Failed BCD pressure relief valve

[AZFinDiver]

I'm new to diving and new to the board as you will soon see. I just completed my open water certification and yes, I already have an "incident".

I was on my second dive for my certification, swimming along at 50 feet and the pressure relief valve on my BCD let go, wide open. I inflated my BCD again and tugged on the little rope attached to the valve a few times and it didn't shut. I looked for my group and the instructor, they were at the surface and heading back to the flag. Now I'm sitting on the bottom of the lake thinking this is starting to get fun. I checked my air and saw I had plenty so I decided to think about what I should do now instead of just reacting. Some of the things I came up with are:

1) Drop weights and swim to the surface (knowing I can't float anymore) to try and get help.
2) "Swim" along the bottom towards the accent line (where my class and instructor should be) drop weights, and surface.
3) Sit and wait for someone to come and get me (I don't care what anyone says, I don't like this option)

BTW, I had 30 lbs of weight.

What would the communities collective experience do in this situation?

Are there any better ideas?

I chose to swim along the bottom (seemed easier to swim underwater than at the surface trying to float).

Before anyone starts flaming the instructor, he was helping another diver that had to surface and the other students followed.

Thanks for any input.

Fin

 

[gcbryan]

You shouldn't need to drop weight. If you could swim along the bottom then you can certainly swim up (I'm assuming you had on a wetsuit) as you'll only become more buoyant with decreasing depth. You may want to drop weight at the surface.

 

[RAWalker]

Swim up the accent line at a proper rate and if needed drop your weights when at the surface. If you are properly weighted this shouldn't be a problem.

 

[Thalassamania]

Diving and thinking is good, you did fine and will be, I'm sure, a really good diver.

As for your instructor, where was his or her buddy/assistant? Didn't have one? Now there's a lesson for you to file away for when you become an instructor, always best to learn from others' mistakes.

 

[Gen San Chris]

This sounds to me that you were too overloaded with lead so at 50 ft you tried to compensate for depth by adding more air to stabilise your buoyancy and maybe you then reached the maximum lift capacity of your BCD and the dump valve did what its designed to do and it protected the BCD from going bang!
You never said if the BCD worked when you got to the surface, did it?

 

[james croft]

This sounds to me that you were too overloaded with lead so at 50 ft you tried to compensate for depth by adding more air to stabilise your buoyancy and maybe you then reached the maximum lift capacity of your BCD and the dump valve did what its designed to do and it protected the BCD from going bang!
You never said if the BCD worked when you got to the surface, did it?

I was also thinking the same thing. you may have been overweighted. If the pressure valve works okay at the top I suspect you were too negative and had filled up the bladder all the way to compensate for the excess lead. What pound lift BC were you diving?

 

[oly5050user]

sounds like way too much lead if you cannot swim up...most bcds have that valve on the bottom of the bcd so if it was faulty any air you put into it in a vertical position would go to the upper part of the bcd and still provide buoyancy..Scubapro has theirs on the top though..Was it a scubapro bc??This is a good example why I prefer to have my own gear that is maintained properly and not depend on rentals working as it should.

 

[Cave Bum]

As has been mentioned above you may have been overweighted but that's not really too important. The important thing is you took the time to think and you solved your underwater problem underwater! Good job! You did exceptionally concidering your level of experience.

One thing I suggest to my students is to consider attaching non-droppable weights to their tanks, which is higher up and so balances them better, and just putting only enough weight in their drop pockets make them positive if dropped. That way if you do have to drop weights you won't rocket to the top, broching the surface like a dolphin jumping through a hoop!

 

[AZFinDiver]

When I quoted my "Swim" I was really crawling along the bottom. Initially I tried to swim up, it seemed to difficult with the weights.

I did notice that the buddy system wasn't in full swing and didn't think much of it, I certainly had a change of mind.

I was using a Sherwood BCD (not sure of the model) and it did not work at the surface so I had to swim back to shore holding on to the dive flag float. I dived with the same amount of weight for my last 2 dives using a different Sherwood BCD.

Thanks for all the replies.

 

[AZFinDiver]

You shouldn't need to drop weight. If you could swim along the bottom then you can certainly swim up (I'm assuming you had on a wetsuit) as you'll only become more buoyant with decreasing depth. You may want to drop weight at the surface.

gcbryan and RAWalker raise an interesting point. If one needs to drop weight I would have thought it would be better to drop them at the bottom if on the bottom for two reasons:

1) So you don't drop it on someone's head
2) Why swim to the surface with weight you intend to drop?

This may be a unique circumstance in that my BCD contained no air for buoyancy. I do understand the need for weights to control the accent rate. I also understand that one wouldn't swim to the bottom just to drop weights.

So what is the proper procedure to drop your weights if needed? Should you drop the weights right where you are when you need to drop them? Or should you attempt to swim to the surface and drop them there?