BCD failure and many bad decisions

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theiszy

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Location
Australia
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The following is an incident that happened around 4 months ago. I have learnt a lot from SB since then (reading of other diver’s incidents). I know I will cop a lot of negative comments from this, and rightly so, reading it back to myself I can’t believe how many stupid decisions I made. I really very embarrassed about the whole thing. However I thought I’d share it here for discussion & of course, criticism.

I live in Melbourne Australia. Temperate waters for those of you who may not know.

My wife had just completed her OW cert in Thailand after many years of wanting to dive but being unable to pass a medical (A heart condition, which is now under control). So I was very excited to finally be able to take her out diving. l’m a pretty new to SCUBA, (I did my OW in 2011 but had only done 20ish dives at the time of this incident).

I decided to take her to a shallow pier dive I had done a number of times, max depth 7 meters. I chose the site because it was such an easy dive that I was familiar with & we could easily do a weight check & skills near a low platform attached to the pier. On the way out to the dive we were running really late, I was a bit stressed because I felt we had limited time as we would have to get back to pick up our kids who were staying with their grandparents. I was hoping to get 2 or even 3 dives in for the day. So I decided to change the location to a place I was less familiar with (I’d been there once before), and on top of that it was a pier at a marina with a fair few boats around & not really any easy way to do a weight check (nowhere to put the extra lead if we had too much). None of this really seemed like a big deal at the time but it was making me stressed before the dive had even started

I just made a guess with her weights and mine (I was also testing out a new BCD that I got on eBay, I came with a 1 year warranty & looked almost new, so I thought it would be in pretty good condition).

We got in the water, did a weight check, luckily neither of us seemed to be over weighted. As soon as we started the dive my mask started fogging up, which had me very distracted and not very attentive to my wife. We did most of the dive with me very preoccupied with my mask; I kept swimming too fast & had to keep stopping to wait for my wife to catch up. On the way back to our entry point we went past a group of divers who were kicking up heaps of sand, combined with the foggy mask I really couldn't see a thing (my stress levels really starting to get high now). At some point in the dive I had given my shoulder dump a couple of pulls to dump air, and now I was starting to feel pretty negative, I added some air to the bcd but it didn't help, I tried a few more times but still I was very negative. I signalled to my wife to ascend, once on the surface I realised that the shoulder dump valve had ripped right out and my bcd had taken on a fair bit of water. I was an effort to stay above the surface and I was also worried about boat traffic so I decided (probably my dumbest decision Of many bad decisions so far) it would be easier & safer if we went back down and continued swim back in. As soon as we got back down (around 4 meters) I realised it wasn't going to work, I was just way to negative. I pulled out a 2kg weight & tried to hand it to my wife, she had no idea what to do with it & gave it back. I then gave it back to her again, and thinking that I may make her too negative I grabbed her power inflator and gave it a small burst of air, She went straight to the surface, I wouldn't say fast, but I put her in an uncontrolled ascent, as she reached the surface (I followed) she hit her shoulder on the bottom of a moored boat. Understandably she was furious with me. We did a surface swim to our entry point. With the extra 2kg now lost at the bottom I was able to stay above the water without too much effort.

Looking back we are very lucky things didn’t turn out much worse. The worst thing about this incident was that my wife has lost a lot of confidence in her abilities. She will only now go diving with a DM or instructor. I completely understand this; it’s just very unfortunate since the whole thing was my fault. Ive also lost a lot of confidence, which is probably a good thing.
Lessons learnt:

I overloaded myself, I just gave myself too many things to think about & deal with, the stress built up & I was no longer making rational decisions. If you are unsure for any reason don’t do the dive. Don’t go beyond your comfort level.
Always check your gear (including dump valves) before each dive.

I have since become comfortable defogging my mask underwater by bleeding some water in and swishing it around. I also now use a mask defog. And regularly practice mask flooding & removal drills.

Never touch another divers gear unless they ask you to.

I should have let my wife help me swim in on the surface using the air in her BCD, or if that wasn't enough dump the weight & then do the same. I could have also inflated my SMB if I were worried about boats in the area.

Before this I just thought of diving as something that you learnt and then did, like playing a card game, once you know the rules away you go. But now its something that I want to get really good at. I now practice most of my OW skills after every dive.
 
Thank you so much for sharing your story, because I think almost any novice diver could have made those mistakes. You've identified them -- taking on more than you felt comfortable being responsible for; changing the dive to an unfamiliar site; doing a dive where you were responsible for an even more novice diver while using equipment you had never used before, and the condition of which you did not know. Once the problem occurred, you probably made an error in descending again; you went back underwater KNOWING you had an equipment malfunction, and without the experience to know how to deal with it. Your wife couldn't help, and didn't understand your issue or what you wanted to do about it. And you didn't want to lose the money represented by the weight you didn't want to drop.

