Removing and Replacing BC underwater with weight pouches

[dumpsterDiver]

If they do it the same way we do it in the pool, they would be fine. This is why we do the skills in the pool first, so they can identify and work through any potential problems until both the student and I are comfortable with their ability to perform the skill. If you saw how my students perform this (and as I wrote earlier, 90% of them do it with no issues on their first attempt), you would see why their "grip" on the tank is irrelevant.

So the answer to the question about: what will happen to your students in open water if they lose a grip on the tank? - is simply that "I HOPE they don't"? LOL.. Good answer..

No accident will EVER happen on scuba if everybody does everything perfect like they do in a pool...

 

[dmaziuk]

...my point is that most people who go to the expense to purchase a BC specifically designed to carry weight pouches are unlikely to use a belt instead that is going to ride right under the weight cumberbund.

I know, I just couldn't resist being a smartass. It was a rental BCD, not one I purchased and configured for myself.

 

[archer1960]

The biggest complaint I usually hear about weight belts is they are uncomfortable, or pull the diver down while the wing is trying to pull up, or they have no ass to support the belt and it tends to want to slip off.
My advice is to first consider a rubber belt since they stick better, are more comfortable since they give. Use several smaller weights since they are spread out more and sit flatter, avoid weight pouches on a belt with soft weights since they are bulkier, and use a steel tank if you have any exposure protection that needs to be offset along with a heavier plate.
Like I said earlier, I think weight integrated BC's are a really bad evolution in dive gear driven only by convenience and looks with no thought to performance or potential drawbacks.

If if the training agencies are now considering the weight integrated BC to be the new standard in diving for recreational divers then they need to update their training to reflect the fact that nobody should be taking one of those things off at depth for any reason and design a new set of protocols for dealing with problems besides doff and don of BC at depth. Some of those WI models don't even have a quick release system to drop weights in an emergency if needed. One brand I saw has squeeze clips to undo the weight pockets, not really a good system for blind weight release in an emergency with thick gloves on. Maybe the agencies should should rethink that too since it seems the manufacturers gear and training seem to go hand in hand these days.

My new BC has the squeeze clips, but they're big enough that I have no trouble working them with 5mm gloves on. I don't have heavier gloves, but 5mm gets me down at least to the mid-50s water temperature, which is enough for now.

 

[GrandpaScuba]

This takes a lot of practice!!
Works best if you can sit on the bottom with your legs straight out in front of you...

1. Dump all your air and sit on the bottom, legs out straight.
2. Unclip all straps and attachments that would stop you from removing your BC.
3. Slide your BCD off of your left arm and rotate it around your body to your right, so it ends up in your lap.
3 (alternate) Flip your BCD over your head so it lands in your lap.

At this point the BCD should be on your legs holding you down, but also in front of you to "fix" whatever the problem was.

Putting it back on is the reverse of taking it off. However, I find that the "overhead flip" works best for putting it back on.

The reason for rotating to the right in step 3 is that your 2nd stage hose is on the right.

 

[decompression]

Some of the replies here have me pulling my hair out......you are soon to enter the professional world of scuba, please start it out on the right fin.

BCD removal can/should and has to be taught mid water (PADI). I have my own opinions as to the necessity of this skill, but.....

Yes you can wear a weight belt with integration but does that make sense? You decide.
Can you demo the skill at depth using compression? Yes. Not pool depth however.

So, we are left with performing the removal with just the poodle jacket.......oops, BCD.

There is technique to it so it does require practice. The best video I can find is the one below. Use this technique in a slight downward angle while fining and using the BCD as neg buoyancy. I do this with a drysuit so admittedly it's slightly easier but if you're turning pro a drysuit is in your future.

Equipment removal midwater - Discovery Divers Tokyo - YouTube


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[UserNameBella]

Thanks for the video and tips. I will be trying this again as soon as I have time and air in my tanks.

Practice makes perfect.

 

[Frosty]

bella-sorry to sound like grandma but I'd be sure you have a spotter (buddy) with you.
My first attempt was pretty funny for my buddy. Not so funny for me.

 

[The Kraken]

. . . . . but one thing is certain, if you're wearing a lot of rubber, it's a HOOT!!!!

Safe dives . . . . . .
. . . safer ascents !

the K

 

[CT-Rich]

Y'all realize he is using a weight integrated BC? Nobody (I have ever seen) uses a weight belt with a weight integration BC.

N

I use a weight belt with integrated BCD. I have done doff and don a couple of times on real dives in the past couple of years, mostly to clear lines. I wear 12 lbs on my BCD and 12 on a belt with a full 5mm wetsuit (I am a big guy). I haven't tried doing it mid-water, but the basic principle is the same. You and your rig together are neutral (or negatively buoyant). As you slip out of your rig keep it in front of and slightly above you. Keep control of the gear, hold onto it at or near backpack so that it is not free to drift. do your business and make sure once you have cleared your entanglement hold it in front of you with the tank facing you and don it over the head (Mike Nelson style). Do a check that nothing is trapped inside the harness and buckle back up. A newbie friend used to pack his BCD and switched over to both after diving with me a few times because he realized it was so much easier, more comfortable and he trimmed out much better. To each his own though.

 

[boulderjohn]

Can you explain this please? You didn't mention which agency you're talking about, but I'm currently doing a PADI DM class. We're being taught to demo all the skills while negative at the bottom. It felt weird to me at first going back to the "pinned to the bottom" style skills for this class, after having worked so much on good buoyancy and trim. Are you saying that there are newer standards than what I am being taught, that require OW students to perform their skills while hovering?

The standards for Open Water have recently been changed world wide and there is a strong focus to performing the course and teaching the skills while neutrally buoyant (which is not always equivalent to hovering). What you're being taught is old-school and no longer relevant to doing demos in Open Water if you want to teach the new standards.

When PADI headquarters was first introduced to the idea of teaching students while they are neutrally buoyant rather than on their knees, they still held the opinion that it is easier for students to learn on the knees first and then transition to neutral buoyancy later. I was not physically present during those early discussions, but I imagine they must have tried it themselves and discovered they were wrong. The transition from advocating skills be taught while negatively buoyant on the knees to advocating that they be taught neutrally buoyant and horizontal happened in only about two years, and that is the length of time it took them to make new videos and roll out the entire new instructional standards.

Because PADI gives instructors a lot of latitude in how they teach skills, they did not REQUIRE that instructors teach students that way when they made the change--they just recommended the change. Just as PADI's leadership believed only a few years ago that it is easier to learn on the knees first and then change, the vast majority of instructors who learned that way must also believe that, and they are reluctant to change. I can't tell you how many instructors have told me (although obviously not in these words), "I have never tried teaching students your way, but my imagination is so powerful that I know what it must be like, and I can therefore tell that it is not the best way to do it."

You really cannot understand how much better it is for students to learn skills when they are not on their knees until you try it a couple of times and get the hang of it.