Malfunctioning BCD at depth

[timz]

If I were to continue diving with a faulty BCD, I'll just bang my tank to alert my buddies in ur case trio. Hold their hands and use their borrow some poaitive buoyancy from them.

Or ask my buddy to check my bcd.

But as for me, I am most likely to end the dive because I have 2 friends that is dead while diving before I started diving and I've also read alot about very experience(multiple thousand dives) dead while diving.

Therefore, I will not underestimate the power of nature.

I've personally experienced down current and heard alot about them esspecially near the wall.

But during my AOW class, it's true that we were taught that the lead diver carries an inflated buoy.

 

[FishLovingStudent]

@oldandsalty and CptTightpants21.
reading you, now I understand why Cousteau could not have been born nor trained on your side of the pound .
FYI, the dive was made along the Daedaleus reef in the middle of the RED sea. A dinghy was flipped over the same morning while trying to recover 3 divers trapped in the surf above the reef. So we were dropped in front of the reef and asked to go below 10 to 15 meters uner because of the possible risk to be swept on the reef at the surface. So to surface, that early in the Dive WAS NOT A SAFE OPTION.
For decades people have dived without BCD. Most survived

Are you seriously trying to defend the practices of old as the best practices for today????? No SPG, ending dives at 300psi with a J valve. No knowledge of deco, just come up and hop into the decompression chamber. These are accidents waiting to happen. For decades there were no regulation around cave diving...many died per capita relative to today. Remember that diving was not a common sport for decades, so while "most" survived back then the per capita death rate was higher.

It would have been better to call the dive and go to the surface with a full tank of air than go to the surface with an empty tank of air. What if your pickup was delayed? Feel free to dive without a BCD anymore and just use your SMB for buoyancy and flotation on the surface And no, Tech divers don't use SMBs for redundant buoyancy, they use it as intended: for signalling. They use drysuits or double bladders for redundant buoyancy. A SMB is a last resort when **** really hits the fan.

P.S. Overweighting should not change your buoyancy or trim. I overweight on single BM when guiding/teaching, helps with grabbing runaway ascents. I am -12 pounds at the start of sidemounted dives, 0 at the end. Change in trim or buoyancy? No. Looking like a seahorse? Bad trim and buoyancy skills.

 

[OldNSalty]

Not sure if I missed it, but one mandatory test to do before jumping in water is to test that your BC holds air.

You didn't miss it but the OP did.

 

[Freewillow]

"OldNSalty has exceeded their stored private messages quota and cannot accept further messages until they clear some space!"

could you clean you inbox. tried to send you a message but no success

 

[FishLovingStudent]

Oh goodie, I got mail.



A pilot notices he was not given enough fuel to make it to the destination. He has ample fuel to return and refuel but notices he is able to ascend with the remaining fuel and glide to the destination. He informs his passengers of this, how do you think they feel?

There is a difference between what you can do and what you should do. Bravo on doing what you did (I am sure thats what you wanted, commemoration for your awesome uber diving skills) but it was not safe and my commercial and pro diving insurance liabilities cringe. There was nothing wrong with what you did, it is just the fact that you are trying to pass it off as something normal and safe that we have a problem with.

FYI: I am actually Tec40 trained and a scientific diver. So technically I am a tech, pro, and a commercial diver. Wow me, luckily I don't let it go to my head.

Fin.

 

[OldNSalty]

"OldNSalty has exceeded their stored private messages quota and cannot accept further messages until they clear some space!"

could you clean you inbox. tried to send you a message but no success

Sorry, I'm popular I guess. Made some room.

 

[Freewillow]

Not sure if I missed it, but one mandatory test to do before jumping in water is to test that your BC holds air.

You are right, and I checked it. it was perfectly functionning on the boat before downing the equipment.

I discussed with the maintenance guy in the pro shop today. Most likely what happened was that the dump valve button was caught somewhere under the BCD right strap. This is the only thing that seems possible.