This is a beautiful evocation of the incident pit. You left the house with one foot in it, and then you marched right down the slope. You were lucky it all came out okay -- I assume you could have crawled back into to shore from where you were? And the lessons are good ones. I always try to arrange my dives so that either there is no stressor identified, or there is one. If I take a new diver out, I use familiar gear, change nothing, and don't take a camera. If I'm going to play with the camera, I do it with familiar buddies and in comfortable diving conditions.

It's important to have a respect for how quickly a lot of things can go wrong, and I think you learned this lesson at fairly modest cost. I hope your wife gets her confidence back.
 
The following is an incident that happened around 4 months ago. I have learnt a lot from SB since then (reading of other diver’s incidents). I know I will cop a lot of negative comments from this, and rightly so, reading it back to myself I can’t believe how many stupid decisions I made. I really very embarrassed about the whole thing. However I thought I’d share it here for discussion & of course, criticism.

I live in Melbourne Australia. Temperate waters for those of you who may not know.

My wife had just completed her OW cert in Thailand after many years of wanting to dive but being unable to pass a medical (A heart condition, which is now under control). So I was very excited to finally be able to take her out diving. l’m a pretty new to SCUBA, (I did my OW in 2011 but had only done 20ish dives at the time of this incident).

I decided to take her to a shallow pier dive I had done a number of times, max depth 7 meters. I chose the site because it was such an easy dive that I was familiar with & we could easily do a weight check & skills near a low platform attached to the pier. On the way out to the dive we were running really late, I was a bit stressed because I felt we had limited time as we would have to get back to pick up our kids who were staying with their grandparents. I was hoping to get 2 or even 3 dives in for the day. So I decided to change the location to a place I was less familiar with (I’d been there once before), and on top of that it was a pier at a marina with a fair few boats around & not really any easy way to do a weight check (nowhere to put the extra lead if we had too much). None of this really seemed like a big deal at the time but it was making me stressed before the dive had even started

I just made a guess with her weights and mine (I was also testing out a new BCD that I got on eBay, I came with a 1 year warranty & looked almost new, so I thought it would be in pretty good condition).

We got in the water, did a weight check, luckily neither of us seemed to be over weighted. As soon as we started the dive my mask started fogging up, which had me very distracted and not very attentive to my wife. We did most of the dive with me very preoccupied with my mask; I kept swimming too fast & had to keep stopping to wait for my wife to catch up. On the way back to our entry point we went past a group of divers who were kicking up heaps of sand, combined with the foggy mask I really couldn't see a thing (my stress levels really starting to get high now). At some point in the dive I had given my shoulder dump a couple of pulls to dump air, and now I was starting to feel pretty negative, I added some air to the bcd but it didn't help, I tried a few more times but still I was very negative. I signalled to my wife to ascend, once on the surface I realised that the shoulder dump valve had ripped right out and my bcd had taken on a fair bit of water. I was an effort to stay above the surface and I was also worried about boat traffic so I decided (probably my dumbest decision Of many bad decisions so far) it would be easier & safer if we went back down and continued swim back in. As soon as we got back down (around 4 meters) I realised it wasn't going to work, I was just way to negative. I pulled out a 2kg weight & tried to hand it to my wife, she had no idea what to do with it & gave it back. I then gave it back to her again, and thinking that I may make her too negative I grabbed her power inflator and gave it a small burst of air, She went straight to the surface, I wouldn't say fast, but I put her in an uncontrolled ascent, as she reached the surface (I followed) she hit her shoulder on the bottom of a moored boat. Understandably she was furious with me. We did a surface swim to our entry point. With the extra 2kg now lost at the bottom I was able to stay above the water without too much effort.

Looking back we are very lucky things didn’t turn out much worse. The worst thing about this incident was that my wife has lost a lot of confidence in her abilities. She will only now go diving with a DM or instructor. I completely understand this; it’s just very unfortunate since the whole thing was my fault. Ive also lost a lot of confidence, which is probably a good thing.
Lessons learnt:

I overloaded myself, I just gave myself too many things to think about & deal with, the stress built up & I was no longer making rational decisions. If you are unsure for any reason don’t do the dive. Don’t go beyond your comfort level.
Always check your gear (including dump valves) before each dive.

I have since become comfortable defogging my mask underwater by bleeding some water in and swishing it around. I also now use a mask defog. And regularly practice mask flooding & removal drills.

Never touch another divers gear unless they ask you to.

I should have let my wife help me swim in on the surface using the air in her BCD, or if that wasn't enough dump the weight & then do the same. I could have also inflated my SMB if I were worried about boats in the area.

Before this I just thought of diving as something that you learnt and then did, like playing a card game, once you know the rules away you go. But now its something that I want to get really good at. I now practice most of my OW skills after every dive.

