, then abort the dive come up and either fix it, or beg borrow or steal what you need to keep diving. Otherwise hang up the broken pieces and grab a pint you'll be done for the day.

 

[Butch103]

.......easily fixed (reconnected) at depth do it double check and resume dive. If cannot be fixed "get the hell outta Dodge", abort the dive and enjoy the sunshine. BTH outta looking at the root system in a cemetary...............

 

[Genesis]

I don't go in the water with suspected or known defective gear.

Doesn't matter what gear it is.

If it is important enough for me to take it in the first place, then its important enough for me to abort if its not working.

 

[boomx5]

Just don't go.

 

[dc4bs]

Grab a spare tie-wrap out of my pocket, stick the hose back on the nipple and lock it down...

If all is OK, then continue dive. If there is still a problem, bail out and fix it on the boat or back at the shop if you need parts.

NOTE: I've been on a dive where someones inflate hose tie-wrap let go (he was using rental gear)...

We didn't have any fresh tie-wraps so we just stuck the hose back on the nipple, the buddy held it with one hand and we ALL bailed back to the surface. Then his weight belt was handed off to another diver and we all headed back to shore.

The guy who had the problem was a new diver (just passed OW) and was a bit freaked out by it. We finaly talked him into getting back in the water the next day and he then continued diving for the rest of the trip.

If we hadn't got him back in, I don't know if he would have kept diving or not.

That is why I always have a few unused tie-wraps in the BC pocket now.