My fault, lesson learned. Thank you for your post.

 

[dberry]

On another point.

Since the vast majority of contributors on this post have found that I was crazy to not abord the dive, I post EXACTLY the same subject on a french speaking forum. Out of 10 answers, only one diver would have stopped the dive. A very different approach all together .

You may be employing just a soupçon of hyperbole... I didn't get the impression that vast majority of posters here think you were crazy for not thumbing the dive. Personally, I appreciate that you posted your experience and hope I'll remember to use my SMB for buoyancy in an emergency. However, after (very slowly) reading through 3 pages of posts in French, I'm not convinced the view from the other side of the pond was all THAT different. Some posters agreed it was an acceptable solution, after you explained the surface was rough and the dingy had left. And others didn't seem exactly excited at the prospect of dragging an SMB at 30m with a damaged BCD (stab?). Not exactly everyone's cup of tea, as it were.

Actually, I was surprised there wasn't stronger support for your position from the Francophones, given you started your post by essentially saying "here's what those 'merican safety weenies on SB said, help me out, Bro" (slight exaggeration on my part

 

[Freewillow]

Oh goodie, I got mail.

Bravo on doing what you did (I am sure thats what you wanted, commemoration for your awesome uber diving skills) but it was not safe and my commercial and pro diving insurance liabilities cringe. There was nothing wrong with what you did, it is just the fact that you are trying to pass it off as something normal and safe that we have a problem with

FYI: I am actually Tec40 trained and a scientific diver. So technically I am a tech, pro, and a commercial diver. Wow me, luckily I don't let it go to my head.

Fin.

well, let me repeat the following :

"FYI, the dive was made along the Daedaleus reef in the middle of the RED sea. A dinghy was flipped over the same morning while trying to recover 3 divers trapped in the surf above the reef. So we were dropped in front of the reef and asked to go below 10 to 15 meters uner because of the possible risk to be swept on the reef at the surface. So to surface, that early in the Dive WAS NOT A SAFE OPTION."

When it comes to you being a pro, teacher and tek and scientific diver with 100 to 200 dives under your belt, let's be serious. No ONE in a reputable country would claim to that without being laught at.

---------- Post added December 2nd, 2015 at 09:17 PM ----------

Actually, I was surprised there wasn't stronger support for your position from the Francophones, given you started your post by essentially saying "here's what those 'merican safety weenies on SB said, help me out, Bro" (slight exaggeration on my part

The exact translation is the following: "Je voudrais vous traduire ici un "sujet" que j'ai ouvert sur scubaboard.com. Tous semblent me dire que j'ai agi comme un inconscient et que j'aurais du arrêter la plongée immédiatement. Je voudrais savoir si les plongeurs francophones sont de cet avis. Je communique pour apprendre

"

"I would like to translate here a post that I opened on scubaboard? Everybody SEEMS to tell me that my behavior was reckless and that I should have aborted the dive immediatelly. I would like to find out if the french diving commun ity shares that point of view. I am communicating in order to learn. "

You are right, most have found probably better solutions that the one I used. And I am very glad that I learned them.

But if you count the numer of person that gave an opinion ( 15 ): ONLY 2 were favoring to stop the dive. One experienced diver that said he would support the idea of cancelling the dive. And the other was a beginner with less that 50 dives. All the rest, namely 13 divers, most of them experienced proposed innovative solutions, agreed with me but never thought about cancelling the dive.

PLEASE DO NOT GET ME WRONG. I BELIEVE THAT BOTH OPTIONS ARE GOOD . I AM JUST NOTICING a huge gap between two different cultures. Or is it due to dive experience and training? I have my opinion, but I will not share it here

 

[Freewillow]

Dear friends. I sadly see that this post is going nowhere. The last pages has been filed with "unproductive" statements on both sides. So, for me the subject is closed. You will not hear from me on this one. I thank all of you for your imput. Regards