You happen to live down Melbourne way. I dive Port Phillip to Welshpool and if you are looking for a bit of free help with both of you getting confidence, I don't mind going diving piers or things with new divers. I have formed a loose group of about 9 other divers from point Cook to Traralgon. Varying experience from 10 dives to lots. My intent is to firstly dive as I love it, and secondly help those who need some guidance. Often people will not pay for guidance as their budget just doesn't reach that far. They also don't ask for advice from strangers as they feel silly doing so. My response is to give back to diving some of what it has given me, by helping others. If you want some guidance and support for yourself and wife as well, I am happy to arrange some dives in protected waters to help you both enjoy a great sport, no cost, just a group of people enjoying diving. You and your wife can relax and have some fun and start enjoying diving with a group of people you get to know. Just private message me here and we can chat about it if that helps and perhaps talk about going for a dive.

You are not alone in what you have experienced, and it is very fortunate that it turned out well in the end.

Rule 1; there is no piece of gear worth dying for. You can buy gear, but not buy back a life. My boat man dropped my deco tank, regulator and 100% oxygen (worth about $700) while we were diving San Francisco in Truk. I didn't realise until I stopped at 6 m to find it not there. Finished my deco and then spoke to the boat operator. I could have tried to immediately dive again and find it but its not worth me getting bent and potentially dying. Although it was found the next day (it was heavy enough to sink and they had a good idea of its location), I was prepared to walk away and write it off, as my life is worth more than that. On another dive my knife fell out and my wife was going to go after it, I shook my head, let it go.

Rule 2; If things start going pear shaped even before the dive, sometimes its smarter to walk away and dive another day.

Rule 3; if you are stressing out before a dive, walk away.

I can relate what you are saying when my wife was certified and I was very new to diving as well. We went down to Phillip Island and tried a shore dive, hot day heavy tank, long walk and before we entered the water we were both hot, stressed. I kept urging my wife out into the surf. She found it hard but didn't want to disappoint me. We had to try and get 100m out through the surf and it was very dirty water. Half way out she became very stressed and bailed. I went back and while I was in the water I was upset, but by the time I got back to the beach I realised what I was trying to attempt was stupid. I apologised to her and we discussed it. From that day forward, I took a different approach. If the dive is wrong for someone, walk away.

You were lucky, but you learned from this. Now move on with a better frame of mind. You will enjoy the sport the more you relax. If there are issues its better to discuss it calmly over a drink and think through the issues calmly.
 
Last edited:
Hey,

Welcome to the welcome to the forum,

I am also from Melbourne. South east (Chelsea) area.

Peter is exactly right in all of the things he has said, I have learnt a lot from diving with Peter and plan to siphon as much knowledge as I can from him...

I hope you take him up on the offer of joining us on some dives, Id be also keen to catch up for a Pier dive as im a bit like Peter in the fact that I cant get enough time under water.

Look forward to hopefully catch up with you guys for a dive.

Take care and dive safe

Nathan
 
Good post, glad the OP knows how to clear his mask..I've had a few times where a severely fogging masks has caused me huge frustration and it is terribly distracting. I've resorted to taking it off at depth licking it, rubbing it...all to very limited success. Obviously the OP's skills are (were)? weak, but the most glaring error to me is mental.. DITCH the FREAKING LEAD!!!!! This really needs to me hammered into new divers.
 
.. DITCH the FREAKING LEAD!!!!! This really needs to me hammered into new divers.

I must say that I've performed a fair number of rescues and supervised even more. With the exception of heart attacks or broken bones, the vast majority of rescues end when we ditch the diver's lead. They look surprised and say "oh". Then swim back to the ladder with a sheepish grin. We go get their lead.
 
Given you rushed her through a dive, then tried to over weight her, and finally gave her air and shot her to the surface, does she still dive with you? If she does she is a brave person.

Using her lift to get you to the surface is a very very bad idea. What if her or your grip slips? Then she rockets up as you rocket down. Take a rescue class. They will teach you to never do this.

As pointed out above. If you need the lift, dump some lead.

If you get a mask that keeps fogging, let a little water into the bottom of your mask. Then each time it fogs, look down and swish once by turning head, and look up. Not optimal but works and does not required repeatedly messing with the mask. Especially if you have other task loading going on.

Keep it slow and calm down.
 
I know I will cop a lot of negative comments from this, and rightly so, reading it back to myself I can’t believe how many stupid decisions I made. I really very embarrassed about the whole thing. However I thought I’d share it here for discussion & of course, criticism.

.

Thanks for sharing the story so we can learn. One thing you might discuss with your wife is the fact you were making decisions and she deferred to you, presumably because you are the more experienced diver. But on that dive it may have been better for her to make decisions, as she had functional equipment and less of a stress/task load. When I dive with my children, I want them to feel that they have equal responsibility and authority during a dive, and that I can/might depend on them as much as they can depend on me. Anyone can have an equipment failure or make a bad decision, and either buddy should be capable of taking charge. The two of you might enjoy taking a rescue course or advanced course together, so you are both learners and on equal finning.
 
(I was also testing out a new BCD that I got on eBay, I came with a 1 year warranty & looked almost new, so I thought it would be in pretty good...At some point in the dive I had given my shoulder dump a couple of pulls to dump air, and now I was starting to feel pretty negative, I added some air to the bcd but it didn't help, I tried a few more times but still I was very negative. I signalled to my wife to ascend, once on the surface I realised that the shoulder dump valve had ripped right out and my bcd had taken on a fair bit of water.

In addition to all of the other good advice you've received, I would suggest you find yourself a reputable dive shop, buy yours & your wife's gear there, and have it serviced there regularly. There are many benefits to patronizing a good dive shop, not the least of which is the trust you'll develop in the knowledge & experience of the shop owner & staff. Take every opportunity to learn from these folks, and listen carefully to their advice. You'll be better, safer divers for it.

Regards,
DSD
 
Thanks for all the adviceeveryone. Its nice to be able to turn this thing into a positive.
Peter69_56, thanks for the offer to help me out with thediving, that would be fantastic. Ill PM you soon
This is abeautiful evocation of the incident pit. You left the house with one foot init, and then you marched right down the slope. You were lucky it all came outokay -- I assume you could have crawled back into to shore from where youwere?


"the incident pit" sounds about right, I think that’sa perfect description of what happened. Yes I would have been able to crawlback to shore. and looking back now, I think one of the reasons I went backdown (aside from wanting to avoid boats in the area) was because I didn’t wantmy wife to have to drag me back in. I wanted to be able to handle it myself, oranother way of putting it EGO.

dmpsterDiver:
Good post, glad the OP knows how toclear his mask..Obviously the OP's skills are (were)? weak, but the mostglaring error to me is mental..

I’ve always been able to clear my mask, but I mentionedbeing comfortable at clearing the mask because I think it was one of thestressors on the dive, before this I hated getting water in my mask, because Ijust wasnt comfortable with clearing & taking it off. but now that im happywith my ability to do that skill I just let some water in and swish it aroundwhen my mask fogs up. That is one less thing that will stress me in the future.

As far as my skills go, I thought they were ok, even withmy small amount of experience ive seen a number of terrible divers and though,thank god im not that guy. on this occasion I was "that guy", So Illjust keep working on them to get better. as far as the mental goes, I thinkthats what really let me down (I hate to say). At the time of the incident mycomfort level in the water still wasn’t all that high (in retrospect). It hasgotten better & hopefully it will continue to in the future.

Steve_C:
Given you rushed her through a dive, thentried to over weight her, and finally gave her air and shot her to the surface,does she still dive with you? If she does she is a brave person.

Fair call. Yes she is very brave, and for more than justdiving with her husband who "tried to kill her". We have been divingtogether since, but she won’t go out nowwithout a DM or instructor. She is brave & smart.

Steve_C:
If you get a mask that keeps fogging, leta little water into the bottom of your mask. Then each time it fogs, look downand swish once by turning head, and look up. Not optimal but works and does notrequired repeatedly messing with the mask. Especially if you have other taskloading going on.

Thats what I do now & it works very well. Thanks forthe advice.

Kksmama :
One thing you might discuss with your wifeis the fact you were making decisions and she deferred to you, presumablybecause you are the more experienced diver. But on that dive it may have beenbetter for her to make decisions, as she had functional equipment and less of astress/task load.

I think that’s a really good idea, and I will have thisconversation with my wife. I think it will benefit us both and may be a goodstart to helping her with her confidence. I have also talked to her about doinga rescue course together. we will sometime in the summer (after she does heradvanced OW).

DeepSeaDan:
In addition to all of the other goodadvice you've received, I would suggest you find yourself a reputable dive shop,buy yours & your wife's gear there, and have it serviced there regularly.There are many benefits to patronizing a good dive shop, not the least of whichis the trust you'll develop in the knowledge & experience of the shop owner& staff. Take every opportunity to learn from these folks, and listencarefully to their advice. You'll be better, safer divers for it.

Believe it or not my BCD was the only major thing that Ididnt buy new (only other second hand stuff were compass & computer). Allmy wifes stuff is new. It was my second BCD, I got my first one as an ex hirefrom my LDS. I now have a new Scubapro Xtek back plate & wing that i thinkin the bees knees. I don’t buy everything from the same place (& I also getstuff online), but im a big fan of my LDS, I support them when I can & definitelysee the value in them. Thanks for the advice.
 
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